In the cathedral of the diocese in which I used to live the Redemptorists from a local monastery give an annual novena in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It is one of the biggest events in the city with about 15,000 people attending the novena each day. I have not attended the novena every year but in my opinion there is now far less emphasis on Mary than there was ten years ago. I don’t know why this is - assuming that the Redemptorists have not wavered in their devotion to Mary, it could be (even subconsciously) a response to the common Protestant accusation that we worship Mary. Indeed, in former years it would have been understandable if Protestants got that idea from the Redemptorist novena.
I know that many people find the novena to be a great help to them - for many it is a highlight of their year, but I have never really regarded the sermons very highly. Certainly, as others have said they are easy to understand, but I very often feel that many of the preachers will say anything to keep the people happy - I expect they see the novena as a most opportune time to get people back to the Church, but there have been so many times when they have shied away from Church teaching so as to avoid offending some people. One example - in 2007, St Valentines Day fell during the novena, and so the sermon was on the topic of Love. I can’t remember exactly what form the sermon took but the priest mentioned about unmarried cohabiting couples and then he said: “Don’t worry, I’m not going to start talking about contraception - that battle was fought and won many years ago.” That may be true, but the Church’s teaching on the matter has remained the same, and as he was the one who mentioned contraception in the first place, he should have defended the Church’s position. This priest, by the way, is known to hold many controvertial views and has had books published in which he attacks the Church’s position on priestly celibacy, homosexuality in the priesthood; as the title of one of his books suggests, he does not believe that the Roman Church is the Church which Christ founded. Thankfully this priest was not one of the preachers at this years’ novena.
Having said all that - while I personally would not feel attracted to the Redemptorist order - there are many people who are attracted to the Redemptorist way of life. In Ireland it is one of only two orders - the Dominicans are the other order - which still is attracting several (above average) vocations to the priesthood each year. I certainly have much time for the Dominicans, but it has to be said that the Redemptorists must be doing something right too!
