Novices receive the CSsR Habit...

The Noviciate taking place in Canada has two of our novices from London - Br Royston Price and Br Mike Taylor - they recently were clothed in the Redemptorist habit. We offer our congratulations to all the brothers who were clothed with the habit at this recent ceremony, and we promise our prayers for their future formation.

Br Royston wrote the following piece,

"On the afternoon of Friday 20th of May, the eight novices in the Redemptorist Novitiate Community in Toronto were clothed in the habit of St Alphonsus. The novices, from the Denver, Baltimore, Dublin and London provinces, have been formed in the spirit of the congregation for the previous ten months, and being presented with the habit is an important milestone on the road to becoming professed members of the Redemptorists. 

Most of the day was spent in silent retreat, and aided by a conference given by Fr Ray Douziech,   the Novice Master, we looked at what it means to be a Redemptorist, and how the habit is an outward symbol of the new identity taken on by those journeying along this path. 

As the  London Provincial Statutes say, "The habit should be normally worn for Redemptorist work, and for the more formal occasions at home", highlighting two sides of that new identity being put on, two sides of that Redemptorist life: firstly, the apostolate, the particular mission that the confrere is entrusted with, and second the community life that sustains and supports the Redemptorist for that momentous task which God has entrusted us with: proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to the poor and most abandoned.  While reception of the habit is, God willing, a step towards first vows in the summer, the public identity that it proclaims is nothing without interior conversion and growth, so I ask the readers of this small article to pray for the current novices and their formators, and to pray that more young men will step forward to answer the call to follow Christ our Most Holy Redeemer."