ST. IGNATIUS AND MOTHER MARY

ST. IGNATIUS AND MOTHER MARY

St. Ignatius had a tender devotion to mother Mary. He considered mother Mary to be the instrumental in his conversion at Loyola. He reveals in his autobiography how one night while awake he saw clearly an image of our lady with the holy child Jesus. This vision brought him tremendous joy that lasted for a considerable amount of time. In this context, he began to feel ashamed of his reckless past. He decided to change his life completely. In fact, his transformation was so deep that everyone noticed a radical change in his outward behavior

In gratitude to our lady, his first stop after he set out from home in the service of Christ was at the shrine of our lady of Aranzazu where he spent a whole night in vigil. Then he proceeded to the shrine of the black virgin on the peak of Montserrat. There, he placed his sword and dagger at the altar of our Lady and spent the night in vigil either standing or kneeling before the statue of our lady.

He made a vow that instead of sword and dagger he would take up spiritual arms and fight against evil so as to establish the kingdom of Christ. After that he set out as a pilgrim. Through his continuous devotion to our lady, Ignatius came closer to Christ. Therefore he suggests those undergoing the spiritual exercise to ask to our lady to obtain from her son and Lord three things.

a.                 We may feel an interior knowledge of our sins and detest from them.

b.     That we may feel the disorder of our actions so that we feel with horror of them may amend our lives and put it in order.

c.      That God may put away from us all worldly and vain things.

In the most important exercises of the Spiritual Exercises Ignatius asked retreatants to have three colloquies. The first Colloquy is to Mother Mary. Mother Mary takes pivotal place in is spiritual life. As Ignatius lost his mother at an early age Mother Mary has become his only mother.