Venerable Fr John Sullivan SJ, who will be beatified on Saturday Today we continue our brief aside in examining and celebrating the life of Fr John Sullivan SJ. He was ordained with Fr Doyle on 28 July 1907, and it is only right that we celebrate his beatification with great joy, for it truly is good and important news for the entire Church in Ireland. Yesterday we gave a very …
Jesuit
May 9, 2017
Venerable Fr John Sullivan SJ, who will be beatified on Saturday Fr John Sullivan will be beatified on Saturday in Gardiner Street Church at 11am. This is wonderful news, but it is also big news. Beatifications and canonisations are rare events, but they are even rarer in Ireland – we have a very poor record at successful “causes”. In fact, Olympic medals are more common than beatifications and canonisations. We …
May 8, 2017
As you know I am very anxious to see these retreats started in Ireland, for I believe they would do a world of good and be the means of checking the dreadful irreligious spirit which is beginning to creep in even here in holy Ireland, especially among our uneducated men. … I am very grateful to you all for your good prayers; you must ask St. Joseph to find …
May 1, 2017
I think I can say with truth that I have now no desire or wish except His. I have told Him that He may do just as He pleases with me, and take all, even my life. This has brought me great peace and a sense of great security in the midst of danger, since I know I am in His hands. COMMENT: Fr Doyle wrote these words in April …
April 25, 2017
Venerable Fr John Sullivan SJ It has just been announced that Fr John Sullivan SJ, the Irish Jesuit who was ordained alongside Fr Doyle on 28 July 1907, will be beatified at 11am on 13 May in Gardiner Street Church in Dublin. This will be the first beatification ever to take place in Ireland. This is excellent news. The Church in Ireland needs more saints, especially more contemporary examples of …
April 5, 2017
Fr Doyle made these notes in his diary on this day in 1914. They record what he perceived to be a divine locution on the anniversary of his entry into the Jesuit novitiate. It is interesting to note some areas he felt he was being called to work on with greater vigour – control of his eyes (against curiosity), control of his tongue and overcoming human respect (too great a …
April 1, 2017
St Francis Xavier Vince teipsum – conquer yourself. This is the secret of the Spiritual Exercises. “I learnt no other lesson from my master Ignatius,” said St. Francis Xavier, referring to his first retreat at Paris. Here we all fail good men, zealous men, holy men. Prayer is easy, works of zeal attractive; but going against self, till grace and perseverance give facility, is cruel work, a hard battle. COMMENT: …
March 12, 2017
Venerable Fr John Sullivan SJ I hope every single one of you will have broken every resolution you made in the retreat before the end of the week, and if not then, at least in a fortnight. It will do you good and humble you provided you get up and begin again and do not flop down and lie there on the broad of your back, saying “It’s no use, …
February 19, 2017
St Claude de la Colombiere I have gone through a great deal of desolation, discouragement, fear and dread of my proposed vow. When I make it — I am quite determined now to do so — it will be the result of calm conviction that I must do so, that God wants it from me, and not a burst of fervour. I shrink from this living death, but am quite …
February 15, 2017
Our Lord wants me to give Him all I can give cheerfully, not repining or regretting any sacrifice; not saying, ‘I wish I had not to do this or suffer this cold or pain, etc’, but rather, “I wish I could do more for You Jesus, I wish it were colder’. COMMENT: Fr Doyle was a true Jesuit. In these comments, written on this day in 1912, he shows his …
January 17, 2017