Saint Maria Goretti, E. de M.

On a recent pilgrimage to Rome, members of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Patrick took the short trip southwards to Nettuno, the site of the martyrdom and the shrine of St. Maria Goretti, illustrious member and heavenly Patroness of the Sodality of Our Lady. The story of the life and death of the ‘Lily of Corinaldo’ are well known.  In 1902, she died a martyr of the virtue of purity and on her deathbed, the site of which was visited by the Sodalists and reverenced by them, she made two conscious acts, the first was to…

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History of Sodality

IN a class-room of the Roman College, in the year 1563, a young Belgian Jesuit, Father John Leunis, is surrounded by a group of boys of seemingly unbounded energy. The good Father sees in their dark eyes a power and an enthusiasm which, if inspired and directed, may do immense things for God. They must be kept unspotted from the world. He speaks to them out of the abundance of the heart. He is not there primarily to teach them classics, but to fire them with love of God and zeal for souls. Soon the boys are hanging on his…

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Ideals of the Sodality

I. PERSONAL HOLINESS. II. CATHOLIC ACTION. “THE Sodality of Our Lady is a religious body which aims at fostering in its members an ardent devotion, reverence and filial love towards the Blessed Virgin Mary, and through this devotion and the protection of so good a Mother, it seeks to make the faithful, gathered together under her name, good Catholics sincerely bent on sanctifying themselves, each in his own state of life, and zealous, as far as their condition in life permits, to save and sanctify their neighbour and to defend the Church of Jesus Christ against the attacks of the…

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Rules of the Sodality

DECREE IN virtue of authority conferred on Us by the Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory XIII., in the Constitution Omnipotentis Dei, dated the 5th day of December, in the year 1584, and enlarged and confirmed by Sixtus V., Clement VIII., Gregory XV., Benedict XIV., Clement XIII., Leo XII., and Leo XIII., whereby We are empowered to make Rules for Sodalities of Our Lady and, as circumstances and times demand, to change, correct and reform the same, We approve anew and sanction the following Rules, which, gathered from the Common Rules drawn up by Our Predecessors Father Acquaviva in the year 1587 ,…

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Indulgences and Privileges

…WHICH THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS HAVE GRANTED TO THE PRIMA-PRIMARIA SODALITY ERECTED IN THE ROMAN COLLEGE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS UNDER THE TITLE OF OUR LADY OF THE ANNUNCIATION AND SS. PETER AND PAUL, AND TO OTHER SODALITIES THAT HAVE BEEN OR SHALL BE AGGREGATED TO IT. I – PLENARY INDULGENCES GRANTED ONLY TO SODALISTS II – PLENARY & PARTIAL INDULGENCES GRANTED ONLY TO SODALISTS III – PARTIAL INDULGENCES GRANTED ONLY TO SODALISTS IV – PLENARY INDULGENCES WHICH ALL THE FAITHFUL CAN GAIN IN THE PLACE WHERE A SODALITY IS ERECTED. V – PRIVILEGES I – PLENARY INDULGENCES GRANTED ONLY…

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Spirituality

(Foreword about the author of this piece, Fr. Hugo Rahner.) BY birth Father Hugo Rahner is a native of Baden (Germany) where he was born in May 1900. At the age of nineteen he entered the Upper German Province of the Society of Jesus. For many years, both as a student and as a professor of Patrology and Church History, his name has been closely linked with Innsbruck in the Austrian Tyrol, where in addition to his teaching he has held two important administrative posts, that of Rector of the University, and Dean of the Faculty of Theology. In scholarly…

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Return to the Origins

EVALUATED in the light of its history, its internal structure and its aims, the Sodality of Our Lady is an organisation of great importance in the life of the Catholic Church. At the same time, the Sodality has undergone a strange distorted interpretation in the minds and feelings of many Christians of our day who have come to regard it merely as an association of pious prayer founded mostly for women. For this reason it will be profitable to try to describe the meaning of the Sodality from two points of view – the spiritual as well as the historical.…

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The Spirit of St. Ignatius

Always “the More” and “the Better” WE shall start with the fundamental fact that all apostolic forces at work in the nascent Society of Jesus can be explained by the Spiritual Exercises that book authored by St. Ignatius, which has left its impress upon history. This small volume is a remarkable summary of all those forces which made the Founder of the Society of Jesus a saint of the Church even in his own day. The life of St. Ignatius discloses that basic Christian phenomenon, clearly traceable in the documents, which is at the very heart of the life of…

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Decision in the war of the Spirits

United under Christ’s Standard AT the outset of his own conversion to God the first realization that struck St. Ignatius was an insight into the secret conflict between the spirits that direct and determine all history, an insight into the struggle between Christ and Satan. In a gripping and sharply defined illumination Ignatius discerned that some terrible force is at large in the world, but first and last in the depths of the human soul. His autobiography has this to say of his experience: “In this way he gradually came to distinguish between the spirit of Satan and the spirit…

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Following the Crucified King

Bearing His Likeness THE second thing which St. Ignatius perceived from the very beginning was the burning realization that they alone can claim the victory in this battle who want to distinguish themselves in the service of Christ the King. To do this they must imitate Christ in the way He chose, which is victory by means of the Cross. When in the Exercises Ignatius has Christ the King say: “It is My will to conquer the whole world and all My enemies, and thus to enter into the glory of My Father”, then Ignatius’ immediate yet amazing conclusion is…

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