Provincial Ponderings - July 2024

As I put pen to paper for this July pondering, I find myself full of gratitude for the gift of my life and ministry as a Redemptorist priest. My gratitude and my experience of blessing within my Redemptorist life has everything to do with God, with our community, and with all God’s people. July is an important month for our Redemptorist Family throughout the world. Every year the third Sunday in July is for us the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer, the titular feast of the title and name of our community:  The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. Celebrated this past Sunday on July 21, we Redemptorists rejoice that our Congregation was founded to proclaim the Good News, “that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have may have eternal life (Jn3:16).”  That the mission and ministry of Christ, the Redeemer, is the reason, meaning, and mission of our Congregation so named, is a deep source of blessing and inspiration for my life and ministry. 

Our lives of ministry and service are a response to God’s call to proclaim and give witness to the saving love of Christ in the power of the Spirit. For us vowed religious brothers and priests, together with our partners in mission, lay missionaries, lay colleagues, and the people we serve, this great July Feast of the Holy Redeemer celebrates who God is as a loving and merciful Savior who longs to bring us to fullness of life and eternal salvation. It also tells us who we are: the Beloved of God! Who among us is not full of gratitude and a deep sense of blessing when love – and being loved – is what we know and experience from deep within our hearts? I have no doubt that my deep sense of gratitude and blessing is the grace of God who is LOVE and whose summons to all of us is to trust and let ourselves be so loved. 

Two recent experiences of my Redemptorist life have also only deepened my awareness of how deeply grateful I am for the gift of my faith, for belonging to the community, and for the people of God I encounter on my life journey. One such experience was our July Province picnic at San Alfonso Retreat House on the Jersey Shore in anticipation of the Fourth of July! The gathering of about thirty confreres for some sun, fun, and a festive cookout was a wonderful celebration of the bonds of fraternal care and friendship that exist among us. We enjoyed one another’s good company, had some great laughs, and traded some delightful stories of past and present. It was for me an added and special blessing to share this time of rest and relaxation with confreres from Argentina, India, and Poland who currently minister in the United States and who joined in the festivities. I felt so blessed and thankful to be part of a community whose mission and ministry extend from the Jersey shore to all around the world! 

The second experience was the joyful and beautiful celebration on July 20 of the Jubilee Anniversaries of Profession and Ordination for fourteen of our confreres. Coming together as a community –together with family, friends, colleagues, parishioners- we celebrated a Liturgy of Thanksgiving at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church that was a joyful blessing and a great blast of inspiration for me -- and from what I have heard, for all of the Redemptorist Family present or joining in via the live stream as well! Gathered in faith, in grateful recognition and appreciation of our honored jubilarians and their combined 580 years of service to the Church, and in joyful celebration of our dignity as the beloved of God, how could I be anything but grateful and blessed in recalling this event and sharing it with you? 

In word and by pictures this issue of The Beacon celebrates the gift of faith, the blessing of family, friends, and community, and the abundant love of God that lies deep within our souls and at the heart of all the world. Each month The Beacon asks me to slow down, to reflect, and to share my thoughts with you. The more I ponder, the more grateful and blessed I become! And guess what? Gratitude and blessing make it possible to meet life’s struggles and sorrows without losing heart and hope, and to revel in its beauty and joy with wonder and awe! As I bring this message to a close, I hear the words of a great old Catholic hymn ringing in my ears: “ponder anew what the Almighty can do, who with His love doth befriend thee.”

Peace, blessings, and many thanks!
Father John Collins, C.Ss.R.
Provincial