1 August 2019
Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
The Church celebrates the founder of another great religious movement with the feast of Alphonsis Ligouri. St. Alphonsus was born in 1696 and died on this day in 1787. His life witnessed turbulent movements within society and the church particularly those that fostered an empty deism espoused by the Enlightenment and those that favored Jansenistic rigor. He responded to both by popular preaching which stressed the mercy and love of God. His comment that penitents were to be treated as souls to be saved not as criminals indicated a way of mercy and kindness. His written works on devotion to Mary and Moral theology stand as classics to this day. The Congregation founded by St. Alphonsus, the Redemptorists, took the word of God into the slums and poverty-stricken areas of southern Italy. The Redemptorists continued that tradition with their great concern for immigrant Catholics in the United States. Today’s feast recalls the call by Christ to all Christians to be instruments of mercy and to find means to take that mercy to persons who need it most, and sometimes that includes us!