Today (July 31) is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who died on this day in 1566. In 1540, Ignatius helped to found the Society of Jesus and was chosen as the first Superior General for the Jesuits.

The purpose of the Society, according to Ignatius, was to be for missionary work and teaching. While the character of the Society has changed dramatically since the founding, the teaching part remains a throughline.

I went 8 years to Jesuit schools — high school and to Boston College (BC). It served me well and the people those schools attracted were generally top-notch folks. In the generation hence, however, things have changed.

Ignatius, the original face of the Jesuits, was once part of the quite literal Church Militant. Today, we see pseudo-celebrity priests as part of the Church Submissive representing the Society.

It is fairly easy to dismiss most of the amateur theologians and celebrity priests out there online. Quite often, they use their platforms as a way to march folks into sin (sometimes unwittingly), but the example set by some of these celebrity Jesuits hurts me even more as they often rely on invoking Ignatius and the Ignatian way while lying to our face and gaslighting us.

However, there are good priests out there ministering to the online flocks ... and even great ones.

Fr. Dave Nix is one of the great ones. His ministry consists of online-teaching and he is an excellent teacher. Fr. Nix also happened to be a schoolmate of mine at BC.

Pastoring as a monk-missionary today, Fr. Nix's VLX Series serves as a wonderful resource for anyone interested in life in general, particularly using the power of prayer to make it better. You will also learn a lot of theology in the meantime.

In VLX 75, Fr. Nix teaches specifically about "making life decisions," using the wisdom handed down from Ignatius.

(The YouTube video, audio podcast, and show notes are available on Fr. Nix's post.)

It's a short lesson and worth your time, for in today's world we are often concerned with "productivity" and how to best "manage" our time. I even wrote about it in yesterday's email.

We're missing the forest for the trees, however. I'm guilty of it, too.

In the above video, Fr. Nix teaches from The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. In the words of the saint, "it is characteristic of the evil spirit to harass with anxiety, to afflict with sadness, to raise obstacles backed by fallacious reasonings that disturb the soul. Thus he seeks to prevent the soul from advancing."

Ignatius continues, "It is characteristic of the good spirit, however, to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations, and peace. This He does by making all easy, by removing all obstacles so that the soul goes forward in doing good."

Amen.

Ad majórem Dei glóriam

As always,

Brian