OMPH celebration

Experiencing for yourself the hidden beauty of the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help

April 2015

By Father Philip Dabney, C.Ss.R.

Twice in the course of his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) Pope Francis references the ancient principle bonum diffisivum sui (“the good is diffusive of itself”). When we find something that is good or beautiful or compelling—whether it is a movie, a work of art, a book, or a person—we don’t keep it to ourselves.

Rather, we are filled with a missionary fervor to share it. This is one of ways we can cultivate joy, bathing people as it were in those things that are suggestive of God because whatever is good, whatever is beautiful, reflects God.

This principle applies, par excellence, to our experience of Christ Jesus risen from the dead. We want, with a reckless abandon, to give this supremely good news away. This energy, this compulsion—“woe to me if I do not evangelize”—is, for Pope Francis, the beating heart of the Church.

Such is case with the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. In 1866 this beautiful icon was given to the Redemptorists by Pope Pius IX as of way of helping us in our mission of evangelizing the poor and most abandoned. Aware that this growing Congregation was about to begin a period of growth that would carry them throughout the world, the pope commissioned us to make the icon known and to proclaim, as had their founder, the glories of Mary, telling them: “Make her known throughout the world.”

Filled with a missionary fervor to share it, the Redemptorists made the icon a missionary, a painted gospel, proclaiming through its color, symbols, and figures, the abundance of God’s redemption.

Starting this April 2015, the North American Spirituality Commission is offering a series of retreats on the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Brother Dan Korn of the Denver Province will be leading these retreats to help Redemptorists and laity to have a deeper appreciation of the spiritual, pastoral, and missionary message contained in the icon.

Please plan to attend the retreat at West End from Monday, May 4, through Thursday, May 8, or one of the other retreats being offered. Click to download the complete list of retreats.