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Fratelli tutti - Brothers all...
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Fratelli tutti - Brothers all...
Dear Brothers, Sisters, Missionary lay, Associates and Friends,
Next Saturday, October 3, Pope Francis will sign the new Encyclical ′′ Brothers all ′′ on fraternity and social friendship. This Encyclical will then be promulgated next Sunday, October 4, feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. The promulgation of an Encyclical is always an important event in the life of the Church. This year, as we continue to experience the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, I believe this Encyclical will be of special importance to all of us.
The title of the new Encyclical recalls the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Coexistence, signed and enacted by Pope Francis and the Great Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb on February 4, 2019. Together, the Holy Father and the Great Imam called all believers to live and fight for an authentic and prophetic human fraternity among all peoples, which strengthens us to face the great challenges that humanity and, in fact, the world, which is the our common house. This document was published a year before the current pandemic, and is more current than ever in the crisis that humanity and the whole world are going through.
We expect the new Encyclical to continue and further develop this appeal to all believers. Waiting for the promulgation, next weekend, of ′′ Brothers all ′′ on fraternity and social friendship, I invite all of you, sisters and brothers of the Redeemer, to join in prayer waiting for God to prepare us and all peoples to receive the message by Pope Francis with an open heart. As part of this prayerful preparation, I encourage you to read once again the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Coexistence, which is included in this short message.
May God bless us with the deep conviction that we are truly all brothers and sisters, children of God in our brother and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. May we live as prophetic and authentic witnesses of the Redeemer in our wounded world.
Your brother in Jesus our Redeemer,
Michael Brehl, CSsR
Superior General CSsR
Sr M Margaret OSsR - 70 years in the Monastery...
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Sr M Margaret OSsR - 70 years in the Monastery...
Warm Congratulations to
Sr Mary Margaret OSsR
as she celebrates
70 years of Religious Life.
Congratulations Sr Mary Margaret wishing you a happy and blessed day.
We thank Sister for her
7 decades of prayer and service
for the Church and her Redemptorist confreres all over the world.
Bl Kasper Stanggassinger CSsR Feast 26th September
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Bl Kasper Stanggassinger CSsR Feast 26th September...
Today we celebrate the feast of Redemptorist Blessed Kasper Stangassinger.
The saying “quality, not quantity” applied in the life of Blessed Kaspar Stangassinge
This theme recurs in Redemptorist awareness – people are significant, people matter. They matter because they are persons and they each spring from the heart of a personal God.
For the young Fr Kaspar, this theme also played out in his dealings with others. Although he joined the Redemptorists to be a missionary, his first appointment was as director to the minor seminary to guide the training of future missionaries. The seminary was in Durrnberg near Hallein. There, Fr Kaspar treated each student as if they mattered, for to him, each of them did. And he knew they mattered to God.
Read more: Bl Kasper Stanggassinger CSsR Feast 26th September
Pope Benedict XVI in the UK 10 years ago...
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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.”
Province Letter Sept 2020...
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Province Letter Sept 2020...
The Provincial's Letter can be found here...
An Italian film about Bl Maria Celeste Crostarosa OSsR...
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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!
The Name of Mary...
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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
Feast of Bl Maria Celeste Crostarosa OSsR...11 Sept
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Feast of Bl Maria Celeste Crostarosa OSsR...
Servant of God - John Bradburne - Martyr...
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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.
CSsR Martyr Bl Methodius Dominic Trcka...
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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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