By Alfredo Rodrigues Lopez
“I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Therefore, I urge you, be imitators of me.” (1 Corinthians 4: 14-16).
After a year of meditation, prayer and retreats, the novices of the North American and French provinces, formed by Fr. Gary Lauenstein and Fr. Ray Douziech, novice master and assistant respectively, are getting ready to take their first temporal vows as Redemptorists.
During the novitiate year, the novices have been experiencing the manner of living in community and the charism of the congregation. Therefore, they have been proven suitable to be part of the Congregation. The taking of vows will be in different parts of the world. Sydney Beckers will be taking vows in Paris at a Mass on Aug. 1st. Several Vietnamese confreres who will be working in France will also take final vows at the same Mass. Huy Vu, Chung Tran and Alfredo Rodriguez Lopez will take vows on Aug 2nd at Holy Ghost Parish in Houston, TX. Garvey Blanc and Ako Walker will take vows in Dominica (West Indies) on Aug 6th. Calvin Auguiste, who also made his novitiate in Toronto in 2010, will be taking final vows at the same time. Alfredo Medina will take vows in his home parish, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, in Malpaso, Zacatecas, Mexico, on Aug 9th. Michael Cunningham is taking vows in his home parish, the Redemptorist parish of St. Martin of Tours, in Bethpage, NY, on Aug 23rd.
While these are the plans in place, let the Holy Spirit guide the Ordinary Provincial Councils, since they still have to give final approval for the vows of the various novices.
