New Partners In Mission Installed at St. Alphonsus "Rock" Church
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March 7, 2022Fr. Steve Benden recently installed Joyce Jones and Richard Buckley as new Redemptorist Associates at St. Alphonsus “Rock” Church in St. Louis.
“We are very pleased to welcome these new Redemptorist Associates, and we look forward to seeing them live our charism within the parish and beyond,” Fr. Steve said. “They are both so enthusiastic that I wouldn’t be surprised if they inspire others in the parish community to more deeply explore our Redemptorist spirituality.”
Joyce and Richard join a growing collective of Redemptorist Associates from throughout North America who are incorporating the Redemptorist charism into their own lives. They come from a variety of backgrounds, careers and life experiences, adding a rich dimension to our extensive Redemptorist family.
We are pleased to share brief reflections from Richard in St. Louis and Bobby Borges in Chicago about why they made commitments as Redemptorist Associates.
Richard Buckley:Becoming a Redemptorist Associate means that I have committed again to serve my Church and my community using my God-given gifts to bring the Good News of the Redeemer not only to my fellow parishioners, but also to the Redemptorist community at large.I can share my own faith journey and my experience being an active parishioner in a Redemptorist parish with everyone I meet. I can help my fellow Redemptorists to continue the mission to reach out to the poor and give them the same spiritual love and compassion that is the charism of the Redemptorists. I can share all of my gifts to continue to build up God’s Kingdom here on earth with the Redemptorist spirit and charism that I have come to feel and experience in my own life.
Bobby Borges:"Throughout my life, I have faced trials in all shapes and sizes. Of course, some were of my own doing, which I am not in the least proud to admit.
I still stumble because of my own ignorance and misunderstanding. But the human experience is a never-ending learning experience. With this realization, I have begun to define true contentment and happiness. In a society that has technologically progressed over time, we have become more distant, but even more connected in other ways.
Despite the progress we have made, I believe that humanity has lost values that were once honorable – values that held true to a person’s spirit. I have never really considered myself a “religious” person. I had a Christian upbringing and possessed a basic understanding of what Jesus Christ did for us, but I could never really apply that to my life because I did not know how.
I lacked any perspective, and did not apply biblical teachings to my life. After some years of experiences “chasing the wind” and the material things the world has to offer, I did not feel real contentment, but only temporal pleasure – a void that only left me more confused about my place in a crooked world. (This is one of the reasons the Book of Ecclesiastes is one of my favorites in the Bible.)
While working for the Redemptorists, I began to seek truth and question my own life decisions. I dusted the cobwebs off the Bible and let the words speak to me. The more answers I got, the more questions I had. I participated in the Redemptorist Spirituality workshop and became a Redemptorist Associate.
Again, the human experience is a learning experience. We will never have all the answers to our questions, but I believe that gaining perspective on your spirituality is the beginning of understanding."
(Courtesy of DenverLink.)
