Redemptorist News
Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, August 15th.
The Catholic feast of the Assumption is celebrated on Aug. 15, and Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics celebrate the Dormition of the Theotokos (the falling asleep of the Mother of God) on or around the same date.
Mary was with the disciples in the Upper Room, waiting for and praying for the Promised Holy Spirit. From the earliest days of the church, Mary was spoken of in the Christian community as the ‘Second Eve’, the ‘Mother of all the living’. Jesus Christ was spoken of as the Second Adam… undoing what the first Adam had done: Mary, helping in that work, ‘crushing the head of Satan’ with her heel. This, even from the first century after Christ. Blessed John Henry Newman wrote of her holiness and her dignity being spoken of from the very start.
Her Assumption was celebrated in different churches from around the year 400.
‘Our tainted nature’s solitary boast’. William Wordsworth.
The Virgin
Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin allied;
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature’s solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven’s blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of mother’s love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene!
William Wordsworth
From Benedict XVI: “By contemplating Mary in heavenly glory, we understand that the earth is not the definitive homeland for us either, and that if we live with our gaze fixed on eternal goods we will one day share in this same glory and the earth will become more beautiful. Consequently, we must not lose our serenity and peace even amid the thousands of daily difficulties. The luminous sign of Our Lady taken up into Heaven shines out even more brightly when sad shadows of suffering and violence seem to loom on the horizon. We may be sure of it: from on high, Mary follows our footsteps with gentle concern, dispels the gloom in moments of darkness and distress, reassures us with her motherly hand. Supported by awareness of this, let us continue confidently on our path of Christian commitment wherever Providence may lead us. Let us forge ahead in our lives under Mary’s guidance.”
Ná tréig Muire Máthair Dé, an old Irish saying,- ‘Do not neglect Mary, Mother of God.’
If you neglect Mary, you neglect her son. She is Theotokos. He is the Son of God, and the Son of Mary. To neglect her is to neglect the mystery and wonder of the Incarnation, Word made flesh, dwelling among us in time and place.
The purpose of our Icons: icons are written, to teach the truths of faith. 
Mary is presented as Meter Theou, or Theotokos, Mother of God, the Bearer of God.
She is Mother of her Son, and of all who make up the body of her Son. She holds us all in her embrace and watches over us with care and love. She is always Mother, always running to catch us as we fall,- the one who is always running, -Mater de perpetuo succursu.
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
HYMN FOR THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION: ‘QUEEN OF THIS DAY‘ (Adapted from ‘Bring Flowers the Rarest’)
Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady:
‘Queen of This Day’
BRING FLOWERS THE RAREST..
Bring flowers the rarest
bring blossoms the fairest,
from garden and woodland and hillside and dale;
our full hearts are swelling,
our glad voices telling
the praise of the loveliest flower of the vale!
Refrain
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels and Queen of this day:
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels and Queen of this day.
Their lady they name thee,
Their mistress proclaim thee,
Ah, grant that thy children on earth be as true
as long as the bowers
are radiant with flowers,
as long as the azure shall keep its bright hue
Refrain
Reflection, 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 12, 2012.
Reflection for 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Readings Year B, August 12, 2012.
Gospel: St. John’s Gospel, Chapter 6, verses 41-51.
‘Get up and eat or the journey will be too long for you!’ (from first reading). And we’re talking about us getting up and eating, -taking Jesus into our very hearts and souls. Because, it’s a very long road without him.
The Jewish members of our family have a saying: ‘There are thirty layers to every story, and a Rabbi can only show you one layer.’ There are a lot more than thirty layers to Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel. That’s why you could spend a life-time re-visiting it, and still not have fathomed it. There’s eating and drinking in it, -why? – because there’s eating and drinking in Jesus!
St. John loves to repeat the same phrase or word over and over in a passage, and he loves to use misunderstandings in the conversations that Jesus had, as it was Jesus’ way of leading people beyond the obvious (eg. water and the bucket, in the story of the Samaritan Woman, in Chapter 4). Here, he uses different understandings of ‘bread’,- from the obvious that you hold in your hand and that nourishes the body, to the deeper meaning that you hold in your heart, and that nourishes the spirit of a person.
Those Jews who did not believe in Jesus were complaining: ‘Surely this is the son of Joseph. We know his father and mother! How can he now say “ I have come down from heaven’ ? Here was the misunderstanding. But then Jesus leads them deeper.
Notice the repetitions all through today’s Gospel reading (verses 41 to 51);
- I am the bread that came down from heaven.
- I have come down from heaven.
- ‘the Father (who) sent me’.
- ‘the one who comes from God’
- I am the bread of life.
- This is the bread that has come down from heaven.
- I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
(Notice again the I AM, repeated several times today. See last week’s reflection on ‘I AM’ and all that it refers to, in St. John’s Gospel)
And then, at the end, what upset them most of all,- and the subject of next Sundays’ Gospel reading- ‘The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’ Here, he was beginning to speak to the about what we now call the Eucharist,- or ‘The breaking of the bread’. Let’s stay with today’s reading. Go to it again,- there’s eating and drinking in it,- why?- because there’s eating and drinking in Jesus, sent by the Father.
‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you!’
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
Reflection for 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B,- August 5, 2012.
Gospel: St. John, Chapter 6, verse 24-36.
Today we meet another ‘I AM’ moment,- ‘I AM the Bread of Life’.
Two things help us to read and understand St. John’s Gospel, in any of its words.
First, the frequent I AM moments, all through the Gospel. For the community around St. John, -most of whom were Jewish converts to Christ,- ‘I AM’ rang all sorts of bells, because it reminded them of the answer the Lord gave to Moses at the burning bush, when Moses asked ‘Who are you?’: ‘ I AM WHO I AM.’
And here, today, Jesus says to us: ‘I AM the Bread of Life!’ Later in St. John’s Gospel, ‘I AM the light of the world’, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM! ‘ I AM the Good Shepherd’ ‘I AM the resurrection’, ‘I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life’. I AM the true vine.’ When Jesus said ‘I AM…’ he was claiming to come from God and to be God.
Secondly, in St. John’s Gospel, Jesus gave SIGNS,- he did things and said things that pointed to Who Jesus Is,- the I AM, the Anointed of God, the One Sent by the Father to us.
And at the end of St. Johns’ Gospel, in what was the first conclusion to his Gospel, he writes: ‘These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.’ (John 20:31)
So, all the signs,- including the feeding of the 5000,- and all the I AM moments are written for us so that we too, in our generation, ‘may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this (we) may have life through his name.’
Read the Gospel for today again:
‘You are not looking for me because you have seen the signs’, Jesus said to them, but rather because Jesus seemed like a very promising Bread Van, with plenty of handouts. They had not read the ‘sign’ of what happened when he fed the entire multitude with a small boy’s lunch-basket, and had twelve baskets-full of leftovers. . They were stuck at the level of loaves of bread, but he wanted to lead them to something much more lasting and satisfying and filling,- and that was Himself!
‘Don’t work for food that doesn’t last…work for the kind of ‘food’ that the Son of Man is offering you’,- why? ‘because on him, the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’
‘My Father gives you… the true bread…which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ And when they asked for that ‘bread’, he answered them: ‘I AM the bread of life, and if you come to me you will never be hungry, if you believe in me you will never be thirsty.’
This whole conversation, where Jesus leads his hearers (us) from one kind of bread that is unsatisfying to another kind of bread that is much more nourishing, is typical of the stories in St. John, where Jesus begins with something very physical (water for the Samaritan Woman, eye-sight for the blind man, life restored for Lazarus) to something much deeper,- pointing always to himself, the One Sent to us by the Father.
‘These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.’ (John 20:31)
If we are hungry in our lives, or thirsting for something more, can we come to Jesus himself, whose very person will answer all our hearts’ cravings? ‘I AM the Bread of Life!’
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
Alphonsus, A Man on Fire
Alphonsus, A Man on Fire
“Return Love for Love”
is what he said to do.
When all was said and done, this was his heart’s deep cry,-
‘return love, for love’.
Live in the Birth of Bethlehem,
walk in its stables,
smell its smells,
and then
be filled with speechless wonder
at the One Who Is,
and who is lying in the food-trough of
the beasts.
Live in the Call of Calvary,
Come back again to stand
upon that hill,
don’t run away from the awe-filled
horror as you stand
and gaze at our Messiah,-
Sent by the One who so greatly
loved the World.
Live in the shadow of its radiance.
Live in the ever-lasting gift of Eucharist,
Behold the Man! Behold the Lamb!
Behold your God, given in a wafer:
Drink in the meaning of the Cup.
‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink?’
‘We can…’ said those
two Thunder Brothers to their Lord.
And so can we,- drink of the
overflowing cup of given life.
Return love for love.
‘Live in my love’, said He.
‘As He (my Father) has loved me,
that is the very how
my love is now
for you!’
Come, live in it, and drink of it,-
Come, laugh in it
with joy,-
‘so that your joy may be full’.
If he has so loved us,-
then we
might live our lives,
returning love for love.
*( Memories of visit to Naples-Scala, and of page 47 of Frederick Jones’ book on the writings of Alphonsus Liguori, in Classics of Western Spirituality Series..)*
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.,- from www.emptifulvessels.com , a collection of poem-reflections by S. Devitt C.Ss.R.
August 1st,- Feast of St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Founder of the Redemptorists.
The first day of August is dear to Redemptorists throughout the world. It is the Feast day of their Founder, St. Alphonsus de Liguori. Born in Naples in 1696, he died at Pagani in 1787, in his 91st year. At the age of 36, he founded a congregation of Missionaries especially dedicated to preaching the Gospel to those who were most abandoned, especially those living at that time in the remotest places. He gathered his first companions in the village of Scala, above Amalfi, in Southern Italy. All but one of his first companions deserted him; the one who remained was Brother Vito Curzio, who had earlier lived a rather colourful career. Later, Alphonsus was joined by a number of other priest companions and brother companions, and this new band of Missionaries began preaching in a wide area of Southern Italy, going to the remotest villages and towns high in the mountains. One of the best known and loved Redemptorist brothers from that time,- and still greatly loved throughout the world- was Brother (now Saint) Gerard Magella.
This band of Missionaries were eventually given their present name of The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,- later shortened in popular usage to Redemptorists, or Redemptorist Missionaries. This congregation is now found in about 72 countries around the globe, still going to places where others do not wish to go, and reaching out to people of all ages, young and old. Our mission is to bring to people the message of the Abundant Redemption of God,- the ‘crazy’ love of God for us, as Alphonsus often called it (‘Dio, pazzo per amore’)
His core message to us, in our generation too, is to ‘Return love for love’,- to allow ourselves to be utterly captivated by the ‘crazy’ depth of God’s love for us, and to seek with our whole being to return love for love. Alphonsus spoke passionately to people about the great mysteries of Christ,- the love of God shown us in the Crib, on the Cross, in the Eucharist, and in the gift of Mary the Mother of God who is our Mother also.
Please keep Redemptorists worldwide in your prayers, and pray that the Lord will send many more young men to join us in bringing the ‘crazy’ love of God to people all over the world and in Ireland as well. ‘Caritas Christi urget nos’,- ‘the Love of Christ is driving us!,- St. Paul. Our religious profession makes all Redemptorists truly missionaries. Please pray too for all Redemptoristines, our sister Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, whose enclosed life is a powerhouse of prayer for the whole world. Their house in Ireland in on St. Alphonsus’ Road, Drumcondra, Dublin. And today, we honour and celebrate with all our Redemptorist lay co-workers and friends, who make up the Redemptorist Family.
S. Devitt C.Ss.R
‘The Christ of immense Compassion, The Mother of immense Tenderness,’ – The heart of Alphonsus’ preaching.
The following was written, following a visit to the tomb of Alphonsus, in Pagani, in Italy.
Alphonsus, A Man on Fire
“Return Love for Love”
is what he said to do.
When all was said and done, this was his heart’s deep cry,-
‘return love, for love’.
Live in the Birth of Bethlehem,
walk in its stables,
smell its smells,
and then
be filled with speechless wonder
at the One Who Is,
and who is lying in the food-trough of
the beasts.
Live in the Call of Calvary,
Come back again to stand
upon that hill,
don’t run away from the awe-filled
horror as you stand
and gaze at our Messiah,-
Sent by the One who so greatly
loved the World.
Live in the shadow of its radiance.
Live in the ever-lasting gift of Eucharist,
Behold the Man! Behold the Lamb!
Behold your God, given in a wafer:
Drink in the meaning of the Cup.
‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink?’
‘We can…’ said those
two Thunder Brothers to their Lord.
And so can we,- drink of the
overflowing cup of given life.
Return love for love.
‘Live in my love’, said He.
‘As He (my Father) has loved me,
that is the very how
my love is now
for you!’
Come, live in it, and drink of it,-
Come, laugh in it
with joy,-
‘so that your joy may be full’.
If he has so loved us,-
then we
might live our lives,
returning love for love.
*( Memories of visit to Naples-Scala, and of page 47 of Frederick Jones’ book on the writings of Alphonsus Liguori, in Classics of Western Spirituality Series..)*
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R., from a collection of poem-reflections www.emptifulvessels.com
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. July 29th, 2012.
YEAR B: 17TH SUNDAY: JOHN 6:1-15.
‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what is that between so many?’ (John 6) Philip was thinking that eight months’ wages wouldn’t be enough to feed so many people. Andrew thought that the small boy’s lunch wouldn’t go very far, either,- he was probably embarrassed he ever mentioned it. But Jesus knew best. What one small boy had, and what one small boy handed over to this stranger, this Jesus, was enough to feed thousands, and to have baskets and baskets left over. It was Jesus who did the feeding, not the boy, and not the disciples, in John’s account. But it was the boy’s lunch that he used. He didn’t create something out of thin air,- he used what was let go to him, five wee loaves or baps, and two small fish, fresh out of the lake.
The boy gave Jesus all he had,- not much, but all. And if we, each on of us, give whatever we have, not much but still our all, Jesus will feed the world in ways we could not even dream of.
In the words of a wonderful old prayer: ‘All for you, my Lord! O my Jesus, all for you!’ All. If you want to find all, give all, and then you will find all.
It’s our call!
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, July 22nd, 2012.
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 22nd. 2012
‘He took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.’ (Mark 6: 34)
‘Do you love me?… Feed my sheep!’ That question that the Risen Lord asked Simon Peter by the shore,-not once but three times, ‘Do you love me?… Do you love me?… Do you love me?’, and his saying to each ‘Yes‘ of Simon Peter, ‘Feed my lambs!…feed my lambs! Feed my sheep!’- the story of that question and that commission was at the heart of Alphonsus Liguori’s description of what his new Redemptorist Priests and Brothers were to be all about,- ‘Do you love me? (if so,) Feed my sheep!’
To be a shepherd who does not feed his sheep, and care for them, and bring them to pasture and to still waters,- that would be betrayal of the call of Jesus to care for his people. If we love the Master, then we will do our utmost to continually feed his disciples. Disciples will seek to ‘pastor’ one another, to lead each other to the water that is Christ. Without Christ, we are all of us ‘like sheep without a shepherd.’
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
Reflection: Sunday July 15th, Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer.
The Third Sunday of July is, for Redemptorists, worldwide, the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer.
Redemptorists are ‘The Congregation of Priests and Brothers of the Most Holy
Redeemer’. This feast is our Title Feast.
A Reflection: This writer still remembers the joy of insights experienced in reading the very first Encyclical of Pope John Paul 11, entitled ‘Redemptor Hominis’, or ‘The Redeemer of Humankind.’ In it he dealt with the core of our faith, the Person of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the World.
Two phrases still echo in my mind: ‘Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals us to ourselves and brings to light our most high calling”. In later years, he used this phrase over and over again, in addressing young people. One version I recall: “Jesus Christ not only shows God to you, but shows you to yourself!’
The other phrase that has stayed with me: ‘By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, in a certain way united himself with each human being’. Those phrases collided joyfully in my heart, then and now, like the Swiss particles in Cern recently, and were a new revelation to me.
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
——
Here below are some words from John Paul 11,from ‘Redemptor Hominis’ still full of primal wisdom. Let them play in your heart’s tunnel.
Christ, the Redeemer of the world, is the one who penetrated in a unique unrepeatable way into the mystery of humankind and entered the human “heart”. Rightly therefore does the Second Vatican Council teach: “The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of every human take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come (Romans 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals us to ourselves and brings to light our most high calling”. And the Council continues: “He who is the ‘image of the invisible God’ (Col 1:15), is himself the perfect human being who has restored in the children of Adam that likeness to God which had been disfigured ever since the first sin. Human nature, by the very fact that it was assumed, not absorbed, in him, has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For, by his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, in a certain way united himself with each human being. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin”47, he, the Redeemer of humankind.
This revelation of the Creator’s love is also described as mercy; and in humankind’s history this revelation of love and mercy has taken a form and a name: that of Jesus Christ.
10 . The human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption
We cannot live without love. We remain beings that are incomprehensible for ourselves, our lives are senseless, if love is not revealed to us, if we does not encounter love, if we does not experience it and make it our own, if we do not participate intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer “fully reveals man to himself”, ‘fully reveals us to ourselves’. If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension we find again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to our humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption we become newly “expressed” and, in a way, are newly created. We are newly created! “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”64. If we wish to understand ourselves thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-we must with our unrest, uncertainty and even our weakness and sinfulness, with our life and death, draw near to Christ. We must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, we must “appropriate” and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find ourselves. If this profound process takes place within us, we then bear fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at ourselves. How precious must we be in the eyes of the Creator, if we “gained so great a Redeemer”, and if God “gave his only Son “in order that we “should not perish but have eternal life”.
In reality, the name for that deep amazement at our worth and dignity is the Gospel, that is to say: the Good News. It is also called Christianity. This amazement determines the Church’s mission in the world and, perhaps even more so, “in the modern world”. This amazement, which is also a conviction and a certitude-at its deepest root it is the certainty of faith, but in a hidden and mysterious way it vivifies every aspect of authentic humanism-is closely connected with Christ. It also fixes Christ’s place-so to speak, his particular right of citizenship-in the history of man and mankind. Unceasingly contemplating the whole of Christ’s mystery, the Church knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the Cross has definitively restored our dignity to us and given back meaning to our lives in the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the Cross and death to Resurrection.
The Church’s fundamental function in every age and particularly in ours is to direct our gaze, to point the awareness and experience of the whole of humanity towards the mystery of God, to help all people to be familiar with the profundity of the Redemption taking place in Christ Jesus. At the same time our deepest sphere is involved-we mean the sphere of human hearts, consciences and events.
(From Sections 8-10 of Redemptor Hominis, John Paul 11)
‘Copiosa apud Eum Redemptio’ -the Redemptorist Motto.
‘Copiosa apud Eum Redemptio’ -the Redemptorist Motto. On the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Third Sunday of July each year, -and this year on July 15th- , a short reflection on the motto of the Redemptorists since the time of their founder, St. Alphonsus Liguori.
The phrase is taken from Psalm 130, v.7. and is often translated as ‘With Him is plentiful Redemption’. That is what Redemptorists are called to proclaim to the world,- the wonderful, generous, lavish redemption of our God.
‘Copiosa‘ means abundant, plentiful, prodigal, overflowing, lavish, princely,- and in Irish, ‘flaithiúil‘ meaning the quality of princely generosity and lavishness..
‘Apud Eum‘ is Latin for ‘With Him’,- ie. with God.
‘Redemptio‘, or Redemption,- setting free, healing, opening eyes, leading out of exile and slavery of any kind, leading home, lifting hearts, giving ‘life to the full’ (John 10.10).
‘Tá slánú fíor-flaithiúil i nDia!’ There is a truly princely liberation and wholeness from God.
Isn’t that worth proclaiming to all the world?
Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R., Esker.
Reflection: 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B: July 8th, 2012.
‘Most of them were astonished when they heard him.‘ When Jesus, the local boy from Nazareth, came home, many were astonished when they heard him speaking in their synagogue. Astonished,- but unbelieving. Amazed, but not willing to welcome him and what he said. Astonished, they still rejected him, took him out to the nearest cliff top to be rid of him. And Jesus was ‘amazed’ at their rejection of him, their lack of any faith in him.
At the recent International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, 70,000 people gathered in faith in Croke Park, home of the GAA, for the final Eucharist. Through the preceding week, more and more people came again to be ‘astonished’ at the mystery of the Eucharist, of Christ present among us, speaking with us. Gradually, they came to have astonished hearts again,- filled with delight in the wonder of its mystery, in the wonder of the event and events celebrated whenever we gather at the Lord’s table for the Breaking of Bread, for Communion in his Sacrifice. So many gathered, astonished and delighted, full of faith in what we ‘celebrate’, what we make such a song and dance about – ’Take and eat,- this is my body, given for you!’ ’Take and drink… Do this in memory of me!’
The title of a Pastoral Letter on the Eucharist, by Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick, some few years ago, was ‘Re-kindle the Amazement’ . Can we welcome Jesus to his home-town, - ours!- and be filled with astonishment AND faith, again. The mystery of faith!- it is indeed ‘astonishing’. Can we re-kindle the Amazement?
Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.
A Redemptorist Ireland Website