Formation in the
Congregation of
the Most Holy Redeemer

Formation begins with admiration
for Redemptorist life and work

There are many religious orders and congregations whose candidates have joined because they admired the saintly founder or because they were impressed by some work done by the community. This also holds true for Redemptorists. The majority of candidates ask for admission because they have seen a missionary at work and admired the way God was acting through him. The most common way of entering the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer is the result of having met a Redemptorist missionary and feeling attracted to live the same vocation.

This first impulse or attraction is the basis for all the formation that follows. You can make a missionary of a young man truly attracted by the mission of Christ. But if this profound attraction, as well as a desire to seek God’s grace in order to dedicate one’s life totally to the mission, are lacking, then nothing can be built, no matter how excellent the formation program may be.

Formation is like athletic training

The Olympic Games are held every four year. Hundreds of athletes gather to compete and display their physical abilities. Some win medals; others take home the satisfaction of having participated.

Have you ever asked yourself how many hours a day an athlete must dedicate to his or her training? For how many months and years? How many sacrifices have to be made regarding diet, exercise and faithfulness to a strict schedule?

The formation of Redemptorist missionaries is somewhat similar. Formation is the way one trains for a demanding task, one that calls for the total commitment of one’s life because it is the proclamation of the Gospel.

However, there are some fundamental differences between the Olympics and the formation of Redemptorists. The athlete knows that the training is only for a certain period of his or her life since the Olympics, and indeed most competitive sports, are normally for people from 15 to 30 years old. Afterwards they live on their memories, often in another profession. The training of missionaries, on the other hand, is for a lifetime.

The preparation of athletes concentrates above all else on the physical and psychological dimensions. The preparation of missionaries embraces every dimension of life, the physical and human, the intellectual and psychological, the personal and communitarian, the spiritual and pastoral.

Athletes develop their athletic abilities by studying ways to overcome their opponents. Missionaries develop their human potential by studying ways to better serve others.

Athletes train daily and compete once a year or once a month. Missionaries are always training in order to give full-time service to the Gospel.

Formation for missionary life is like
something we mix in the blender

Have you ever thought of what it takes to form a good missionary? It requires physical preparation, academic formation, moral authority and spiritual witness. A missionary must be capable of speaking with the unlettered and the intellectual, children and adults, doctors and invalids, with those who do not believe in Christ and those who live a deep Christian life. He must be prepared to give witness by his life and if he is a priest he must be ever ready to reconcile people in the sacrament of penance. The missionary must display in his person the many facets of the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ.

Let us suppose that the formation program of a missionary is a like something we might mix up in the blender. You have to start with a good, strong and suitably large glass that is capable of withstanding the difficulties to which it may be subjected. Put in two good-sized ice cubes of Old and New Testament, (especially the lived Gospel). Add a medium cup of philosophy, some drops of psychology and anthropology, a pinch of literature, a full cup of theology (dogmatic and moral) and a sprinkling of canon law. Mix all this well with a lot of art (music, theater and public speaking, etc.). Then leave it long enough to blend and settle properly. It is then, when all is blended and ready and you can see the image of God in everything, that you will have a missionary.

Formation is a process

It is not easy to say when the formation of a missionary begins. When someone asks to enter the Redemptorist Congregation he already brings a whole bag of experiences that will serve him in his missionary life. Thus one may say that the formation of a missionary begins in his mother’s womb and in the home life of his family.

In any case the candidate on entering the Congregation will see that there is much emphasis on formation: 1) human, 2) Christian or spiritual and 3) academic without neglecting 4) the capacity to live in community and 5) apostolic work. And this does not end on the day of his religious profession or his first solemn Mass. Formation is a lifetime project, always a work in progress. Even the missionary who has given 50 years to pastoral work is not fully formed. He is still in the process of being formed. And even if one is prevented, by sickness or any other reason, from doing missionary work, he knows that he must learn to accept his situation and so unite himself to the sacrifice of Christ and in this way still be a missionary for the salvation of the world.

Furthermore, given that society and culture today are undergoing rapid changes, missionaries must be suitably prepared to act in this milieu. The missionary who finished his higher studies 30 years ago never heard anything in class about bioethics or the Internet. But today he must be prepared to deal with these realities in an intelligent and objective manner. And if he is sent on mission to another country, he must begin with learning another language and understanding different cultural values.

Formation has a precise object

Redemptorist formation does not mean of course that one must be capable of doing everything. It is not a preparation to be a mechanic, a professor, an artist, a judge……and a missionary. It is a question of preparing oneself to be a full-time missionary. As the Redemptorist Constitutions state:

“The aim of formation for both candidates and members is to lead them to such a degree of human and Christian maturity that, with the help of God’s grace, they will be able to dedicate themselves intelligently, willingly and wholeheartedly to the service of the missionary Church in Redemptorist community life, in order to preach the Gospel to the poor.” (Constitution 78)

To attain this precise objective the candidate goes through different stages:

·  The first contact with the Redemptorist Youth and Vocation Ministry.

·  Residence in a community for postulants.

·  A year of intense spiritual formation in the Novitiate.

·  A period of some years (from 3 to 6) in temporary vows, during which he is engaged in the study of theology. This concludes with perpetual profession and, for those called to priestly ministry, with ordination to the diaconate or priesthood.

After this initial formation, for the rest of his life, a Redemptorist is involved in a process of permanent formation, always seeking to live a totally missionary life.

Formation is always a community project

The many elements already referred to, as well as the various capabilities required in the process of formation, do not suffice to make a missionary. For Redemptorists, the common life, life in community, and the ability to work on a team are fundamental. In the eyes of the people this is what most shows the difference between religious and diocesan priests. For religious, both their prayer and apostolic works spring from the fraternal life in community. This explains why a true taste for community life and an aptitude to live and work on a team are distinctive characteristics of a Redemptorist (cf. Constitution. 21)

In other words, Redemptorist formation is always done in community so as to enable one to participate fully in the life of a community. Community life is not a strategy for doing mission, but is a mission in itself. In a broken and fractured world, Redemptorist missionaries seek to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ by preaching and living brotherly love.

For Redemptorists “the whole purpose of community life is to have members like the apostles (cf. Mark 3:14; Acts 2: 42-45; 4:32), in a spirit of genuine brotherly union, combine their prayers and deliberations, their labors and sufferings, their successes and failures and their material goods as well, for the service of the Gospel.” (Constitution 22)