The Spanish-Portuguese Redemptorist Spirituality Course officially began with a Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Superior General, Fr. Rogério Gomes, C.Ss.R., in the presence of the General Consultors and the General Secretary on the 8th of September 2026 in the Church of St Alphonsus. The first week of the course is being held at the General House in Rome, while the following two weeks will take place at the Mother House in Ciorani.
The course brings together a diverse group of participants, including Ms. Cintia Cajas, a Redemptorist lay missionary from Argentina, along with confreres from Brazil, Spain, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina, and Peru.
In his homily, delivered on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. Rogério highlighted the significance of beginning the course at the Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, under the loving and welcoming gaze of the original Icon. He emphasized that the course offers participants the opportunity to return to the roots of their Redemptorist identity—not as tourists visiting historical sites or as visitors to an archaeological museum, but as pilgrims seeking to enter deeply into the heart of the Redemptorist charism.
“This means reconnecting with the origins of our Congregation, discovering the places where Saint Alphonsus lived a profound experience of God, contemplated the reality of the poorest and most abandoned people of his time, and allowed himself to be touched by their suffering. It was in these places that he understood God’s call to give a concrete response. From this experience of God and encounter with the abandoned was born the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,” he said.
The Superior General compared the spirituality course to a renewed novitiate experience, “in which each participant is called to rediscover the personal history of his own vocation, to be reconciled with himself, and to give thanks for the call that the Lord has given him to walk with Him.” For this reason, visiting the places connected with the origins of the Congregation is also, in a certain sense, a return to the origins of one’s own vocation. He concluded by reminding participants that “the charism that the Holy Spirit inspired in Saint Alphonsus remains alive in each one of us today.”
During the first week, participants will visit important Alphonsian sites in Rome, as well as the Catacombs, the Alphonsian Academy, and the Congregation’s Archives. On Wednesday, they will take part in the Pope’s General Audience in St. Peter’s Square and will also visit a Vatican Dicastery where two Redemptorist confreres serve. These activities will be complemented by formation sessions on various aspects of Redemptorist history, tradition, and spirituality, coordinated by the course director, Fr. Krzysztof Dworak, C.Ss.R.
Although the temperatures in the Eternal City remain warm, cooler weather is expected with the approach of autumn. Nevertheless, the warmth of fraternity and the joy of the participants are evident at every moment.
The participants entrust the successful development and abundant fruits of this course to the loving intercession of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
Fr. Cristian Bueno, CSsR.
Attached homily of Fr. Rogerio, Superior General:
