As this week is the seminary and school half-term holiday, I managed to get away for a couple of days to Bruges, one of my favourite European cities. With the new station at Ebbsfleet only 20 minutes away by car, I can be there in a few hours via Eurostar.There are several Churches open during the day and I enjoy walking from one to another, saying some of the office in each one. The Church of St Elizabeth at the Beguinage is the quietest, but the Cathedral of Sint Salvator and the Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) have little chapels set aside for prayer as well as boasting some wonderful works of sacred art. Then there is the Basilica of the Holy Blood where the relic can be venerated each day. (In English, we would normally refer to the "Precious Blood" but "Holy Blood" seems to be the official designation.) On this visit, I enrolled into the "Pious Society of the Most Precious Blood."
Over meals and stops for coffee, I have been reading the life of St Aloysius Gonzaga by Fr Maurice Meschler. C C Martindale, in his introduction to the 1911 edition remarks that the life and character of St Aloysius have proved unattractive, "especially to English boys" and says:This may be due in large measure to the unfortunate tendency of modern iconography to soften his extremely marked features into a conventional regularity, and to impart to his representations a languishing air wholly out of keeping with his ardent and masculine personality.Thomas Nelson in his introduction to the TAN edition put it more bluntly, suggesting that St Aloysius might appear to us as
a namby-pamby, goodie-goodie, pampered and sickly little softie.In fact, St Aloysius had to endure great psychological pressure from his family, and especially his father, who was horrified that he would throw up his (very considerable) worldly position to become a Jesuit. His mother took consolation from supposing (correctly) that his Jesuit superiors would order him under obedience to moderate the physical penances that he imposed on himself. His interior mortification was even more heroic, made all the more impressive by the fact that he was constantly plagued by the attention of people who knew his former worldly standing.
St Aloysius is invoked as the patron of Christian youth and deserves a reappraisal. As a hero of single-minded and determined devotion to Christ, he has much to teach all of us, but especially the young who wish to do great things for Our Lord.
6 comments:
Father, JRR Tolkien used to go to Mass in a church dedicated to St Aloysius. Glad you are enjoying your time in Belgium, a nice opportunity for a retreat away from the ''noise'' at home. I shall pray the Rosary for your intentions.
I attend Gonzaga University here in Spokane, WA in the US. And the Parish attached to Gonzaga is St. Aloysius so we have a special devotion to him out here. Unfortunatly everyone at my school is convinced that his name is pronounced Gon-zayg-uh, when really it is Gon-zahhg-ah. I did a study abroad thing this last summer to Rome with one of the Jesuits here on campus and one of the first places we went as a group besides dinner and hotel, was to San Ignazio to pray at the tomb of St. Aloysius. We also got to see some of his letters to his parents etc. (original copies) at the Jesuit archives (the Jesuit who took our group used to work in the Archives as a researcher so had lots of friends to get us a special tour).
I have the poster advertizing for the Feast Day Masses of St. Aloysius in San Ignazio Church still hanging in my room. Also on his feast day in that church you can place a petition/prayer written on paper into a tray and at the end of Mass they burn it as a symbol of the prayers going to heaven. Only time I've ever seen gasoline used during a Liturgy...
"Holy Blood" (or "Heilig Bloed") is indeed the most common description, which we would also use for the contents of the Mug of the Convenant (still translating from Dutch here ;) ).
"Precious Blood" is also used, there's a congregation of "Liefdezusters van het Kostbaar Bloed" (love-sisters, or Sisters of Mercy, of the Precious Blood), and sometimes someone will refer to the actual Precious Blood as Precious Blood, but most of the time we think that a bit too... precious.
Another Dutch nomenclature which I especially like is that we always call Our Lady "Our Dearest Lady" - that's what the "OLV" in 50% of Dutch and Flemish church names refers to (Onze Lieve Vrouwe).
By the way, St. Aloysius is my confirmation saint in a joint venture with St. Cecilia! (I re-cycled my parent's confirmation saints.) I hope he isn't much into the Jesuit-Dominican dispute.
The only book I have on him is from the 50's and very softy indeed.
As Father Ronnie Knox used to say, there are only three cities, Oxford, Bruges and Rome.
Many thanks, Gillibrand. I did not know of that comment from Ronnie Knox. How right he is! I feel an even greater affinity for him now ;-)
Post a Comment