Making Reverent Connections
Redemptorist Father Gilmour speaks on St. John Neumann
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
Making Reverent Connections
Lois Rogers
Redemptorist Father James Gilmour, a contemporary member of the saint’s religious order, who has followed in his footsteps with a ministry to immigrants, shared his personal insights of following St. John Neumann’s saintly path at intervals during the seven-hour visitation of the relics.
The relics have been on a “Neumann Year” tour sponsored by the Redemptorists commemorating the 200th anniversary of the saint’s birth. Throughout the visit to St. Peter Church, which is one of two worship sites of Jesus, the Good Shepherd Parish, Father Gilmour, co-director of the Hispanic Ministry Office for the Metuchen Diocese, focused on the many ways in which the mission, ministry and gifts of his saintly predecessor are relevant today.
Speaking variously in Spanish – when he delivered the homily at the regular Spanish Sunday Mass – and in English at the 4 p.m. prayer service which preceded the closing 5 p.m. Mass with Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., Father Gilmour connected the story of St. John Neumann to the saga of the ongoing immigrant experience of Catholics in America.
Sitting in the back of the church just before the prayer service began, Father Gilmour spoke of how the saint’s connection to the wide-ranging immigrant communities in the New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore archdioceses of his own life time makes him a saint for our times as well.
“He was an immigrant when he came to America and he came here to serve an immigrant community,” said Father Gilmour.
Father Gilmour took pleasure in noting the white stone monument in the back of the church which once marked the landing site of a pastoral visit by St. John Neumann as the 4th bishop of Philadelphia to the German immigrants who belonged to St. Peter Parish in the 19th century.
Just as now, there was a lot of hostility to immigrants, Father Gilmour said. Improving their lot in life was such an important part of his ministry, Father Gilmour said. “That is what makes it so relevant to the Church today.”
Today, he noted, Jesus, the Good Shepherd Parish continues in that tradition, welcoming members of the area’s growing Hispanic community.
“That is a real and beautiful connection,” said Father Gilmour, who spent years serving the spiritual needs of people in Paraguay and in American parishes with large Hispanic populations such as Immaculate Conception in the Bronx and St. Cecilia Parish in East Harlem.
“It is a connection that symbolizes the roots of our Christian communities in history and all through the years…it’s a story of parishes and diocesan communities down through history and right to today,” said Father Gilmour.
The visitation of the relics, he said, was a way to “honor one of the people so important in our history who has given us a model of Christian life.”
Father Gilmour said he has looked to St. John Neumann for inspiration all of his religious life and shared a special story of his connection to the saint.
Noting that St. John Neumann was the first vocation to the Redemptorist order in America, Father Gilmour said it was so meaningful to him to be able to sign his name in the same book St. John Neumann had signed when he professed his vows.
“That I was able to sign my name in that book put me in (direct) touch with his holiness and his response to the call of god to be a missionary. In a very important way, I feel I have followed along in his journey ever since.”
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Redemptorist Father James Gilmour, a contemporary member of the saint’s religious order, who has followed in his footsteps with a ministry to immigrants, shared his personal insights of following St. John Neumann’s saintly path at intervals during the seven-hour visitation of the relics.
The relics have been on a “Neumann Year” tour sponsored by the Redemptorists commemorating the 200th anniversary of the saint’s birth. Throughout the visit to St. Peter Church, which is one of two worship sites of Jesus, the Good Shepherd Parish, Father Gilmour, co-director of the Hispanic Ministry Office for the Metuchen Diocese, focused on the many ways in which the mission, ministry and gifts of his saintly predecessor are relevant today.
Speaking variously in Spanish – when he delivered the homily at the regular Spanish Sunday Mass – and in English at the 4 p.m. prayer service which preceded the closing 5 p.m. Mass with Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., Father Gilmour connected the story of St. John Neumann to the saga of the ongoing immigrant experience of Catholics in America.
Sitting in the back of the church just before the prayer service began, Father Gilmour spoke of how the saint’s connection to the wide-ranging immigrant communities in the New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore archdioceses of his own life time makes him a saint for our times as well.
“He was an immigrant when he came to America and he came here to serve an immigrant community,” said Father Gilmour.
Father Gilmour took pleasure in noting the white stone monument in the back of the church which once marked the landing site of a pastoral visit by St. John Neumann as the 4th bishop of Philadelphia to the German immigrants who belonged to St. Peter Parish in the 19th century.
Just as now, there was a lot of hostility to immigrants, Father Gilmour said. Improving their lot in life was such an important part of his ministry, Father Gilmour said. “That is what makes it so relevant to the Church today.”
Today, he noted, Jesus, the Good Shepherd Parish continues in that tradition, welcoming members of the area’s growing Hispanic community.
“That is a real and beautiful connection,” said Father Gilmour, who spent years serving the spiritual needs of people in Paraguay and in American parishes with large Hispanic populations such as Immaculate Conception in the Bronx and St. Cecilia Parish in East Harlem.
“It is a connection that symbolizes the roots of our Christian communities in history and all through the years…it’s a story of parishes and diocesan communities down through history and right to today,” said Father Gilmour.
The visitation of the relics, he said, was a way to “honor one of the people so important in our history who has given us a model of Christian life.”
Father Gilmour said he has looked to St. John Neumann for inspiration all of his religious life and shared a special story of his connection to the saint.
Noting that St. John Neumann was the first vocation to the Redemptorist order in America, Father Gilmour said it was so meaningful to him to be able to sign his name in the same book St. John Neumann had signed when he professed his vows.
“That I was able to sign my name in that book put me in (direct) touch with his holiness and his response to the call of god to be a missionary. In a very important way, I feel I have followed along in his journey ever since.”
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