Vigils Reading – St Ignatius of Loyola

A reading from the Papal Bull of Pope Paul III,

APPROVING THE JESUIT ORDER

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Of Late we have learned that our beloved sons Ignatius of Loyola, Peter

Faber, James Laynez, Francis Xavier, Claude le Jay [and others], priests,

masters of arts, and graduates of the University of Paris, and students of some

years’ standing in theology, inspired, as they piously believe, by the Holy Spirit,

assembled together and forming an association, forsook the allurements of the

age to dedicate their lives to the perpetual service of our Lord Jesus Christ and

of ourselves and our successors, the Roman pontiffs.

Now for many years they have labored nobly in the vineyard of the Lord,

publicly preaching the word of God under a tentative license, privately

exhorting the faithful to a good and blessed life and stimulating them to holy

thoughts, assisting in hospitals, instructing the young and ignorant in the truths

essential for the development of a Christian, and performing all these offices of

charity and acts for the consolation of souls with great approbation in whatever

lands they have visited.

Then, gathering in this beautiful city and remaining within its confines in

order to complete and preserve the union of their society in Christ, they have

drawn up a rule of life in accordance with the principles which they have learned

by experience will promote their desired ends, and in conformity with

evangelical precepts and the canonical sanctions of the fathers. The tenor of the

aforesaid rule is as follows:

He who desires to fight for God under the banner of the cross in our society —

which we wish to distinguish by the name of Jesus – and to serve God alone and

the Roman pontiff, his vicar on earth, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity,

shall set this thought before his mind, that he is a part of a society founded for

the special purpose of providing for the advancement of souls in Christian life

and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith through public preaching and

the ministry of the word of God, spiritual exercises and deeds of charity, and in

particular through the training of the young and ignorant in Christianity and

through the spiritual consolation of the faithful of Christ in hearing confessions;

and he shall take care to keep first God and next the purpose of this organization

always before his eyes.