Down to Earth in Loyola, Spain

Loyola is the name of a small town where St. Ignatius was born.

Many Jesuit schools in the United States are named after this place in what seems like the middle-of- nowhere-Spain. Maybe for this very reason, Father Russ and Father Steve were surprised to see one of their brothers from Loyola College in Los Angeles, California who was also visiting with a small group of students.

We celebrated mass together in the room where St. Ignatius had his conversion with our new friends, one of whom was a graduate from Punahou High School (Obama’s alma mater) in Honolulu! Even though the priest from LA started the mass by saying that it was “very intimidating” for a priest to give a homily there, Father Steve was super cool, calm and collected. His homily was down to earth. He spoke to us just as he does at the dinner table with a gleaming smile, “More bread?” and twinkling eyes, “How bout some wine?”

After mass, we were lucky enough to witness two weddings in the beautiful basilica while we waited for lunch. As an aside, and as everyone has learned on this trip, the Portuguese, Spaniards and French eat on a very different schedule than Americans. Luckily, the Europeans have been adapting to our schedules; even so, it has required patience.

For instance, no one eats lunch before 2:00 PM or dinner before 9:00 PM. Some pilgrims have found it difficult to wait so long, while our tour company has done a great job finding places to accommodate our eating schedules. When we arrive at restaurants, we are the first ones there, and when we leave, the first locals enter.

In Loyola we arrived so early, that most of the town was still sleeping and we had to wait, again, until the doors of Ignatius’s family home were opened for us. Interestingly, the Society of Jesus has built a museum around the home, as if to protect it, but also to include it as part of the overall complex that includes the gorgeous basilica where we saw the two weddings.