If you had a look at the Company magazine article which I linked to below, you may have noticed that a number of us who were just ordained are 40 years old or better. Even considering the fact that the article has my age wrong, I'm still 40 years old. During my Jesuit formation I sometimes got a bit discouraged by the fact that I wouldn't be ordained until I was 40, but I always took consolation in the fact that our founder, Saint Ignatius, was older than 40 when he was ordained and, besides, waited over a year before saying his first mass!
Today is the feast of Saint Ignatius. So, in celebration, I have added to my sidebar something I wrote a couple of years ago (so in places it is a little dated). It is the complete text of Saint Ignatius' autobiography, divided into small parts which you can read a day at a time, accompanied by a reflection after each part. It offers some nice insight into the life of Ignatius before he founded the Jesuits and became a priest, as well as some insight into my own life before priesthood. If you're not interested in the latter, the posts always begin with the selection from Ignatius' autobiography. You could simply read that, and skip the rest.
Happy Feast of Ignatius Loyola! Many blessings on you!
