Doctor Zelantissimus (Doctor Most Zealous)...

St. Alphonsus Liguori’s

50 Maxims for Attaining 

Perfection in the Love of Jesus Christ

1. To desire ardently to increase in the love of Jesus Christ

2. To make acts of love toward Jesus Christ.

Immediately on waking, and before going to sleep,

make an act of love, seeking always to unite your own will

to the will of Jesus Christ.

3. Often to meditate on His Passion.

4. Always to ask Jesus Christ for His love.

5. To communicate often and many times in the day to make spiritual communions.

6. Often to visit the Most Holy Sacrament.

7. Every morning to receive from the hands of Jesus Christ himself your own cross.

8. To desire Paradise and Death in order to be able to love Jesus Christ perfectly and for all eternity.

9. Often to speak of the love of Jesus Christ.

10. To accept contradictions for the love of Jesus Christ.

+ + +

11. To rejoice in the happiness of God.

12. To do that which is most pleasing to Jesus Christ,

and not to refuse Him anything that is agreeable to Him.

13. To desire and to endeavor that all should love Jesus Christ.

14. To pray always for sinners and for the souls in Purgatory.

15. To drive from your heart every affection

that does not belong to Jesus Christ.

16. Always to have recourse to the Most Holy Mary,

that she may obtain for us the love of Jesus Christ.

17. To honor Mary in order to please Jesus Christ.

18. To seek to please Jesus Christ in all of your actions.

19. To offer yourself to Jesus Christ to suffer any pain for His love.

20. To be always determined to die rather than commit a willful venial sin.

 + + +

21. To suffer crosses patiently, saying, “Thus it pleases Jesus Christ.”

22. To renounce your own pleasures for the love of Jesus Christ.

23. To pray as much as possible.

24. To practice all the mortifications that obedience permits.

25. To do all your spiritual exercises as if it were for the last time.

26. To persevere in good works in the time of aridity.

27. Not to do nor yet to leave undone anything through human respect.

28. Not to complain in sickness.

29. To love solitude, to be able to converse alone with Jesus Christ.

30. To drive away melancholy.

 + + +

31. Often to recommend yourself to those persons who love Jesus Christ.

32. In temptation, to have recourse to Jesus crucified, and to Mary in her sorrows.

33. To trust entirely in the Passion of Jesus Christ.

34. After committing a fault, not to be discouraged, but to repent and resolve to amend.

35. To do good to those who do evil.

36. To speak well of all, and to excuse the intention when you cannot defend the action.

37. To help your neighbor as much as you can.

38. Neither to say nor to do anything that might vex him.

And if you have been wanting in charity, to ask his pardon and to speak kindly to him.

39. Always to speak with mildness and in a low tone.

40. To offer to Jesus Christ all the contempts and persecution that you meet with.

 + + +

41. To look upon Superiors as the representatives of Jesus Christ.

42. To obey without answering and without repugnance,

and not to seek your own satisfaction in anything.

43. To like the lowest employments.

44. To like the poorest things.

45. Not to speak either good or evil of yourself.

46. To humble yourself even towards inferiors.

47. Not to excuse yourself when you are reproved.

48. Not to defend yourself when found fault with.

49. To be silent when you are disquieted.

50. Always to renew your determination of becoming a saint, saying,

“My Jesus, I desire to be all Thine, and Thou must be all mine.”

Homily Preached at Br Dominic's Funeral...

Life of a Redemptorist Brother

Br. Dominic 1912 - 2003

The Funeral of Brother Dominic

Bishop Eton - 7th August 2003

Preacher: Very Rev Fr James Casey C.Ss.R.

In today's first reading St. Paul says “that when the tent that we live in on earth is folded up, there is a house built by God for us.” Well, Brother Dominic has, in these last few years been quietly and confidently folding up his tent after a long sojourn here on this earth – nearly ninety-one years of life, seventy-two of which were specifically dedicated to the service of the Lord as a Redemptorist Brother.

It is important to have a good start in life. Brother Dominic did – he was born in Glasgow! What inspired him to enter religious life and what attracted him to the Redemptorist Congregation we will never know. He was still in his teens when he made that decision; and in 1931, when most of us here were only potential people, he gave his life to the Lord - forever.

The religious life that Brother Dominic entered was very different from that of today. Then there was less talk of the risen Christ and more of the suffering Saviour. As a consequence, there was a great emphasis on suffering and sacrifice. It was almost a dogma of faith that anything in life that was unpleasant or even positively painful was good for the soul. That wasn't always true.

And, of course, blind obedience, an ambiguous phrase, was the order of the day. The word “dialogue” hadn't yet been invented. Men were appointed quite arbitrarily to one job or another, from one end of the country to another, or told: “There's a ship leaving Southampton for South Africa in ten days time – be on it, Brother.” In the 1930's, when Dominic was a young Brother, the word “stress” pertained principally to engineering and if any religious had mentioned the word “burnout”, it would have been presumed that he was talking about blast furnaces.

Life in the Congregation was hard for all candidates, both priests and brothers. But it was particularly hard for the brothers because there was, like it or not, a system of apartheid, a two-tier society, clerical and lay, Fathers and Brothers. If there was one thing the Brothers learned it was that they, like Jesus Christ, came to serve and not to be served. This the Brothers knew and accepted. But service can so easily be taken for granted, can so easily be exploited. When it is, quite naturally, resentment and bitterness can arise – but so too can the memory of Jesus’ words to his squabbling disciples: “Who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.” Is there a higher vocation? Years ago, one of the old Brothers, after calmly recalling some of the hurts of the past told me without rancour or regret: “Somebody has to follow the Christ who was despised.”

I say these things not to paint a pessimistic picture of the past, or of the priests for that matter, but to stress the depth of religious conviction that caused young men, like Brother Dominic, to leave home and a loving family, to follow closely the humble tradesman from Nazareth, and, despite the very real hardships, to do so to the end. Doing this would have been more difficult for Dominic than for some others because Dominic was highly intelligent, an independent minded man, talented and well-read. The Times crossword was to Dominic as the game of noughts and crosses is to me!

Only twice in my life did I live in the same community as Dominic. The first time was in Sunderland about twenty years ago. Then he was a portly figure; he was, in the words of the hymn, “serene and certain in his ways.” I never saw Dominic rush; he knew who he was and what he had to do and he did it.

Most of Dominic's working life in the Congregation, both in this country and South Africa, was spent in the heat of the kitchen as a cook. However, at Sunderland, he was the porter. As such, no one was more approachable. Everyone who came to our door, and they were legion, was greeted with a quiet smiling civility. Like God, he knew everyone by name, and again like God, he knew what they wanted before they ever asked. The happy memory of Dominic's kindliness lives on in Sunderland, where today the parish is celebrating a Requiem Mass in his memory.

As Porter, Dominic received everyone with great courtesy, including and perhaps even especially the men of the road, most of whose mothers were at the point of death in Lerwick in the Shetlands or perhaps it was Land's End. They needed the train fare if ever they were to receive a final maternal blessing. Dominic, it seems to me, had a positive affection for these mendacious mendicants. He never interrupted their stories but listened patiently to the end. In a kindly way, he made it clear that he didn't believe a word they said, but dipping deep into his habit pocket, where rattled around the pound coins, he rewarded each one, I'm sure, according to literary merit.

Dominic was, by and large, a quiet man, comfortable with silence. I never heard him criticise or condemn any member of the community. He was, however, an assiduous observer of human nature and the occasional observation did escape him. Of one priest in the community at the time, who tended to begin Mass rather abruptly, and who shall remain anony-mous, he drolly remarked: “Harry is the only priest I've ever known who could make the greeting, “The Lord be with you,” sound offensive”.

On another occasion, when Fr. Shepherd, as Provincial, came to visit the community at Sunderland with his two consultors, one of whom was an ex-provincial and, in secular terms, a bit of an operator, Dominic announced their arrival in the following manner: “The Shepherd has arrived with his crook and his staff.”

Dominic's coming to Bishop Eton was occasioned by a cruel incident in Sunderland. When, yet once more, he opened the door to see how he could serve God's people, he was brutally attacked, knocked to the ground, beaten and robbed. I believe it was deep disappointment, a sadness that people could behave in such a way, rather than the fear of being attacked again, that compelled him to leave the place he loved – to leave the place where he was so greatly loved.

Dominic's last years here in retirement were, as I said, his folding up of his tent, albeit slowly and very neatly. He was thinking more and more of the house built by God for us, and he was genuinely look-ing forward to going there. He knew, too, with St. Paul, “that to live in the body is to be exiled from the Lord.” He really did want to go home. His room, where he spent so much time alone became his departure lounge where he waited for the call. His worldly possessions were few – so he only had hand luggage. From time to time, in the recent past, we thought he was going to leave us, but on more than one occasion his flight was cancelled.

However, Dominic did finally leave us, and he’s home now in the bosom of the Father. To get there, he travelled a long and often hard road, but always in the company of the gentle and humble Christ. On his journey, he was sustained by prayer and a tremendous devotion to the Holy Mass, into which he knew were incor-porated the sacrifices of his own long life. When last Thursday the Lord said to Dominic, weighed down as he was by years and weakened by ill health, “Come to me all you who labour and are over-burdened and I will give you rest.”

Dominic happily dropped everything and went. May he rest in peace.

Fr. J. Casey C.Ss.R

A Jubilarian Preaches...

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.

Read more: A Jubilarian Preaches

Homily for Fr Charles Shepherd RIP...

CHARLIE SHEPHERD 1914 – 2006

 Preached by Very Rev. Fr James Casey C.Ss.R.

Rector of Bishop Eton Community

Let me begin with a much-abbreviated account of the genealogy of the good Shepherd – hereafter to be referred to as Charlie. Eli was the Father of Seth and Seth was the Father of Charles and Charles was the Father Charles Shepherd, who first came here to Bishop Eton as a boy of thirteen, seventy-nine years ago and is only now leaving. The year he first came was 1927.

The wonderful biblical names of Charlie’s father and grandfather, Seth and Eli, are explained by the fact that the Shepherd family belonged to the primitive Methodist tradition. Charlie’s father, a Bradford man, was working in Dublin when he met and fell in love with Margaret Cleary. Seth and Margaret married, but not before Seth had taken instructions and was received into the Church.  Charlie was the fifth and last child of that union. The last surviving child of that same union is Charlie’s big brother, Paddy, who is here with us today. The Shepherd family returned to Bradford from Dublin in 1915 when Charlie was not yet one year old.

Charlie started his epic voyage in the good ship C.Ss.R. in 1927 when he entered what we called the Juvenate and others called the minor seminary. He started his novitiate in Perth in July 1932 and made his first profession the following year, the day after which, to quote Charlie, he and the other newly professed were entrained for Hawkstone to complete their higher studies. Charlie was ordained priest at Easter 1939. He was then what he wanted to be - a priest, but not just any kind of priest; he was a Redemptorist priest and come hell or high water he would remain one.

Charlie was, of course, a man of his time; and in his time, time stood still, especially in the Church. Peter’s bark had set its course and was steaming slowly but surely to the Promised Land; its crew was highly disciplined; orders handed down from the top were promptly obeyed, the rum ration was regular and in those days few jumped ship. There were, from time to time, minor squalls, but with all hands on deck and the captain calling, “Heave ho me hearties”, there was never panic among the crew or the passengers.

In those days, Charlie, with more or less everyone else, believed in and was more than comfortable with discipline and good order. He not only believed it, he lived it. The very day he completed his higher studies, he was informed by the Provincial Superior that he was to return to the junior seminary in Bishop Eton to teach – wait for it - to teach Greek and geography. He had a month to prepare. Oh, the graces that God granted to young men in those days! Eight years later in the summer of 1947, he was appointed head of the same junior seminary until it was transferred to Birmingham three years later. Having just closed one junior seminary in England, Charlie was told in March 1951 to go to South Africa and open a new one in Pretoria. This he did. In some notes I found in his room, he writes; “This was very much against the grain,” but adds that, “it might be worth while to remark that obedience can work wonders, and that if one tries to accept what seems to be very hard, it is amazing how happy things turn out to be.” However, his South African sojourn lasted but three years. In 1954, aged forty, he was told to return to England to fill the role of novice master and in this post he lived and reigned for the next ten years.

It was as novice master that most of the Redemptorist priests and brothers here got to know Charlie Shepherd. Although only forty years of age, his hair was already white and his figure was filling out, so to speak. He was benign. His tone was sonorous and his gate sedate. He was never seen to hurry. He sighed a lot. He produced and delivered pious conferences by the ream, usually written in his neat spidery handwriting on scraps of paper other people would have discarded. His emphasis was Alphonsian: he spoke of the wonder of the Incarnation – God becoming not only man, but baby; the reality of the passion of Christ; and then Christ’s determination to remain with us in the Blessed Sacrament. And then, of course, he spoke always of the necessity of prayer.

As Charlie scrutinised his novices, so his novices scrutinised Charlie. His virtues were obvious, but what were his vices? Well chocolate, for example, to which his hands were somehow magnetically drawn. There is even now, as I speak, a symbolic half-eaten bar of Cadbury’s fruit and nut secreted in a wardrobe in his room. And then, of course, there were cream cakes. From time to time, as a break from his duties as novice master, he would depart to conduct a nun’s retreat. You know, he had a nose for the convents that had the best pastry cooks. And on his return, his full figure was always noticeably fuller. But all this took place in the years B.C., that is, before cholesterol.

I have already said that Charlie was determined to be faithful to his vocation come hell or high water. Well hell and high water were fast approaching. He was, in 1964, appointed Rector of the House of Studies. He had to deal with forty-five students, and even some of the staff, who were suffering from Vatican II fever. There was clamour for change, open divergences among the staff and students about the curriculum, about religious observance and about most other things besides. Then there were the losses – the departure of many students and priests. All of which saddened and mystified Charlie. “It was the hardest assignment of my Redemptorist life,” he sighed. But was it?

Charlie’s next appointment in 1969 was as Provincial Superior. Commenting on this honour conferred on him, he wrote simply: “Out of the frying pan into the fire.” Now resting on his well-padded shoulders were the problems of the entire Province – too many and varied to be listed here. By then, I’m sure, Charlie’s sighing had reached furnace-like ferocity. I wonder how many times he read, with hope in his heart, these words from today’s gospel: “Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.”

Rest did eventually come when Charlie returned to Bishop Eton in 1978 as an ordinary member of the community, free to preach in church, especially at the Novena to Our Lady, to give the occasional mission or nun’s retreat. He was especially appreciative of community; of the prayers said in common, of the meals shared with people who were more or less his contemporaries in thought, word and deed. Despite his ascetical aspirations, he enjoyed feast days. When the good food was being served and the wine was being gurgled into glasses, you could almost hear his Methodist and Irish Catholic genes battling it out. Even as recently as last Christmas, he was heard to enquire at the end of a rather sumptuous meal: “You don’t have any Drambuie, do you?”

Charlie’s last illness lasted about ten weeks. He had suffered a stroke and as a result he was rendered immobile; in addition, he could eat no solid food, but worse of all he could not speak. But there was one word – only one word - he could say. And on our every visit to the hospital or to St.Joseph’s Home in Manchester where he died that word was plaintively repeated. That word was, “home”. The Church was his home. The worldwide Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, with all its history and traditions, was his home. The local community here in Bishop Eton was his home. He’s home now – here with us and in his heavenly home. He’ll never sigh again!  

These last words are Charlie’s:

“I thank God for my vocation, for my life as a Redemptorist, for the great happiness I’ve had in and with my confreres; and for the work of all kinds that the God has let me do. Perhaps I should rather say the work that he has done through me, even if sometimes my share has not been what it could and should have been. What more can I say!”

Blessed Peter Donders C.Ss.R.... 

On the 14th of January we celebrate his memory. 

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.

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.

Read more: Bl Peter Donders C.Ss.R.

An offering from Fr. Denis McBride C.Ss.R.

Litany of St Alphonsus

We invite you to pray the following Litany of St Alphonsus...

Nobleman

who laid your sword at the feet of Our Lady of Ransom as a sign of your conversion….. 
pray for us!

Lawyer

whose mastery of civil and canon law foreshadowed your advocacy of those condemned by Jansenism…. pray for us!

Hospital Minister

to the incurably ill, who learned compassion in service to others…. pray for us!

Preacher of Missions

who spread God’s tender love through street preaching and through the creation of an association of chapel storefronts….. pray for us!

Practical Organizer

who used your creative energy to spread the gospel, to feed the hungry, to found the Redemptorists, and to shepherd a diocese….. pray for us!

Chaplain

to the condemned on their last journey….. pray for us!

Artist

who used your gifts of imagination and painting to express your tenderest emotions toward Jesus Christ and His mother….. pray for us!

Musician

whose religious lyrics and melodies fill the households of Italy to this day….. pray for us!

Poet

whose affective verse and tender prayer touches the deepest emotions in people’s hearts….. pray for us!

Man of Letters

whose pamphlets and books reveal in simple language the good news of God’s redeeming love….. pray for us!

Mystic

who found God to be father, mother, sister, brother, lover, and dearest friend…. pray for us!

Spiritual Director

who gently encouraged sinners to repentance and prayer, and who deeply challenged good people to become saints…. pray for us!

Founder

of Redemptorist missionaries whose spirit lives in generations of Redemptorists, Redemptoristines, Immaculate Heart of Mary Congregations,and Missionaries of the Most Holy Redeemer….. pray for us!

Friend of the Poor

who shared all you had while living in need yourself…. pray for us!

Moral Theologian

whose principles have ensured freedom of conscience for those unjustly burdened by rigorism….. pray for us!

Superior General

who served your brothers on good days and bad….. pray for us!

Bishop

who saw to the formation and education of priests and who took time to listen to the people of your diocese….. pray for us!

Saint

filled with the Spirit of God in spite of human weaknesses…. pray for us!

Doctor of the Church

who teaches us how to pray, to serve, to forgive, to love…. pray for us!

AMEN.

Sister Margaret M. O’Shea IHM

The Redemptorist Virtue for the Month of August is...

Virtue: Humilty of Heart

Patron: St. Bartholomew

Text: Learn of Me because I am meek and humble of heart. Mt. 11:29

Christian tradition teaches that one of the most important elements of humility is the ability to accept that we are creatures of God, that God is the source of our talents and gifts.

Humility does not demand that we deny our gifts and talents but rather that we acknowledge from where they come.

Alphonsus says,

"He who loves God is not deceived by his own qualities because he knows that whatever he possesses is a gift of God, that without God he possesses only nothingness."

During August you might examine your life in light of these questions:

Do I really acknowledge my true relationship with God as Creator and Giver of all gifts?

Does this have a real impact on my behavior and on my relationship with others?

Thanks to www.redemptorists.com 

The Redemptorist Virtue for the Month of July is...

Virtue: Obedience

Patron: St Philip

Text: "You are my friends, if you do things that I command you." Jn 15:14

Obedience is the moral virtue that inclines Christians to submit to the law of God in all its manifestations.

God alone is the ultimate source of all law.

Obedience is a positive response not only to civil and ecclesiastical decrees but to the authority of God himself?

Alphonsus points out that our obedience to human authority can be less than complete (if that authority opposes the authority of God), but our obedience to God must be complete and absolute.

Adults—who often think of obedience as primarily a child 's virtue— should carefully reflect on the specific ways in which this virtue can be manifested in the many components of their lives: family, job, neighbourhood, nation.

Alphonsus believed that many difficulties of obedience are rooted in false pride. Ask yourself if this is true in your life.

Thanks www.redemptorists.com