St. Alphonsus Liguori is the founder of the Redemptorists and a Doctor of the Church.
His feast day is celebrated each year on August 1.
Celebrating St. Alphonsus
Before he was a bishop or a Doctor of the Church, Alphonsus Liguori was a young priest walking along the street, looking for dirty, unwanted children. Alphonsus was a successful, brilliant lawyer, and his family commanded respect and power. But he gave it all up and spent his first years as a priest among the poorest and the homeless of the city. He went looking for them. He sat with them. He talked with them like they mattered, because they did. And slowly, he drew them into something more, something deeper; and that first walk along the streets of Naples became the Evening Chapels.
What I find so amazing is that Alphonsus and his fellow priests and brothers didn’t run these evening chapels. The young people did. Alphonsus taught them, trained them, formed them, and then he stepped back and let them lead it. Each chapel grew into its own small world of prayer, teaching, community, and service to the poorest of the poor. And by the time Alphonsus died, there were seventy-two of these chapels. Over ten thousand active participants, concretely and visibly living their faith, all because the Redemptorists trusted the Spirit enough to hand over the reins.
This history is worth praying and reflecting on as we discern our ministry with and for young people. Alphonsus led with presence, meeting people where they were instead of where he thought they should be. And this was how everything started. The Redemptorist heart for the poor and the most abandoned was forged on the streets of Naples, among the young people everyone else had discarded. Maybe that’s still the work in front of us. To show up. To walk with and to trust in the movement of the Spirit and watch even the smallest of seeds grow into grace upon grace.
Fr. Michael Hoang, C.Ss.R.
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