POPE FRANCIS XAVIER, S.J. Just a guess for a novice master of Jesuits!

saint francis xavier

From the letters to Saint Ignatius by Saint Francis Xavier, priest

(E Vita Francisci Xaverii, auctore H. Tursellini, Romae, 1956, Lib. 4, epist. 4 [1542] et 5 [1544])

Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel

We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. No Portuguese live here the country is so utterly barren and poor. The native Christians have no priests. They know only that they are Christians. There is nobody to say Mass for them; nobody to teach them the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Commandments of God’s Law.

I have not stopped since the day I arrived. I conscientiously made the rounds of the villages. I bathed in the sacred waters all the children who had not yet been baptised. This means that I have purified a very large number of children so young that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand: “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

I could not refuse so devout a request without failing in devotion myself. I taught them, first the confession of faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father and Hail Mary. I noticed among them persons of great intelligence. If only someone could educate them in the Christian way of life, I have no doubt that they would make excellent Christians.

Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: “What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!”

I wish they would work as hard at this as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them.

This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God’s will and his choice. They would cry out with all their heart: Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do? Send me anywhere you like – even to India.

* * *

Pope Francis [Xavier] of the Society of Jesus — Pope of the New Evangelization

4 Comments

Filed under Catholic

4 Responses to POPE FRANCIS XAVIER, S.J. Just a guess for a novice master of Jesuits!

  1. Dismas

    I hope this to be true, Francis Xavier is my confirmation name.

  2. Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., the host on EWTN Live, has just described much the same on St. Francis Xavier’s life work, as he sat with guests from the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word. Countless Baptisms. He died right before he arrived in China, I think is what Fr. Mitch said.
    Tomorrow at noon, they will televise the Mass Pope Francis celebrates.

  3. I was just listening to local news. Fox news was at Blessed Sacrament Parish standing in from of a statue of St. Francis of Assisi. The anchor was stating as fact that he chose the name after St. Francis of Assisi. Hum, wonder where they are getting that information. I was under the impression that no one knew yet who he chose the name after.

  4. Christopher

    Humble, promoted Summorum Pontificum within 48 hours of Benedict’s decision, and has a name related to missionary work…

    That should lift the heart of men.

    God Bless.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s