Alphonse-Marie de Liguri (1er Août)

Saint Alphonse de Liguori : évêque missionnaire, fondateur et docteur de l’Église (1er Août)

Transcript

00:00Saint Alphonsus Maria of Ligauria is one of the greatest spiritual masters in the history of the Church.

00:09Born in Naples in 1696 into a noble family, he received a brilliant legal education and became a lawyer at just 16 years old.

00:21But, deeply troubled by the injustice of the courts and the misery of the people,

00:27He left the bar after a case he considered dishonest.

00:32At 27, he made a radical decision.

00:37He entered the orders, renouncing worldly honors.

00:41A priest with a heart burning with compassion, Alphonse travels the Neapolitan countryside to announce the Gospel to the poorest.

00:49He preaches, confesses, consoles and above all, he writes.

00:55His pen becomes the weapon of an apostle.

00:57He wrote more than one hundred works on spirituality, moral theology and prayer,

01:05including the famous “The Glories of Mary” or “The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ”.

01:11In a century shaken by Jansenist rigor, he taught a merciful morality,

01:19centered on the tenderness of God and inner freedom.

01:23In 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,

01:30the Redemptorists, to evangelize the most abandoned.

01:35He faces incomprehension, betrayal, illness, but never stops loving.

01:41Having become a bishop against his will, he governed his diocese with tireless charity,

01:48healing souls as a doctor heals bodies.

01:52At the end of his life, Alphonse was confined to a wheelchair, almost blind, consumed by pain.

02:00But his prayer remains fervent.

02:04“My God, make me love you always.”

02:08He died on August 1, 1787, at the age of 90, leaving behind a colossal body of work.

02:17Canonized in 1839, proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1871,

02:24Today he is the patron saint of moralists.

02:29and a guide for all who seek truth in mercy.

02:37Prayer to Jesus Crucified by Saint Alphonsus of Liguria

02:42My God, I love you with all my heart.

02:47I repent of having offended you.

02:50I hate my sins, not only because of your punishments,

02:54but above all because I have offended you,

02:57you who are infinitely good and worthy of being loved above all things.

03:03I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace,

03:07to no longer offend you and to avoid occasions of sin.

03:12O Jesus, who died of love for me,

03:15make me die to myself,

03:17to love you always.

03:20Amen.

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