HAPPY FEAST DAY OF ST. ALPHONSUS – THE FOUNDER OF THE REDEMPTORISTS

Entrance Hymn:


Verse 1:
Come! Live in the light!
Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord!
We are called to be light for the kingdom
To live in the freedom of the city of God!

Chorus:
We are called to act with justice
We are called to love tenderly
We are called to serve one another
To walk humbly with God

[Verse 2]
Come! Open your heart!
Show your mercy to all those in fear!
We are called to be hope for the hopeless
So all hatred and blindness will be no more!

[Verse 3]
Sing! Sing a new song!
Sing of that great day when all will be one!
God will reign and we’ll walk with each other
As sisters and brothers united in love!

RESPONSORY PSALM:

Response: Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

The promises of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”;
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”
R. Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.’
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.”
R. Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

HALLELUIA:
Hallelujah, hallelujah
I chose you, says the Lord,
to go and bear fruit that will last.
Hallelujah.

REFLECTION: THE SIGN OF TRUE LOVE by St. Alphonsus in his book “The Love of God in Practice.”

All our care and efforts must be given to this: to grow in the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Those, who are experts in spiritual things, tell us what the signs of true love are: True love is always accompanied with a certain amount of fear: it fears only one thing, and that is to vie any displeasure to God.

True love is generous: it is not afraid to undertake any work, however great, if it be for the glory of God; for its trust is placed in God.
True love is valiant and strong: it can conquer any inclination to wickedness; its victory extends over the most violent temptations, desolation, and darkness.
True love is obedient and ready in all things to follow the voice of God.
True love is pure: because it loves God alone, and alone it merits to be loved by God.
True love is ardent: because it wants to kindle a fire in everybody else, and to see them consumed with divine love.
True love is inebriates: it puts the soul in such a state that it loses consciousness of all external things; so that it sees nothing; it feels nothing; it seems to be no longer affected by the things of earth, wholly occupied in loving God alone.
True love unites: it brings the will of the creature into very close union with the will of the Creator.
True love is a love of desire: because it seizes the soul with an intense longing to leave this earth, and to fly upwards to where it will become perfectly united with God in its own blessed homeland, where it will love God with all its powers.

Now, there is nobody who teaches us all the characteristics of true love as well as that great preacher of charity, St. Paul. In the thirteenth chapter of his First Letter to the Corinthians, he tells us, first of all, that the man who is without love is nothing, and can do nothing: “I may have faith strong enough to move the mountains, but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away all that I possess to feed the poor. I may even give my body to be burned, but, if have no love, what good will it do me?”

So you may have sufficient faith to move the mountains, as St. Gregory Thaumaturgus did; but, if you have no love, this would be quite useless to you. You could hand out all the goods you have to the poor, and willingly suffer martyrdom itself; but without love – that is, if you were to do it for any other motive than to please God-it would get you nowhere.

Then St. Paul gives the characteristics of true love and, in doing this, he at the same time teaches us how to practise those other virtues which are the offspring of true love He continues: “Love is patient, is kind; love does no wrong; is not conceited, or ambitious; it is not selfish, noT quick to take offense; it thinks no evil; it does not rejoice in the presence of wickedness; but it takes delight in the truth. It is ready to suffer everything; there is no limit to its faith, and its hope, and its endurance.”

Reflective Hymn: O BREAD OF HEAVEN
This is the original text of this hymn as it appears in Hymns & Verses on Spiritual Subjects: Being the Sacred Poetry of St. Alphonso Maria Liguori (1863). It is listed under the header  “Hymn to Jesus after Communion.”:



1. O Bread of Heaven! beneath this veil
Thou dost my very God conceal;
My Jesus, dearest Treasure, hail!
I love Thee, and adoring kneel:
The loving soul by Thee is fed
With Thy own self in form of bread!

2. O Food of Life! Thou who dost give
The pledge of immortality!
I live;—no, ’tis not I that live,
God gives me life, God lives in me:
He feeds my soul, He guides my ways,
And every grief with joy repays.

3. O Bond of Love! that dost unite
The servant to his loving Lord!
Could I dare live, and not requite
Such love,—then death were meet reward:
I cannot live, unless to prove
Some love for such unmeasured love.

4. Beloved Lord! in Heaven above,—
There, Jesus, Thou awaitest me
To gaze on Thee with changeless love.
Yes, thus I hope,—thus shall it be:
For how can He deny me heaven,
Who here on earth Himself hath given?

PERTITIONS:


Closing Hymn: SALVE REGINA



Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;
Vita, dulcedo et spes nostra salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

“I love you, most dear Lady; and for the love I bear you, I promise to serve you willingly for ever and to do what I can to make you loved by others also. I place in you all my hopes for salvation; accept me as your servant and shelter me under your mantle, you who are the Mother of mercy.”

– Alphonsus Liguori –