Sunday Reflections from the C.PP.S.
C.PP.S. Members share their reflections on Sunday readings
Open Your Ears, Open Your Heart
By Fr. Harry Brown, C.PP.S. The astonished crowd exclaimed after Jesus healed the deaf mute man, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Indeed, no one is outside God’s grace and Jesus’ healing touch. When Jesus said, “Ephatha” (Be...
Giving Ourselves Freely
By Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S. I wonder how many preachers will ignore today’s reading from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (5:21–32) and hope that no one asks about it. It is tempting to preach around the reading, since the text comes with the heavy baggage of...
Images of Mary Help Us in our Faith
By V. Rev. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S. Throughout the centuries artists have been inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the history of art, there seem to be whole centuries where the only subject painted was the Virgin and Child. These pieces of art have nourished the...
Freaking Out in a Boat
By Brother Brian Boyle, C.PP.S. Have you ever completed an accomplishment, overcome a fear, or come to full circle on something, only to shrink back to the same place that you started out? When I was in the eighth grade, I went out in a canoe onto Wolf Lake with my...
God has Enough
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. Five thousand hungry people, what are we to do? Where does he expect us to get enough food for such a crowd? As we look around the world today, there are so many people in need, so many that a crowd of five thousand seems small. So,...
Celebrating Freedom from Fear
By Fr. Angelo Anthony, C.PP.S. As a child I remember looking forward to the annual Fourth of July festival that was sponsored by my home parish. Every year this day of food and fun ended with the traditional fireworks display. We would ooh and ahh at the bright colors...
Blood of Jesus, Save us!
By Brother Matt Schaefer, C.PP.S. I’m sitting in the Blessed Sacrament chapel at the Sisters of Providence Center in St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., pondering how to write this reflection for our feast day. The focus of the chapel is an altar of repose topped by a marble...
The Gift of the Precious Blood
A message for the Solemnity of the Precious Blood from our Provincial Director Fr. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S. If you grew up with siblings, you may remember the feeling of holding your wrapped birthday gift and feeling the hot breath of a brother or sister on your...
Healing Comes in Unexpected Ways
By Fr. Matt Keller, C.PP.S. I feel for Jairus, the man who was seeking help from Jesus for his seriously ill daughter. Nothing would have been more frustrating and disappointing than to approach Jesus for help, only to have a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12...
Finding God in the Storm
By Fr. Tim McFarland, C.PP.S. For those who have little children, the Gospel story may bring to mind images that are familiar. You might recall sleeping soundly through a thunderstorm but then suddenly being awaken by a frightened child who tries to crawl into bed...
God Nurtures the Tender Shoot
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. For those who’ve never seen one: a mustard seed is just a bit bigger than the period that ends this sentence. It is indeed a very small seed. Sometimes we think we need to have great faith, we need to do great things, to deserve the...
Say Yes to the Adventure
By Fr. Tony Fortman, C.PP.S. I remember traveling down to Corpus Christ, Tex., with my family when I was 12 years old. My grandparents spent the winters down in Brownsville, so one Christmas my family decided to take off for Texas in a pick-up truck with a camper on...
Welcomed into the Circle of Love
By Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S. Have you ever considered how the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is a Precious Blood feast? At least as I gaze upon my favorite icon, I considered it one of our feasts. Andrei Rublev was a 15th-century Russian iconographer and his...
Mary is Concerned for Us
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. Weddings in Israel were celebrated for several days. Guest ate, drank, danced, told stories and rejoiced with the new couple. But if they ran out of wine before the celebration was over, it was quite an embarrassing situation. So, Mary...
Bringing Love to the World
By Brother Brian Boyle, C.PP.S. The readings today are challenges to look outside of our inner circles, niches, tribes, et cetera. The first reading tells how the apostles filled the twelfth slot that was left behind by Judas. The apostles may have already been in...
Joy is Found in Community
By Fr. James Smith, C.PP.S. Love is in the air. It seems strange to encounter this much love in the readings outside of mid-February. I guess it still fits, though, with this weekend being Mother’s Day. It is always a tricky task to navigate around the holidays of our...
Being Barnabas to Each Other
Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles. (Acts 9:27) By Fr. Steve Dos Santos, C.PP.S. I was born and raised in St. Barnabas Parish in Alameda, Calif. When I was a kid, it was always exciting when Barnabas’ name would begin to show up in...
Listen for the Voice of Jesus
By Fr. Angelo Anthony, C.PP.S. Pause for a moment. Do you hear it? The gift of peace and quiet. Sometime ago, someone sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal entitled, The Sounds of Silence. The author observed that it is amazing how cluttered life can become....
Disciples Struggled to Understand
By Brother Matthew Schaefer, C.PP.S. When I was little, my parents watched a TV series called Mission Impossible that was about a group of secret agents who fought against Eastern European governments and evil crime organizations. Every episode began with the team...
What Do We See on Home Videos?
By Fr. Matthew Keller, C.PP.S. Video cameras are all around us these days: just pull out your phone and press record and you’ll have a video. But I grew up in the era before cell phones. If you wanted to record a video, you needed a specific camera. I remember that...
Light in the Darkness
By Fr. Tim McFarland, C.PP.S. An elementary school teacher was telling her students the story of Jesus’ resurrection and what Easter was all about. Then to emphasize the idea of new life springing forth, she gave each of the children a large plastic egg. “Now,” she...
Forsaken!
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. In the opening Gospel at the beginning of Mass today, the crowds cry out, “Hosanna!” In the reading of the Passion, they cry out “Crucify him!” The disciples join with the crowds on Palm Sunday as he arrives in Jerusalem. At the Last...
Jesus’ Mission was to Save the World
By Fr. Harry Brown, C.PP.S. As a farm boy (before I entered the high school seminary), I watched firsthand as my mom baked the bread, the whole process. Unless that grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a grain of wheat. But wow—when it dies,...
Becoming Ambassadors of Christ
By Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S. (This Sunday there are two possible Gospel readings. This reflection is based on the story of the Samaritan woman at the well found in John 4:5-42.) The Gospel story of the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well is a...
Do We Trust God?
By V. Rev. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S. On this Second Sunday of Lent, we encounter two rich and vivid scripture passages. In our first reading, we are confronted with the difficult story of the binding of Isaac. Our Gospel reading presents us with an almost fantastical...
Time to Retreat
By Brother Brian Boyle, C.PP.S. The characters in the readings share at least one thing in common: they are confronting loss and fear. Noah and his family are floating in his ark reflecting on losing everyone in his whole community, and rebuilding his life from the...
Jesus Brings Us Back to Community
By Fr. Tim Knepper, C.PP.S. One of the sad aspects of life today is the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve got mask mandates, six-feet social distancing, and not interacting with people from outside our immediate households. At a funeral recently, a parishioner wanted to hug...
Where Are We Being Called?
By Fr. Dennis Chriszt, C.PP.S. Over the past year, since the pandemic started, many of us can identify with Job in today’s first reading. Life has become a drudgery. And many of us wonder if we shall ever see happiness again. Like Simon’s mother-in-law, too...
Feast Day of St. Maria de Mattias
St. Maria de Mattias is an important figure in our Precious Blood family and so on February 4, we say “happy feast day” to the Adorers of the Blood of Christ (ASC). St. Maria founded this congregation of religious sisters in 1834 in Acuto, Italy. St. Maria was...
Sister Hugs
By Fr. James Smith, C.PP.S. I know not how to speak, I am too young. I usually cringe at these words from Jeremiah when they arise in the lectionary. I realize I’m at the younger end of the spectrum of ages in an older and aging religious congregation. I realize too...