Today marks the feast day of Saint Alphonsus, who was conferred degrees in law at 16 years of age. He practiced law for 8 years before turning to the Church and was ordained a priest in 1726. His style of ministry was called “mission among the people.” He and a group of priests and lay brothers would go to rural areas to teach, preach, and pray with the faithful. In a time of restrictive Church rule, he taught about God’s redeeming love. He and his companions became the seeds of the Redemptorist Order.
For reflection: Saint Alphonsus was known above all as a practical man who dealt in the concrete rather than the abstract. His life is indeed a practical model for the everyday Christian who has difficulty recognizing the dignity of Christian life amid the swirl of problems, pain, misunderstanding, and failure. He suffered all these things and he is a saint because he was able to maintain an intimate sense of the presence of Christ through it all.
Saint Alphonsus died peacefully at the age of 90 in 1787. He was named a doctor of the church by Pope Pius IX and later was declared the patron of moral theologians.
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San Alfonso María de Ligorio, a los 17 años, ya era un brillante abogado. Decidió hacerse sacerdote después de perder una litigación en los tribunales, para dedicarse a la Evangelización de los pobres. A este propósito fundó la Congregación del Santísimo Redentor (familiarmente, Redentoristas) para predicar “misiones populares” a los pobres de los pueblos. Él es justamente reconocido y famoso por su equilibrada teología moral, que fue el trabajo teológico moral, común, y corriente.
Oremos. “Oh Dios, San Alfonso de Ligorio fue un buen obispo y pastor que hizo todo lo que pudo para dirigir al pueblo de Dios hacia ti, especialmente los pobres y sencillos. Danos pastores como él, que, con el ejemplo de su vida y con su trabajo pastoral, sepan mostrar el rostro humano de Cristo y que, por su entrega y amabilidad, puedan atraer a sus fieles, y llevarlos a conocer y amar profundamente a nuestro Señor y Salvador Jesucristo, que vive y reina por los siglos de los siglos. Amén.”
