My dear Confreres, Redemptoristine sisters, sisters who share our Redemptorist Charism and mission, our Redemptorist Lay missionaries, associates, collaborators and benefactors and you dear friends.
I welcome you all to our triduum in preparation for the feast of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori this year.
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (27 September 1696 – 1 August 1787), was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in November 1732.
In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti. A prolific writer, he published nine editions of his Moral Theology in his lifetime, in addition to other devotional and ascetic works and letters. Among his best-known works are The Glories of Mary, The Way of the Cross, the latter still used in parishes during Lenten devotions and The Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Virgin Mary highly recommended by Pope St. John Paul II for Eucharistic adoration.
He was canonized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871. One of the most widely read Catholic authors, he is the patron saint of confessors.
During these three days, we will reflect each day one aspect of his life
First, St. Alphonsus talented genius of his time
Second, St. Alphonsus, the Doctor of Prayer
Third, St. Alphonsus Patron of Confessors and Moral Theologians
And on his feast day, we will reflect on the very essence of the Spirituality of St. Alphonsus.
Introduction
Welcome to all to our triduum in preparation for the feast of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori this year. During these three days we will reflect each day one aspect of his life First, St. Alphonsus talented genius of his time Second, St. Alphonsus, the Doctor of Prayer Third, St. Alphonsus Patron of Confessors and Moral Theologians And on his feast day we will reflect on the very essence of the Spirituality of St. Alphonsus. We invite you all to make this Tridiuum with Fr. Ivel Mendanha, CSSR, General Consultor as he reflects from our house Casa San Alfonso, in Rome, named after our Founder, on this amazing human being who gave his all for the Mission of the Redeemer, himself being a Missionary of Hope in the footsteps of Jesus the Redeemer.
Day One: St. Alphonsus talented genius of his time (18th Century)
29 July 2024 (Monday)
While St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori is known as the founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or the Redemptorists and as a spiritual writer and theologian what strikes one is that this man was a genius. As the firstborn Alphonsus received a cultural formation equivalent to his noble rank. He was home schooled at the insistence of his father Don Guiseppe who made sure that Alphonsus had the best teachers of the Kingdom of Naples teaching him at home. He learnt the classics both Greek and Latin as well as French, Spanish and Italian and mastered the art of Rhetoric at a very young age. Whatever Alphonsus studied and whatever opportunities he was provided in academic and cultural education he excelled that it soon was evident that he was a child prodigy be it as academics, art and music.
Alphonsus was a lover of beauty: musician, painter, poet and author. He put all his artistic and literary creativity at the service of the mission and he asked the same of those who joined his Congregation. He wrote 111 works on spirituality and theology. The 21,500 editions and the translations into 72 languages that his works have undergone attest to the fact that he is one of the most widely read authors. Among his best-known works are: The Great Means of Prayer, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, The Glories of Mary and The Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament. Prayer, love, his relationship with Christ and his first-hand experience of the pastoral needs of the faithful have made Alphonsus one of the great masters of the interior life.
Alphonsus’ art was influenced by what he saw around him. When he was 23, he painted his own “Christ on the Cross.” His painting depicted the death of Love itself. Around that same time, he also painted a picture of the Madonna as a woman of peaceful, gentle features — a woman who won his heart. Surrounded by 12 stars she is the portrait of divine beauty in human form. Alphonsus painted quite a few paintings of Our Lady, the Divine Shepherdess, the Mother of Sorrows, Our Lady and the Holy Spirit as well as Jesus crucified. His art, like his music, was a way to lead the men and women of his day, rich and poor, to know the surpassing riches of the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary.
In St. Alphonsus we have truly a genius with prodigious talent but one who used all his talent whether in art, music, learning, rhetoric, writing, all for the one purpose of proclaiming the Good News of Redemption, of the Love of Jesus to all, especially the poor and the abandoned of his time.
Day Two: St. Alphonsus, the Doctor of Prayer
30 July 2024 (Tuesday)
St. Alphonsus’ teachings on prayer, are extremely valuable and filled with spiritual inspiration. He considered his treatise, Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, which dates back to 1759, to be the most useful of all his writings. In fact, he there describes prayer as “the necessary and sure means of obtaining salvation, and all the graces we need to attain it.”
In saying that prayer is a necessary means, St. Alphonsus wanted us to understand that in every situation in life, we cannot manage without praying, especially in times of trial and difficulty. We must always knock at the Lord’s door with trust, knowing that in all things He takes care of His children, of us.
In another passage, St. Alphonsus says: “We are so poor that we have nothing; but if we pray, we are no longer poor” (II, 4). He invites every Christian to not be afraid of obtaining from God, through prayer, the strength he does not possess and that he needs to do the good, in the certainty that the Lord does not withhold His help from whoever prays with humility (cf. III, 3).
Alphonsus understood prayer as a person’s laying himself open to God, as an encounter of man with God, and as a means of collaboration with God by man. One of the principal expressions of prayer in the spirituality of Alphonsus is the sacramental life, especially participation in the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. He also promoted attendance at Mass, frequent communions and devotion to the Eucharist. Most characteristic was his propagation of the practice of ‘Visits to the Blessed Sacrament’.
Alphonsus proclaimed the importance of various forms and classes of prayer: individual and community, private and liturgical, interior and external, oral and silent. But he paid particular attention to prayer of supplication and to active contemplation called – inappropriately – ‘meditation’. It is for this reason he is called ‘The Doctor of Prayer’ as he shows the entire Church that Prayer can heal, save, set us free because prayer is relationship and communication with the God of love.
Day Three: St. Alphonsus: Patron of Confessors and Moral Theologians
31 July 2024 (Wednesday)
Alphonsus’ greatest contribution to the Church was in the area of Moral Theological reflection with his Moral Theology. This work was born of Alphonsus’ pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and from his contact with their everyday problems. He opposed the sterile legalism which was suffocating theology, and he rejected the strict rigorism of the time… the product of the powerful elite.
REDEEMED AND REDEEMING LOVE
In his moral theology and pastoral care, Alphonsus draws his conclusions from the primacy of love and liberty. Alphonsus best expresses this in his small book The Praxis of Love, which he considered not only his most pious but also his best writing. Learning to always give primacy in his pastoral care to the good news of liberating and healing love had taught Alphonsus to test all laws and norms to see whether they truly served the cause of creative and faithful love.
Against legalistic moralism, Alphonsus sets a well-elaborated doctrine on the primacy of conscience. His unique and lasting contribution is the role he gives to conscience and the care with which he describes the dynamics of a sound conscience. Two distinct traits of Alphonsian moral theology are the great reverence he accords each person’s conscience and the equally strong appeal to each individual to form a mature conscience.
St. Alphonsus Patron of Confessors:
St. Alphonsus Liguori is also the patron saint of confessors. In a time when Confession has fallen by the wayside for far too many Catholics, including some priests, St. Alphonsus shows us how much we need God’s love and mercy in this Sacrament. St. Alphonsus is an example to the priesthood of how a priest must exude the love and mercy of the Sacred Heart in their person. Spiritual fathers should always seek to draw sinners back to God. This means a much-needed return to the balance between sound moral theology and mercy and a renewed effort to draw the faithful to regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
St. Alphonsus spent considerable amounts of time in the confessional and he repeatedly encouraged people to receive the Sacrament. Not as an afterthought or to meet a once-a-year minimum, but as an essential aspect of the spiritual life that will lead souls to holiness. Priests are privileged to see those who are spiritually dead come back to life. The moral decay of our own time is nothing new in the history of the Church, nor is it an excuse to take a minimalist approach to this gift given to us by Christ.
Feast Day: St. Alphonsus, the core of his Spirituality
1st August 2024 (Thursday)
His Holiness Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic letter Spiritus Domini, in spelling out who the simple people to whom Alphonsus’ apostolic mission and enthusiasm was directed, underlines that the saint orientated his entire life so that this category of human beings could feel part and parcel of, could have a sense of being Church in the understanding and living of the gospel:
“Saint Alphonsus became a close friend of the people, of the insignificant people, of the people of the poorer quarters of the capital city of the kingdom of Naples, of the humble/simple people, of artisans and above all of the people of the countryside. This sense of people characterizes the entire life of the saint, as a missionary, founder, bishop, author/writer. It is for these people that Alphonsus will rethink the type of preaching, catechesis, teaching on moral and spiritual life.”
To summarize the essence of the Spirituality of St. Alphonsus I would like to use 4 Cs. At the core and centre of the Spirituality of St. Alphonsus is
The First C: Christ. The Second C is: Compassion for the poor and abandoned. The Third C is: Community and Congregation for the Church. The Fourth C is: Communication. St Alphonsus was a master communicator.
Let us on the feast of St. Alphonsus, renew our commitment to Christ our Redeemer, to have his heart of compassion for the poor and abandoned, to living joyfully and proclaiming the Gospel in and through Community as Communicators of Conviction in the tradition of our Great Father and Founder St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori. Thus, like him we too will grow to be Missionaries of Hope in the Footsteps of the Redeemer.
On behalf of our Superior General Fr Rogério Gomes and the entire General Council I wish each of you a wonderful and joyful feast of St. Alphonsus our father and founder. God bless you all.
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