🇬🇧 Day 1: Fr. Ivel reflects on St. Alphonsus talented genius of his time (18th Century)

29 July 2024 (Monday)

While St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori is known as the founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or the Redemptorists and as a spiritual writer and theologian what strikes one is that this man was a genius. As the firstborn Alphonsus received a cultural formation equivalent to his noble rank. He was home schooled at the insistence of his father Don Guiseppe who made sure that Alphonsus had the best teachers of the Kingdom of Naples teaching him at home. He learnt the classics both Greek and Latin as well as French, Spanish and Italian and mastered the art of Rhetoric at a very young age. Whatever Alphonsus studied and whatever opportunities he was provided in academic and cultural education he excelled that it soon was evident that he was a child prodigy be it as academics, art and music.
Alphonsus was a lover of beauty: musician, painter, poet and author. He put all his artistic and literary creativity at the service of the mission and he asked the same of those who joined his Congregation. He wrote 111 works on spirituality and theology. The 21,500 editions and the translations into 72 languages that his works have undergone attest to the fact that he is one of the most widely read authors. Among his best-known works are: The Great Means of Prayer, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, The Glories of Mary and The Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament. Prayer, love, his relationship with Christ and his first-hand experience of the pastoral needs of the faithful have made Alphonsus one of the great masters of the interior life.
Alphonsus' art was influenced by what he saw around him. When he was 23, he painted his own "Christ on the Cross." His painting depicted the death of Love itself. Around that same time, he also painted a picture of the Madonna as a woman of peaceful, gentle features — a woman who won his heart. Surrounded by 12 stars she is the portrait of divine beauty in human form. Alphonsus painted quite a few paintings of Our Lady, the Divine Shepherdess, the Mother of Sorrows, Our Lady and the Holy Spirit as well as Jesus crucified. His art, like his music, was a way to lead the men and women of his day, rich and poor, to know the surpassing riches of the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary.
In St. Alphonsus we have truly a genius with prodigious talent but one who used all his talent whether in art, music, learning, rhetoric, writing, all for the one purpose of proclaiming the Good News of Redemption, of the Love of Jesus to all, especially the poor and the abandoned of his time.

More information on:
Website: https://www.cssr.news/2024/07/online-...
Facebook:   / cssr.en   (C.Ss.R. – Redemptorists English)
Scala News