So it occurred to me while out on a walk today, or what the Carthusians call my spatiamentum<\/em><\/a>\u2014where most of my best crackpot schemes occur\u2014that I could do worse than devote a little time each day to learning more about the saints and, in particular, reflecting, as Fr. Jim does in his book, on how their stories are reflected in my life as a Catholic today. Until today, I knew nothing <\/em>about St. Ignatius of Antioch. Until today, I couldn\u2019t even place Antioch on a map, and as for Ignatius, wasn\u2019t he the founder of the Jesuits? Well, yes and no, but he is not that <\/em>Ignatius.<\/p>\n Ignatius of Antioch was born about the year 35, \u201cprobably . . . in Syria of pagan parents, but the facts of his early life are largely unknown,\u201d according to Lives of the Saints <\/em>by Richard P. McBrien<\/a>. But how much of a CV do you need when confronted with this one fact?\u2014Ignatius of Antioch was, to the best of present-day knowledge, a follower, a student, a close personal associate of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. From that alpha point, his life moved toward its omega: being torn to pieces by lions in the Roman Colliseum. And pretty happily too, to judge by the reading in his honor from today\u2019s Office, an excerpt from a letter he wrote while en route to Rome to be torn to pieces by lions:<\/em><\/p>\n I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God\u2019s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ\u2019s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God. <\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_dmDaLWNETzg\/StojmfeLZ_I\/AAAAAAAAAYw\/J8DWDXL16pg\/s200\/Ignatius\")
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\nThis probably occurred to me because (a) I had just had a nap, usually the fount of my finest reflections and (b) before my nap, I had been reading the New Advent entry on today\u2019s featured saint<\/a>, Ignatius of Antioch. Truth be told, I know so little about most saints that New Advent is likely to be my first daily stop as this, my latest crackpot scheme unfolds. (I will do my best to credit my sources at the bottom of each one of these posts about the saints.)<\/p>\n
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