A friend of mine recently sent me a unusual holy card. It honors St. Mark Ji Tianxiang, a Chinese layman who was murdered in 1900, along with dozens of other Catholics in his village, in the vicious persecution of Christians during the Boxer rebellion. That’s not the unusual thing. The Church has canonized many martyrs, [...]
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The other day I browsed through Bert Ghezzi’s great book Voices of the Saints looking for saints who would inspire kids aged about 10-12–the so-called “tweeners.” I needed some good ones for a project I’m working on. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a tweener in my household, but I remember what they’re [...]
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The decisive moment in Ignatius’s life came when he realized that he was imitating the wrong person. He realized that imitating the example of a noble knight could not satisfy him, and that he had a deep desire to imitate the saints. He had once been satisfied to imitate the knight, with all the social [...]
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A friend sent me this very thought-provoking poem. Father Damien of Molokai A century ago Hawaiian blood froze at the very name “Molokai.” Lepers waded through this surf to await death. —FROM THE DAMIEN MUSEUM, HONOLULU As a boy, I heard “leopard colony” and dreamed of joining him for a glimpse of the big cats [...]
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The Archdiocese of Chicago is opening the legal process for the canonization of Father Augustus Tolton, a late 19th century priest, and the first who was African-American. The story is good on so many levels, but I’ll focus on two. The first is that it is communities who make saints. God’s work on us as [...]
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A friend sent me this prayer written by St. Anselm of Canterbury, a twelfth-century theologian and philosopher. Anselm is famous for an ontological proof for the existence of God. He held that the concept of God is unique in that anyone who understands what is meant by the the question “Does God exist?” will see [...]
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Authors are all over YouTube talking about their books. This interview with Bert Ghezzi about his book Voices of the Saints is one of the best author videos I’ve ever seen. The book is a terrifically informative and entertaining look at 365 saints, classified in themes (examples: humility, joy, twenty-something saints, married saints, saints who [...]
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Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, has an excellent reflection for All Saints Day on The Huffington Post, titled “The Saints Were as Strange as You Are – And You Can Be as Holy as They Were.” Jim is the author of the excellent, best-selling My Life with the Saints.
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What does Halloween mean? Why does All Saints Day follow the next day? Jim Martin, SJ, explains it all. (Click here if you can’t see the video.)
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All Saints Day will arrive in a few weeks, and if you have a taste for saints, check out our new feature on IgnatianSpirituality.com honoring Jesuit saints and blesseds. The page links to biographies of Jesuit saints (including one of my favorites, St. Roque Gonzalez) and Jesuit blesseds–all 147 of them!
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