The celebration of World Mission Day goes beyond the memory of date, it carries with it a living and exemplary meaning of how to live the mandate of Jesus today, to announce abundant redemption to the world. For our Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, it also serves as a time for reflection on the Redemptorist charism. The mission and example of St. Alphonsus become one in our commitment to live every day as Redemptorist missionaries.
“The loving predilection and amazement of the Lord surprise us, by its nature, cannot be possessed or imposed by us. […] Only in this way can the miracle of gratuitousness, of the free gift of self, blossom. Even missionary fervor can never be obtained as a result of reasoning or calculation. Putting oneself “in a state of the mission is a reflection of gratitude” (Pope Francis, Message for World Mission Day 2021)
“We, the Redemptorists live among the abandoned, sharing their whole life in Madagascar. We aim to guarantee fundamental rights to many people in difficulty because of the poverty, and to make concrete the principles of equality and the values of solidarity, the basic rights of children and cultural diversity.” (a Redemptorist missionary in Madagascar)
We present below some testimonies of the Redemptorist missionaries that have reached us from different parts of the world:
Redemptorist Mission of Albania: An overflow of love and joy for Jesus the Redeemer
More than 26 years ago, for our first religious profession as Redemptorist missionaries, my brothers and I chose, as our motto, the words of the Apostles: “We cannot be silent about what we have seen and heard.” What a coincidence that the Pope is now giving them to us as a motto for World Mission Day 2021! Because of what the heart is full, the mouth speaks, and the Redemptorist Mission is nothing but an overflow of love and joy for Jesus the Redeemer.
Furthermore, Francis underlines the community aspect of the mission: “we cannot stop announcing and sharing”. To proclaim, because we are spokespersons of God made man who has entrusted us with his mission, and to share, because we do not give anything of our own, but rather our hands carry and distribute what we have received from above: grace and blessing.
We Redemptorists have been called by the Lord to know him deeply, experience his mercy and share with all the men and women of this world – especially the poorest and most abandoned – that transforming love which has changed our life, which has filled our Life.
Our communities are animated by the cry of Jesus’ Word: “Go and proclaim!”, And our prayer seeks the Lord for the courage to go to all those places where the world needs us, where the simplest people want another life, an opportunity, of Salvation. Today I am in a place of Mission, in the midst of people of different religions and faiths, and the first step of evangelization is once again “sharing” what I have seen and heard.
Father Laureano Del Otero Sevillano C.Ss.R.
Redemptorist Mission of Albania
Oblate Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer: our mission in the light of the Pope’s message for World Mission Day
In keeping with the Pope’s message and Matthew’s Gospel as quoted: “Go to the crossroads and invite everyone you meet”, our congregation closed the 2019 General Chapter with the same invitation. We strongly feel an active part of this redemptive mission of Jesus, to go towards the geographical, existential, and virtual frontiers. The chapter document makes it explicit, and we warmly welcome it:
“Our horizon is the MISSION. The following of Jesus the Redeemer and the women show us the path to follow… it is time to cross the crossroads as a space for dialogue and integration of diversity. From the audacity of the charism, we feel called to inhabit emerging places and realities of prostitution and trafficking in women for sexual exploitation, where the presence of the Oblates is necessary…”
Thus, we are called to be evangelizers of the peripheries, we go to the places where the women are, and with them, we create relationships of closeness, bonds of healing, and spaces of humanity, in which they are the protagonists.
We do it in a shared mission with the Oblate Family, moved by the same charism, we welcome the sending to share with them the bread of dignity and the experiences of mercy and hope. Furthermore, we commit ourselves to give “inter” answers (interprovincial, inter-congregational, inter-institutional). It is towards this horizon that the Spirit pushes us and where Jesus awaits us.
Zenda Singzon Pepito
Oblate Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer
India: the Redemptorist mission through the media
Redemptorist Media Centre, Bangalore had its humble beginning about 10 years ago with the intention of hosting the province and other websites, establishing an audio-visual library for confreres, along with the production of audio and video content for evangelization and catechetical purposes.
Over the years RMC has produced DVDs for faith formation, devotional music CDs, short films for institutions, documentary films on social issues, and many more. It runs an app-based online Radio Station “Holy Redeemer Radio” in Kannada (one of the Indian Languages) and English Podcasts on various platforms.
When the Churches were shut due to the pandemic, RMC started streaming liturgical services, novenas,
and missions online to fulfill the spiritual need of the people. This helped RMC reach thousands of households in India and across the globe. In a span of nineteen months, RMC’s YouTube Channel has grown to 37,200+ subscribers with 5.4 million cumulated views. Along with daily mass and evening rosary, programs such as “Who’s who in the Bible” a series of talks on Biblical Characters, ‘Psalms for life’, Novena to Mother of Perpetual Help, and the Global Novena to St. Alphonsus has brought thousands to share in our Redemptorist spirituality and charism.
RMC’s entire journey has been one of God’s providence. The support and hard work of the Redemptorist confreres who adapted to this new online ministry in a time of need have been paramount to the success of this endeavor. People’s constant prayerful support and contributions have enabled RMC to plan new programs for the future, and fulfill its mission “To preach the Gospel ever anew.”
Charles Vijay Kumar, C.Ss.R.
Haiti needs to be met from Christ the Redeemer
In his traditional message on the occasion of World Mission Sunday, for this 95th edition to be held on Sunday 24 October 2021, Pope Francis proposes as a motto “We cannot stop talking about what we have seen and heard”, extracted from the book of the Acts of Apostles 4, 20.
For us as Redemptorist Missionaries working in Haiti, we see in this message an invitation to each of us not to remain firm and indifferent in the face of this tragedy that our people have been experiencing during these last years. Faced with this situation that seems out of control, our commitment to those who suffer must be effective as a prophetic voice that makes known the experience of God that we have in our hearts. In other words, in the current context, we must be missionaries of hope who announce a message of hope because, as the Holy Pope recalls, citing number 22 of the conciliar document Gaudium et Spes “…. God loves our humanity and makes our joys and sufferings, our desires and our anguish his own.”
This is why this Haiti, wounded every day by violence, corruption, and kidnappings, needs to be met from Christ, for this reason, more than ever it needs committed missionaries, who “go to the crossroads and invite all who meet” (Mt 22, 9) to experience the power of God’s love in all areas of society.
Renold Antoine, C.Ss.R
Missionary in Haiti
Colombia: The Redemptorist must be an announcer of the message of salvation
Starting from the message proposed by Pope Francis for the 95th World Mission Day “We cannot fail to talk about what we have seen and heard”(Acts of the Apostles 4:20), as Redemptorist missionaries we feel deeply identified with being witnesses and continuers of abundant redemption (cf. Constitution 23), we do not remain with what we have received, but on the contrary, we share it with many people who are ready to listen to our preaching (cf. Constitution 10) and share our mission. This abundant redemption, as a synonym of salvation, is the Good News that we are called to live and bear witness to the whole world, starting from our closeness and assisting the concrete face of our brothers and sisters who suffer and are excluded from the various social structures. Faced with these situations, for the Redemptorist missionary, there should be no excuses or justifications for being at the disposal of a world that claims liberation (cf. General Statutes 09). This salvation begins in this life and in the current context of our time and embraces the whole person.
“Everything in Christ reminds us that the world we live in and its need for redemption is not alien to him.” To make this reality tangible, as a province of Bogota, we have chosen to give priority to the special attention of migrants. This has led many of the congregations to go towards our brothers who, for various reasons, have decided to undertake a journey and we are part of their history of salvation, becoming brothers of our brothers (cf. Luke 10,25-37). This is why we have decided to make our Institute spirituality propitious when we are asked to love the poor effectively and effectively, not as a simple discourse, concept, or idea, but as a concrete reality. In the same sense, we must give them the value and dignity that every human being deserves as a child of God.
In short, we cannot forget that God makes our situations his own, He never makes himself a stranger to them, but sends us as His messengers and missionaries, collaborators in His redemptive work in the world. Therefore, we are called to be courageous and not to reserve anything of what we have received by grace (cf. Matthew 10: 7-8). May Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, patroness of our Redemptorist missions; may Saint Alphonsus, motivator of the whole work of the Redemption, help us to be authentic missionaries following the example of Jesus Christ, the great missionary par excellence.
Novice Carlos Daniel Franco Ramirez (Province of Bogota)
Novice Jhonny William Vargas Vargas (Vice-Province of Caracas)
Testimonials Videos of the Redemptorist missions from different parts of the world.
From the first community of a few people in Scala, the Redemptorists in almost 300 years have been transformed into a Congregation of several thousand members spread all over the world. Despite the great distances and the different cultures, they form a single beautiful family, centered on the same mission: to announce the Abundant Redemption to the poorest and most abandoned.
See how Redemptorists are madly in love with the Redeemer and spread the same love to different parts of the world.
