20 June 2020
Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
As for the founder of the Jesuits, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, had a lasting devotion to Our Lady. Mary played a vital role in the calling and vocation of Ignatius. Long before he was ordained a priest or founded the Jesuits, he had already developed a deep affection for the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially because of a life-changing vision that he had of the Mother of God, which helped him finally to make a clean break from his self-indulgent past. When Ignatius was wounded in 1521 by a cannonball in the battle Pamplona and brought back to the family castle, he read some devotional books that led him to consider what Christ and Mary had said and done. As he reflected upon the lives of the saints, a spiritual hunger was awakened inside. One night, as he lay awake, he had a vision of Our Lady with the Child Jesus. This vision gave him a deep sense of peace but also an intense disgust with his past life. From that moment onwards, Ignatius was graced with an inner transformation. After his conversion, St. Ignatius prayed in vigil at the shrine of Our Lady of Aranzazu and offered his sword and dagger to Our Lady at the Benedictine monastery in Montserrat. In his spiritual experiences at the River Cardoner, he made triple prayers. The first prayer was a special prayer for the intercession of Mary, the second to the Son, and the third to the Father. During his long pilgrimage, he always made a constant petition to the Blessed Mother “that she would place him with her Son.” This grace was granted and “he felt such a change in his soul that he saw clearly that the Father placed him with his Son in such a way that he could not doubt it.” The young Society of Jesus saw Mary as Virginem Dei Matrem, quae Societatis universae patrocinium suscepit universal (the virgin Mother of God who has undertaken the patronage of the entire Society).
In looking back to my life journey, I also have a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother. When I drifted from my faith, it was the Blessed Mother Mary to rescue me from the wilderness of faith. Initially, I was just praying to the Blessed Mother for her intercession to find a job after I lost everything in a short period of time. But slowly, the Blessed Mary brought me to her son. After my deep conversion to the faith, it was the Blessed Mary who helped me to strengthen my faith. At that time, I began to get involved in the University of Washington Newman Center. The Center had just received a donation of a statute of Our Lady of Lourdes that drew me into deep prayer. During my discernment process, the Blessed Mother also helped me to seek out the religious life. The time in the Novitiate was indeed full of the guidance from the Blessed Mother. During my philosophy study, Madonna de la Strada was the patron saint of the Chapel of Loyola University Chicago. Thus, the Blessed Mother was instrumental in helping me to survive philosophy study. During my regency, the Blessed Mother continued to intercede for me especially when I had to deal with some failures and humiliation. My sojourn at the University of Notre Dame made me realize more how much I have to rely on the help of the Blessed Mother. The Holy Mother continued to strengthen me when I had to swallow a poison pill during my deaconate year. I served at Our Lady of Good Voyage Shrine, but I had to face a racial prejudice from the Pastor, who eventually fired me from the Shrine. But, Our Lady rescued me and led me into my priesthood.
At my priestly ordination last year, my friend Kristine gave me three different sets of books. One of them is titled The Spiritual Life of the Priest; the book was already out of print (published in 1949) but Kristine somehow managed to get me the book. In one of the chapters, the author wrote, “No priest can do without Mary. In Her Merciful goodness She often co-operates without waiting for us to turn to Her, but deliberately to neglect Mary is to reduce our power of action on souls to a minimum if not to frustrate it completely” (Boylan, The Spiritual Life of the Priest, 135). Every priest must have a devotion to the Blessed Mother. First, in honoring Mary, we are only acting in partnership with Christ who lives in us. Secondly, in seeking Her protection, it is the life of Christ within us that we are committing to Her care. So in our apostolic work, we go to Mary that She may bring forth and nourish the life of Christ in the souls of those in our care. The author of the book wrote further, “no priest need ever fear that in paying attention to Mary, he is neglecting Her Son. In the first place, Mary never retains anything for Herself; everything we give Her is given immediately to Her Son. She is a perfect mediatrix. She only intervenes to unite us more closely- She only receives to give more perfectly” (Bolan,139).
Clearly, there is no other alternative for us than to receive Christ from the hands of Mary like the experience of St. Ignatius of Loyola at La Storta. We, either lay or clergy, must then give the Blessed Mother Her proper place in our spiritual life and in every aspect of our apostolic works.