Redemptorist Spirituality
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Let us consider some fundamental elements of
Redemptorist spirituality as presented by our Constitutions and
Statutes. These and other elements are developed in other sections
of the site.
Redemptorist spirituality is Christian
spirituality. There has been some discussion as to whether there is
something we can truly call Redemptorist spirituality. While
Redemptorist spirituality is Christian spirituality, it has a
specific Redemptorist character. However, we cannot think of
it in terms of an explicit and coherent theological system, such as
the Franciscan, Carmelite, etc.
An image used by Fr. Raponi, C.Ss.R. is helpful
here. Redemptorist spirituality is like a river. No two rivers are
exactly alike. The riverbed of Redemptorist spirituality is
established by St. Alphonsus at the origins of the Congregation. He
gives it shape, consistency and direction. Many waters flow into it
and continue to do so into our own days. It is dynamic,
incorporating diverse persons, cultures and history into its flow.
Perceived as such, then, it is clear that Alphonsian spirituality is
not the same as Redemptorist spirituality.
When our present Constitutions and Statutes were
being written, a commission, established to write a manual for
Redemptorist spirituality, was also at work. When the Constitutions
and Statutes were finally written, the chapter members that approved
the document realized that they were in themselves the manual for
our spirituality. The work of the commission was brought to an end.
The Constitutions and Statutes give us Christian spirituality as
lived according to the Congregation’s charism and tradition.
From the very beginning, in Constitution 1, it is
established that the Redemptorist lives the traditional call to
holiness in the proclamation of the Good News to the poor.
The term Vita Apostolica is used to express the fact that the
following of Jesus is realized in proclaiming the kingdom of God. In
their way of life and work Redemptorists proclaim the will of the
Father as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. Contemplation and action do
not coexist separately in Redemptorist spirituality. It is not a
question of balancing the ends of a seesaw. They come together in a
lifestyle for the sake of the kingdom.
Constitution 5, in its first paragraph, spells
out further the Redemptorist charism and spirituality: preference
for situations where there is pastoral neglect, that is, for
evangelization in the strict sense together with the option in favor
of the poor is the very reason why the Congregation exists in the
Church, and is the badge of its fidelity to the vocation it has
received. This is basically what the Gospels say about Jesus’
own mission.
Redemptorists are not to preach themselves or
their own petty projects but are to be servants among people of
the Gospel (Constitution 6), realizing that they are seeking
the kingdom of God (Constitution 71). By profession
Redemptorists are incorporated in a particular way into the
mission of Christ as ministers of the Gospel, under the direction of
the Holy Spirit (Constitution 47). They continue the work of the
first missionary. Their mission and identity are found in that of
Jesus himself.
The mystical drive of Redemptorist missionary
spirituality, its prophetic dynamism, is described in Constitution
24. Contemplation is cultivated so as to share truly in the love
of the Son for his Father and for people. In doing this,
Redemptorists are enabled to see God in the people and in the
events of everyday life. They will see his plan of salvation in its
true light, and be able to distinguish between what is real and what
is illusory (Constitution 24).
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