Companion Spotlight: John and Kathy Schroeder
“As was planted for me, so do I plant for my family.”
John and I have been part of the Precious Blood family our entire lives. We were born to families who were also born to families raised in the spirituality of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Our Precious Blood spirituality is a gift that was passed diligently down to us and to our daughter and her family.
We live on John’s family farm in Butternut, Wisconsin. Both John’s and my family immigrated from the Bavarian Region of Germany. For young immigrant families, hardships were plentiful. Thankfully, the families had deep faith in God to carry them forward. We’re doubly thankful for the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, who came to serve our parishes in northern Wisconsin in the early 1900s. This is when lifetimes of planting truly began.
In this early planting, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving were learned. The planting continued in the grief and the support of Fr. Kloeters, C.PP.S., who buried John’s great uncle Joe at 19 years young, when he slipped and fell trying to retrieve a horse rein that dropped on the way to New Year’s Day Mass. It was in the unexpected death of Fr. Graf, C.PP.S., the week of my parent’s wedding. It was in the way Fr. Niekamp C.PP.S., ministered to John’s family when John’s grandpa fell to his death while building a new barn for the farm in the 1940s. The planting continued when Fr. Victor Kreinbrink C.PP.S., came to the farm in the 1970s to tell John his 37-year-old father was killed in a logging accident. He left behind a wife and six kids.
Through it all, the spirituality and hospitality of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, inspired by the charism of St. Gaspar and blessed by God, carried our families. With that example and encouragement in our lives, we were honored to be invited to become Companions over 30 years ago by Fr. Joe Hajduch, C.PP.S. John and I have served on the Companions Council, and I have served as Convener of our Park Falls/Butternut group.
We have had many opportunities to share our Precious Blood spirituality. One that comes to mind could not have happened without the direct hand of God being involved. In 2020, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. We had a small herd of Texas Longhorns here on the farm and decided to sell them, as we didn’t know what direction my cancer would go and didn’t want to rely on others to take care of them. We purchased two retired horses to keep the pasture down. When the two horses were delivered, the previous owner disclosed that one of the horses, named Scarlet, had once been owned by a 27-year-old woman named Cierra. John and I did some investigating to find out who Cierra was and invited her to our farm to reconnect with her horse.
She came dressed to ride. The horse didn’t immediately recognize Cierra, until she started to ride her. All those cues Cierra taught Scarlet years ago immediately came back. We could see Scarlet looking back, realizing she was back with Cierra. It was mystical to watch. After the ride, Scarlet couldn’t get close enough to Cierra. She put her head on Cierra’s shoulder and on Cierra’s head. We could see absolute joy in both of them. Scarlet never had that type of connection with John or me. As the evening progressed, we learned that Cierra had lost her mother to suicide when she was seventeen. She didn’t have the means to keep the horse that she owned for years, so the riding stable offered to keep her and use her at the stable for rides, and Cierra would ride when she could. Once Cierra met her husband, had kids, and moved to Butternut, Scarlet’s ownership was transferred to the riding stable. We also learned that Cierra was battling thyroid cancer.
When it was time for Scarlet’s retirement, we were able to return her ownership back to Cierra. It is a joy for us to watch Cierra teach her kids to ride on the horse she grew up on and to watch the healing that God can do through a horse.
Through all the seasons of planting, it is an honor to be called a Companion of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. We feel the effort put into us has made us deeply rooted. We are thankful to have this spirituality poured into us throughout the generations, by the generations. We prayerfully call on all we have been taught as we make an attempt every day to live out this calling. We look to the future with hope.
John and Kathy Schroeder, Butternut/Park Falls, Wisconsin Companions