Homilies and Reflections

A homily - St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R.

Tuesday, 16 October 2012 14:35

A homily for the feast of St. Gerard Majella C.Ss.R., ...

A kind confrere offers us the following reflection...

SAINT GERARD MAJELLA C.Ss.R.

Writing or reading the lives of the saints is a challenging occupation. gerardo9

Accounts of their lives can be so remote from our ordinary human experience that we find them so unattractive and de-humanised that there is no incentive to follow them.

Gerard Majella's experience and living of the Christian and religious life was so out of the ordinary; yet he is an outstanding example of the Alphonsian tradition that has animated generations of Redemptorists:

the imitation of Christ the Redeemer;

in recalling his' infancy, his passion death and resurrection;

his abiding presence in the Eucharist;

a devotion to his Blessed Mother and the compelling desire to share these with ordinary people as we journey together.

In some ways Gerard is the most medieval of our saints, full of crazy gestures, even as a child yet moulded in the traditional devotions of his contemporaries, the ordinary people of Muro.

The popular piety of Southern Italy at that time and even to this day is characterised by a profound sense of the supernatural, boundless confidence in the goodness of God and his providence; the mystery of the cross and a childlike attachment to our Blessed Lady and the intercession of the saints. It has been described as the poor peoples alternative to the liturgy. Some would describe this popular piety as an inferior state of faith, tinged with slight superstition, when in fact it is relating to the divine or supernatural in a different way.

A Jubilarian Preaches

Wednesday, 01 February 2012 16:12

A Jubilarian Preaches...

frkevin

DIAMOND JUBILEE (60 years)

Conversion of St. Paul

Jan 2012

Fr Kevin Callaghan C.Ss.R.

It would be reasonable to expect that the theme of this homily would be on today’s feast – the conversion of St. Paul. But I anticipated today’s celebration and preached on St. Paul on Sunday last.

You will be very relieved to know that I do not intend to trawl through my sixty years as a C.Ss.R – although I could make that quite racy and raise a few blushes. Perhaps later we may be given the opportunity to say a few words in another place in that respect.

So I fall back as we Redemptorists do, so often and so effectively in our preaching, on a story. And I am indebted to Tony Gittens when on the very first evening to spoke to us of the importance of LISTENING. For this is a story about listening and not just hearing.

Bl Peter Donders C.Ss.R.

Friday, 13 January 2012 12:55

Blessed Peter Donders C.Ss.R....

On the 14th of January we celebrate his memory.

petdonders

The homily below was written by one of our confreres, Fr. Jim Casey C.Ss.R., who offers it to us in the hope that it will help us grow in our appreciation of this holy and saintly confrere.

petdonders2

HOMILY

BLESSED PETER DONDERS C.Ss.R.,

1809 - 1887

Peter Donders was a loser – all his life he was a loser. He was born in 1809 in the town of Tilburg in Holland, the son of poor weavers, who lived in a one-roomed house with an earthen floor on which sat the family loom. Peter had to leave school at the age of twelve – his parents needed the money. He was a devout boy who wanted to be a priest, but everything was against him: poverty, delicate health and, to tell the truth, he was not that clever. Peter’s was the original impossible dream. As a weaver, he was not a great success. You see, he prayed while he weaved which did nothing at all for the quality of the cloth.