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Published: 16 September 2020

Pope Benedict XVI in the UK 10 years ago...

 Cardinal Vincent Nichols Recalls Pope Benedict XVI’s Visit to the UK

The Apostolic Journey took place from September 16-19, 2010.

“There are many highlights that stand out in my mind. One was the drive down the great road approaching Buckingham Palace – The Mall – decorated on either side with papal flags and Union Jacks. Packed with people on both sides. It was a sight I thought I would never see. A warm, rapturous welcome to the Pope of Rome in this country, which has, for the last 400 years, struggled with its understanding of its relationship to the Catholic Church.”

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Published: 13 September 2020

Province Letter Sept 2020...

The Provincial's Letter can be found here...

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Published: 12 September 2020

 An Italian film about Bl Maria Celeste Crostarosa OSsR...

The film is all in Italian but it is worth a look at as there are great pictures

of our Nuns from every continent in the world!

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Published: 12 September 2020

The Name of Mary...

  “The beautiful name of Mary is a name given from heaven,

and is a powerful name which makes hell tremble;

and is besides a sweet name,

in that it reminds us of that

Queen who, being the Mother of God,

is also our Mother,

the Mother of mercy,

the Mother of love.”

St Alphonsus 

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Published: 12 September 2020

We the Redemptorist family celebrate the Memorial of Blessed Maria Celeste Crostarosa, O.Ss.R. on September 11. She was declared a Blessed on 18th June 2016 in Foggia, Italy.

Bl. Maria Celeste Crostarosa was born in Naples to the Crostarosa family on 31st October 1696, the tenth of twelve children, and the following day she was baptized receiving the names Julia Marcella Santa.  At the age of twenty, she and her sister Ursula entered the Carmelite Convent of Marigliano (about 12 miles from Naples).  However, after only five years in religious life the monastery was unjustly suppressed because of outside interference, necessitating their departure. While still there, Julia had met Fr. Thomas Falcoia, who was giving the community a retreat.  He suggested that it was the Will of God that she and her sisters – another younger sister had joined the two – should go to a monastery in Scala, near Amalfi, where he had reformed a community to the spirit and practice of the Visitation Congregation.

It was as a novice in Scala that Julia was named Sr. Maria Celeste and here she received a revelation and was ‘made to understand God’s plans for a new institute which the Lord would place in the world by means of her which would have for its laws and rules His very life.’

The Order of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptoristines) was officially founded on the Feast of Pentecost, 13th May 1731.  The vocation of the Redemptoristine Sisters was to be a ‘Viva Memoria’ a ‘living memory of Jesus’.

The spiritual journey of Maria Celeste was no bed of roses, though favoured as it was with many mystical experiences it was also characterized by obedience to conscience, by a constant search for the meaning of the Gospel, and simplicity of life.

 She died on the 14th September 1755.

Scala News

 

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Published: 06 September 2020

Servant of God - John Bradburne - Martyr... 

The 5th of September marks the 41st anniversary of John Bradburne’s martyrdom in Zimbabwe. He was a great friend of our own Fr George Webster CSsR, and would frequently cycle over to visit, discussing history and poetry late into the night. 

May the servant of God pray for us and for #Zimbabwe. 

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Published: 06 September 2020

CSsR Martyr Bl Methodius Dominic Trcka...

The unveling of a memorial of a

Redemmptorist Martyr, Blessed Dominic Methodius Trcka CSsR

took place at the prison in Ilava, Slovakia. Trcka was imprisoned there for 12yrs.

Dominic Trcka was born in what is today the Czech Republic on 6 July 1886. He entered the Redemptorists in 1902, was professed in 1904, and ordained in Prague on 17 July 1910.

From the start of his priesthood he took part in the usual Redemptorist apostolate of preaching popular missions and novenas. During the First World War, he took care of Croatian, Slovene and Ruthenian refugees at Svata Hora, the Czech national shrine of Our Lady which had been entrusted to the Redemptorists.

Although by birth and upbringing he belonged to the Roman Rite, Dominic felt that the Catholics of the Greek Rite were in greater need of priests. In 1919 in response to his request to work with them, he was sent to Lviv in the Ukraine. He needed, not just to learn a new way of celebrating Mass, but he also had to learn a new language and culture.

He was greatly assisted by one of his Redemptorist confreres, Blessed Nicholas Charnetsky C.Ss.R., Bishop and Martyr.

Later in life, both of them would meet the same fate as martyrs and eventually be beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Fr Dominic at this time adopted a new name, Methodius, in honour of one of the first missionaries to the Slavic peoples.

In December 1921 he was sent to Stropkov, in Eastern Slovakia, where he founded a Redemptorist community with members belonging to both the Latin and Byzantine rites.

During the Second World War, the Slovak State suspected the Redemptorists of anti-State propaganda because of their pastoral work with Ruthenians in a Slovak nationalist situation. Since Fr Methodius was the chief suspect as superior of the house, he resigned his post as superior in order to save the other members of the community. When the Redemptorists established the Greek-Catholic Vice-Province of Michalovce, Fr Methodius was appointed the first Vice-Provincial on 23 March 1946. He encouraged the Redemptorists' return to Stropkov where they worked until the Communists came to power in post-war Czechoslovakia.

On April 13, 1950, all the Redemptorist communities were declared suppressed and the members taken to prison camps. Two years later, Methodius was charged with espionage and high treason. The evidence was that he had circulated copies of the pastoral letter of the bishop and sent reports of the Redemptorist communities to the Roman superior general. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

After a summary show trial, he was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, during which he was subjected to lengthy interrogations and torture. In 1958 he was transferred to the prison of Leopoldov. The following Christmas he was caught singing a carol and sent to the "correction cell" where he contracted pneumonia.

Another prisoner, a doctor, recommended that he be admitted to hospital: all he got for his efforts was Methodius’s transfer to solitary confinement. Finally, he died in his own cell on 23 March 1959, after forgiving his persecutors. He was buried in the prison cemetery, but after the liberation of the Greek Catholic Church, his remains were transferred on October 17, 1969, to the Redemptorist plot in the cemetery of Michalovce.

Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed him Blessed on November 4, 2001.

Blessed Martyr Methodius Trcka CSsR - Pray for us!

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Published: 06 September 2020

Br Stanislav Marcin CSsR Perpetual Profession...

On August 15th 2020 Br Stanislav Marcin CSsR

made his Perpetual Profession

in his own province in Slovakia,

professing for life the vows of 

Povery, Chastity and Obedience

as well as the fourth vow and Oath of Perseverance

(which only Redemptorists take).

Br Stanislav was a member of our Clapham Community, St Mary's Monastery,

for part of his formation programme in 2019-2020.

The community all send their very best wishes and prayers to Br Stanislav. 

Vivat in aeternum!

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Published: 06 September 2020

Two CSsR Brothers and a Bishop...

We are grateful to our

Redemptorist brother,

who is the Bishop of Hallam,

Bishop Ralph Heskett CSsR,

who over the past month has ordained two of our brothers to the Diaconate.

Br Royston Price CSsR was ordained in St Mary's Clapham

on 1st August on the Solemnity of St Alphonsus

and

Br Mike Taylor CSsR was ordained on Tues 25th August

on the Feast Day of Blessed Methodius Dominic Trcka CSsR

in Bishop Eton, Liverpool.

To have these celebratioins in these days of Coronavirus

has not been as easy as it might have been.

However, we thank God for giving our brothers their vocation and as they said,

"these celebrations are not about a party,

rather this is about God and ministry."

The picture below shows two men

united by

a Redemptorist Vocation

and also

the Episcopate.