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December 15, 2009
Click here to read Very Rev. Patrick Woods’ homily.
What better place for a homeless statue of St. Alphonsus Liguori than a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help? And what better chapel than the one in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.?
That’s where Redemptorists and many friends gathered Dec. 13, the Third Sunday of Advent, to celebrate Mass and to bless the statue in its new home. The statue had been housed at St. Boniface Church in Philadelphia, and was transferred to the Shrine after the church was closed.
St. Alphonsus likely never saw the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (the Redemptorists weren’t given the commission to "make her known" until 1866, almost 80 years after St. Alphonsus’ death). But he was a devoted son of Mary; his "Glories of Mary" remains one of the most popular Marian books every published.