It can be found here.

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Statio, Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, Comtemplatio

Stop, read, reflect, pray, live differently.

Here are some helps for the nine days beginning Friday.

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"The traditional image of the Madonna of the Rosary depicts Mary holding the child Jesus in her arm and giving the rosary to St. Dominic. This significant iconography shows that the rosary is a means given by the Virgin for contemplating Jesus and, meditating on his life, for loving and following him always more faithfully." Benedict XVI

The Rosary as a Prayer of Communion

The Rosary is a familiar form of prayer for many Catholics, but it is also a greatly misunderstood prayer as well. Many Non-Catholics believe it is an exercise in mindless repetition or idolatry of Mary. Many Catholics believe that rosary will gain us extra favors or that it can be used as jewelry. Our community has what it refers to as the Precious Blood Rosary as well as what is understood as the more traditional Marian rosary.

The heart of the Rosary is a living relationship with the Lord Jesus and a desire to spend time in his company immersing oneself in the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection. Meditating on these mysteries enables us to remember and to live the heart of the gospel. Knowing these 15 stories, not only with our minds, but with our hearts enables us to walk with Jesus, to pray with him, and to do his will.

The Rosary is essentially a prayer, contemplative prayer. All the emotions of wonder, awe and reverence go with this prayer. All the aims of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina are relevant here. Meditating on the mysteries enables one to “read” the life of Jesus each day. More than reading, meditating on the mysteries in this manner enables one to “chew” the words, to taste them in much the same way as Ezekiel took the scroll on which the Word of God was written and ate it.(1) The use of imagination helps us to enter the story, to hear the voices and to feel the emotions. As the Angel greets Mary in the Annunciation we feel her wonder and doubt. Imagine, the creator of the world being given to you to hold and to care for. Imagine yourself saying “be it done to me according to your word.” Immersing ourselves in the mystery of the Visitation allows us to join in the chorus of “blessed is the fruit of your womb” and to celebrate that “nothing will be impossible for God.”(2)

The praying of the rosary is not about the repetition of many prayers, but a time piece to mark the moment of prayer. Spending time with one another is exactly how a relationship grows and we are drawn into a communion with one another. The prayers we use to mark this prayer experience are fundamentally conversations with the Word of God drawn from the Scripture. The first part of the “Hail Mary” is two passages from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel. The second part of the “Hail Mary” is the prayer of the church in response. So too, in the rosary we add our own voice, listening to the Word of God and responding from our heart.

The Rosary is an incarnational prayer. The Word was made flesh. In this prayer we use not just mind and heart, but voice and hands as well. In the rosary we are impelled to offer our “bodies as a living sacrifice.”(3) Many of us carry the rosary in our pockets or purses as a reminder, as a tool to carry the prayer with us throughout the day. In this way we follow the command to “pray without ceasing.”(4)

It is through Mary that the Word was made flesh and so in this prayer we also honor the mother of God. She is the one who believed.(5) She is the one who pondered all these things in her heart.(6) She is the one who stood faithfully at the foot of the cross.(7) She is the one given to us to take into our home.(8) For Precious Blood people who remember Gaspars’ devotion to Mary, the Rosary is an important prayer. It is a tool by which we imitate Gaspar who accomplished everything by prayer, we pray with Mary to whom he was so devoted, and we accompany one another in the bond of communion which he so wonderfully preached. Without the correct understanding of Jesus and Mary, without the knowledge of the scripture and the mysteries of the Life of Jesus, the Rosary would be incomprehensible. But with all these things, the Rosary enables us to enter more completely into that intimate communion Jesus established in his own blood.

(1)Ezek 3:3
(2)Luke 1:37
(3)Rom 12:1
(4)1 Thess 5:17, see also Luke 18:1
(5)Luke 1:45
(6)Luke 2:51
(7)John 19:25
(8)John 19:27

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Vistors from Don Marco's Blog are invited to find more on this topic here.

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Tonight's Adult Faith Formation class is on Prayer and Lectio Divina.

An important part of any prayer is the act of listening. Certainly when we come to God we ask for what we need and we praise God for his goodness. But we must also come with an openness seeking to listen to his will and to his way. Worship means that we listen to the Master’s voice and respond. The Holy Father in our own day, and even our own spirituality as members of a Precious Blood family call us to listen to the voice of Jesus’ Blood which speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

The scriptures speak of the Good Shepherd who brings out his flock and goes before them. They follow him because they know his voice. (John 10:1-10) If many of us do not live on farms this image may not speak to us, but if we have ever had a family dog, we know that the sound of our voice is enough to call the pet to our side. This is the kind of listening we need to develop with God.

How do we listen to God? How do we pay attention to his heart, to his way and to his word? The ancients used a practice known as Lectio Divina or Sacred Reading. There are many ways of using this practice down through the centuries and it is described in many ways. Lectio is a reading of the Bible or other sacred texts like the Fathers of the Church or St. Gaspar and Blessed Maria de Mattias in a prolonged contemplative prayer and dialogue. This is different from spiritual reading where one might read several chapters of a spiritual book in one sitting. In Lectio one reads a passage slowly in a way that enables one to “chew” the words, to taste them in much the same way as Ezekiel took the scroll on which the Word of God was written and ate it. (Ezek 3:3) Some find it helpful to read the text aloud and this was very common as an ancient practice. It may take an hour or so to read the Gospel of Mark, but with Lectio it would take several weeks or months.

The first task is to bring yourself, your life and situation to a place of prayer. Prayer is not about a life we imagine we might want to live, but about the life we are living. Then select a passage from a book in the bible or from another of our sacred texts. Read the passage over a few times. Maybe read the passage aloud. Try not to form any response to the text, but listen to what is being said. Go beyond to the text to the person speaking. Now sit for a few moments of silence with what you have heard. What was said? What did God say? Then read the passage again a few more times. This time ask yourself how the passage made you feel. What feelings did these words or this situation provoke in you? Try to avoid thoughts, opinions or judgments but stay with the feelings. What is the heart of Jesus saying? How does my heart respond to his feelings? Then rest for a time in silence with these feelings. Read the passage again a few times. This time ask yourself how God wants you to put his word into action. What is the invitation or the challenge? What must I do to see the Word made flesh in me? Select one concrete action that you can accomplish in the coming day or week. Make sure that it is something you can do, and commit to doing it. Close with a short prayer, maybe the Our Father or another favorite prayer.

Lectio is a reading of God’s word with the eyes and ears of a spouse. It is not a prayer to confirm my own understanding of life. It is a word that desires to break in, to upset my prejudices and lead to a fuller revelation. Lectio is long term activity, not a source of immediate gratification. Lectio is about vocation, the call of God. We are to hear God as he is and not as we want him to be, and we are called to respond. This is a prayer that is to be applied to my own life situation. This time of prayer is supposed to be purposelessness with a sense of gratuity, leisure, and peace. It is about a relationship of love and is not intended to be utilitarian. Reading and praying is not just for the mind. The body must be involved. At the end of the prayer take a passage, a sentence or a word to remember through the day and to bring us back to the encounter.

Because Lectio Divina is dialogue it is therefore reception, self-gift and communion. It is reception by attention and reflection; self-gift through our response; communion through encounter. Our companion on this journey is Mary who kept all these words in her heart.

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Blessings to all on the Solemnity of the Most Precious Blood.(July 1st) In a world where little is precious or sacred, maybe it is time to reflect on the true freedom given to us in the Most Precious Blood. The following is an old article of mine, basically my homage to St. Gaspar's letter 57. I post it here to move it from my old blog and to make it available for any new readers.

Blood is not pleasant to think about sometimes. Some become squeamish. At the same time, blood has a central place in some of our violent movies and other entertainment. There we do not pay attention to it. It is not real in the movies. Still, spend a few moments thinking about blood, your blood. Stop. Take your pulse. Blood is central. It is powerful. Its action, its force, what it carries, gives us life. It moves faster, we move faster. It fails, we fail. It is the silent, ever present essence of the power of life.

Our ancestors had a vastly simpler, maybe primitive approach to blood. It was simply where life met death and death met life. Fresh, warm, crimson blood was an offering, a sacrifice, a gift back to God, taking the substance of the life God had given and, giving it back, offering it all. We flinch when the priest passes among us on Easter morning scattering the water of the newly blessed font over the people. Can you imagine what it was like in the desert when inaugurating the covenant Moses took half of the blood of the bulls and splashed it on the people? This was before dry cleaning was even imagined. You were stained. It didn’t come out. It was an enduring mark of life. Life branded you, stained you, claimed you as belonging to a covenant with life itself. It was remarkably more than the privileges of membership, and you can’t leave home without it. This primitive approach developed through time to an elaborate ritual in the holy of holies where the blood of sacrifice was placed in the temple’s inner heart on the mercy seat. Blood was a way to communicate with God, to approach the very limits of life and death and receive in return his life and forgiveness.

St. Gaspar would invite us to this same reflection, but then would ask us to spend a few more moments reflecting on God’s blood, divine blood. His letters indicate it is too little to call this blood significant. Somehow our words do not convey its grandeur. This blood was the flaming outburst, the burning expression, the extravagant generosity, of a God of unreasonable and unimaginable kindness. (1) The human body of the Son of God becomes the holy of holies, and now the blood on the mercy seat is the blood rushing through his precious heart. His death on the cross and the tearing of the veil in the temple indicate that the presence of the divine has been snatched from a temple of stone and placed in the temple of a human heart where it is most defeated, overwhelmed or broken. We may think that God has abandoned us in our struggles; yet, in fact, he is closest to the broken and forsaken. You who once were far off have been made near through the Blood of Christ. (2)

This blood has a voice, a piercing cry. For Gaspar the sound of this blood extinguishes any noise of sin. (3) This voice cries out clearly on behalf of sinners and any who are broken. This voice cries to the heavens when life is lost or blood is shed. This is precisely where a devotion to or spirituality of the Precious Blood identifies us. Reciting a devotion is untruthful if it does not correspond to devoted living, and a spirituality is empty if it is not a way of life. A Spirituality of the Precious Blood drives us to follow that voice, to take it up as our own. St. Gaspar would plunge us into these mysteries, (4)bending to its gentle crushing force that urges us on to a courageous love, first for the ineffable love of God, and in the same beat of the heart, to a love for all people, especially those who are far off. Yes, blood can be messy, but it is sacred too.

NOTES
1. Letter 57
2. Eph. 2:13
3. Letter 52
4. Letter 57

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A few years ago I found this wonderful little article about Advent on the EWTN website. It had a vague familiar ring to it, and then I saw that I had written it. The address and phone number they have for me is not correct and the whole Sonnino Mission House ideal was given up long ago.

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This is an article written previously for Precious Blood Family

The spirituality of the Precious Blood was not new with St. Gaspar in the early Nineteenth Century. He himself was the one who told us that this "devotion of ours is so antique" (1) it goes back to the very beginning. He was to assert that this devotion is "the basis, the sustenance, the essence"(2) of all other devotions. Thus we consider other saints as part of the Precious Blood Family.

This month we consider the life and witness of St. Ignatius of Antioch. He was a Syrian, a convert from paganism, and was the third bishop of Antioch. He was one of those who came to believe through the powerful preaching and example of the Christian community in Antioch, an important community in the spread of the gospel outside of Palestine. It was in Antioch that the believers were first called “Christians." Antioch was one of the first communities to integrate people who had no acquaintance with Judaism. Antioch, as a young church, knew that part of the call was to send out missionaries. They are the ones who commissioned Barnabas and Paul as missionaries. One source indicates Ignatius may have taken over the Church in Antioch around the year 69.(3) Another source states it was during the reign of Emperor Trajan (AD 98-117) that Ignatius was condemned as a Christian and sent to Rome under chains to face martyrdom.(4) Our modern ears may think that he unnaturally desired this martyrdom, yet if we spend time with his letters and breathe the air he breathes, we shall see that his death is a marvelous testament to life.

Little is known of his life in Antioch. What we know of him is from his arrest and deportation to Rome to become a feast for lions in the Roman amphitheater. On his journey to Rome under guard, representatives visited him from various churches and cities along the route. His seven letters were written to the communities of those who visited him, or to the cities he had previously visited on this journey. There is much in his writings that finds resonance in the life of our own St. Gaspar.

Greetings in the Blood of Jesus

One of the trials of Ignatius was to hear of those Christians who had denied the reality of Christ's sufferings. In effect, they denied the reality of his Body and his Blood. For them, God had visited his people, but he had not become human. This is an ancient heresy known as Docetism. For Ignatius, to deny Jesus' humanity was to deny our salvation. "I want you to be unshakably convinced of the birth, the passion, and the resurrection which were true and indisputable experiences of Jesus Christ, our Hope."(5)

Blood then became for Ignatius, the symbol of the stark reality of Jesus humanity and his sufferings. His letters, with salutations like "greetings in the Blood of Jesus,"(6) were filled with references to the "divine Blood."(7) "For let nobody be under any delusion; there is judgement in store even for the hosts of heaven, the very angels in glory, the visible and invisible powers themselves, if they have no faith in the Blood of Christ."(8) For Ignatius, the pouring out of Jesus Blood was the essence, the real experience of Jesus' love. Love is the very blood of the Christian life, the "energy coursing through its veins and arteries."(9)

Gasparian Echoes

One of the central ideas in Ignatius' letters is the focus on humility that would be echoed centuries later in the writings of St. Gaspar. In Ignatius this humility was the key to his hope for martyrdom. Accounting the suffering as joy was a way of acknowledging eternal life, and that death was not the end. To focus on preserving his life would be, for him, the same as saying that Jesus' gift of life had no meaning. Humility was the key to victory. "I have great need of that humility which is the prince of this world's undoing,"(10) he wrote. Not only could he not focus solely on his present life, but also he enjoined his correspondents to do nothing to save him, ensuring that he belonged entirely to Jesus alone. (11) Very much related to this was his focus on silence. The creative stillness, the silence of God brought about a great redemption in silence in what he referred to as trumpet-tongued secrets: Mary's virginity, her childbearing, and the death of the Lord. All of these were done in the silence and humility of lowly flesh, yet overturned the power of death. (12)

Another focus in Ignatius that finds an echo in Gaspar is the emphasis on the unity of the church and the respect paid to the leaders of the Church. Ignatius' letters are the earliest writing we have on church order that includes the three orders of bishop, presbyter and deacon. Gaspar’s devotion to Pope Pius VII would have made St. Ignatius very happy. Ignatius demanded "complete unity, in the flesh as well as in the spirit."(13) He proclaimed Christ in the flesh so completely, that he taught that obedience to the bishop was the same as obedience to Christ. We can have no life apart from Jesus in the flesh, and the only way this could be accomplished in the flesh was by submission of mind and heart to the bishop.(14)

For Ignatius, blood was life itself. But more than that it was Jesus very real life giving life and salvation to us. Both Ignatius and Gaspar remarked how this life was being denied in the world in which they lived. For us in this day, this life is most precious. We celebrate St. Ignatius Feast on October 17 each year, four days before the feast of St. Gaspar. As this saint is such a strong witness of the importance of Jesus' Precious Blood his letters and story should be an important part of our preparation for our founder’s feast. As we take the cup at each Eucharist, we remind ourselves of the joy Ignatius took in his impending suffering. Suffering is not a sign that God abandons us, rather it is precisely the place the Lord comes to accompany us, not just in spirit, but in his own flesh. Everything we do now in the flesh, joys and sufferings, are now done in his body, with his blood, in his love.

FOOTNOTES

(1).Gaspar del Bufalo, letter to Pope Leo XII, July 29, 1825
(2).ibid.
(3)Butler's Lives of the Saints, Concise Edition, Michael Walsh, ed., HarperSan Francisco, 1991, pg. 341.
(4)Early Christian Writings, Penguin Classics, Maxwell Staniforth, trans. pg 55
(5)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Magnesians, 11; all quotes from the Letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch are taken from Early Christian Writings except where indicated.
(6)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Philippians, 1
(7)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, 1
(8)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to The Symrnaeans, 6
(9)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Trallians, 8, see footnote in text referring to Lightfoot translation.
(10)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Trallians, 4
(11)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans
(12)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, 19
(13)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Magnesians, 13
(14)St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to Polycarp

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Here is my article on St. John Chrysostom

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...on his feast.

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This was article for Precious Blood Family Magazine and a repost from late 2003. It is basically my homage to St. Gaspar's letter 57

Blood is not pleasant to think about sometimes. Some become squeamish. At the same time, blood has a central place in some of our violent movies and other entertainment. There we do not pay attention to it. It is not real in the movies. Still, spend a few moments thinking about blood, your blood. Stop. Take your pulse. Blood is central. It is powerful. Its action, its force, what it carries, gives us life. It moves faster, we move faster. It fails, we fail. It is the silent, ever present essence of the power of life.

Our ancestors had a vastly simpler, maybe primitive approach to blood. It was simply where life met death and death met life. Fresh, warm, crimson blood was an offering, a sacrifice, a gift back to God, taking the substance of the life God had given and, giving it back, offering it all. We flinch when the priest passes among us on Easter morning scattering the water of the newly blessed font over the people. Can you imagine what it was like in the desert when inaugurating the covenant Moses took half of the blood of the bulls and splashed it on the people? This was before dry cleaning was even imagined. You were stained. It didn’t come out. It was an enduring mark of life. Life branded you, stained you, claimed you as belonging to a covenant with life itself. It was remarkably more than the privileges of membership, and you can’t leave home without it. This primitive approach developed through time to an elaborate ritual in the holy of holies where the blood of sacrifice was placed in the temple’s inner heart on the mercy seat. Blood was a way to communicate with God, to approach the very limits of life and death and receive in return his life and forgiveness.

St. Gaspar would invite us to this same reflection, but then would ask us to spend a few more moments reflecting on God’s blood, divine blood. His letters indicate it is too little to call this blood significant. Somehow our words do not convey its grandeur. This blood was the flaming outburst, the burning expression, the extravagant generosity, of a God of unreasonable and unimaginable kindness. (1) The human body of the Son of God becomes the holy of holies, and now the blood on the mercy seat is the blood rushing through his precious heart. His death on the cross and the tearing of the veil in the temple indicate that the presence of the divine has been snatched from a temple of stone and placed in the temple of a human heart where it is most defeated, overwhelmed or broken. We may think that God has abandoned us in our struggles; yet, in fact, he is closest to the broken and forsaken. You who once were far off have been made near through the Blood of Christ. (2)

This blood has a voice, a piercing cry. For Gaspar the sound of this blood extinguishes any noise of sin. (3) This voice cries out clearly on behalf of sinners and any who are broken. This voice cries to the heavens when life is lost or blood is shed. This is precisely where a devotion to or spirituality of the Precious Blood identifies us. Reciting a devotion is untruthful if it does not correspond to devoted living, and a spirituality is empty if it is not a way of life. A Spirituality of the Precious Blood drives us to follow that voice, to take it up as our own. St. Gaspar would plunge us into these mysteries, (4)bending to its gentle crushing force that urges us on to a courageous love, first for the ineffable love of God, and in the same beat of the heart, to a love for all people, especially those who are far off. Yes, blood can be messy, but it is sacred too.

NOTES
1. Letter 57
2. Eph. 2:13
3. Letter 52
4. Letter 57

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Day Nine: The Holy Spirit gives us the wonderful peace of God.

From the Word of God
Psalm 55: 2-9

Listen, God, to my prayer; do not hide from my pleading; hear me and give answer. I rock with grief; I groan at the uproar of the enemy, the clamor of the wicked. They heap trouble upon me, savagely accuse me. My heart pounds within me; death's terrors fall upon me. Fear and trembling overwhelm me; shuddering sweeps over me. I say, "If only I had wings like a dove that I might fly away and find rest. Far away I would flee; I would stay in the desert.

Conclusion

Lord God of Power and might, nothing is good which is against your will, and all is of value which comes from your hand. Place in our hearts a desire to please you and fill our minds with insight into your love, so that every thought may grow in wisdom and all our efforts may be filled with your peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

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Day Seven: The Holy Spirit guides us to the fullness of truth.

From the Word of God
I John 1: 1-10

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life-- for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us-- what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete. Now this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say, "We have fellowship with him," while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we say, "We are without sin," we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

God of wisdom and love, source of all that is good, send your Spirit to teach us your truth and guide our actions in your way of peace. Grant this through Christ our Lord.

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Day Six: The Holy Spirit frees us from sin and lukewarm half-heartedness

From the Word of God
Psalm 26

Give judgment for me, O LORD:
for I walk the path of perfection.
I trust in the LORD; I have not wavered.

Examine me, LORD, and try me;
O test my heart and my mind,
for your love is before my eyes
and I walk according to your truth.

I never take my place with liars
and with hypocrites I shall not go.
I hate the evil-doer's company:
I will not take my place with the wicked.

To prove my innocence I wash my hands
and take my place around your altar,
singing a song of thanksgiving,
proclaiming all your wonders.

O LORD, I love the house where you dwell,
the place where your glory abides.

Do not sweep me away with sinners,
nor my life with bloodthirsty men
in whose hands are evil plots,
whose right hands are filled with gold.

As for me, I walk the path of perfection.
Redeem me and show me your mercy.
My foot stands on level ground;
I will bless the LORD in the assembly.

Father, you call your children to walk in the light of Christ. Free us from darkness and keep us in the radiance of your truth. Grant this through Christ our Lord.

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Day Five: The Holy Spirit communicates the divine life to us.
From the Word of God
Zech 12: 8-10

On that day, the LORD will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the weakling among them shall be like David on that day, and the house of David godlike, like an angel of the LORD before them. On that day I will seek the destruction of all nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition; and they shall look on him whom they have thrust through, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they shall grieve over him as one grieves over a first-born.

Father, your love never fails. Hear our call. Keep us from danger and provide for all our needs. Grant this through Christ, our Lord.

Pray the “Veni Creator, Come Holy Spirit�?

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Day four: The Holy Spirit teaches us to make our own life a gift.

From the Word of God
1 John 4: 1-10

Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them. We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

Silence
Prayer
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be
Conclusion

Almighty and ever-living God, your Spirit made us your children, confident to call you Father. Increase your Spirit within us and bring us to our promised inheritance. Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Pray the “Veni Creator, Come Holy Spirit�?

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Day Two: The Holy Spirit Changes Chaos into Cosmos

From the Word of God
Psalm 33

Ring out your joy to the LORD, O you just;
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.

Give thanks to the LORD upon the harp,
with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
O sing him a song that is new,
play loudly, with all your skill.

For the word of the LORD is faithful
and all his works to be trusted.
The LORD loves justice and right
and fills the earth with his love.

By his word the heavens were made,
by the breath of his mouth all the stars.
He collects the waves of the ocean;
he stores up the depths of the sea.

Let all the earth fear the LORD
all who live in the world revere him.
He spoke; and it came to be.
He commanded; it sprang into being.

He frustrates the designs of the nations,
he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.

They are happy, whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen as his own.
From the heavens the LORD looks forth,
he sees all the children of men.

From the place where he dwells he gazes
on all the dwellers on the earth;
he who shapes the hearts of them all;
and considers all their deeds.

A king is not saved by his army,
nor a warrior preserved by his strength.
A vain hope for safety is the horse;
despite its power it cannot save.

The LORD looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul is waiting for the LORD.
The LORD is our help and our shield.
In him do our hearts find joy.
We trust in his holy name.

May your love be upon us, O LORD,
as we place our hope in you.

Nourish your people, Lord, for we hunger for your word. Rescue us from the death of sin and fill us with your mercy, that we may share your presence and the joy of all the saints. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen

Pray the “Veni Creator, Come Holy Spirit�?

The entire Novena can be found here.

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Mary, Woman of the New Covenant.

Madonna of the Precious Blood. You have to get past all the pictures to the article.

My paper on Devotion to Mary.

The Rosary as a Prayer of Communion

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The Rosary is a familiar form of prayer for many Catholics, but it is also a greatly misunderstood prayer as well. Many Non-Catholics believe it is an exercise in mindless repetition or idolatry of Mary. Many Catholics believe that rosary will gain us extra favors or that it can be used as jewelry. Our community has what it refers to as the Precious Blood Rosary as well as what is understood as the more traditional Marian rosary.

The heart of the Rosary is a living relationship with the Lord Jesus and a desire to spend time in his company immersing oneself in the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection. Meditating on these mysteries enables us to remember and to live the heart of the gospel. Knowing these 20 stories, not only with our minds, but with our hearts enables us to walk with Jesus, to pray with him, and to do his will.

The Rosary is essentially a prayer, contemplative prayer. All the emotions of wonder, awe and reverence go with this prayer. All the aims of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina are relevant here. Meditating on the mysteries enables one to “read�? the life of Jesus each day. More than reading, meditating on the mysteries in this manner enables one to “chew�? the words, to taste them in much the same way as Ezekiel took the scroll on which the Word of God was written and ate it.(1) The use of imagination helps us to enter the story, to hear the voices and to feel the emotions. As the Angel greets Mary in the Annunciation we feel her wonder and doubt. Imagine, the creator of the world being given to you to hold and to care for. Imagine yourself saying “be it done to me according to your word.�? Immersing ourselves in the mystery of the Visitation allows us to join in the chorus of “blessed is the fruit of your womb�? and to celebrate that “nothing will be impossible for God.�?(2)

The praying of the rosary is not about the repetition of many prayers, but a time piece to mark the moment of prayer. Spending time with one another is exactly how a relationship grows and we are drawn into a communion with one another. The prayers we use to mark this prayer experience are fundamentally conversations with the Word of God drawn from the Scripture. The first part of the “Hail Mary�? is two passages from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel. The second part of the “Hail Mary�? is the prayer of the church in response. So too, in the rosary we add our own voice, listening to the Word of God and responding from our heart.

The Rosary is an incarnational prayer. The Word was made flesh. In this prayer we use not just mind and heart, but voice and hands as well. In the rosary we are impelled to offer our “bodies as a living sacrifice.�?(3) Many of us carry the rosary in our pockets or purses as a reminder, as a tool to carry the prayer with us throughout the day. In this way we follow the command to “pray without ceasing.�?(4)

It is through Mary that the Word was made flesh and so in this prayer we also honor the mother of God. She is the one who believed.(5) She is the one who pondered all these things in her heart.(6) She is the one who stood faithfully at the foot of the cross.(7) She is the one given to us to take into our home.(8) For Precious Blood people who remember Gaspars’ devotion to Mary, the Rosary is an important prayer. It is a tool by which we imitate Gaspar who accomplished everything by prayer, we pray with Mary to whom he was so devoted, and we accompany one another in the bond of communion which he so wonderfully preached. Without the correct understanding of Jesus and Mary, without the knowledge of the scripture and the mysteries of the Life of Jesus, the Rosary would be incomprehensible. But with all these things, the Rosary enables us to enter more completely into that intimate communion Jesus established in his own blood.

NOTES
(1)Ezek 3:3
(2)Luke 1:37
(3)Rom 12:1
(4)1 Thess 5:17, see also Luke 18:1
(5)Luke 1:45
(6)Luke 2:51
(7)John 19:25
(8)John 19:27

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Here is my article on St. Catherine.

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This will be the last post of The New Gasparian. The changes are almost ready; we have worked out some of the kinks and we are almost ready for an unveiling. The blog will have a new name, a new look, a new direction and a new focus. As I said before it is time for reform and refounding.

The archives of this blog from July of '02 will remain here and may even take on the new look. You may have noticed that I cleaned up the links already. Thanks to RC of Catholic Light for all the hard work. For someone on the other coast whom I have never met in person, he has been a tremendous help and even a kindred spirit.

Watch this site in the coming days for the unveiling of the new blog.

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Apostle to the East
Co-patron of the Missions
Patron of the Missionaries and Adorers of the Precious Blood
Patron of the Apostleship of Prayer
feast day, December 3

Francesco de Jassu y Xavier was born in 1506 in the Basque region of Navarre. Instead of following his older brothers into military service, he went to the University of Paris when he turned eighteen. After he finished his master's studies, Francis served as a professor. He hoped to complete a doctorate in philosophy and eventually be ordained a priest. As a member of the nobility, he aspired to a prestigious position as canon of the cathedral in Pamplona.

Francis and his friend Pierre Favre acquired an unusual roommate in 1528, a former soldier who had experienced a remarkable conversion while recovering from serious wounds -- Inigo de Loyola. Though Francis first resisted Loyola's enthusiasm, he became one of Ignatius' original company. They made religious vows in 1534 and made their way to Venice. They served in hospitals while waiting for an opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Francis, along with Ignatius and several others, was ordained in 1537. Since the wars with the Turks continued to make their pilgrimage impossible, Ignatius and his followers left Venice and offered their services to the pope as missionaries.

The Society of Jesus was officially approved as a religious order in 1540. Ignatius immediately sent Francis to Portugal, since King Joao III was eager to have the Jesuits serve as missionaries in the Portuguese colonies in Asia. After spending a winter in Mozabique, Francis set sail for India.

The story of his journeys is an epic adventure. He arrived in Goa in May 1542 and went on from there to Cape Comorin in the south of India. Here he spent three years working among the pearl fishers, or Paravas. From there he went on to the East Indies, to Malacca (a major city on the Malay Peninsula) and to the Molucca Islands (south of the Philippines, now part of Indonesia). In 1549, he set out for Japan. He died on December 3, 1552, on the island of Sancian, off the coast of China near Canton.

Thus in ten years, he traversed the greater part of the Far East. When one considers the conditions of travel, the means of transport, the delays and difficulties which beset him at every stage, it is, even physically an astounding achievement. It is even more remarkable when one considers that he left behind him a flourishing church wherever he went and that the effects of his labors remain to the present day.

Many miracles have been attributed to Saint Francis. He is said to have possessed the gift of tongues, to have healed the sick and even to have raised the dead. That he possessed the gift of prophecy seems to be certain, but he can hardly have possessed the gift of tongues. The evidence is, on the contrary, that he had to rely throughout on interpreters to translate his message into the different languages he required. The real miracle of his life, as has been said, was the miracle of his personality, by which he was able to convert thousands to the faith and win their passionate devotion.

The body of Saint Francis was brought back to Goa. His tomb is in the church of the Bom Jesu, the Good Jesus. It is perfectly preserved!

Francis Xavier and Saint Gaspar del Bufalo

Saint Gaspar's family lived near the Jesuit Church of the Gesu in Rome, where there is a shrine to Saint Francis Xavier, including his right arm. When Gaspar was about eighteen months old, he contracted smallpox. Fearing that her son would be blind even if he lived, Gaspar's mother prayed at the shrine of Saint Francis. Her prayers were answered! Gaspar's lifelong devotion to this great missionary led him to place the community under his patronage.

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For daily Lenten Reflections click here. It is in pdf format and you need a free Adobe Reader.

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Saint Paul the Apostle

This great missionary was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a coastal region of what is now Turkey, north of the island of Cyprus. Perhaps he was given the name Saul because, like the first king of Israel, he was a member of the tribe of Benjamin. As the son of a Roman citizen, he was also given a Latin name, Paulus--Paulos in Greek. His devout family sent him to the school of the Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem for his religious education (Acts 22:3). He also learned a trade, processing wool for tentmaking (Acts 18:3). The only other thing we know about his family is that he had a sister living in Jerusalem (Acts 23:16). It's not clear whether Paul was ever married.

Most of what we know about Paul's life is found in the Acts of the Apostles: his persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem, his encounter with the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus, his preaching in the Antioch community, the three long missionary journeys, and the years of Paul's imprisonment. Acts also records a great deal of his preaching, including two accounts of his conversion. Surprisingly, Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome, and not his martyrdom. Paul shed his blood for Christ during the persecutions of the Emperor Nero, around the years 65 to 67.

Although Paul insists on the directness of Jesus' revelation to him, (Galatians 1:11-23), he was not a solitary figure. He had remarkable companions. When he arrives in Damascus blinded, the Lord sends Ananias to Saul, who instructs him and brings him to the community. The apostles are afraid of Paul when he arrives in Jerusalem, but Barnabas assures them of the zeal of his preaching about Jesus. Later, Barnabas is sent to Tarsus to fetch Paul back to Antioch. The community sends Barnabas and Paul to Jerusalem together (Acts 11 and 12) and then on a missionary journey (Acts 13 and 14). On the later two journeys, Paul was accompanied by Timothy, Titus, and Silas (also called Silvanus). He worked as a tentmaker with Priscilla and her husband Aquila while he was living in Corinth. (Acts 18:2)

Paul's letters were written before any of the gospels were completed. Scholars are not able to date each letter exactly, or even to put them in definitive order. (In the bible, they seem to be ordered by length: Romans is the longest, though one of the last written). Paul wrote when people needed encouragement, when he had heard about disputes and abuses, or when he needed something. The letters are not broad summaries of the faith, with the exception of Romans. But his advice on the importance of unity among believers of diverse heritages is as relevant to us as it was to the churches of Asia Minor. Several of the letters traditionally attributed to Paul were most likely written after his martyrdom, by people who had accompanied him on his journeys and who had been formed by his teaching.

As Saint Gaspar encourages us to do, Paul read the book of the cross. "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18) and "Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:22-24) For Paul, God's power and mercy are fully revealed in the death of Christ. "All this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

The blood of Christ is central to Paul's reflection on the cross. In the letter to the Romans, Paul contrasts the first covenant with the new covenant. "The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood." (Romans 3:21-25) The blood of Christ is a sign of God's drawing near to us: "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life." (Romans 5:8-10)

In the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, Paul's reflection on the blood of Christ has matured like a choice wine. "In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us." (Ephesians 1:7-8) and "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13) "For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross." (Colossians 1:19-20)

Saint Gaspar drew on all these readings in his writing and preaching. Another favorite of our founder's is the second half of 2 Corinthians 7:4: "I am filled with encouragement; I am overflowing with joy all the more because of all our affliction." This is a very supportive message in the midst of trials. How is Gaspar able to find joy in such difficulty? Perhaps we can get a hint from context; the Pauline passage continues, "for even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way: external conflicts, internal fears. But God, who encourages the downcast, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus, and not only by his arrival but also by the encouragement with which he was encouraged in regard to you, as he told us of your yearning, your lament, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more." The second letter to the Corinthians is full of intense conflict and misunderstanding, but in the end, the Corinthians write that they have been "saddened into repentance" and accept Paul's criticisms. Perhaps Gaspar is saying that those he is confident that those who oppose him will see the truth of his position in the end, and that the same will be true for us.

We celebrate the martyrdom of Saint Paul on the same day as that of Saint Peter, on June 29. We also celebrate Paul's conversion on January 25, at the culmination of the week of prayer for Christian unity.

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A Blessed Advent to all! This is my favorite season of readings, prayers and songs. I hope you all take advantage of the Advent reflections posted to the right. Many thanks to RC for making the link. The reflections were composed by many sisters and priests in the Precious Blood Community. You will find mine on the Tuesdays of Advent.

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I wrote this song back in the 80's. It is sung by a good friend. The text is based on an ancient jewish Cantor's prayer.Cantor's Prayer MP3 file

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We miss celebrating the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch this year because it is a Sunday. He had a great devotion to the Blood of Christ and his letters are quite an inspiration.

Here is an article on St. Ignatius of Antioch

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The September 15 Feast, Our Lady of Sorrows, is celebrated in the Precious Blood Community as, Mary Woman of the New Covenant.

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Some reading for the feast of St. John Chrysostom

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For more on Precious Blood Companions click here.

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Even on Vacations, there always seem to be deadlines that intrude. My next article for Precious Blood Family is due today.

Ok it was done on limited resources. All my books are packed away, and reports are that they arrived in California today. It is a topic near and dear to my heart. I helped to begin Precious Blood Companions in the Province of the Pacific and was their director for several years.

The article was supposed to be 500-700 words. It is 900. Still I am sure that I left things out. I will wait to hear what that is when the Companions par excellence who drop by here leave their comments.

Click on the link below to read the whole article.

Ministry with the Laity is Central to our Identity
Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, CPPS

Ministry among, with and for the laity has been central to the Missionaries of the Precious Blood since the beginning. The Unio Sanguis Christi is the canonical association ministering alongside the missionaries since 1851 along with the Archconfraternity of the Precious Blood and other forms of association. Since 1990 Precious Blood Companions have been associated with the other North American Provinces. Through this association with the community they share in the mission, community life and spirituality of the Congregation.

St. Gaspar del Bufalo (1786-1837) was, from the beginning of his ministry, constantly involved with the preaching of missions and the promotion of associations for the laity. He collaborated with several individuals in the foundation of oratories and other associations. On October 23, 1808 Canon Gaspar del Bufalo, along with Father(later Bishop) Gaetano Bonanni and Antonio Santelli, established in the Church of S. Maria in Vincis, an Evening Oratory for the benefit of farm workers and other laborers who lived near the Piazza Montanara. (1) Later, on December 8, 1808, Gaspar preached in the Church of S. Nicola in Carcere on the occasion of the foundation of an association in honor of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, an association begun by Canon Francesco Albertini who would later become Gaspar's spiritual director. In 1813, as an consequence of their involvement with the Evening Oratory, Bonanni, Santelli and others began a formal, though unofficial, mission society entitled "Opera degli Operai Evangelici (Gospel Workers)" for the purpose of conducting retreats and missions. Gaspar, who wished to be involved in some missionary enterprise related to his devotion to the Most Precious Blood, joined the Gospel Workers Enterprise in 1814 when he returned to Rome from exile and prison. (2) It was members of this group, including Bonanni and Gaspar, that formed the Congregation of Missionaries of The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Giano, August 15, 1815.

In the missions that Gaspar preached, he became a great promoter of the "Association of the Precious Blood", now an Archconfraternity. He considered it a great instrument for the renewal of Christian Life. On the occasion of the more than 150 missions which Gaspar preached over the next several years, he began apostolic groups and pious associations, an ecclesial movement which included not only the laity, but also many priests and religious, who found in it a source of renewal for their life and ministry. (3)

The "Method of Missions of the Missionaries of The Most Precious Blood(1883)" (4) presupposed that several societies or "pious unions" would be founded on the conclusion of a preached mission. The principal foundation would be of the "Pious Union of The Precious Blood", which would continue and extend the effects of the mission, provide a diversion from the "snares" of the world, promote devotion to the Precious Blood and the celebration of the appropriate feasts in honor of the Precious Blood. Other societies founded would meet the needs of the people in that community: The "Sodality of St. Francis Xavier" for the men, the "Union of the Ladies of Mary" for the Women, the "Sodality of the Children of Mary" for the young girls and the "Society of St. Aloysius of Gonzaga" for the young boys. There is also mentioned a "Confraternity for the Country People" who would meet on feast days to hear a sermon adapted to their needs. Each of these societies had their own set of particular rules and would be established in order to promote a Christian way of life, foster particular devotions and practices, provide support for the frequent reception of the sacraments, preserve the purity of morals and the spirit of religion, provide for the care of the poor, the sick and abandoned and the preservation of justice, order and righteousness which is of "great assistance to the private and public good".

The choice of the sodalities founded would be made on the advice of the resident clergy and a few of the "better people". Not all societies would necessarily be started, but only those that would meet the need of the people and have a reasonable chance of success. Some laity and a few "fervent" clergy would be solicited to lead the groups, and the faithful would be urged from the pulpit to join the appropriate association. Great care was to be taken in the selection of leaders and coordinators, as it was taken for granted that they would not long be able to lead the sodalities without the assistance and cooperation of the local ecclesiastical Superior or support from initial pastoral agents involved in follow-up work.

�[One] point for our meditation is our activity in furthering those objectives which lead towards the glory of the Lord. This we do in seeking to give them permanence through the Associations which our Community proposes, using the means that it designates as well as the practices which it encourages.� (5)

It is important simply to gather the people and begin remembering that we gather to support each other and to form a foundation for our common mission. We gather not because we are good at it or because we have a particularly clear vision of the future. We gather because we share a tremendously important gift in this spirituality, we are in need of communal support in living Christian lives, and we wait to hear our own story in the Word of Life remembering again that the word of God was written by human hand and has lived in human flesh. We gather because we know that we are a living expression of what it means to be "church." We are not alone. The mission of the church has been given to all the baptized. The C.PP.S mission is a gift and challenge to the C.PP.S. Community, and also to the Laity.

FOOTNOTES

1.Andrew Pollack, C.PP.S., Historical Sketches Of The C.PP.S., C.PP.S. Resources, No. 1., (Carthagena, Ohio: The Messenger Press, 1988), p. 3-4.

2.Luigi Contegiacomo, C.PP.S., St. Gaspar's Prison Experiences 1810-1813, trans. Raymond Cera, C.PP.S., C.PP.S. Resources, No. 3, (Carthagena, Ohio: The Messenger Press, 1988)

3.Union of The Blood of Christ, "Sanguis Christi", General And Regional Statutes, (San Pablo: Society Of The Precious Blood, 1983)

4.Henry Rizzoli, C.PP.S., Method Of Missions of The Missionaries of The Most Precious Blood, trans. anon., (Carthagena, Ohio: The Messenger Press, 1883), pp. 29-30.

5 St. Gaspar del Bufalo, Circular Letter 11

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This is an article once published in Precious Blood Family. It is posted for the Feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More celebrated tomorrow.

Echoes Through the Centuries

Devotion to the blood of Christ is the fount from which all other devotions spring. No devotion is more fundamental. And we find this truth echoing through the Centuries.

There are some remarkable echoes we see in the life of St. Gaspar when reading the story of St. John Fisher. John Fisher was a martyr in 1535, a contemporary of St. Thomas More. Their feast is celebrated together on June 22.

Refusing the Oath

On June 13, 1810 St. Gaspar was brought before the magistrate to profess an oath of allegiance to Napoleon. "I would rather die or suffer evil than to take such an oath. I cannot. I must not. I will not," was the now famous reply, echoing the strength of confessors of the Faith from Jesus before Pilate to the present day. St. Gaspar spent the next four years in a variety of prisons.

John Fisher was Bishop of Rochester, a friend and teacher of Henry VIII. When Henry decided to separate the church in England from the Church of Rome, many of the other bishops signed an oath in support of Henry�s action. John Fisher refused and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

John Fisher was born in 1469 in Yorkshire. John's father Robert Fisher was a mercer, a merchant of fine cloth. In 1482 or 1483, when he was 13 or 14, John Fisher's mother sent him off to the University of Cambridge. The School where John Fisher studied had a strong theological orientation. John completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1488 and his Master of Arts degree in 1491. After ordination he began the long course of studies for a doctorate in theology, which we was awarded in 1501 commencing an impressive academic career. He was so respected by other scholars that they named him chancellor for life, a rare honor. In 1504, King Henry VII nominated John Fisher to be the bishop of Rochester, a post he held for 30 years.

Despite his duties at Cambridge and in London, Fisher was tireless in the service of his diocese. It is noteworthy that Fisher was content to remain bishop of Rochester, when he could have easily secured appointment to a richer and more prestigious diocese. John Fisher's steadfast service and his personal prayer were noted by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo of Milan, now also a saint, when he sought to describe how a bishop should live. Like Gaspar, Fisher was concerned with the theological education and formation in preaching available to diocesan priests.

In the first three months of 1534, in a short space of ten weeks, Parliament passed a number of acts that asserted the king's power over the bishops and set in motion the Reformation in England. All the King's subjects of full age were required to take an oath to the whole arrangement. On April 13, 1534, Fisher was summoned to appear in London to take the required oath. He refused the oath and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Sir Thomas More and a number of other priests were summoned and imprisoned on the same dates.

Throughout their imprisonment, Fisher and More were quite specific in their resistance to the oath. Pope Paul III, created John Fisher a cardinal on May 20, 1535. Henry flew into a rage when he received the news and demanded that Fisher and More's jailers quit stalling. John Fisher was brought to trial on June 17th. There was no doubt that Fisher was guilty as charged. On June 22, 1535, John Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill, outside the city gates. His head was stuck on a pike on London Bridge, reminiscent of the actions Gaspar complained about when the papal armies worked against the bandits of Sonnino in his own time.

Devotion to the Blood

The focus of Fisher's preaching, reinforced by a rich collection of scriptural quotations, is the mercy and love of God. Fisher presents a number of grounds for the sinner's confidence in the mercy of God, but the preeminent one is clearly the blood of Christ. "By the effusion of his holy blood, [he] has given so great efficacy and strength to the holy sacraments of his church, that when we receive any one of them, we shall be sprinkled and made clean by the virtue of his precious blood." The selection for the Office of Readings for Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent is from this series of sermons.

In a sermon preached on Good Friday (the year cannot be determined) Fisher presents an extended metaphor of the crucifix as a book, a summary of "the very philosophy of Christian people. He draws on the scriptures from the Good Friday Liturgy of his day, on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, and on the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The crucifix is a universal book, which Christian women and men in all states of life and circumstances can read.

Generations later we find an echo in the life of St. Gaspar as he writes to his brother missionaries in his eighth circular letter:

�Jesus the Savior ardently desires to remind us to be recollected during the retreat and to read the great book of the Cross that we may acquire heavenly wisdom for the sanctification of ourselves and others. But, my dearly beloved, what do we read in the wounds of Jesus Crucified if not this, that Christ is the mystic rock struck with the staff of the Cross: �When he struck the rock, waters gushed, torrents streamed out.�

Gaspar's Second Circular Letter also recommends the crucifix as the book for the missionaries to read.

Also in his preaching, Fisher was devoted to the seven blood sheddings of Jesus, drawing on the same font of spirituality that would touch the life of Francesco Albertini and St. Gaspar centuries later.

Every age, every generation, is called to know the riches of God�s mercy found in the Precious Blood of Jesus. Now in our Family of Saints we have a friend from England who is witness for us of this devotion. May we be as fearless as this noted scholar and preacher in defending the faith in our own day.

Sources

�Companion to the Calendar� Mary Ellen Hynes, Liturgy Training Publications, 1993

�Saint John Fisher�, E. E. Reynolds. The University of Glasgow Press, revised edition, 1972.

�The Works and Days of John Fisher,� Edward Sturz, S.J. Harvard University Press, 1967.

�Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: The Career of Bishop John Fisher,� edited by Brendon Hanshaw and Eamon Duffy, Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Precious Blood Companion Maureen Lahiff served as research assistant on this article

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A Precious Blood Companion reports they took the article from my blog and used it for their meeting on Monday, May 24th, The Feast of Mary Help of Christians. I am delighted. I offer their experience as a vehicle for on-going discussion.

The article is here.

This is what our Precious Blood Companions did:

We started with Evening Prayer II from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When we had prayed the psalms and listened to the reading, we turned to your article on the Madonna of the Precious Blood to which I added three reflection questions.

We took 10-15 minutes for everyone to read the article silently and reflect on it. We had a lively conversation - good sharing and then we ended with the Magnificat, some intercessions, the Our Father and closing prayer and a blessing from Fr. Joe.

Keep the discussion going. How about responding to one of their questions in the comments?

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Something to remember for this month.

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This is the image that St. Gaspar took with him on every mission.

This is a photo of the original painting after it was restored. It hangs in the St. Gaspar Museum, Albano, Italy.

This is a modern statue. It stands in the Cloister at Abbey of San Felice, Giano 'del Umbria, Italy. San Felice is the Motherhouse of the Precious Blood Missionaries.

This image hangs in the Precious Blood Spiritual Center, Columbia, PA

This image is from Peru. It hangs in the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, O'Fallon, MO.

This statute stands in the Province Center, Pacific Province, San Leandro, CA

This is a wood carving that sits on my desk here in Chicago. I purchased the statute in 2001 in a little gift shop that is on the roof of St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.

This is a embroidered banner. It hangs in my bedroom and it travels with me on every mission.

Here is my latest article for Precious Blood Family. This month it is on the Madonna of The Precious Blood.

Madonna of the Precious Blood
by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, CPPS

Blood might be something we think about in medicinal terms if we are checking our cholesterol, or it could be part of the entertainment culture in movies that portray violence in graphic reality while we sit comfortably in our theatres. Maybe occasionally we think of Blood as gift and we treat it as a commodity that can be donated.

The gift of Jesus' Blood is an incredible and ineffable mystery that we seek to express in a variety of images. This month we pay special devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, that living chalice that by obedience becomes the human home for that divine blood to be formed as the creator of the universe takes human flesh and blood and pitches his tent among us.

The traditional image of the Madonna of the Precious Blood was a painting by Italian artist Pompeo Batone (1708-1787). St. Gaspar asked the painter Andrea Pozzi(1) to add a chalice to the child's hand and to add clothing. In a recent restoration of the painting the clothing has been removed, but the chalice remains. This image traveled with St. Gaspar on every mission and became the focus for his initial preaching. In various letters you find him giving instructions on how the image is to be copied. He insisted that the image should be beautiful, not sad, and that the great gift should be evident. She is the means by which our devotion to Christ remains human, and we experience his love and his gift in our daily experience.

In the rule of 1841 it is noted that it is the custom of our Congregation that each of our churches has an altar in which the faithful may venerate The Blessed Virgin who gives us this divine Child holding in his right hand this sacred chalice showing it to his Mother. Our Holy Mother invites all sinners to take for ourselves this "divine medicine" in order to heal us of our sins and to immerse ourselves in a life of virtue and grace.

Our Congregation has venerated our Holy Mother under a variety of titles. St. Gaspar placed the congregation under the protection of Mary, Help of Christians (May 24) and Venerable Merlini promoted devotion to her under this title. Francis de Sales Brunner who brought the CPPS missionaries to the United States was devoted to the Holy Virgin under the titles of Mother of God, and Sorrowful Mother. Our Missionaries in Guatemala promote devotion to her under the title in the native Quecha language. Her name, reflective of a Quecha ritual means literally, the Lady who gives us to drink. The Adorers of the Precious Blood promote the devotion under the title Mary, Woman of the New Covenant and celebrate her feast on September 15.

We live in an inhospitable world uncommitted to a reverence for life. Too many people still separate themselves from the feast she offers, and she continues to present this world to Jesus with the words, "they have no wine." Then she offers us the cup and says, "Do whatever he tells you." The grace of our salvation is God's work yet she remains "a vital participant, a central figure and the first recipient"(2) She invites us to the Feast of this new covenant where we take and drink the Blood of the new and everlasting Covenant. In this we become living chalices as well, and continue to offer the world this remedy from darkness sharing the experience of relationship and belonging to the Body of Christ.

NOTES
(1)A letter November 1825 Gaspar writes: "I do not know who the painter was, in Rome, who depicted my Madonna. The one that added the Chalice to it is Mr. Pozzi; but the image was carried on the Missions by other Missionaries who are already deceased."
(2)Robert Schreiter, CPPS

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The White-robed Army of Martyrs Praise You
by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S.

This is the second in a series of articles on the praises of the Te Deum. In a letter to Fr. Santarelli in May of 1827, St. Gaspar, reflecting on the glory of the believer united with God, erupts into a Te Deum-type litany. Here we celebrate the glorious witness of the martyrs who have gone before us.

In the everyday Greek of the eastern end of the Roman empire, martyr simply means witness. From the earliest centuries, Christians have given the word martyr a distinctive meaning-a martyr is one who dies for their belief that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul refers to Stephen as a martyr in a speech recorded in chapter 20 of the Acts of the Apostles. Our dictionaries reflect this, defining a martyr as �a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion,� along with a wider meaning, �a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle.�

The white robe comes from the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 6:9-11, �those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the word of God� are given white robes. In Revelation 7, those who have survived the great time of distress and persecution have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. The description of the martyrs as an army reflects the battle imagery of Revelation.

From the earliest days, women and men of all ages have been martyrs. Agnes (January 21), Agatha (February 5) and Lucy (December 13) were very young. Irenaeus of Lyons (June 28) and Ignatius of Antioch (October 17) lived full lives� their letters have come down to us from the second century. We honor all of the apostles as martyrs, with the exception of John, who died in exile. In the first centuries, popes (Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius and Cyprian), bishops and deacons (Lawrence August 10, Vincent, January 22) were martyrs. Rich and poor, slave and free (Felicity and Perpetua, March 7), people from all classes of society have been martyrs. We proclaim our unity with these martyrs in Eucharistic Prayer I, which lists several of their names.

Sometimes entire families have been martyrs. Missionaries and catechists have been martyrs (Boniface, June 5, and the martyrs of Japan and Korea.) Those who have stood up for the teachings of Jesus in countries that have supposedly been Christian for centuries have been martyrs (Stanislaus, April 11, Thomas � Becket, December 29).

Tertullian of Carthage wrote to the martyrs near the end of the second century. His praise of the martyrs and their enduring gift to the church is summed up in one memorable sentence: �The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians� from his Apology.

As Christianity spread in Asia and Africa, converts and missionaries together became martyrs. Among the martyrs commemorated as saints are those of Japan (February 5 and September 28), Uganda (June 3), Korea (September 20), and Vietnam (November 24). In North America, on October 19, we honor the Jesuit missionaries killed by the Iroquois-Isaac Jogues, Jean de Br�beuf, and their companions Noel Chabanel, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Gabriel Lalemant, all priests, and Brothers John Lalande and Ren� Goupil.

We honor those who gave their lives in the Nazi death camps as martyrs, such as Saint Maximilian Kolbe (August 14) and Saint Edith Stein (Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, August 9). Though they have not been raised to the dignity of the altar we pay respect and honor for those who have died in struggles for human rights as martyrs, such as Doctor Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers. We honor those slain in Central and South America for their defense of the poor. The martyrs of Latin America include Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador (March 24, 1980), Father Stanley Roether, slain in Guatemala, Maura Clarke, MM, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, MM, and Dorothy Kazel, OSU slain in El Salvador (December 2, 1980), and the Jesuit martyrs of the University of Central America, Ignacio Ellacur�a, Armando Lopez, Ignacio Martin Baro, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, Segundo Montez, Juan Ram�n Moreno, Celina Mariset Ramos, Elba Julia Ramos (November 16, 1989). Along with them, we honor thousands of martyrs whose names we do not know.

Catholics are joined by their Episcopalian and Lutheran brothers and sisters in celebrating the witness of martyrs. The martyrs of Uganda included Anglicans and Roman Catholics, as Pope Paul VI pointed out in his homily at their canonization. In the United States, the Episcopal Church honors the martyrs of Memphis on September 9. Thirty-eight Anglican and Roman Catholic sisters, laity, and clergy gave their lives nursing others in the yellow fever epidemic that struck that Tennessee city in 1879.

Our Precious Blood family includes martyrs. Gaspar del Bufalo himself is honored as a victim of charity. Gaspar did not hesitate to come to the aid of those suffering in a cholera epidemic in Rome, although his own health was not robust. Despite the precautions he took, Gaspar contracted the disease and succumbed to it. In our own time, the five Adorers of the Blood of Christ slain in Liberia in October 1992 � Shirley Kolmer, Mary Joel Kolmer, Kathleen McGuire, Agnes Mueller, and Barbara Ann Muttra� are honored as �the Martyrs of Charity.� Precious Blood Brother Hubert Mattle was gunned down at the door of the community residence in Altamira, Brazil in October 1995.

The Holy Father has called us to honor all Christians who shed their blood for the faith. The witness of the martyrs of our time strengthens us as we stand for the dignity of human life in a time marked by a culture of death. As we sing the Te Deum, �the white-robed army of martyrs praise you,� may this great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) inspire and strengthen us! We may not be called to shed our blood, but we are called to give witness to love and reconciliation in Jesus� name.

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