Tuesday, July 31, 2018
JULY 31 Tuesday
ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
2 Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 3
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve
by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere [and pure]
commitment to Christ.
Paul was concerned here about the faithfulness of the
church knowing that where the mind goes so does the heart and soul. We are
often plagued by worldly hearts.
Feast of St. Ignatius[2]
Ignatius, by nation a Spaniard, was born of a noble family at Loyola, in Cantabria. At first, he attended the court of the Catholic king, and later on embraced a military career. Having been wounded at the siege of Pampeluna, he chanced in his illness to read some pious books, which kindled in his soul a wonderful eagerness to follow in the footsteps of Christ and the saints. He went to Montserrat and hung up his arms before the altar of the Blessed Virgin; he then watched the whole night in prayer, and thus entered upon his knighthood in the army of Christ. St. Ignatius strongly recommends making a daily examination of conscience.
Examination of Conscience
Prayer
before Examination:
A Method of Examination of
Conscience, according to the threefold Duty we owe: (I) To God (II) To our
Neighbor (III) To ourselves.
·
Have
you omitted morning or evening prayer, or neglected to make your daily
examination of conscience?
·
Have
you prayed negligently, and with willful distraction?
·
Have
you spent your time, especially on Sundays and holidays, not in sluggishly
lying abed, or in any sort of idle entertainment, but in reading, praying, or
other pious exercises; and taken care that those under your charge have done
the like, and not wanted the instructions necessary for their condition, nor
time for prayer, or to prepare for the sacraments?
·
Have
you spoken irreverently of God and holy things?
·
Have
you taken his name in vain, or told untruths?
·
Have
you omitted your duty through human respect, interest, compliance, etc.?
·
Have
you been zealous for God's honor, for justice, virtue and truth, and reproved
such as act otherwise?
·
Have
you resigned your will to God in troubles necessities, sickness, etc.?
·
Have
you faithfully resisted thoughts of infidelity, distrust, presumption,
impurity, etc.?
II-In Relation to Your
Neighbor
·
Have
you disobeyed your superiors, murmured against their commands, or spoken of
them contemptuously?
·
Have
you been troubled, peevish, or impatient, when told of your faults, and not
corrected them?
·
Have
you scorned the good advice of others, or censured their proceedings?
·
Have
you offended any one by injurious threatening words or actions? Or lessened
their reputation by any sort of detractions; or in any matter of importance?
·
Or
spread any report, true or false, that exposed your neighbor to contempt, or
made him undervalued?
·
Have
you been carrying stories backward and forward, created discord and
misunderstanding between neighbors?
·
Have
you been forward or peevish towards any one in your carriage, speech, or
conversation?
·
Or
taken pleasure to vex, mortify, or provoke them to swear, curse, or any ways
offend God?.
·
Have
you mocked or reproached them for their corporal or spiritual imperfections?
·
Have
you been excessive in reprehending those under your care, or been wanting in
giving them just reproof?
·
Have
you borne with their oversights and imperfections, and given them good counsel?
·
Have
you been solicitous for such as are under your charge, and provided for their
souls and bodies?
·
Have
you been obstinate in following your own will, or in defending your own
opinion, in things either indifferent, dangerous or scandalous?
·
Have
you taken pleasure in hearing yourself praised, or yielded to thoughts of
vanity?
·
Have
you indulged yourself in overmuch ease, or any ways yielded to sensuality?
·
Has
your conversation been edifying and moderate; or have you been forward, proud,
or troublesome to others?
·
Have
you spent too much time in play, or useless employments, and thereby omitted,
or put off your devotions to unseasonable times? If such as confess often fall
into any of the more grievous sins not here mentioned, their own memory will
easily suggest them, since it is impossible for a tender soul to forget any
mortal offense, which must of necessity afflict her; and therefore, it may not
be necessary for them to turn over the following table of sins, which is
chiefly intended for general confessions.
An Examination for Confession
First, by Sins against Faith
·
To
be ignorant of the principal mysteries of Christianity; of the Creed, of the
Commandments of God and his Church, or of the Sacraments.
·
To
give God's honor to any created being or thing whatsoever; to pay divine
worship, or to ascribe God's exclusive powers or attributes, to any being
except God himself.
·
Willfully
to doubt, or obstinately to err, in any point of faith, our of human respect,
interest, fear etc.
·
To
favor heretics or wicked men, in supporting or approving their opinions or
actions.
·
To
endanger our faith by reading their books with pleasure.
·
To
examine divine mysteries with curiosity, and secrets of Providence by pure
human reason.
·
To
disrespect or deride holy things.
·
To
abuse the words of the Holy Scripture, by perverting them to a wicked or
profane sense, making them subservient to jests, or other ill purposes.
·
To
desire to know things to come, which belong to God alone, or things past or
present, which are hid from us, and for this end to employ unlawful means, as
fortune tellers, or other superstitious inventions.
·
To
give credit to dreams, or make superstitious observations; to employ prayers or
sacred names to ill uses; to use charms etc.
·
By
distrusting the mercies of God and despairing of the pardon of our sins.
·
By
presuming on God's goodness, without the least concern of amendment.
·
By
deferring our conversion or repentance till the end of life.
·
By
exposing ourselves to the danger of offending God either by company, reading,
or otherwise, which is called tempting God.
·
By
exposing ourselves, without necessity, to some corporal danger; as sickness,
wounds or death.
·
By
neglecting the remedies which God has appointed in these dangers, as physic for
the body, or prayer and the sacraments for the soul.
·
By
not loving God above all things, but rather choosing willfully to offend him,
than suffer any loss of honor, riches, etc.
·
By
preferring the love of man before the love of God; or offending him through
fear of being jeered or slighted.
·
By
omitting our duty through shame, or human respect.
·
By
thinking seldom of God or being ashamed to speak of him; or by not hearkening
to his inspirations, by forgetting his benefits, or neglecting to give him
thanks.
·
By
not adoring God or praying to him but seldom.
·
By
praying without attention, and with willful distractions.
·
By
a want of respect to God in time of prayer; or by talking or being present in
holy places without a becoming modesty and gravity in our looks, words and
actions.
·
By
a love of idleness.
·
By
being too solicitous in temporal concerns and neglecting the means of
salvation.
·
By
deferring amendment of life, or immediately desisting, after having begun it.
·
By
neglecting the means of salvation; as the sacraments, prayer, good works, or
performing them without devotion.
·
By
taking the name of God in vain.
·
By
swearing to what one knows or doubts to be false.
·
By
swearing to what is unjust, or prejudicial to others.
·
By
swearing without necessity, though the thing itself be true and just.
·
By
blaspheming God or holy things.
·
By
cursing one's self or others or taking pleasure in hearing others swear or
curse; or by provoking them to it.
·
By
not reprehending them when one could and ought.
·
By
making a vow to do what is impossible to fulfill; or to do what is evil and
displeasing to God; or to do what one never intends to perform.
·
By
breaking lawful vows or deferring to fulfill them without just cause.
·
By
doing servile works on Sunday or causing others to do the like without
necessity.
·
By
employing a considerable part of Sundays or holidays in temporal affairs, as is
often the case with merchants, advocates, solicitors, etc.
·
By
omitting to hear Mass, or not hearing it with due attention and reverence.
·
By
spending Sundays and holidays in idleness, gaming, dancing, feasting, and other
recreations.
·
By
not dedicating a considerable part of those days to reading and praying, and by
not taking care that those under your charge to the like.
I. By children:
·
Not
paying due respect to their parents, or by despising them either in their
hearts or actions.
·
By
not loving them, but wishing their death, or some misfortune; or by forsaking
them in their necessities.
·
By
not cheerfully obeying them; or by obeying them in things unlawful.
·
By
slighting their representations and resisting their corrections.
·
By
putting them into a passion, and not taking care to pacify them.
·
By
not executing their last will and testament, or by delaying doing so.
II. By parents not
discharging their duty towards their children.
·
In
not loving them and supplying their corporal necessities.
·
In
not being careful of their salvation.
·
In
not correcting them when it is necessary; in flattering their passions or
indulging their evil inclinations.
·
In
treating them with too much severity.
·
In
not setting them good example.
·
In
forcing them in the choice of their state in life.
·
By
anger, quarreling, or threatening, or by injurious or reproachful words, or
actions against our neighbors.
·
By
revenge, or deliberate thoughts or desires of revenge.
·
By
provoking, striking, challenging, wounding, or being the cause of another's
death.
·
By
bearing malice, refusing to salute or speak to any neighbor out of hatred or
aversion, or refusing to be reconciled to him.
I. By the hearing.
·
In
willingly giving ear to immodest words, discourses, songs, etc.
II. By the sight.
·
In
looking on immodest objects,
·
In
reading or keeping immodest books; lending them to others; or neglecting to
suppress them when we may.
III. By the tongue.
·
In
speaking immodest words.
·
In
relating improper stories or wicked actions of ourselves or others.
IV. By the touch.
·
In
using indecent actions.
V. By thoughts.
·
By
entertaining impure thoughts willfully and with delight.
VI. By immodest actions.
·
In
committing the sin of impurity; and whether effected by soliciting, seducing
with promises, or forcing; whether it be fornication, adultery, or incest.
·
In
sins against nature.
·
By
taking another's goods, and to what value.
·
By
retaining what we know belongs to another.
·
By
denying our debts, or willfully delaying payment, to the prejudice of our
neighbors.
·
By
making unjust bargains or contracts, into which every trade or profession ought
to make a strict inquiry.
·
By
causing any damage to our neighbors.
·
By
putting off false and counterfeit money.
·
By
desiring another's property.
·
By
not giving alms when necessity requires.
·
By
not paying dues to our pastors, or by not contributing to the decent support of
religious worship.
·
By
simony.
·
By
witnessing what is false, or defending a false accusation, as in lawyers and
solicitors; or condemning the innocent, or discharging the guilty, as judges
and arbitrators.
·
By
detraction, either in laying something false to another's charge, or reporting
for truth what is merely doubtful; or in revealing something as yet secret and
unknown, though true, to the prejudice of some third person; with a
declaration, whether it be done out of levity and indiscretion, or out of
malice or ill-will; whether in the presence of many, or in a matter of
importance.
·
By
lying or speaking what we judge to be otherwise than we say; whether out of
custom, or to the considerable prejudice of others.
·
By
hypocrisy, which is a lie in action.
The
Ninth and Tenth are Broken
·
By
all unlawful and willful desires of impurity and theft; which have been already
mentioned in the sixth and seventh commandment.
The Precepts of the Church
I.
To keep certain appointed days holy, with the obligation of hearing Mass, and
resting from servile works.
II. To observe the days of abstinence and fasting.
III. To confess our sins to our pastors, at least once a year.
IV. To receive the Blessed Sacrament at Easter, or thereabouts.
V. To contribute to the support of our pastors.
VI. To obey the laws of the Church concerning Matrimony.
VII. To participate in the Church's mission of Evangelization of Souls.
II. To observe the days of abstinence and fasting.
III. To confess our sins to our pastors, at least once a year.
IV. To receive the Blessed Sacrament at Easter, or thereabouts.
V. To contribute to the support of our pastors.
VI. To obey the laws of the Church concerning Matrimony.
VII. To participate in the Church's mission of Evangelization of Souls.
The Seven Deadly Sins
The
Sin of Pride consists:
·
In
entertaining too great and opinion of ourselves, or in valuing others less than
ourselves and maintaining a just and noble self-love.
·
In
publishing what we think good in ourselves, that we may be esteemed by others.
·
In
arrogance, by attributing to ourselves the good we have not.
·
In
presumption and ambition, by confiding too much in our own strength, conceiving
ourselves capable of accomplishing things above our abilities, and in rashly
attempting them.
·
In
contempt of others, on account of the good opinions we have of ourselves, and
when this contempt is manifested by words or actions or by being severe and
exacting on inferiors.
·
In
want of submission to our superiors, by disobeying them, blaming their conduct,
or murmuring against them.
·
In
not acknowledging our faults; or when, in confessing the facts, we maintain we
have done well, or at least allege false excuses.
·
In
contempt of admonitions and corrections.
·
In
discord.
·
In
hypocrisy.
·
In
curiosity, which inclines us to know things prejudicial to our salvation.
·
By
ingratitude for God's benefits.
The Sin of Gluttony
The Sin of Gluttony
·
In
eating or drinking to excess, as far as they are prejudicial, either to our
health or our reason, or any ways scandalous, or of ill example to others.
The Sin of Envy
The Sin of Envy
·
Trouble
at the good success of our neighbor, or when we endeavor to do him an
unkindness, or speak often against him, or create an ill opinion of him in the
mind of another.
·
When
we rejoice at our neighbor's harm.
The
Sin of Anger
·
Not
to endure anything contrary to our inclinations.
·
To
suffer ourselves to be hurried away by the emotions of wrath against those that
give us any trouble.
·
To
proceed to quarrels, injurious language, oaths, curses, threats; to take
revenge, or to desire and wish to be in a capacity of exercising it.
·
To
refuse to pardon injuries, or to be reconciled to our enemies, or to such of
our neighbors with whom we have had some misunderstanding or falling out.
A
Prayer for Obtaining Contrition
I
have now here before me, O Lord, a sad prospect of the manifold offenses
whereby I have displeased thy divine Majesty, and which I am assured will
appear in judgment against me if, by repentance and a hearty sorrow, my soul be
not prepared to receive thy pardon. But this sorrow and this repentance, O
Lord, must be the free gift of thy mercy, without which all my endeavors will
be in vain, and I shall be forever miserable. Have pity, therefore, on me, O
merciful Father, and pour forth into my heart thy grace, whereby I may
sincerely repent of all my sins; grant me true contrition, that I may bewail my
base ingratitude, and grieve from my heart for having offended so good a God. Permit
me not to be deluded by a false sorrow, as I fear I have been too often,
through my own weakness and neglect; but let it now be thy gift, descending
from thee, the Father of Lights, that so my repentance may be accompanied by an
amendment and a change of life, that being thus acquitted from the guilt of my
sins, I may once more be received into the number of thy servants. Amen.
Confessor of Souls
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
"Read
these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things
that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a
father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will
only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so
you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in
the end you will be a more worthy soul."
29. You have a persuasive tongue. But in spite of all your talk, you
cannot justify — by saying it was 'providential' — what has no justification.
Daily Devotions
·
Please
Pray for Senator
McCain and our country; asking Our Lady of Beauraing to
intercede.
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