Carrying the Eucharist to the Corners of the Earth

Today we celebrate the founding of our religious Congregation, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, by St. Gaspar del Bufalo, in 1815, in a small town called Giano, in a country that was not yet but would become Italy.

From that small group led by St. Gaspar, who had acquired an old abbey that needed a lot of work, in a town that is just a speck on the map, our mission was established. Compelled by the power of the Precious Blood, Missionaries now serve in 20 countries around the world in more ways than St. Gaspar could probably ever have imagined. Yet we remain true to his vision, that the people of God can be reinvigorated and inspired and empowered, by turning their minds and hearts toward the Precious Blood that Jesus shed for them.

It has not always been easy. In fact, ministry seldom is. We walk alongside people in pain, who are struggling for understanding and who want to get closer to God but may not see the way. We hold up the light. We build bridges.

In a recent sermon, Fr. Denny Kinderman, C.PP.S., talked about the everyday challenges of his ministry at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago, one of the many places where St. Gaspar’s legacy lives on.  “People say, “How do you keep doing what you do (at PBMR)?’”.  We’re just doing God’s work. We carry the Eucharist to the corners of the Earth where people most need the light. When my strength fails, that’s when I hear Jesus ask, ‘Where is your faith?’ When we are in the midst of our darkest hour, we trust in the one who can make a way out of no way, and we say, ‘Yes Lord.’”

Like Fr. Denny, Missionaries around the world are doing God’s work. In Spain, Poland, Tanzania, India, Vietnam, Guatemala, Chile, here in the U.S. and many other countries, we follow our faith traditions and find new ways to continue our mission set by St. Gaspar in 1815.

As Fr. Denny said, “The darkest hour, when Jesus shed his Blood on the cross, was not the end of the story. Whatever has our attention in our own darkest hour, any struggle, any storm, any troubled time, that’s the time to call on the power of the Precious Blood.”