Title Page

 

Uniformity
with
God’s Will

(Annotated)

By

St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Author)

Prof John de Maison, ESQ (Senior Editor)

 

Copyright ©Northern Lux Ltd

 

Annotations in this Special Study Edition

+ Biography of St. Alphonsus

+Treatise on the Redemptorists

+Essay on our Moral Crisis

+Book Club Questions

Biography of St. Alphonsus Liguori

The key facts about St. Alphonsus Liguori are as follows: He was born on the 27th September 1696 and took his Doctoral degree in 1713, clearly at a young age. He then went on, he was invited to the bar and became a lawyer.

That said, Liguori was known to have an intensely religious temperament, even though it wasn’t until 1726 that he was ordained to the priesthood, having entered the novitiate in the Congregation of Missions in the year 1723. His father, Don Joseph, was very much against his son receiving Holy Orders, for he’d spent many years filling young Liguori’s head with ambitions for a worldly future, for which the boy as on track but were irrevocably erased by priestly act of worldly renunciation.

In 1732 Liguori established the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, whose focus was to instruct of the countryside’s poor folk. Their 1st Mission house was located in Scala, which is eight miles from old Salerno. But at some near point afterward (which history doesn’t record) the House’s headquarters were moved to Ciorani. In 1743 the HQ was again moved to Nocera dei Pagani, and even to this day it is the Order’s Mother House.

Despite the difficulties Alphonsus faced in starting his Order he was a tremendous success.

One particularly moving story involves an event known as the “Regolamento.” It was a time when Alphonsus who at the time was an elderly 83 years of age. To the Saint his Order (in terms of affection) was second only to God but was under threat, for the royalty of the time threatened to issue an edict of illegality: his Congregation was weakened but not destroyed and continued despite persecution. Liguori’s personal will alone sustained he and the Fathers during the condemnation, and, just before his passing to his Reward in Heaven on the 1st of August 1787 in the Nocera dei Pagani, the Saint was blessed to witness the Congregation absolutely re-established.

By appearance, Alphonus was mid height, average, though it’s said his head was overly large and his bright complexion conveyed honesty. He had a broad forehead, twinkling slightly blue eyes and hooked nose, which sat above a tiny bow mouth, pleasant and most often with a smile. His hair was black and his naturally thick beard he tended to cut back with scissors because he wouldn’t shave. He was short sighted and had a pair of spectacles he took off when preaching or politely when in the presence of ladies. He was adaptable of persona, kindly to the average folk and speaking simple words to the uneducated, for he took St. Paul’s example of adapting seriously such that the Gospel be preached in the language people understood, not too high-brow. In short, Liguori adapted his manner to all or any to draw souls to Christ. He was forever in a state of quite reflection, recollected observers described. Though he wasn’t an enemy of the easy life, it wasn’t for him. In fact he took on extra austerities despite being more kind and compassionate with others weaknesses.

A reputation he developed: to the locals he came to resemble St. Francis in a love for animals. One story has that “one of the brothers who had thrown a cat out of the window was dealt with harshly and lost the privilege of fruit for 8 as penalty for such obvious cruelty to God’s creatures, for all are His servants including the beasts of the earth.” Another story had the Saint receive 2 doves from his students as a gift, and eventually the doves became so endeared to him that they would rest upon his shoulders and Liguori would feed them from his hand at mealtime. After the meal the Saint would say kindly, “Now away with you,” so the birds flew away to their cage. Unlike St. Francis, Alphonsus did become a bishop and moral theologian, having been credited with the discipline of casuistry which is used in the confessionals to this day. He composed several systematic theology works through his writing tried to thwart the atheistic materialist indulgences of as he called him the “infidel writer Voltaire.”

Interestingly, at one time there was a rumour going around that that Voltaire had been “born again” in Christ and that Alphonsus had written in kind to congratulate. However there is no evidence known to this writer if such an event ever took place.

The Redemptorists or the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer

The term Redemptorist is shorthand for members of the Congregation of the most Holy Redeemer, which isn’t the same order as the “Redemptionists” who are members of the Order for the Redemption of Captives. However it's equivalents are generally employed in common English. For instance, in Italy the Redemptorists are ordinarily known as Liguorini, and in so doing receive the name of their founder, somewhat like members of the Order of Preachers who are generally known as Dominicans, and likewise the Friars Minor are themselves known as Franciscans.

Members of the Congregation sign their name with C.SS.R., which identifies them as part of the Institute.

Redemptorists don't belong to an Order within the strict canonical sense of the term, and thus they're not monks or friars, nor are their homes monasteries per se. They're a spiritual order, although not in solemn vows, and their residences are in a sense spiritual homes. Collegium is the Latin term that designates their homes. That said, on account of the “Scholastic” use of that word in English, “Collegium” becomes like a house-name when applied to a community of spiritual-related clergymen.

The original plan of Founder, St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, was to assemble a body of clergymen in a way that they could most easily to follow the life and example of the priest’s highest model of right living—Jesus Christ our Lord. The Collegium would be, for all external purposes, a place to develop that likeness to Christ, where one ought to go out into the world only to devote oneself to the preaching of the Gospel to the poor, bearing ever in mind aware the words of Our Redeemer that “The poor have the Gospel preached to them.”

In the Holy Founder’s mind, however, the scope of his grand project suggests that he had in mind a kind of restricted apostolate. By manner of preference, at least, the Saint and his companions often took to travelling and preaching in rural districts, as remote as possible, and there they would instruct and exhort the country-folk, people who were often lacking the extra aid provided by Church agencies who invested much resource into the larger towns and cities. To Alphonsus, this challenge was seen as a positive opportunity rather than as a negative obstacle. However, there were severe limitations too. Nonetheless, apostolic missions and didactic courses of spiritual instruction and preaching took up most of the Congregation’s resources. So they devoted themselves to helping locals and so increased the reputation of the Institute, by preaching, administering the Sacraments, and providing alternative ecclesiastical services. As policy, the Congregation formally rejected offers for roles that could the priests from the direct work of the missions, roles such as the government employ, work in seminaries or faculties, the giving of Retreats to nuns, as well, as all care of them, the holding of parishes, and therefore the preaching of set courses of season sermons. Of these things distractions, the brethren were careful not to let other pursuits distract from their core purpose to help country folk.

To Alphonsus, the Congregation was intended to be a grand Mission and would wholly reform the religious life of a place wherever the brothers set up a mission house, and St Alphonsus personally spared no effort making sure his vision would become reality. Nobody was more aware that if he succeeded he’d do so only by a special grant of Divine Grace, but he wasn’t on his own. He knew

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Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.07.2013
ISBN: 978-3-7309-3539-2

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