---
title: 31 July 2025
description: Daily Ignatian Reflection
---

[Ignatian Reflections ](https://www.magiscenter.com/ignatian)

# [31 July 2025](https://www.magiscenter.com/ignatian/31-july-2025)

 Written by [Joseph Nolla S.J.](https://www.magiscenter.com/ignatian/author/joseph-nolla-sj) | Jul 31, 2025, 4:00:00 AM

## Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

Before Saint Ignatius became a priest, before he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), before he became a man dedicated to prayer, he had been a soldier.  His comrades (and even his enemies) admired his courage, discipline, and resolve.  Ignatius loved the life of a soldier and it was only after being severely wounded and lying bed-ridden for months that he began to discern that God was calling him to a different way of life: a life dedicated to the service of God and the Church.

It is quite possible that at some point Ignatius regretted his prior years as a soldier.  Perhaps he would have thought in his newfound zeal “If only I had always been a priest; if only I had always lived only for God.  All those years as a soldier are worthless and wasted.”  Such attitudes are fairly common among those who have had a profound conversion experience.  We can view our “prior life” as meaningless; we can view that life as being “without God.”

Yet we must still acknowledge that Ignatius learned skills and virtues as a soldier that he certainly needed in the service of God and the Church.  Ignatius learned discipline, courage, accountability, leadership, sacrifice, etc. as a soldier.  He would need all of those virtues as a “soldier for God.”  We can say, then, that God was forming and developing Ignatius even when Ignatius didn’t know it.  The same is true for us.  There never was a time “before God”; God has always been in our lives, shaping us and helping us become the people he wants us to be.  We can trust that he will continue to do so.

[View full post](https://www.magiscenter.com/ignatian/31-july-2025)

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