Yeah, but he still said some good things...

In the "Time for an exam" post below I listed the twenty-two questions the members of the Holy Club would ask themselves each evening. If that seems a bit much to you, perhaps St. Ignatius Loyola's ( 1491-1556) General Examination of Conscience would serve you better. With only five questions you could consider it simply "a quiz."

St. Ignatius' General Examination of Conscience
1. Give thanks to God our Lord for the favors received
2. Ask for the grace to know your sins
3. Examine how you have lived this day
4. Ask forgiveness for any faults
5. Resolve to amend with the grace of God

Ignatius said some really great things, some beautiful things. For example, prayerfully read the two following prayers which are attributed to him. We would do well to pray these kinds of prayer.

Generosity
Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,save that of knowing that I do your will.

Surrender
Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will.
All that I am and all that I possess You have given me:
I surrender itall to You to be disposed of according to Your will.
Give me only Your love and Your grace;
with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

Not everything Ignatius said should received with such enthusiasm. He also believed in self-flagellation as a suitable form of penance. He said, “The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness. So the best way seems to be to scourge oneself with thin cords which hurt superficially, rather than to use some other means which might produce serious internal injury.”

Please note that the biblical call that goes forth is to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The call is not to do penance.

Ignatius also said, "We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the Church so decides."

No! Brother Ignatius. If it is white...it is white, no matter who declares it to be otherwise. Here's one for you Ignatius, "The truth is the truth even when spoken by devils; and a lie is a lie even when spoken by the hierarchy of the Church or even the pope himself."

So, dear readers, when reading someone like Ignatius (or, anyone for that matter...yes! even me) do like one of my college professors said, "Eat the meat and spit out the bones."

Remember, the Apostle Paul commended the Bereans (Acts 17:10,11) and called the more noble than the Thessalonians because they "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."

The Bereans were wise to appraise even Paul's words in the light of Scripture. Let us use the same wisdom when reading or listening to the words of others.