St. John's Episcopal Church

Remembering IGNATIUS LOYOLA
MYSTIC, EDUCATOR, PREACHER, AND FOUNDER OF THE JESUITS (31 JULY 1556), (Icon written by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM,) From the calendar. Commentary from James Kiefer:
" Iñigo de Recalde de Loyola, youngest of thirteen (one of my sources says eleven) children of Don Beltran Yáñez de Loyola and Maria Sáenz de Licona y Balda, was born in 1491 in the family castle in the Basque province of Gipozkoa, in northeastern Spain, near the French border. As befitted a boy from an aristocratic family, he spent some time as a page at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Spain. Here, by his later testimony, he was involved in gambling, wenching, and duelling. He got into trouble with the law, but escaped punishment because he was technically a cleric. (This does not mean that he was destined for the priesthood. In those days someone becoming a priest went through seven steps: doorkeeper, reader, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, and priest. The first four were called Minor Orders, and did not involve any serious commitment, but they did make one technically a cleric, which was useful if one got arrested for anything less than murder or treason. Probably many young noblemen took the first step simply as a precaution. Later the law extended the definition of "cleric" to anyone who could read. See the BIO notes on Thomas a Becket, 29 December.) He then entered military service, but fought in only one major battle, the defense of Pamplona against the French in 1521. The professional solders knew that their position was indefensible, and proposed to surrender. Iñigo (or Ignatius, to give him the Latin form of his name) had visions of military glory, and urged his comrades to fight. He was promptly hit in the leg by a cannon ball, the town surrendered anyway, and the French sent him home on a stretcher.

The leg was badly set, and did not heal properly. It had to be rebroken and reset, and again it healed crookedly and left him with a permanent limp. Meanwhile, he was bedridden for many months, and spent the time reading. He asked for tales of knightly adventure, but instead was given a Life of Christ, written by a Carthusian monk. He read it, and his life was transformed. He went on pilgrimage to Montserrat (near Barcelona), where he hung up his sword over the altar, and then spent about a year at Manresa near Montserrat first working as a nurse and orderly in a hospital there, and then retiring to a cave to live as a hermit and study The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, a book urging the Christian to take Christ as example, and seek daily to follow in His footsteps. It is probably during this year that he wrote his Spiritual Exercises, a manual of Christian prayer and meditation. He directs the reader to begin with an event in the life of Christ, and to imagine the scene in detail, to replay the episode in his mind like a movie script, and to try to feel as if he had himself witnessed the event, and then to use this experience as a motive for love, gratitude, and dedication to the service of God. The book is available today in hardcover and paperback. It has been much used by Christians of all varieties--John Wesley was enthusiastic about it. Ignatius then made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to see with his own eyes the scenes of Our Lord's life and death. He wanted to stay and preach to the muslims, but the Franciscans stationed there advised him that he needed an education in order to preach effectively.

Ignatius of LoyolaBack in Spain, he spent ten years (1524-1534) getting an education at Barcelona, Alcala, Salamanca, and Paris, beginning by going to elementary school to learn Latin grammar, and ending with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Paris. In Salamanca, he often preached to groups of people assembled by chance; but in those days a layman undertaking to preach on his own, without a license or supervision, was automatically suspected of heresy. Ignatius was twice imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition and questioned about his beliefs, an experience that made a deep impression on him. (He was finally acquitted, but forbidden to discuss religious matters for three years.) Today, his followers are aggressively proud of the fact that no member of their order has ever sat on an Inquisitorial tribunal. (It is possible that Ignatius already had doubts about the Inquisition. He was a Basque, and I am told that the Inquisition was never active in Biscay because the Basques, although thoroughly orthodox Christians, would not tolerate it.) In 1534, he and six fellow students formed a group who vowed to travel to Jerusalem and there preach the Gospel to the moslems. (The most famous of the six is Francis Xavier, who went to India and China as a missionary, and who is commemorated on 3 December.) This group later took the name, "The Society of Jesus," and were nicknamed "the Jesuits" by outsiders, a nickname that stuck.

In 1537 the Jesuits (now ten in number) gathered in Venice and (having found that renewed war in Palestine made journeying there impossible) offered their services to Pope Paul III. Ignatius and some of the others were ordained to the priesthood, and they were assigned various tasks. In 1540 they became a formal organization, with the usual monastic vows, plus a fourth vow of personal obedience to the Pope. In order to have more time for preaching and study the order abolished the practice (followed by almost all previous orders) of reciting the monastic Hours in community. Its chief goals were:
(a) renewal of the Roman Catholic Church through extensive education and the encouragement of frequent use of the sacraments,
(b) extensive missionary work in non-Christian countries, and
(c) a suitable response to the growing challenge of Protestantism.

In the remaining fifteen years of his life, Ignatius supervised the Jesuits from Rome and saw the order grow from ten men to a thousand. It was always active in missions, and became deeply involved in education, and in counselling those with difficult decisions to make, particularly rulers. The Order undertook to win back to the Roman obedience those areas that had recently become Protestant. Ignatius counselled his Jesuits (technically neither monks nor friars, but priests regular) to proceed with charity and moderation, "without hard words or contempt for people's errors." He died suddenly on 31 July 1556. His writing include the following prayer:

Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give, and not to count the cost,
to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
to toil, and not to seek for rest,
to labor, and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will. "

PRAYER
O God, by whose grace your servant Ignatius, enkindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Forward Day by Day
FRIDAY, July 31 IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, Priest, 1556
Matthew 28:8. "So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples."

When my son was little and he took a tumble at the park, he wouldn’t cry right away. He’d freeze, knees dusty, eyes wide, and look at me. His eyes asked, Is this nothing, or is this the end of the world? And I, holding my own breath, decided whether to let my face offer panic or reassurance.

I think of the women at the tomb, staring into that emptiness where Jesus’s body should’ve been. Hearts racing. Looking toward heaven for the same answer: Is this grief, or is this glory?

And maybe God’s answer wasn’t to erase the fear, but to braid it with joy—enough joy to run on shaky legs.

Maybe that’s the truest way resurrection comes to us: not as pure joy, but joy that’s learned to run alongside the ache. Feet pounding. Heart racing. Breathless with both.

MOVING FORWARD: If joy and terror arrive together, whose face will you look toward?

https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2026-07-31

Brother, Give Us A Word
A daily meditation to start your day.

Good News
July 31, 2026

God brings down the proud, lifts up the lowly, speaks through the little ones, and showers abundant love. Blessed and healed, we have good news to keep sharing with everyone.

Br. Luke Ditewig, SSJE

https://www.ssje.org/2026/07/31/good-news-2/

Forward Day by Day
THURSDAY, July 30 WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, Social Reformer, 1833
Psalm 70:1b. "O Lord, make haste to help me."

The beauty of this prayer is that it’s already pared to the bone. It’s the kind you say when your stomach drops right through you, when you’re kneeling on the bathroom floor, tiles cold, ribs rising and falling in short, shallow bursts, and you can’t remember the long psalms. Only this: Come now.

William Wilberforce must have prayed this one, bitter and metallic in the mouth, while standing before the colossal, many-headed beast of the slave trade. Year after year, door after slammed door, vote after lost vote. It’s the liturgy of those who’ve done everything human hands can do and are left staring at the fortress still standing.

It’s the prayer you say when you need God to be immediate. Not someday. Now.

And maybe that’s why these words have lasted—because they fit in the mouths of the breathless. Brevity is the miracle: a blade honed sharp enough to cut through centuries of urgent need.

MOVING FORWARD: Pray this verse today for a burden that feels too heavy to carry alone. Repeat it until your breath begins to steady.

https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2026-07-30

Brother, Give Us A Word
A daily meditation to start your day.

Speak
July 30, 2026

Even after a long day, what if Jesus is waiting for you to approach him with your whole authentic being? Try speaking to Jesus face-to-face in your own way with your own words. If you feel embarrassed to do so, ask yourself, what do you have to lose?

Br. Jack Crowley, SSJE

https://www.ssje.org/2026/07/30/speak/

Remembering MARY, MARTHA AND LAZARUS OF BETHANY (29 JULY NT), From the calendar. Commentary from "For All the Saints" blog:
"This little family of Bethany were Jesus’ friends who opened their home to him, and it was at their house that he found refreshment during his earthly ministry. The depth of affection and love that they had for Jesus, and he for them, is evident in the Gospel narratives about them, most particularly in the story of Lazarus death in the Gospel according to John. The names of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, on various dates, appear in lists of martyrs from the seventh and eighth centuries.

Mary, a form of Miriam, is portrayed in the tenth chapter of Luke and the eleventh chapter of John as a contemplative person with a single-minded absorption in the kingdom of God. In John’s account, at dinner six days before the Passion, Mary anointed Jesus, perhaps as a sign of his royal dignity, which he took to be a consecration of himself for his approaching sacrifice.

Martha, whose name means “lady” or “mistress”, has come rather unfairly to represent the unrecollected activist. She was of a practical turn to be sure, but she enjoyed the friendship and esteem of Jesus nonetheless, and it was she who made the confession of faith when Jesus came after the death of Lazarus, “I believe that your are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

In the tenth chapter of Luke the house where the three siblings lives is called Martha’s. In the twelfth chapter of John the supper at Bethany at which Lazarus was present and at which Martha again served, is held at the house of Simon the l***r. This has led some to suggest that Mary may have been the widow of Simon.

Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus, is in the Fourth Gospel a sign of the eternal life possessed by those who believe. Lazarus’ character is evidenced by the love that Mary, Martha, and Jesus all had for him.

Devotion to Lazarus was apparently widespread in the early Church. He is commemorated in the Eastern Church on the Saturday before the Sunday of the Passion (Palm Sunday), called “Lazarus Saturday”, which anticipates the resurrection of Jesus on the following Saturday night. According to a curious legend, Lazarus, his sisters, and some friends were put in a leaky boat by their enemies and miraculously made their way to Cyprus where Lazarus was made a bishop. In 890 what were thought to be his relics were taken to Constantinople and a church was built there in his honor. In an eleventh century legend, Lazarus had been bishop of Marseilles and was martyred under Domitian. (The legend perhaps confuses Lazarus of Bethany with the fifth century Bishop Lazarus of Aix.)"

PRAYER
Generous God, whose Son Jesus Christ enjoyed the friendship and hospitality of Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany: Open our hearts to love you, our ears to hear you, and our hands to welcome and serve you in others, through Jesus Christ our risen Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Remembering the FIRST ORDINATION OF WOMEN TO THE PRIESTHOOD IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
(29 JULY 1974) commentary by Satucket. com:
"This commemoration marks the ordination of eleven women to the priesthood in Philadelphia on 29 July 1974.

Through most of the history of the Christian Church the position of women has been secondary to that of men. During the first half of the twentieth century women in the Episcopal Church had begun exploring ways to increase their participation in the life of the church. Many women became church workers or directors of religious education or "Deaconesses" a separate order from male Deacons. The movement gained explicit momentum in 1970 when laywomen were seated with voice and vote for the first time in General Convention, and called for a vote to eliminate the canon law on Deaconesses so that male and female deacons would be treated equally.

This increased awareness led to the General Convention of 1970 eliminating canonical distinctions between male deacons and female deaconesses, allowing women already ordained to marry for the first time and to discard the old habits. It made clear that women seeking ordination would be recognized as full and equal deacons. The Episcopal Church was then presented with the issue of whether to ordain women as priests and bishops too.

A resolution was put forward by the women deputies at the 1970 General Convention to approve women’s ordination to the priesthood and episcopate. It failed to pass the House of Deputies, but nonetheless had much positive support. A similar resolution narrowly failed to pass at the next General Convention in 1973.

By July 1974, as supporters of women’s ordination to the priesthood grew restless, an ordination service was scheduled to ordain women to the priesthood by three retired bishops: Daniel Corrigan, retired bishop suffragan of Colorado; Robert L. DeWitt, recently resigned Bishop of Pennsylvania; and Edward R. Welles, retired Bishop of West Missouri. Eleven women who were deacons presented themselves as ready for ordination to the priesthood, and plans for the service proceeded. These women, called the "Philadelphia Eleven", were Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig. They were ordained on 29 July 1974 at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, PA.

The ordinations attracted immediate controversy and condemnation by many in the Church. The House of Bishops declared them "irregular" and the women were not allowed to exercise priestly functions in the Episcopal Church. Nevertheless, on 7 Sept. 1974, four more women were ordained in Washington, DC.

Finally, at the next General Convention in September 1976, the ordination of women to the priesthood was approved, to begin on 1 Jan. 1977. The previous "irregular" ordinations were regularized, and about 100 women were ordained that first year [including the web author's wife]."

PRAYER
O God, you poured your Spirit from on high to bless and summon these women, who heard the strength of your call: Equip, guide, and inspire us with wisdom, boldness, and faith to trust you in all circumstances, hear you preach new life to your church, and stretch out our hands to serve you, as you created us and redeemed us in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God everlasting. Amen.

Forward Day by Day
WEDNESDAY, July 29 MARY AND MARTHA OF BETHANY
Acts 1:4a. "While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father."

During those first COVID-19 months, my family was in Canada, and I was here, in the U.S., the border shut like a book mid-sentence. Not just closed—sealed. I used to cross that line as if it were a crease in the palm of my hand, the way you trace the map of your own skin—coffee in the cup holder, a bag of hot Cheetos on the passenger seat. Now it might as well have been the moon.

We FaceTimed. We texted pictures of dinner. My parents sent photos of their garden. And I—alone in my kitchen—made my mother’s chicken curry recipe, cumin and garlic blooming in the oil, the smell curling into every corner until it felt almost possible to step across that invisible line and knock on her door.

The disciples must’ve known this ache. This unfixable distance. Waiting not for an open border, but for a promise—a presence—already threading its way across every barrier toward them.

MOVING FORWARD: Send a small joy—one sentence, one photo—to someone far away. Let it cross whatever borders still stand.

https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2026-07-29

Brother, Give Us A Word
A daily meditation to start your day.

Gifts
July 29, 2026

What are your gifts? You are uniquely you—no one else will have your gifts in the same combination or proportion or magnitude. What are your gifts, and what fruit can they bear? Make that fruit your prayer today.

Br. Lain Wilson, SSJE

https://www.ssje.org/2026/07/29/gifts-2/

Remembering JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL and HENRY PURCELL, (pictured), COMPOSERS, 1750, 1759, 1695, (July 28,) From the calendar. Commentary by James Kiefer:
"HENRY PURCELL, (10 September 1659 (?)– 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music.

Purcell was born in Westminster (now part of London) into a family of musicians. His family was connected with the Royal Court, and Henry was a chorister in the Chapel Royal until his voice broke in 1673.

In 1679, his teacher, Dr. John Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1669, resigned his office in favour of his pupil. Purcell now devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music, and for six years severed his connection with the theatre. However, the composition of his chamber opera Dido and Aeneas, which forms a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music, has been attributed to this period.

Soon after Purcell's marriage, in 1682, on the death of Edward Lowe, he was appointed organist of the Chapel Royal, an office which he was able to hold simultaneously with his position at Westminster Abbey. For some years after this, he was busy in the production of sacred music, odes addressed to the king and royal family, and other similar works. In 1685, he wrote two of his finest anthems, "I was glad" and "My heart is inditing", for the coronation of King James II. One of Purcell's most elaborate, most important and most magnificent works was a birthday ode for Queen Mary. It is titled Come ye Sons of Art, and was written by Nahum Tate and set by Purcell. Purcell's Te Deum and Jubilate Deo were written for Saint Cecilia's Day, 1693, the first English Te Deum ever composed with orchestral accompaniment.

Purcell died in 1695 at his home in Dean's Yard, Westminster, at the height of his career. Purcell is buried adjacent to the organ in Westminster Abbey. The music that he had earlier composed for Queen Mary's funeral was performed during his as well. Purcell was universally mourned as 'a very great master of music.'
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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, widely regarded as the greatest of all composers of music for Christian worship, was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, into a family of distinguished musicians. In 1708, shortly after marrying his cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, he became court organist to the Duke of Weimar, where he wrote his principal compositions for the organ. In 1717 he became music director (Kapellmeister) to Prince Leopold of Coethen. In 1720, his wife died, and in 1721 he married Anna Magdalena Wuelcken, for whom he composed a famous set of keyboard pieces. From 1723 until his death in 1750 he was at Leipzig, where he taught, conducted, sang, played, and composed. He had 20 children, of whom nine survived him, four of whom are also remembered as composers.

In addition to his secular music, Bach wrote a considerable amount of music for worship. He drew on the German tradition of hymn-tunes, and arranged many of them as cantatas, with elaborate choir settings for most stanzas, and a plain four-part setting for the final stanza, to be sung by the congregation with the choir. Normally each stanza is unique, using the melody traditional for that hymn, but with variations, particularly in the harmony, that reinforce the meaning of the words of that stanza. He wrote altogether nearly two hundred cantatas, including at least two for each Sunday and holy day in the Lutheran church year (matching the subject of the cantata with that of the Scripture readings prescribed for that day). Two of the better known are "Christ lag in Todesbanden" (Christ lay in the bonds of death"), based on an Easter hymn by Martin Luther; and "Jesu, meine Freude" (Jesus, all my gladness).

It is an ancient custom that during Holy Week the Gospel readings shall be from the accounts of the Passion ( =suffering and death) of Our Lord, and that, where possible, these accounts shall be read, not by a single reader, but with the speeches of different persons read by different readers (and the crowd by the choir or the congregation). This may be said, or chanted to a simple tune. Bach wrote, for the St Matthew Passion, and again for the St John Passion, an elaborate musical setting, with the Gospel narrative sung by a soloist, with the dialog by other singers, and commentary by the choir in the form of hymns and more elaborate pieces. He also wrote a setting for the traditional Latin Liturgy, his famous B Minor Mass. The Liturgy (or Order for the Celebration of the Lord's Supper and the Administration of Holy Communion, Commonly Called the Mass) is divided into the Ordinary (the parts that are the same every time) and the Propers (the parts that vary from day to day, such as the Bible readings). The choral parts of the Ordinary include the Kyrie ("Lord, have mercy" or "Hear us, O gracious Lord"), the Gloria ("Glory to God in the highest," based on Luke 2:14), the Credo ("I believe in one God, the Father Almighty..."), the Sanctus-benedictus ("Holy, Holy, Holy" and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord", based on Isaiah 6:3 and Matthew 21:9), and the Agnus Dei ("O Lamb of God," based on John 1:29). Bach wrote choir settings for these (in case anyone is wondering why a devout Lutheran would write choir settings for a Mass, I point out that the language of the Liturgy is ancient, and contains nothing not taught by Lutheran and Methodist and Presbyterian churches), and his work is not simply a matter of supplying pleasant-sounding melody and chords. For example, in the Creed, there occurs the line, "And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church." In Bach's setting of this line, there are two melodies sung by the choir simultaneously. One is a traditional plainchant melody, most frequently sung by Roman Catholics. The other is a Lutheran chorale melody. The two melodies are interwoven, and they harmonize perfectly. Bach was not just a musician. He was a Christian, and a preacher of the Gospel.
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GEORGE FREDRICK HANDEL, (Georg Friedrich Händel), was born at Halle in Germany in 1685. He originally studied for the law and then began to write operas. He moved to Italy in 1706 and to England in 1710, where in 1726 he became a British subject. From operas, Handel turned to the writing of oratorios, works with a religious theme to be sung by soloists and a chorus. His greatest work, The Messiah, was first performed in Dublin in 1741. The words are Scriptural passages from both Testaments dealing with the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. G B Shaw referred to it as "the hymn that can make atheists cry." (My advisor, Herbert Feigl, an atheist of Jewish ancestry, loved it and went to church whenever it was to be sung.) In most large towns in the English-speaking world, it is performed every Christmas and Easter. Handel died 14 April 1759."

PRAYER
Almighty God, beautiful in majesty and majestic in holiness: You gave to your musicians Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, and Henry Purcell grace to show forth your glory in their music. May we be also moved to sound out your praises as a foretaste of your eternal glory; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.