Visit to Scala, Naples, and Marianella
The second week of the Redemptorist Spirituality Course, held in Spanish, offered a deeper immersion in the Alphonsian roots. Participants had the opportunity to “draw from the source,” visiting the places where Saint Alphonsus prayed, meditated, and lived his intimate relationship with God.
This new stage of the journey revived the missionary experience of the Congregation’s early days, allowing us to ideally walk in the footsteps of the Saint. The experience strengthened our missionary and pilgrimage sense, recalling how the very birth of the Congregation occurred in a context of searching and journeying. Visiting these significant places thus becomes an invitation to contemplate God’s pilgrimage toward humanity.
The course is based on two fundamental pillars of Redemptorist life: prayer and study .
- Prayers offered each day, beginning with the celebration of the Eucharist and enriched by moments of reflection in the places visited.
- The study was led by Father Pedro López, who with a clear and pedagogical method accompanied the participants in the discovery of the Redemptorist mission: from the origins of the Rules of the Congregation and the first chapters, up to Alphonsian spirituality and the protagonists of the origins.
A particularly significant moment was the meeting with the Redemptoristine Nuns, with whom we shared the Eucharistic celebration in an atmosphere of fraternity and communion. From the very beginning, the dialogue and prayer between Saint Alphonsus and Blessed Maria Celeste Crostarosa have been fundamental to the birth of the Redemptorist charism, which continues today to unite the CSsR (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer) and the OSsR (Order of the Most Holy Redeemer).
This pilgrimage invited everyone to reflect on the difficulties faced by Saint Alphonsus and his first companions: suffering, sacrifices, dreams, fears, challenges, and victories. A return to the origins that is not nostalgia, but a strength that pushes us to look forward, renewing our motivation and commitment to the mission.
Ana Carolina Suetake and Fr. Alexandre Pontes, CSsR.
