31 July: St. Ignatius of Loyola – Of the Church Militant and book shredding
Here is the Martyrologium Romanum entry for this great saint and founder of the Society of Jesus. (To the right is my first class relic of St. Ignatius).
Memoria sancti Ignatii de Loyola, presbyteri, qui, hispanus in Cantabria natus, in aula regia et militia vitam egit, donec, post grave vulnus acceptum ad Deum conversus, Lutetiae Parisiorum studia theologica complevit et primos socios sibi ascivit, quos postea in Societatem Iesu Romae constituit, ubi ipse fructuosum exercuit ministerium et in operis conscribendis et in discipulis instituendis, ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
This morning Holy Mass was celebrated in the presence of a 1st class relic of the saint.
Here is the spiffy Collect from 1962 edition of the Missale Romanum:
COLLECT (1962MR)
Deus, qui ad maiorem tui nominis gloriam propagandam, novo per beatum Ignatium subsidio militantem Ecclesiam roborasti: concede; ut, eius auxilio et imitatione certantes in terris, coronari cum ipso mereamur in caelis.
LITERAL VERSION
O God, who strengthened the Church militant with a new reinforcement through blessed Ignatius, in order to spread widely the greater glory of Your Name, grant that we, who are contending on earth by his help and example, may deserve to be crowned with him in heaven.
The Novus Ordo Collect for Ignatius was weenied-down, I think:
COLLECT (2002MR)
Deus, qui ad maiorem tui nominis gloriam propagandam
beatum Ignatium in Ecclesia tua suscitasti,
concede, ut, eius auxilio et imitatione certantes in terris,
coronari cum ipso meramur in caelis.
Notice anything missing??
Let’s have your perfect renderings of the prayers.
Here is a shot of the altar and tomb of the saint in the Church called the Gesù in the heart of Rome.
Now that’s an altar. Church architecture reflects the Church’s understanding of her own identity. Each era has a different expression. Compare and contrast.
To the right and near the bottom, along where the Communion rails were until recently, are allegorical statues of faith. They are among my favorites in Rome. Angels tear up the books of the heretics Luther and Calvin. When the statues were cleaned, the Jesuits, craven gits, extracted the bronze letters of the authors names and ripped out the rails.
Were these statues to have experienced a true aggiornamento, they’d be tearing up The Pill and the Fishwrap, though I admit there are many other candidates.
