Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola - why we were created

Today is the Feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Here is Fr. Dennis Homily on this great Saint. The pictures were taken in Ireland.

Below is the Principal and Foundation by St. Ignatius that Fr. Dennis reads at Mass. It is from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION

Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls. 

The other things on the face of the earth are created for the human beings, to help them in the pursuit of the end for which they are created. 

From this it follows that we ought to use these things to the extent that they help us toward our end, and free ourselves from them to the extent that they hinder us from it. 

To attain this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, in regard to everything which is left to our free will and is not forbidden. Consequently, on our own part we ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so on in all other matters.  

Rather, we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created.

Wise words from Fr. Dennis

Fr. Dennis has a gift. He has a gift of talking about the Gospel and making it real to the listener. His weekday homilies always gives us practical understanding of the readings. They are well worth listening to.

Fr Dennis Homily today and trusting in God. On suffering and the "Permissive Will of God." God wants to make saints of us. In the parable of the pearl, God wants to cover the grain of sand or pebble with his Grace. God wants us to trust in him, so we will grow in Faith and Holiness. Grace will suffice for the day.

Yesterday's homily on Mary and Martha. St. Martha and the better part, on service and charitable works. Peter Kreeft comments on this passage: how can we make sense of it? By doing Martha Ministry in the Spirit of Mary.

Inspiring homilies this week

Father Dennis's homilies this week.

Yesterday's was about pilgrimages, St. James and St. Joseph.

July 23, 2013

July 24, 2014 Saint Sharbel

My Pilgrimage to Poland - Good bye Poland

Maureen and I had planned to kiss the ground in Poland when we arrived. Well it never quite happened that way.

Maureen did kiss the ground at the Divine Mercy Centre. It was the day we saw the miraculous rainbow, Maureen was so happy that she did a happy dance, and then she kissed the ground in joy.

By the time we were at the Krakow airport on our way home, I remembered that I still hadn't kissed the ground yet. Maureen said, it's still not too late, hurry up and get outside and you can kiss it. So outside we ran. Where there was a lot of pavement. I said yuck, we have to go to some grass, which I promptly did.

Maureen had my camera and noticed some workmen who were watching our shenanigans. They were laughing and Maureen laughingly explained to them that I hadn't kissed the ground yet. They continued to laugh and I'm pretty sure they didn't understand a word she said.

When our flight was finally called, we all exited the terminal and were herded onto a bus. Where we waited for about 30 minutes. Standing room only. Finally, the bus started to move. And it travelled all of about about 200 feet. When we all got off the bus. Sheesh. We could have walked that. Then up the stairs to the plane we went.

Bye bye Poland. We love you. Jezu Ufam Tobie.

(A few more pictures below. Pictures that never made it to any of my other posts. But that I liked.)