Sunday Reflections from the C.PP.S.
C.PP.S. Members share their reflections on Sunday readings
Our Citizenship is in Heaven
By Fr. Harry Brown, C.PP.S. This Sunday’s theme for readings is Lift up your hearts to God in prayer. And yes, today’s readings deal with persons conversing with God. Let’s ask ourselves during Lent: “Do I find prayer really important? When do I pray? How often? Do I...
Discouragement is an Early Hurdle
By Fr. Tony Fortman, C.PP.S. So here we go! Lent is here. The fish fries, the giving up of candy and pop. These are some common ideas about our Lenten time. But Lent is a time of deep discussion with Jesus. Much of this discussion is on our own with Christ and much...
Lent on Two Levels
An Ash Wednesday message from our provincial director, Fr. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, when as a Church we turn our minds both inward and outward. We go through Lent on at least two levels. We experience it as a private...
Uniting our Hearts with the Heart of Jesus
By Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S. For the past couple of weeks our Gospel passages has come from a section of Luke’s Gospel referred to as the Sermon on the Plains. Immediately after Luke’s account of the calling of the apostles, Jesus begins to form them and teach...
Looking Past the Sin that Divides Us
By Brother Brian Boyle, C.PP.S. I was walking down a street in Des Moines, Iowa, my home for 2 years in the 90’s. A gentlemen on the corner asked for a dollar. What’s a dollar? He needed it more than I do. I gave it to him. He said, “I will have this back to you next...
Who Do You Trust?
By Fr. Tim Knepper, C.PP.S. Before their 30 years together on The Tonight Show, Ed McMahon became the announcer for Johnny Carson on a game show called Who Do You Trust? At first it was set up as a husband-wife game show, but then changed to men and women paired...
God Knows All About Our Imperfections
Fishers of Men (Ravenna) “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” (Luke 5:8) By Fr. Steve Dos Santos, C.PP.S. When I was ordained a deacon, then Bishop Allen Vigneron began his homily saying, “Steve, it is good that you picked as your first reading the...
St. Maria De Mattias, Passionate Pioneer
By Sister Anita Fearday, ASC St. Maria De Mattias, whose feast day and birthday is February 4, is the foundress of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. She was born in 1805 in Vallecorsa, a mountainous village about 56 miles southeast of Rome. Fr. Giovanni Merlini, a...
You are Patient, You are Kind
By Fr. Angelo Anthony, C.PP.S. One day a mom was driving her daughter to school when she began thinking, “I wonder what my daughter will be when she grows up?” Looking over at her daughter she noticed she was playing with her mom’s stethoscope. The mom thought to...
We Each Find Our Own Way
By Brother Matthew Schaefer, C.PP.S. When I was in initial formation with the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, one of my volunteer activities during the first semester was visiting people at Maria Joseph Nursing Center in Dayton. My first visit on my first day was...
Let the Celebration Continue
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. The Christmas season is over. The decorations put away. It’s Ordinary Time once again. The prophet Isaiah challenges us to continue the celebration, to continue to make some noise. He continues to prophesy about the reign...
Don’t Pack Joy, Love Away
By Fr. Matt Keller, C.PP.S. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and with our celebration today, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you view it, we draw our Christmas season to a close. The trees, the statues in our nativity scene, and...
To Be the Light
By Fr. Tim McFarland, C.PP.S. The timing of our great feasts this year seem to be rushed. The day after Christmas we celebrated the observance of the Holy Family when Jesus was 12 years old. A little over a week later we observe the Feast of the Epiphany. The Epiphany...
A Holy Family is Loving, Trusting
By Fr. Angelo Anthony, C.PP.S. Today we move quickly from the story of Christmas to Jesus as a boy of 12. We do not know much about the early years of Jesus’ life, so today’s Gospel gives us an unusual glimpse into his family life. Luke tells us that the Holy Family...
How Do We Revel in God’s Mysterious Gift?
By Brother Matthew Schaefer, C.PP.S. Last week I went to the store to get supplies for our religious education program’s Christmas party. As I turned into the Christmas aisle, looking for candy canes and chocolate Santas, I was faced with an entire row of empty...
More than Too Good to be True
By Fr. Matthew Keller, C.PP.S. We all know those people who can tell a good story with a straight face. You believe the story to be true, then you realize the story is fiction. Then they tell you another good story that seems to be real, but you do not believe it, and...
Give It All You’ve Got
By Fr. Tim McFarland, C.PP.S. As we read the newspaper, check the news on the internet or on TV, it is often discouraging. In Chicago (and other places), newspapers keep score of the shootings each weekend. For those of us who listen to the Scriptures this Sunday, it...
The Lord Has Done Great Things for Us!
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. Today’s readings call us to rejoice. While we wait for the coming of the Lord, we rejoice that Christ is already in our midst. While we prepare for the celebration of Christmas, we rejoice that our salvation has already come. The...
St. Francis Xavier, a Great Missionary
December 3 is the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, who is the patron of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. By Fr. Harry Brown, C.PP.S. Fr. Francis Xavier, priest and patron saint of the C.PP.S., lived to be only 46 years old—born in 1506 in Navarre, Spain, and died...
A Citizen in Christ’s Kingdom
By Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S. I have heard a story told of what is claimed to be the shortest homily every—just seven words. According to this story, it was on the Feast of Christ the King and after reading the gospel, the preacher paused dramatically to ensure...
No Worries, God is in Control
By Fr. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S. During this time of year in the northern hemisphere we begin to see signs of the upcoming winter. Trees that were once beaming with red, orange and yellow are now dropping their leaves, revealing barren branches. The sun is setting...
God’s Love Knows No Outsider
By Brother Brian Boyle, C.PP.S. Your actions, your efforts, and where and how you use your resources show who and what you are loyal to. These three readings remind me of that. In the first reading, a Phoenician widow and her son are preparing a last meal before...
Love, a Song God Puts on Repeat
By Fr. Tim Knepper, C.PP.S. Years ago, I worked at a retail store in the automotive department. We had a car stereo display where people could mess around with different systems before buying the one for their car. Probably, far more people messed around with the...
An Awesome God
Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. Our God is an awesome God, who reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God! God works wonders throughout history. The prophet Jeremiah proclaims to a people in exile: Shout with joy for Jacob…...
To Purify our Motivation
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. (Mark 10:43-44) By Fr. Steve Dos Santos, C.PP.S. As vocations director, I regularly ask inquirers some form of the question, “Why do you...
What Stands Between Jesus and Me?
By Fr. Angelo Anthony, C.PP.S. A wise woman who was walking in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met a traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked...
Jesus Shares our Humanity
By Brother Matt Schaefer, C.PP.S. Sometimes I’m perplexed by the readings chosen for Mass, especially some of the second readings taken from the New Testament. They can seem too brief; I imagine some of these readings are barely heard by many in the...
Setting a Good Example
Fr. Matt Keller, C.PP.S. They say that young children are easily influenced by what they see and hear. Some may say that are boys are more easily influenced than girls; whether that is true, I will leave up for debate. I would argue that adults at times are just as...
Give It All You’ve Got
By Fr. Tim McFarland, C.PP.S. As we read the newspaper, check the news on the internet or on TV, it is often discouraging. In Chicago (and other places), newspapers keep score of the shootings each weekend. For those of us who listen to the Scriptures this Sunday, it...
He Knows Exactly Who He Is
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. Who do you say that I am? It’s a simple question, but sometimes it is a question even I can’t answer about myself. Sometimes, hearing what others have to say about me helps me to understand myself better. That doesn’t seem to...