Welcome to our blog. In this space we share stories of our lives as Sisters of the Precious Blood. We hope you find our posts both enjoyable and inspirational. Please note: all comments are subject to approval before being displayed.
Several days of bright sunshine are the perfect invitation to get outdoors, even if the wind still carries the chill of late winter. I had accepted the invitation and was returning to the house after picking up some trash that littered the roadside. As I approached the front door my…
I still remember years ago seeing my first John 3:16 bumper sticker. Of course we cradle Catholics usually don’t know our Scriptures by heart, so after I had seen a couple more of these, I went to my Bible to see what this was about. Today in our Cycle B…
These thoughts are based on Cycle B, our 2021 lectionary cycle. This Sunday’s Gospel is the account of how Jesus cleansed the temple, driving out the merchants selling things there. (Some Masses, where those preparing for Easter sacraments are present, may use the Cycle A Gospel.) I was thinking about…
I always feel sorry for preachers on this Cycle B second Sunday of Lent, because the first Hebrew Scripture reading is the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. It’s a story that makes God look bad (why would God ask such a thing? Is God a tester?) and Abraham…
Lent might seem a somewhat severe season, but our readings today are positive and uplifting. The opening prayer might be a purpose statement for Lent — that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ…. In the brief Gospel, Jesus leaves the desert to announce to us…
After COVID, most of us may hear with heightened awareness this Sunday’s Gospel about Jesus healing a leper. The leprosy of our Gospel stories probably was not our Hansen’s disease, which is not very infectious, but more like fungal or parasitic skin infections which spread easily. So the result for…
A year ago at this time, I was in the midst of a 30-day retreat at a retreat center in Colorado. The silence, the time for prayer, the opportunity to immerse myself in the beauty of nature was healing and wholing (if that’s a word; if not, it should be).…
Things do not begin well in our first reading today. We hear about Job, a broken man. He has been assigned “months of misery” and “troubled nights,” and he laments that he “shall not see happiness again.” But Job is wrong, our responsorial psalm proclaims: Praise the Lord, who heals…
We are now a little more than four weeks into the new year and the weather in the Midwest gives the impression that it is reflecting the mood of the nation. We have had far more cloudy and oppressive days than those that are bright and revealing. Nature seems to…
In our second reading this Sunday, Paul says, I should like you to be free from anxieties (1 Cor 7:32-35). We are still in our anxiety-driven COVID year. The disease itself has been bad enough, but its collateral damage is also hugely anxiety-producing — the economic consequences for many people,…