'Mater Societatis Iesu' |
The feast of Mary, the Mother of the Society of Jesus, on 22 April
was chosen as the date of the international Jubilee celebration because
of its significance in the Jesuit calendar and St Ignatius’ particular
devotion to Our Lady. It was on 22 April 1541 – the Friday after Easter
– that the first companions gathered at Our Lady’s altar in the Basilica
of St Paul-outside-the-walls in Rome to repeat the original vows they
had made seven years earlier in Paris.
On Saturday 22 April 2006 at the St Peter's Basilica in Rome, a Eucharist will be celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State and Dean of the College of Cardinals, in concelebration with the Superior General, Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, and many other Jesuits. At the end of the Eucharist Pope Benedict XVI will come to greet everyone and give his blessing. The Jesuit Jubilee Year honouring 450 years since the death of St.
Ignatius (1556), and 500 years since the births of St. Francis Xavier
(1506) and Blessed Peter Faber (1506), officially kicked off on 3
December 2005 and will continue throughout most of 2006. |
| When Father Kolvenbach announced the Jubilee, he said: "The anniversary invites us to examine and intensify our fidelity to the call of the Lord that they were the first to discern and that they followed in such a creative fashion that it continues to challenge us, their companions of the third millennium. We remember especially some aspects of the original spirituality that moved these three companions of Jesus and that continue to challenge the apostolic body of the Society today." | |