St. Ignatius of Loyola July 31

Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish knight from a local Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian. Over the years, Ignatius became expert in the art of spiritual direction. He collected his insights, prayers, and suggestions in his book the Spiritual Exercises, one of the most influential books on the spiritual life ever written. With a small group of friends, Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. 

To Eat:
Since St. Ignatius was born in a castle in the Basque area of Northern Spain, a meal from that area is perfect for dinner.

 Here is Basque chicken from this website: 
http://thecultureofthetable.blogspot.com/2009/12/basque-chicken.html

It is both easy and delicious:

Basque Chicken (as adopted from Pierre Franey)

Take out a large roasting dish, a huge Creuset pot with a heavy lid will do. Put it on the stove and set the heat to high. Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Take 2 chicken breasts (skin on) and lightly dredge them in flour. Add oil to the pot and add chicken breasts skin side down. Salt and pepper them. Let them cook until the skin has caramelized and is golden brown. Once brownness is achieved, flip the breasts and cook 2-3 minutes on the other side. At this point, the skin should looked cooked, but the meat will probably still look pretty raw.

While your browning the chicken do your chopping and prepping.
Chop up 1 large onion.
Chop up 3 cloves of garlic.
Chop up 1 green pepper.
Chop up 1 red pepper.
Get some pitted olives.
Open a can of San Marzano tomatoes and mash the whole tomatoes with a fork so that they're rather broken up.
Open up your beef stock and make sure its ready.
Make sure you have some white wine.
Check to make sure you have your spices- bay leaf, dried thyme, salt pepper.

Getting back to the chicken. After those 2-3 minutes on the meat side, take chicken out of the pot and set aside. Add onions and garlic to the pot. Stir around for about 2 minutes to coat. Add peppers to the pot. Cook about 3-4 minutes (let them start to cook.) Then add bay leaf and large pinch of dried thyme. Make sure mixture is thoroughly cooking by now- then hit it with a shot of white wine. Deglaze the pan by scraping up the bottom. Put the chicken breasts back in the pot. Add the tomatoes now. Add a shot of beef stock- not too much...you want it to marry with everything, not water it all down. Add your Tabasco now. Add the olives. Salt and pepper some more.

Now, cover the pot with the lid and stick it in the oven (or per Pierre, you can let it cook on the stove if you don't want to start your oven.) For chicken, I like it really roasting for about 20 minutes. The flavors will come together and the chicken should be just done. Pork, maybe 25 minutes.

Make some rice.

Plate with rice and add breast over rice with sauce on top. Maybe finish with chopped parseley.



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To Pray and Discuss:  

One of the few rules of prayer that Ignatius made for the Jesuit order was the requirement that Jesuits practice the Examen twice daily—at noon and at the end of the day. It’s a habit that Jesuits, and many other Christians, practice to this day.


This is a version of the five-step Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced.

1. Become aware of God’s presence.

2. Review the day with gratitude.

3. Pay attention to your emotions.

4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.

5. Look toward tomorrow.

For family discussion, try reading through  a few more details about each step of the Examen, ( How Can I Pray? from the Loyola Press website.) Talk about how this would be helpful in your daily walk with God.  

Install the ReimaginingExamen app on your phone or ipad and try using it once a day.