The Feast of St. Ignatius

"Here and now, as I write in the fullness of life, I am yearning for death with all the passion of a lover. Earthly longings have been crucified; in me there is left no spark of desire for mundane things, but only a murmur of living water that whispers within me, 'Come to the Father'."
- St. Ignatius of Antioch, The Epistle to the Romans

The church in Blessed Ignatius' day was riven, much like today, into three parties, right, left and center. He presided over the See of Antioch in the latter part of the first century. By legend he was reported to be the child whom Jesus exampled in the "Suffer the little children to come to me" episode. He was also rumored to have led quite a wild life prior to his conversion. Ignatius had a good long episcopate of 40 years, and his leadership had to have been strong in a church so fractured at that time. Talk about inventing the wheel! New York has nothing on Antioch in that day for highest splendor and darkest decadence.

We celebrated the Solemnity of the Feast of St. Ignatius on Sunday in grand High Church style with a procession to the shrine of St. Ignatius and Solemn Mass. I was subdeacon, Fr. Gentile was deacon, and Fr. Harding was celebrant and preacher. The crucifer sounded the Sanctus bells too early and then couldn't get the tower bell to ring because he was clicking too fast, but otherwise the service went off "without a Hitch" as someone said. We missed Fr. Hitchcock briefly but then remembered that we would have been singing "Blessed Feasts of Blessed Martyrs" if he were still around, and thought better of it.

The choir is sounding especially good this year and did a wonderful job on our annual hearing of Victoria's Cum beatus Ignatius as well as the Guerrero Missa "de la Batalla escoutez". All in all it was a joyful celebration with a high coffee hour afterward (although sans the bubbly) and a new era seems to be dawning at the shrine church. We have selected a search committee and names are flying in from all over the world. I ask your prayers as we begin this discernment process and as God prepares the priest who will be the ninth rector of St. Ignatius of Antioch in the City of New York.