Today was a day of open doors and blessings that was humbling and overwhelming for us. We entered into the calling and heart of the founders of the Jesuits during an amazing morning with Archbishop Prendergast. We celebrated mass in the apartment home of St. Ignatius of Loyola. We were deeply touched by the events in his life and his personal affection for the name of Jesus. During our tour of Gesu and San Ignazio Churches we were stuck by the statements found in the artwork – “for the greater glory of God”, “the entire world”. The style of these churches is Baroque, which creates exaggerated emphasis. The Jesuits felt that nothing was too much to proclaim Christ or to glorify God and we couldn’t agree more. We were moved to spend precious moments in prayers with St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, and others…
We shared a beautiful meal of celebration with our Archbishop and shared how our hearts were burning from our experiences with the Jesuits that morning. Andre and Angele spoke into the staff team about the significance of their role and calling to be on this pilgrimage. We encouraged them that they are walking in the footsteps of the Saints in a similar way through courageous obedience to their calling as staff with CCO.
We then spent a few hours with a friend Fr. William Slattery who gave us a whirlwind tour. We saw and learned many interesting things. In the end what we came away from our time with him was an inspiration to be heroic as the Holy Popes and Saints who came before us. We were in awe of being taken care of by the Lord in Rome with yet another friend who could explain these holy places to us.
Our next blessing and open door was at the Vatican no less, the Swiss Guard let us pass and doors to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith were opened to us. We enjoyed a great discussion and tour of the building, and again overwhelmed that we would have the opportunity to experience this.
The doors kept opening as we attended the premiere of the Salt and Light documentary on Brother Andre. It was there that we found out we would be interviewed by CTV National News tomorrow.
It was a day, pressed-down, shaken together and running over!
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