St. Ignatius Loyola, whose feast the Church celebrates on July 31 each year, can be considered as much an inspiration and guide for those in the twenty-first century as he was in the sixteenth.

The world in which he and his early companions lived was beset, as is ours on a larger scale, by wars, violence, disease, poverty, shifting populations, neglect of refugees, and brutal abuse of women and girls.
The fruit of Ignatius’ conversion from the life of a Spanish courtier and soldier to that of a Christian leader and saint has much to offer us today whether we are lay or religious. He blessed his companions with an active apostolic spirituality which seeks the presence and the greater glory of God in all persons, things and places. His followers are called to serve generously with and for Christ wherever in the world the need is greatest, be it in the local neighbourhood or in the missions far abroad. It is no wonder that Mary Ward was inspired to “take the same as the Society.”
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