United States: Joyfully Growing in Mission with Hope Walk in the Bronx

0
131

With the temperature in the single digits and the snow making occasional check-ins, the Bronx is hustling and bustling with activity! The students enjoyed a long well-deserved Christmas break and returned to San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch, NJ for their four-day beginning-of-semester retreat. We welcomed Fr. John Schmidt ­ pastor at St. Alphonsus Parish   in Minneapolis ­ as our retreat master. He presented Living Out the Mission, and split our retreat into two focuses: evangelization and the Eucharist.

On evangelization, Fr. John encouraged us to see evangelization as more than just preaching from the pulpit. Rather, we are to live out the gospel and its message in our everyday lives. It is through this that we live out our mission of bringing the word of God to the poor and the most abandoned. Fr. John gave us the example of him assisting a Liberian immigrant at his parish who was not able to afford an apartment and furniture. Because of this, he was able to drum up support from the Knights of Columbus and other parishioners to give her various pieces of furniture. His example is quite similar to what we do here in the Bronx with the Hope Walk distributing food to the homeless in our neighborhood. It echoes Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink.” We evangelize not only through preaching, but by actively living it out.

Focusing on the Eucharist, Fr. John explained that the Eucharist was Christ’s invitation to mission. At the Eucharist, we are united in Christ through which Christ gives us the mission of proclaiming and living the gospel. Throughout our retreat we reflected on various ways in which we can live out the gospel, whether it’s in community or our apostolates. He emphasized that we must ensure that Christ is at the center of all that we do. That the various initiatives we undertake are in some way oriented towards Christ rather than ourselves or others.

During the retreat, I took some time and reflected on all the Redemptorists who have undertaken this great mission. It is pretty exciting, then, whenever I see more people who have a desire for this mission of preaching and ministering to the poor and most abandoned. Just recently, we joyfully welcomed six men who participat- ed in the Come and See vocational discernment event here in the Bronx.

The Come and See prospects came from all over the country: Florida, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey and New York. Prospects were given the unique opportunity of living out the gospels by attending one of our Hope Walks. It was a wonderful time for them to see all that the Bronx has to offer. They were also able to visit St. John’s University and sit down with the formators, Fr. Greg May and Fr. Peter Sousa, to learn more about Redemptorist formation. We showed them what it means to be a student in religious formation, but more importantly what it means to be a Redemptorist in today’s ever evolving society.

The greatest thing we’ve learned this year has been to ensure that all our initiatives are centered around Christ. All the things that we do ­whether it’s in community or in one of our apostolates ­ should be done with the goal of living out the gospels. With the new spring semester beginning, we’re looking forward to even more opportunities for us to grow in our mission and our vocation. From all of us in the Bronx: we wish you a wonderful and blessed year!

Adam Tran-Chung
Denverlink, 31 January 2025.