Amplifying Our Shared Charismin the Spirit of St. Alphonsus

The OSP IHM call to amplify the charism in these times evokes rich memories of our inter-congregational ties and a pervasive sense of gratitude for Alphonsian spirituality and the timeless quality of our shared charism. Together, we are carriers of spiritual DNA, a dynamic gift of the Spirit that animates both our identity as women religious and our deep collective and individual stories.

In religious life circles, we speak often of the charism of our congregations. We associate Dominicans with truth and good preaching, Franciscans with peace and evangelical living, Benedictines with community, Jesuits with contemplation and action, and so on. All of these charisms are gifts of the Spirit to the Church and to the world. But here, I would like to focus on the inspiration that inflamed the heart of Alphonsus Liguori because it is his legacy that enlivens the Redemptorist and IHM families. I also would like to share some of my personal story in coming to know Alphonsus in hopes that some of you may be encouraged to tell of your own journeys.

The spirituality and example of Alphonsus have much to offer to the hurting world of today. Alphonsus was an extraordinarily gifted, insightful and compassionate person. He had a fine mind and a heart made large by loving. All that he was and all that he did flowed from his own deep and intimate experience of a caring and approachable God of love and “loveliness.” His whole being focused on proclaiming the lavishness of God’s love and on uniting his love for Jesus the Redeemer with love for the poor. The life of Alphonsus has been characterized as an “exodus to the poor,” an exodus that reached a peak moment of awareness in 1730 in the mountain village of Scala.

In the midst of complex social, political and religious issues, Alphonsus was able to grasp the needs and desires of the spiritually abandoned. He had an exquisite sensitivity to the love of God active and alive in the hearts of the poor and the neglected and was a persistent voice for them. He saw that existing church structures and spirituality were not touching them, and with considerable creativity and imagination he developed new ways to reach out and evangelize. As a young priest it was clear that his vision of the Church led him to those dismissed as worthless by others, to the street people of Naples, to prisoners on death row, to the terminally ill in crowded wards of a hospice for incurables. But it was in Scala where he encountered the desperate deprivation of the goatherds that he was impelled to found the Redemptorist Congregation. 

Alphonsus believed that God calls every person to a life of holiness that integrates love of God and love of neighbor. He spent his entire life removing obstacles to possibilities of experiencing and responding to God’s love. When proponents of Jansenism preached a despotic God, denied free will, dismissed the piety of ordinary people and taught that salvation was just for the elite, Alphonsus proclaimed a God of love who came to earth so that all people may be saved. For more than thirty years he preached missions in outlying areas where the Church of his time did not go. He had a gift for communicating profound truths so that everyone could understand them and was committed to quality catechesis that had relevance to the struggles of everyday life. 

His moral theology was rooted in first hand pastoral ministry among the poor. In his moral teachings, he emphasized the primacy of free will and insisted that prayer and the sacraments were for everyone. He was a champion of a well-informed conscience and of personal integrity. He realized that a morality based on fear was not in keeping with a Gospel that proclaimed a God of love and forgiveness. Alphonsus taught us much about what it means to personally incarnate one’s self among those who are poor and abandoned as a sharing in and a continuation of the choices and the mission of Jesus. 

As I have come to know Alphonsus, my love for Alphonsian spirituality and the richness of our IHM charism have grown. As a young person, the image I had of Alphonsus came from a picture that depicted him as a bent-over old man with a somber expression on his face. As a novice I learned about his love for the poor and the abandoned, his devotion to Mary, to the crib, to the cross and the Eucharist, and that Father Gillet and Mother Theresa had suffered a great deal to hold fast to the Alphonsian spirit and tradition. When I was introduced to our Congregation’s patrons, I dutifully wrote J.M.J.A.T. (Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Alphonsus and Teresa) on the top of my letters and entered as fully as I could into devotions to the infant Jesus and monthly practices of different virtues. But in these first years of religious life, I had no real awareness of the significance of Alphonsus and of his contributions.

Deeper connections to Alphonsus came with post-Vatican II renewal. As we looked back to our spiritual roots, the redeeming love of Jesus, zeal for mission and special concern for those to whom the word of God had not been effectively communicated were emphasized in our Constitutions and Mission Statement. I made charism retreats and learned that Alphonsus was a lawyer, a theologian, a poet, a bishop, an artist, a musician, and a Doctor of the Church. I read some of his 111 written works and prayed some of his prayers, but it was not until I visited Scala that Alphonsus really came alive for me. 

In January of 1991, Sisters Gail Cabral, Susan Hadzima and I had a wonderful opportunity to give a workshop to an international gathering of formation teams in Rome. Before the workshop we traveled to Scala to spend some time in the monastery where the mystical experiences of Maria Celeste Crostarosa had prompted the founding of the Redemptorist and Redemptoristine Congregations. 

During this visit my eyes were opened to Alphonsus in ways I could never have imagined. It was not easy to travel to Scala. After a train ride from Naples to Salerno, we took a bus to Amalfi to catch a local bus to Scala. The ride up the mountain from the scenic Amalfi coast was somewhat like scaling the Andes. The bus climbed up a road that curved around on a zigzag pattern to the top. As I walked around Scala and moved higher up the steep mountainside, I realized how deeply the isolation of the goatherds must have touched Alphonsus. What a trip that must have been for Alphonsus and his companions!

The sisters at Scala were wonderful to us. They shared their lives with us and were filled with questions about our lives. During our stay with them my eyes took in many images that gave reality to things I had read about Alphonsus but never fully appreciated. Each day as we prayed with the sisters who were surrounded by artifacts dating back to the founding of the Redemptorist and Redemptoristine Congregations, we saw ancient vestments and statues and a monstrance that held great historical significance. The sisters described an incident in which the symbols of the passion, later adopted as the Redemptorist crest, were seen by all the people in the monastery church. Even though the monastery church was still under repair from the 1980 earthquake, the sisters let us climb down into the church where we saw the confessional where Maria Celeste told Alphonsus that she had had a dream that he was to found a congregation of itinerant preachers.

We also saw the building where Alphonsus started the Redemptorists in 1732. It is still used to house guests. In the monastery garden we were able to visit the first Redemptorist house where Alphonsus lived with four others. This building, also damaged by the earthquake, was being restored by the Redemptorists of North America as a place for prayer and retreat.

Even though I saw many objects in Scala that dated back to the time of Alphonsus, where I most experienced Alphonsus was in a simple grotto cave where he had spent long hours in prayer. The little chapel that houses the grotto overlooks a magnificent view of cliffs, mountains and the sea. It was there that I felt that I was looking at what his eyes had seen. On the ceiling of the chapel, there is a lovely painting of Mary and Alphonsus in conversation. He looks young, vibrant and strong. In this grotto chapel, I found myself praying for peace in the world, for the neglected people of our day and for vocations to all the congregations shaped by the spirit of Alphonsus. It was an experience of gratuitous grace that I will always cherish. 

A decade later while working at the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in Rome, I had additional opportunities to walk in the footsteps of Alphonsus. These visits  included the town of Pagani where Alphonsus spent the final years of his life suffering from arthritis and other ailments that confined him to a wheelchair. On August 1, 1787, a month before his 91^st birthday, he entered into eternal life. His tomb is in the simple Redemptorist church in Pagani. As I prayed there, I realized that Alphonsus truly gave his all; he did nothing by half measures. Throughout his entire life, despite the host of obstacles he encountered, Alphonsus had eyes to see what needed to be done and nothing deterred him from his quest for a God of all-inclusive and unconditional love.

Now that I am an elder myself, I am learning much about leaning into the grace of vulnerability as I ponder Alphonsus and the call to amplify our shared charism in these times. I realize more than ever the need to focus on the essence of our way of life and to be deeply rooted in prayer. The legacy of Alphonsus is a precious reminder that we have been CALLED BY LOVE TO BE LOVE in the everyday circumstances of our individual and collective lives. In the face of rampant abuse of human rights and dignity, our shared charism calls us to see the acute suffering of our abandoned brothers and sisters and to respond with the authenticity of the Gospel. Alphonsus’ recognition that deep friendship with God is possible for ordinary people is a prophetic message for these times. May we, in creative fidelity to his spirit, proclaim with our lives the loving and accessible God of Alphonsus!

* image of Alphonsus Liguori was created and edited with AI. Original image was retreived at: https://tinyurl.com/6wn9yfz8