We do our utmost to help - CSsR Ukrainian Father...

Interview in the magazine “Icono” (Spain) with Fr Taras Kchik, a 36-year-old Ukrainian Redemptorist. For the past few years, he has been a formator of Ukrainian students in Lviv and now lives in the Redemptorist community of Ivano-Frankivsk in the southeast of the country.

“Every day begins with the stress of finding out which city was hit during the night”, Fr Taras Kchik, CSsR.

How has your daily situation changed since this siege began?

This conflict has had a significant impact on our daily lives. Most of our houses have had to change how they work, creating many social structures and services that fail or push them beyond their limits. We have been doing our utmost to help those relying on us.

Read more: We do our utmost to help - CSsR Ukrainian Father...

RP Redemptorist Publications...

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RP Redemptorist Publications have a new YouTube Channel due to their Channel being "stolen" - listen to the short story and find out how to subscribe again.

Homily preached at Fr Gabriel Maguire CSsR funeral...

Preacher, Rt Rev Ralph Heskett CSsR, Bishop of Hallam

As you might imagine the readings today are full of hope and promise as they look to a future life. The purpose for the writer of the Book of Wisdom is to address some of the difficult issues of the day and offer his readers hope.  In particular, he struggles with the question: How is it that the wicked seem to prosper and the just suffer?  His conclusion is that although the just seem to have died they are really alive with God. They have pleased God, so God has loved them, They have been taken up and “grace and mercy await the chosen of the Lord.” 

Jesus also offers his listeners hope filled words, too.  He promises that he will never drive away those given to him by the Father because he only does the Father’s will.  He mentions two things as the Father’s Will, firstly, that “I should not lose anything of what the Father gave to me” and second, ‘that I should raise it up on the last day.’ In these words, Jesus reveals to us the Father’s love and his own wish to draw us to share in his relationship with the Father and for ever.

It is the hope expressed in today’s readings that gathers us around Gabby in prayer for the last time today. They express his hope, too, -a hope he shared with others – often on an occasion such as this.  Today we pray that it will be for  Gabby a hope fulfilled and a promised kept and that with St Paul, he now possesses the crown of righteousness reserved for him.

Gabby’s early years were spent in the family home in Swanlinbar County Cavan along with his parents and siblings, Ann, Des, Benedict and Gerard.

Read more: Homily preached at Fr Gabriel Maguire CSsR's funeral...

Week Five of Fr Denis CSsR Lenten Retreat...

Sincere thanks to Fr Denis CSsR and his co-workers at RP Redemptorist Publications

Week Four of Fr Denis CSsR Lenten Retreat...

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Sincere thanks to Fr Denis CSsR and all his co-workers at RP Redemptorist Publications 

Upcoming Parish Mission in Coatbridge

Please click on the image to download the parish mission flyer with details of the mission itself.

Lent Retreat Week 3 On the mountain...

Thanks to Fr Denis McBride CSsR and all at Redemptorist Publications

Redemptorist confreres the midst of persecution in Madrid...1936

 

On July 19, 1936, the bombing of the Mountain Barracks began; at 3 1⁄2 in the morning, considering the situation very serious, I dressed quickly and with the greatest stealth I climbed the tower from where I could observe the evolution of the airplanes and the smoke produced by the destructive bombs.

From that moment on, we were already in the middle of a revolution for me. In fact, after 3 days, after taking the measures that the superiors deemed appropriate regarding the people and things in the house, we left the convent. I said the last mass, which I ended between sobs and tears just like the attendees. As there was a ciborium full of sacred forms and I could not consume them all, since they were more than 500, I warned them of the danger in which we were of being desecrated the Ssmo. St. and I exhorted them to behave like martyrs in persecutions; I gave the sacred communion that for the last time would be distributed in our Sanctuary of P.S. They would draw strength to withstand all the tests no matter how difficult they were. When saying "the sacred communion that would last be distributed..." they burst into sobs and weeping so loud that they moved me; and without being able to remedy it I had to continue in tears, exorting them to conformity with the will of God and constancy in prayer to our mother of the P.S. After the Mass, I said goodbye to the P.S. saying for the last time to the virgin "My mother, it is yours; keep it and help me and mine. Goodbye."

A fact of utmost importance and great feeling for us took place these days of August 1936, and was the death of D. Linen See Murgia, our friend. A few days before his death I went to his house and confessed to everyone, but soon I received the news of the crime as follows: "The doorman denounced everything he knew, which is in the benefit and glory of the deceased; knowing that he was a priest, that he had had friars in his house... one afternoon he went up to the floor in the company of several militiamen and knocked on the door; but when he asked who he was, he replied: "There will be a little lord, that it is me," and behind him passed several wretches who urged him to follow them, because they had to ask him some questions in Fine Arts, about some complaints received." As Da Trinidad wanted to oppose, he was stopped by saying, "Reassured, Madam, once the interrogation is over we will return him home." What happened; that they found him next to the wall of the cemetery viciously murdered. He was recognized by an uncle of his, whose nephew was with me in prison, who told me these and other details.

Read more: Redemptorist confreres in the midst of persecution in Madrid...