St. Ignatius Novena

St. Ignatius in Rome; 

July 31 is the feast day of St. Ignatius Loyola.  He is someone I turn to often for inspiration and guidance.  I will be praying a novena to ask for his intercession on a few special intentions.  Please join me and know that I will pray not only for my intentions but yours as well.

St. Ignatius Novena and Podcast  from Discerning Hearts.  This website is full of information about many saints, prayers, great books and more.  One draw for me is that many of the prayer podcasts  have text you can read if you prefer.  I also have the app on my phone and can listen to talks on my commute.

Inspiration

Finding God in all things

St. Ignatius of Loyola is one of my favorite saints.  His spirituality is a very practical one which appeals to me very much.  One of the questions or concepts he tries to teach is the notion that God is present in all that happens to us in our ordinary daily life; we need to look and find him. In order to do this we need to pay attention and be mindful.
Read the rest at New Evangelizers...

Patron Saint of Writers

In the last few months I have gone from writing whenever I feel like it on this blog to having set commitments over at New Evangelizers and Catholic Mom.  I have done pretty well in keeping up but this week I was in the weeds.  A friend found out for me that St. Frances de Sales is the patron saint of writers and then sent me this prayer as well from Catholic Fire:

May the Lord guide me and all those who write for a living. Through your prayers, St. Frances de Sales, I ask for your intercession as I attempt to bring the written word to the world. Let us pray that God takes me in the palm of His hand and inspires my creativity and inspires my success. St. Francis de Sales, you understand the dedication required in this profession. Pray for God to inspire and allow ideas to flow. In His name, let my words reflect my faith for others to read. Amen.
   
I calmed down a bit, prayed and then was able to write my posts.  I may not write for a living but it's still important.

St. Paul

St. Paul writing in prison by Rembrandt
I have a copy of this in my office

I uttered a sentence I never thought would come forth from my mouth today, "I'm going to Bible Study; St. Paul will make me happy."  And you know what, I was happy.  There are twenty-four people in the class and we are studying Romans.  Last week they wanted to revolt, this week "I finally understood" at chapter six.  I will say this, as a quasi feminist ( maybe but then again maybe not), St. Paul has not been a favorite of mine.  But as I read and study it all makes so much sense. A few things to point out, Paul had a group of people he worked in ministry with, many of whom were women.  His style of writing, diatribe, can be difficult and off-putting.  It is as if he is yelling at you!  However, this was a common style used at that time.  
Paul certainly speaks for me when he writes "What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate" (Romans 7:15).  
I am learning over and over that grace is necessary to overcome sin and to call upon God and ask for the grace to be whom he calls us to be.  He wants to give it to us.  Sin has been discussed frequently in chapters one to seven, along with our fallen nature and inclination to sin.  This has led me to a new favorite word, concupiscence.
We are using The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible series.  I also use The Writings of the New Testament by Luke Timothy Johnson, The New Testament by Stephen Harris and Seven Pauline Letters by Peter F. Ellis to give more information to the class.
If you have a chance, study some of St. Paul.  You will gain a new appreciation for him and a better understanding of scripture.

Saint Generator

I am not fully functioning today nor have I been for the last three days.  Nasty head cold.  The first day I managed to fake being okay, but that is not the case today as the first thing my fellow employee said was "you look like crap" and "why did you come in?" And, yes, I did my hair and put on some make-up:)  So, why not hang around blogs and see what's going on in between cleaning up a bit, opening mail and  making to do lists.  Jennifer at Conversion Diary has a Saint Name Generator of the year.  St. Louis IX was chosen for me and I like him, though this is my first time meeting him.  Why the instant attraction?  Look at that patronage list:  totally with him on against the death of children  my husband worked as a builder; my bff is a hair stylist; I frequently work with a needle; difficult marriages, well all are at one point or another; parenthood, yep, know a few people in that area; distillers are nice too as they supply me with adult libations.  I am thrilled.  I didn't even peak when the offer was made to 'chose a new saint'.

Join in the fun and get your saint for the year.  I am sure we can all use a saint on our side.

St. Louis IX

Feast: August 25

Patronage: Against the Death of Children; Builders; Button Makers; Construction Workers; Difficult Marriages; Distillers; Grooms; Hair Stylists; Masons; Needle Workers; Parenthood; Parents of Large Families; Prisoners; Sculptors; Sick People; Soldiers; Tertiaries

St. Ignatius Loyola

I am reading a biography of St. Ignatius Loyola and learning all sorts of things about him.  He was sickly all his life, yet persisted in living a life of poverty eventhough his health could have been improved if he'd chosen otherwise.  He did penance for many sinners and many converted their lives of sin because of his example.  In many pictures, he is dressed as a soldier, but he wore a simple habit, probably something similar to what St. Francis wore.  He was subjected to the Inquisition in Spain more than once.  He gave his Spiritual Exercise to both religious and lay people before he was a priest. When he was ordained, he waited over a year to prepare himself to celebrate his first Mass. 
Another thing I found astonishing was that Church authorities thought he and his followers were to familiar with the sacraments, especially the Eucharist because they received every Sunday.  In his time, people received only once or twice a year. As someone who receives almost daily, it is so difficult to understand the Church's position at that time.
"Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous.  Teach me to serve Thee as Thou deservest; to give and not count the cost; to fight and not heed the wounds; to toil and not seek for rest; to labor and not to seek reward, save that of knowing that I do thy will, O God.  St. Ignatius