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Religious
Communities for Men REDEMPTORIST FATHERS: MONASTERY
OF THE SORROWFUL AND “Carthusians at home, Apostles abroad.” (St. Alphonsus) “The end of the Institute of the Most Holy Redeemer is none other than to unite priests to live together, and earnestly strive to imitate the virtues and examples of Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, devoting themselves especially to the Preaching of the Word of God to the Poor.” (Text of the Rule) Primarily, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (C. SS. R.) is an order of priests imitating the life and virtues of Our Divine Savior, but as no order can function properly without the help of lay brothers, these aids to the priest are very important and necessary. In our monasteries, St. Alphonsus would have as the perfect number 12 priests and 7 lay brothers, representing the 12 Apostles and the 7 first deacons.
The Community on the island of Papa Stromsey, Scotland St. Alphonsus (1698-1789), a nobleman by birth was a very talented young boy and, at the age of sixteen, was already admitted as a Doctor in Civil and Canon Law. Disillusioned by the world of the law courts, he joined the diocesan seminary and was ordained a priest on September 21, 1729. He was highly regarded as a remarkable preacher by the whole diocese of Naples, but one day preaching a retreat at Scala, he was overcome by compassion for the poor neglected herdsmen. There was a super abundance of priests in the towns but none who would sacrifice themselves for the poor country folk. A mystic in Scala had received revelations from Jesus Christ concerning a missionary order to be soon begun. St. Alphonsus was disturbed to find he was the one chosen to found the Congregation. St. Alphonsus drew up the constitutions for the revealed Rule and both, Rule and Constitution, were approved in 1749 by Pope Benedict XIV.
After many crosses and trials, providently protected by his vow never to abandon the work, the fragile beginning was soon to become a flourishing Order, to such an extent that St. Alphonsus was unable to keep up with the requests for missions and foundations. Known for the effectiveness of his missions, the fame of St. Alphonsus and then Redemptorists spread far and wide. Soon, translations of his work were in France, Germany, Austria and Belgium. In fulfillment of one of his prophecies, the Congregation spread over the Alps, not long after his death. St. Alphonsus describing the life of the Redemptorists wanted us to be Carthusians at home and apostles abroad. Therefore in the Congregation there exists a perfect harmony between the active and the contemplative lives. By our life we are able to reach our twofold end - the first part being the direct imitation of Jesus Christ. Carthusians at Home The life of the Redemptorists at home is one of prayer and penance and work. The day is full and so begins early. At 4:25 a.m. the bell awakens the community which is then assembled in the chapel at 5:00 a.m. The community begins with the Angelus and a blessing from the Rector. During the day there is a ˝ hour meditation, the Rosary in common as well as spiritual reading and a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. After Lunch and Supper there are recreations each one lasting 1 hour. In the evening we keep pious conversation while attending to pious works such as making rosaries, cilices, repairing books, etc. The last bell is at 9 p.m. when all must extinguish their lights. During the rest of the day the fathers study and prepare sermons, teach and hear confessions, while the lay brothers go about the manual work of the house: cooking, washing, building, sacristy and the garden. Theirs is the life of the silent union with Our Lord kept alive by regular ejaculatory prayer which is fuel to keep the fire of Divine Love burning. Many may consider the life of the lay brother useless or a waste but they could not be more wrong. It is in fact a sublime calling to sanctity. Humility, the foundation of every religious life, must from the very beginning be acquired by the novice. This virtue is the one that Our Lord insists upon the most in the Gospels: “Learn of Me for I am meek and humble of Heart” (St. Matthew). It is easier, strictly speaking, for a lay brother to become a saint as he has fewer obstacles that could obscure the way to holiness. He has the privilege of attending daily Mass; he has confreres who are priests as well as the other lay brothers who are both an example and a support. Above all this, the most distinguishing character of the Redemptorist should be his love for Our Blessed Mother. St. Alphonsus himself said: “Let other congregations be known for their poverty, their erudition, for their great theologians, but let no other congregation be known to have a great devotion to the Holy Mother of God as the Redemptorists.” That is why every Saturday, we have the Perpetual novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help during which there are prayers and sermons in her honor, besides all the other devotions and practices prescribed by the Holy Rule.
Apostles Abroad If the life of the priest is spent among books, as St. Alphonsus exhorts in the Holy Rule, it is all a very great necessary preparation for the great work of every Redemptorist: the preaching of Missions. St. Alphonsus forbids any work that would inhibit the preaching of Missions and this is why we do not have the care of souls as a rule. We do not have parishes, school or seminaries, but rather free from all these obligations we can, when we are requested, preach missions to any abandoned group of people in almost any part of the world.
The
famous Redemptorists missions have started again! A mission is an effective means of attaining the second part, the other end of our Institute: the Redemption in the strict sense. This means that lapsed Catholics are brought back to the faith and tepid ones spurred on to fervor. We achieved this by firstly going from home to home seeking to draw as many souls to the mission as possible and then instructing them in the faith, by catechism for children, instructions for the adults and the every evening Grand Sermon. Confessions are also a most important part of the missions where the Redemptorist Fathers, empowered with extra-ordinary faculties, can remedy all kinds of disorder. The confessions are a real gauge of the success of a mission. The Mission is a time of extraordinary grace, and the good done by the Redemptorists through their missions is an uncontestable fact. But the true missions have not been preached now for over twenty years. May it please our Divine Redeemer to raise up a new generation of missioners who will be entirely devoted to the Glory of God and the salvation of the most abandoned. This work has already begun by the foundation of the Monastery of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, which has no other purpose than to carry on the unbroken chain of the sons of St. Alphonsus who have lived the Old Rule, revealed by Our Lord and approved by Benedict XIV - a Rule which has made 4 saints, 5 beati, and over 40 venerables in 200 years, proportionately the most for any order. With the blessing and strong encouragement of Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of St. Pius X, the foundation began on August 2, 1988, feast of St. Alphonsus. The monastery is on the isle of Sheppey, Kent, in England. Recently, through the intercession of St Joseph, in 1999, we have been able to acquire a small island in the far North of Scotland, in the Orkney archipelago. On the island of Papa Stronsay, we have opened our second house, called the Monastery of Our Most Holy Redeemer on Golgotha, which is a monastic solitude for missionaries before being sent forth on Missions to preach repentance and salvation.
Map of Northern Scotland with the Orkney Islands The Rector Tel: [44] (795) 88 07 51
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