August 1, devotion to Sant'Alfonso Maria de'Liquori
Naples, 1696 - Nocera de 'Pagani, Salerno, 1 August 1787
He was born in Naples on 27 September 1696 to parents belonging to the city's nobility. Study philosophy and law. After a few years of advocacy, he decides to dedicate himself entirely to the Lord. Ordained a priest in 1726, Alfonso Maria dedicates almost all of his time and his ministry to the inhabitants of the poorest neighborhoods of eighteenth-century Naples. While preparing for a future missionary commitment in the East, he continues his activity as a preacher and confessor and, two or three times a year, takes part in missions in the countries within the kingdom. In May 1730, in a moment of forced rest, he meets the shepherds of the mountains of Amalfi and, noting their profound human and religious abandonment, he feels the need to remedy a situation that scandalizes him both as a shepherd and as an educated man of the century. of the lights. He leaves Naples and with some companions, under the guidance of the bishop of Castellammare di Stabia, he founded the Congregation of the SS. Savior. Around 1760 he was appointed bishop of Sant'Agata, and governed his diocese with dedication, until his death on 1 August 1787. (Avvenire)
PRAYER
O my glorious and beloved protector Saint Alfonso that you have labored and suffered so much to assure men of the fruit of redemption, look at the miseries of my poor soul and have mercy on me.
For the powerful intercession you enjoy with Jesus and Mary, obtain me with true repentance, the forgiveness of my past faults, a great horror of sin and the strength to always resist temptations.
Please share with me a spark of that ardent charity with which your heart was always inflamed and make that by imitating your shining example, I choose the divine will as the only norm in my life.
I implore for me a fervent and constant love for Jesus, a tender and filial devotion to Mary and the grace to always pray and persevere in divine service until the hour of my death, so that I can finally join you to praise God and Mary Most holy for all eternity. So be it.
FROM THE WRITINGS:
His literary production is impressive, since he comes to understand a hundred and eleven titles and to embrace the three great fields of faith, morals and spiritual life. Among the ascetic works, in chronological order, the Visits to the SS. Sacramento and Maria SS., Of 1745, The glories of Mary, of 1750, Apparatus to death, of 1758, Of the great medium of prayer, of 1759, and the Practice of loving Jesus Christ, of 1768, his spiritual masterpiece and the compendium of his thought.
He also split "spiritual songs": famous and exemplary, among these, "Tu scendi dalle stelle" and "Quanno nascette ninno", one in language and the other in dialect
From “VISITE AL SS. SACRAMENT AND HOLY MARY. "
Most Holy Immaculate Virgin and my Mother, Mary, I, the most miserable of all, have recourse to You who are the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the Advocate, the Hope, the Refuge of sinners.
I honor you, O Queen, and I thank you for all the graces you have granted me so far, above all for having freed me from hell, so many times I have deserved.
I love you, most amiable Lady, and for the great love I have for you I promise to always want to serve you and to do what I can so that others will love you too.
I place all my hopes in You; my salvation.
O Mother of Mercy, accept me as your servant, cover me with your mantle, and since you are so powerful in God, free me from all temptations, or obtain the strength to overcome them until death.
I ask You for true love for Jesus Christ and I hope from You to obtain the necessary help to die in a holy way.
My Mother, out of your love for God, please help me always, but particularly in the last moment of my life; do not leave me until you see me safe in Heaven to bless you and sing your mercy for eternity. Amen.
From "PRACTICE OF LOVING JESUS CHRIST"
All the holiness and perfection of a soul consists in loving Jesus Christ our God, our highest good and our Savior. Charity is what unites and preserves all the virtues that make man perfect. Doesn't God deserve all our love? He has loved us from eternity. «Man, says the Lord, consider that I was the first to love you. You were not yet in the world, the world was not even there and I already loved you. Since I am God, I love you ». Seeing God that men let themselves be drawn gives benefits, he wanted by means of his gifts to capture them from his love. He therefore said: "I want to pull men to love me with those snares with which men let themselves be pulled, that is, with the bonds of love." Such were precisely the gifts made by God to man. After having endowed him with a soul with the powers in his image, with memory, intellect and will, and with a body endowed with the senses, he created for him heaven and earth and many other things for man's sake; so that they serve man, and man loves him out of gratitude for so many gifts. But God was not happy to give us all these beautiful creatures. In order to capture all our love, he came to give us all of himself. The Eternal Father has come to give us his same and only Son. Seeing that we were all dead and deprived of his grace through sin, what did he do? For his immense love, indeed, as the Apostle writes, for the too much love he brought us, he sent his beloved Son to satisfy for us, and thus to give us back that life which sin had taken from us. And by giving us the Son (not forgiving the Son to forgive us), together with the Son he gave us every good: his grace, his love and paradise; since all these goods are certainly less than the Son: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him for all of us, how will he not give us everything together with him?" (Rom 8:32)