There is nothing magical, nor is there anything absolutely unique in the way God’s Spirit lives among Redemptorists. Rather, the point is, what is actually happening among Redemptorists? And when you look at that, you see that throughout the world, living and working in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, there are thousands of men who are committed.
to truly following the example of Christ in the apostolic life, which comprises at one and the same time a life specially dedicated to God and a life of missionary work
– Constitutions of the Redemptorists, No. 2d.
If you were to go looking for the Redemptorists’ engine room, you would discover it in our mission to the excluded of the world. It is in our mission that God meets us and we meet God. It is in our mission to the abandoned that God welds us into a community. This community in turn exists only for the sake of the poor and our mission among them.
Apostolic charity, through which Redemptorists share in the mission of Christ the Redeemer, is the principle that unites their entire life. It identifies them in a certain sense with Christ, who continues to fulfill the will of the Father by carrying on the redemption through them
– Constitutions of the Redemptorists, No. 52
The Spirit of God has graciously blessed the Redemptorists and continues to do so. Our community and personal prayer, as a result, is filled with gratitude. That same Spirit reveals to us that the
glory of God and the salvation of the world are one, and since love of God and love for people are the same, Redemptorists live their lives in union with God in the form of apostolic charity and through missionary charity seek his glory.
– Constitutions of the Redemptorists, No. 53
Redemptorists are anointed by the Spirit to preach the Good News among the poor. But the Spirit’s presence among Redemptorists is more in how we work rather than what we actually do. There is a ‘flavour’ in the Redemptorist tradition which reveals itself in how we approach people and how we connect with them on behalf of the Gospel.
Indeed the apostolic work of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer is distinguished more by its missionary dynamism than by any particular form of activity; in other words, by evangelisation in the true sense, and by service of persons and groups who are poor and who are more neglected by the Church.
