Uniting Redemptorists and Laity in Faith and Service

Partners in Mission

Redemptorists have a long history of inviting the co-operation of lay people in carrying out the mission to follow Jesus by preaching the Gospel to the most abandoned. Collaboration between the Redemptorist Community and the laity is what we want to achieve. Through our Partners in Mission at Sacred Heart Church and St. Gerard’s Mission Church in New Smyrna Beach, FL, we Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers focus on our cooperation with lay people in both theory and practice, sharing our mission and our life with them. 

The Partners in Mission Group at Sacred Heart Church and St. Gerard’s Mission Church comprises twenty members, sixteen lay people and four Redemptorists. We have been gathering monthly since March 2024. Our priests from the Redemptorist Villa are also part of our Partners in Mission group and include Fr. Tom Deely, Fr. Tom Travers, Fr. Frank Jones, and myself. Fr. Felix Catala, also from the Villa, had helped us initially in the formation of our Partners in Mission group. 

Our group has already reflected and shared two booklets compiled and edited by Fr. Tom Travers: “Styles of Private Prayer” and “A Journal for Giving Thanks.” At the moment, we are doing a group study on the life and spirit of Saint Alphonsus Liguori using the book “Never Stop Walking” by Nancy Fearon, IHM. Through our study, reflection, and sharing, we try to understand those important factors necessary for a full Christian life as experienced through the Redemptorist lens: to be with Jesus (Communion) and to be sent out (Mission).

I would like to thank Fr. John Tizio, our Pastor and Rector, for his constant support, encouragement, and guidance