The Core of the Charism

The following of Jesus according to Alphonsus, is lived in preaching the divine word to the poor, as the Lord already said of himself… The Spirit has sent me to preach the Good News…(Luke 4, 16). The lifestyle proposed, then, does not seek to imitate the virtues of Christ and performing ascetical practices. Alphonsus does not intend us to be photocopies of the Lord. For him, the following of Jesus is understood in the dynamic modeling of the Congregation’s purpose according to the very Mission of the First Missionary of God’s divine Mercy.

To follow Jesus and to give ourselves to the preaching of Good News to the poor constitute a unified process, just as fulfilling the Father’s will and preaching the good news to the poor were one and the same for Jesus. Everything Jesus said and did, his whole life, was intrinsically related to his Mission – and so it should be with us. We are touching here the core of our charism. From this underlying “principle” flows the unifying force of Redemptorist spirituality.