Who We Are

                           The Welcome Home – A Mission of St. Alphonsus Inc. (1993)

“Houses of hospitality must be built for the poor in every city of every diocese (eparchy).”  ~ Council of Nicaea

 1.      Religious life begins on the periphery. The founders of religious communities feel their hearts stretched by some group, some need, peripheral to the concerns & interests of the mainstream church and society. This was the experience of St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of The Redemptorists who realized a strong call from God “to bring the good news to the poor and most abandoned”. This was also the experience of Fr. Achilles Delaere, a Redemptorist from Belgium, who set aside his native language and culture and his Roman Rite church to selflessly serve Ukrainian pioneers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in the early 1900’s. 

        Both St. Alphonsus and Fr. Delaere showed a characteristic willingness to respond to those to whom no one else was ministering. They chose to live where other’s who have a choice would choose not to live. Their dedication to Christ led them to those who were outside the Churches regular pastoral care. 

       Alphonsus required that Redemptorists live among those to whom they are sent. The members are to have direct and personal contact with the poor – to actively seek them out and to make their common life of prayer & faith available to them. It is in this spirit that one needs to understand The Welcome Home today.

       In 1989, the Ukrainian Redemptorists began a process of dialogue with Ukrainian Catholic young adults who challenged Redemptorists to return to their roots and live their mission of reaching out to the poor; the young adults declaring, “If you be our heart, we will be your hands and legs.” So began a collaborative effort between Redemptorists and laity to give expression to the Redemptorist charism in our contemporary society. In 1993, The Welcome Home opened its doors to a struggling neighborhood in Winnipeg. Ever since, it has striven to invite and include laity to live with Redemptorists the ideals of community life and ministry through a commitment of time and talent to The Welcome Home mission. Lay volunteers are a critical component of our ministry.  The Redemptorists invite Catholic men and women to come and live with them in the community and to help them in their mission.  Since 1993, we have had over 50 lay persons live and work together with Redemptorists.  Some come for one year, and others have stayed for two or more.  

The Welcome Home is a ministry of the Redemptorist Province of Canada.  

2.     The larger context of this effort is the lives of the people who decide to trust and befriend us. As St. John the Compassionate said, “the poor are our masters and teachers.” The Spirit of God forms and directs our ministry through the people we encounter. 

        We serve families and individuals in the Point Douglas neighborhood and beyond who are socio-economically challenged, low and fixed income and are open to the possibilities of sharing positive and faith-based values in communion with others.  Until the pandemic, we offered small group activities: a women's cooking class, a recovery group for those struggling with addictions, individual counselling, the experience of prayer, religious education, and a weekly food-bank. We assist people with transportation needs through a bus-token program. We host several larger gatherings through the year and an annual BBQ at the end of June, followed by a day-camp for the children in July. 

       Our welcome extends to all so we are multi-cultural. Many of the regular members of this community have been participating for more than 10 years, some for more than 20 years. 

One of the highlights of our week is the Thursday evening vespers and community supper, appropriately dubbed “Family Night.” Here, the Icon of Hospitality comes alive. Both young and old, poor and non-poor, the educated and unlettered, the hurting and the healed, gather at the table of prayer and fellowship, one body in Christ. This is their “house church” as many have come to call it. 

Over the years, this gift of relationship has borne fruit in the catechesis and baptism of children and adults which leads us to the celebration of the Sunday Divine Liturgy. It has become a spiritual home for those who did not have one. 

3.     Our outreach as a faith-based initiative proposes an understanding of the human person that includes a constitutive spiritual dimension. In caring for people, we care for the whole person which includes this spiritual dimension. Members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church who share in our ministry have found an avenue for their generosity and a venue for making the gospel meaningful in their lives. 

       The Welcome Home reflects the mission of the Church in the words of Pope Francis, “to heal hurts and warm hearts.” We are constantly invited beyond our personal comfort zones to see life through another lens. How better to see the shortcomings of one’s view of the world than by comparing it with that of others. Our own conversion is deepened, for egoism cannot last long in a place that constantly demands self-giving and our capacity for compassion grows. 

4.     One of the most important outcomes of our work is expressed in a thematic phrase used by Redemptorists: To evangelize the poor and to be evangelized by the poor. Relationship is an instrument of evangelization. It invites a mutuality and reciprocity. It is risky and unpredictable but it calls us into communion with God and each other. The Welcome Home is about building community. It is about a friendship which invites the discovery of one’s dignity and belonging in Christ. 

        Implicit in this relationship with poor and marginalized people is the common denominator of one’s own poverty. Those who come to give or serve often find their own capacity for compassion, patience and understanding stretched. The wounds of others remind us of our own. While accompanying those who are on the periphery of our society and church, we learn to be less judgmental, more inclusive and patient as we ask, “What is your story?” “How did life get to be this way? “ The struggles and needs of others will raise questions within us about society, racism, greed, and the way the world works. As St. Pope Paul VI once put it, “There can never be personal conversion without also working for societal transformation.”