Entire homily of Superior General,November 2...

(Rome)
HOMILY OF THE P. ROGERIO GOMES CSsR

FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE DEPARTED FAITHFUL

Dear Brothers, dear Brothers and Sisters present at this celebration,

Yesterday we celebrated the solemnity of all the saints—that is, the men and women who, like all of us, throughout their personal history, have guided their lives by the ways of God and love of others. They are lights that guide us on our personal and community path to holiness, never forgetting our humanity. The saints were men and women who allowed the fragments of their fragility and their virtues to be assembled with the divine cement to form a beautiful work of art, the mosaic of holiness. The beauty and splendor of God show that the first path to holiness is consciousness of our fragments, without considering us useless on this earth. Our fragments can always be works of art of profound beauty.

In continuation of yesterday's celebration, today we celebrate the faithful departed.. The experience of finality is part of everything that exists, except God. We humanly define this experience as death. The threshold between life and death is very thin. We live with death every day and forget that it makes us live: we feed on beings, animals and plants, that are "dead". We live every day with death: from natural death to that caused by man himself to his brothers and sisters: death caused by disease, war, famine, migration, abortion, euthanasia, injustice he. In the face of death, our experience may be of pain, of abandonment, or of profound indifference. Death is the shadow that accompanies us every day, which we fear because we don’t know it and because it is, humanly speaking, our experience of nothingness. This takes on new meaning through faith, the light that shows us something beyond the darkness of the grave.

As we listen to today's Gospel (Mt 25,31-46), we can ask ourselves: What does this have to do with celebrating the faithful who are dead? Should we not talk of the resurrection more than those who practiced righteousness and those who did not? Leaving aside the beauty and depth of the texts that tell us about the resurrection, life, and eternity, Matthew's text touches on something fundamental. Experiencing the Kingdom of God goes through history and the personal relationships we have with our neighbor and our love for Him. "All that they did for one of these younger brothers of mine, they did for me" (Mt 25,40). Therefore, resurrection is when we present ourselves naked before the Lord of Time and History and bring Him only our hands full of the good we have done in this world. It is when we totally agree with God and live in Him alone. He is our eternal life! As Job reminds us: “I know that my redeemer lives and that, at the end, he will rise from the dust!” After this skin of mine is plucked off without my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him, my eyes will behold him, and no one else” (Job 19, 25-27).

Read more: Entire Homily of Superior General CSsR, November 2, 2022

Our Brother, the New Doctor...

Doctor of Philosophy

in Educational Psychology

Brother Tendai Lemeyu CSsR

Brother, Doctor, Tendai Lemeyu CSsR, Makorokoto! 

Novices clothed in the CSsR Habit - Oct 2022...

Fr Gideon Sidinga CSsR, the Novice Master,

Br Benjamin Posvo CSsR and our six novices

making their Noviciate in Tafare, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Clothed in the Redemptorist Habit

on the Feast of St Gerard Majella CSsR, 16th October.

Congratulations and we do promise you our prayers.

Pray for us! 

Provincial Letter October 2022...

Read the letter...

Pope Francis entering the Clementine Hall in the Vatican

Fr Richard Reid CSsR, our Provincial meeting the Holy Father

Br Benjamin Posvo CSsR, the Superior of the Region of Zimbabwe and

Fr Richard Reid CSsR the Provincial Superior of London in St Peter's Sq, Vatican City.

Br Michael Duxbury CSsR, London Province, representing the Brothers of Europe, about to the meet the Holy Father.

The 26th CSsR General Chapter with our Holy Father, Pope Francis

Our Provincial with Fr Dan Baragry, the Provincial of Dublin 

Fr General, Rogerio Gomes CSsR and Fr Provincial, Richard Reid CSsR

 Fr General, Rogerio Gomes CSsR sends a message...

On this day I want to remember the lives of all confreres who have been consumed for the sake of redemption (dies impedere pro redemptis) and who died from natural causes, from the cross of sickness or who gave their lives for the faith, like our martyrs.

Through the communion of saints, they remain alive with us because of their memories of redemption and what they did during their time on earth. 

They were lives of meaning and gave meaning to many other lives through the preaching of the Gospel, hearing confessions, the countless missionary works carried out, the charity towards the poor. 

They understood that everything that is done for one of the little ones is done for the Lord. 

Thank you to them for so much life given and until the day we meet in the Lord! 

Besides them, I also remember 
our dear departed lay faithful associated with our mission, 
our Oblates, 
the Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer 
and the Religious Congregations 
that are part of our Redemptorist Family.

26th General Chapter of Redemptorists – Summary...

The solemn Mass with the rite of handing out the missionary crosses, presided over by Father Rogério Gomes CSsR., the new Superior General, celebrated in the Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Rome on October 6, was the final moment of the XXVI General Chapter, which took place from September 11 to October 6 in Ciampino, near Rome.

The General Chapter welcomed the reports of the past six years from the Superior General and the Bursar and listened to the reports of the Conference Coordinators representing all the Provinces, Vice-Provinces and Missions of the respective continents. The Capitulars discussed the current situation of the Redemptorist Congregation in the world and analysed the essential elements of its identity and mission. 

In the third week of proceedings, the Chapter elected a new General Government – Fr. Rogerio Gomes was elected Superior General. The following confreres were elected General Consultors: Fr. Zdzislaw Francois Stanula CSsR.(Vicar General), Fr. Nikolas Ayouba CSsR., Fr. Jairo Diaz CSsR., Br. Larry Lujan CSsR., Fr. Ivel Mendanha CSsR. and Fr. Paul Vinh CSsR. 

Read more: 26th General Chapter of Redemptorists – Summary...

Improvised words by the Holy Father during the Audience...

This morning, Saturday 1 October 2022, in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received the participants in the XXVI General Chapter in the audience.

After the words of the newly elected Superior General, Father Rogério Gomes presented to the Holy Father some of the conclusions of the reflections and the commitment of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer for the next 6 years, the Holy Father addressed the St. Alphonsus’ spiritual sons with a message for the occasion.

Improvised words in Spanish by the Holy Father during the Audience:

"I would like to say a few more words spontaneously.

To go on mission, to go out on mission is the missionary dimension, which you mentioned in your speech. I was impressed by your phrase: Lasciare le zone di confort and go on mission. I wonder what are the comfort zones that a Congregation has, that a province has, a community has, and that each one of us has? Ask yourselves that question because it was said that each one accommodates the vows as he wants. And then, he can practice poverty with a bank account, chastity with a companion, and obedience by dialoguing and deciding what he wants. These are very contorted forms. However, the one that always produces deformation in the three vows is comfort. That is where the evil comes in, by trying to be comfortable, to be comfortable, to live a bourgeois life, without going out and going out on mission, and going out on mission, and going out on mission. So each one of us should analyze our temptation of comfort. We all have that temptation. We all have that temptation.

Read more: Improvised words by the Holy Father during the Audience...

Redemptorists are Courageous Missionaries...

The New CSsR Vicar General...

Congratulations Fr Stanula CSsR