Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola (2019-2020)

The feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola was celebrated at St. Xavier’s Boys’ Academy on the 31st of July 2019 with a prayerful Eucharist presided over by Fr. Vincent Vaz s.j. alongwith the concelebrants Fr.Lawrie Ferrao s.j. and Fr.Blaise D’Souza s.j. This day holds an extremely important place in the hearts of all those who are a part of the 'Jesus Company’ (the Society of Jesus) which was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Fr. Vincy Vaz in his reflective and thought inspiring homily pointed out the resilience with which St. Ignatius went about leading the Society of Jesus, despite a broken leg for more than 30 years of his life.

Fr. Vincy also very beautifully connected the school’s theme for the year, 'Conversion of Heart for A Change of Mind' by quoting the very pertinent and relevant question Ignatius posed to St. Francis Xavier – “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul?” In today’s rat race competitive world it seems as though the focus only lies on the development of the mind and a complete ignorance of the development of the heart and this is exactly the mission taken up by all Jesuit institutions this year based on the Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Jesuits.

The celebrations carried on with a gathering of the special invitees after mass on the 3rd floor (Hall) namely the priests, Bro.Rajesh Parmar and all the former and present Principals of St. Xavier’s Boys' Academy and St. Xavier’s Institute of Education, the teachers, office and other working staff and also the guests from Nirmala Niketan, BAPSA and the PTA.

In conclusion everyone who came to celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius were joyful for being part of the Jesuit community and received the much needed food for the soul.

Mr. Nigel D'Cruz.

Teacher In-Charge