The great noises of the Bronx are quite difficult to forget. It demonstrates just how alive our community can be and what it truly means to live for the sake of the mission. This year, as we’ve done for more than ten years, the noise welcomes new and returning listeners to its concert: the students are back!
We return to the Bronx with a full house me from the Denver Province returning after completing my summer ministry in Mexico, and four new students from the Baltimore Province: Tomás Cruz, Sean Loughlin, Bao Nguyen, and Teddy Thongratnachat. The buzz throughout the first week is one of excitement to begin this journey of walking in the footsteps of the Redeemer. It is one of eagerness to see what this life is all about.
The 2025-2026 Bronx Formation House: Fr. Peter Sousa, Tomás Cruz, Fr. Greg May, Adam Tran- Chung, Teddy Thongratnachat, Bao Nguyen and Sean Loughlin. 
Bishop Robert Guglielmone preaches on the Feast of St. Augustine;
Similar to last year, we welcomed Noah Grohs from Germany, who is participating in the Redemptorist Volunteer Program and will assist with various tasks around the parish for the year.
We began the year with a week-long retreat at the Baltimore Province’s San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch, NJ. We welcomed, for the week, Bishop Robert Guglielmone, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina. He chose to set the theme for the week to center around Micah 6:8: “Do Justice, love goodness, walk humbly with your God.” These triune elements, he said, would help us answer the question: what does God want from us?
Bishop Guglielmone tied everything together on the last day by advising that a better life will come only if we can plug back into God and remember all the good that He’s done for us. Each aspect of Micah 6:8 drives us to bring ourselves closer to God because ultimately, it is how we find peace, or that sense of shalom.
As students in Redemptorist formation, it can be easy to be overwhelmed with school, ministry, and our many other responsibilities and activities. We should always ensure that the work we do, the ministries we partake in and the lives we live, allow us to act justly, love tenderly, and push us to walk humbly with God. Such is our hope, as postulants, for this academic year as we continue to grow in our Redemptorist identity and mission of being messengers of hope to the poor and most abandoned.
Adam Tran-Chung
(Source: denverlink – September 5, 2025)
Photos by Adam Tran-Chung
