The little church without a Saint's name
Way back in 1999, I started a Catholic apparel business with original handmade embroidered designs. I sold my fares at local parish craft shows all the rage in the 1990s. One of the craft shows that I attended was at a small little country parish called Precious Blood Catholic Church. I remember thinking to myself at the time that this was a rather odd name for a church, weren't Catholic churches usually named after saints? While I realized that the title must refer to the Precious Blood of Jesus, my understanding was at best shallow.
So, as the years progressed, our family grew from two children to four children and Jordan River Creations slowly ceased to exist as I became very involved in preparing our townhouse to be put on the market. Originally, we had planned to move to the county where my husband was employed, but it proved to be too expensive for our needs so he suggested going to a neighboring county....the same county where that little church with the unusual name was located. That was in 2002. We now have six children, two of which have been baptised , two of which have received First Communion and one of which has been confirmed at that beautiful little church in the now "not-so-country" country.
July and The Precious Blood of Christ
According to catholicculture.com, "Traditionally, each month of the liturgical year is dedicated to some mystery of the faith or special saint." The month of July is dedicated to The Precious Blood. The fact that this information was sourced from Father John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, caught my eye. I enjoy Father Hardon's writings and was recently reading the transcript of a speech he gave on The Precious Blood. I had actually been trying to gain a deeper understanding of St. Paul's "circumcision of the heart" during June (dedicated to The Sacred Heart of Jesus) when I came across the following words of Father Hardon, which gave me a greater understanding of why St. Peter called the blood of Christ "Precious":
"Christ, listen, could not have died of some disease. Christ could not have died because of some mortal illness. All illness, disease, the natural debilitating of the body is the result of sin. Let me emphasize this. All our illness, our disease, our sickness, our wasting away of our body for all of us this is our faith - is the result of our sinful nature. Not so with Christ. That draining of the human body of His Blood was the one way that Christ, Sinless Son of God and Son of Mary that He was, the one way that He could die...."
I could see where someone might ask, "Is he saying that those that are ill or diseased are so because of some sin they committed?" As a mother of children with major health issues, I can say this is certainly not what Father Hardon is implying. We know from the book of Genesis that God created us to be with Him in paradise. He made Adam and Eve the garden keepers and gave them everything they needed to be happy with Him forever. But, they were not satisfied, they wanted more, they wanted to be like Gods. So, in their selfish quest, they chose what they desired over what God had planned for them. In their disobedience to God we find the "fall" of man. A fall away from perfection and eternal life with our Creator to the corruption of our bodies and death which is a result of the disobedience of mankind. We all now suffer, not even our poor little children are spared from suffering because death entered the world. Father Hardon goes on to speak about the fact that due to the original sin of Adam and Eve (disobedience to God) and all the sins accumulated after, we had to be "ransomed", literally "bought back". He says that "because an Infinite Being was offended by His creatures, only an Infinite Being could provide adequate ransom to redeem."
"Why does Peter (1 Peter 1:18-19) identify the Blood of the Lamb of God as "Precious"? it is the Blood of God who took on human nature in order to be able to suffer and to bleed, and let us add in order to bleed to death. Why Precious? Because it is the Blood of the living God." Father Hardon
A Golden Jubilee
Fifty years ago, a twenty-three year old young man from the sandy shores of the North Sea in Holland, was ordained to the priesthood on June 27, 1958 during the month of The Precious Blood. After surviving German occupation, this young man had hoped to be a missionary in China or the Phillipines, but instead was sent across the ocean to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. to study philosophy. He then went on to teach philosophy at Catholic University and later traveled for ten years as the Provincial of Missionhurst's 110 parishes throughout the United States. He never did make it to China or the Phillipines, but to our great fortune was given a new mission, as Pastor to a little church in the country, named Precious Blood. We know him affectionately as Father Leo, and all wait in anticipation to celebrate his Golden Jubilee at Precious Blood during the month of The Precious Blood, which I'm sure is by Divine Design.
Father Hardon tells of Father Gerald who in 1950, wrote an essay devoted to the special relationship between a priest and The Precious Blood. In this essay, Father Gerald states that priests share with all sinners in the debt of gratitude for Christ's sacrifice and the graces of personal holiness which come only from the Blood of Jesus. He goes on to say priests share in Mary's privilege of giving the Blood of Jesus to the world and that every time they administer the Holy Sacraments especially absolution, they share in the fruits of the Most Precious Blood. Father Hardon then adds, "When priests are ordained, we are told by the ordaining prelate, to be what we are called, to live up to what we offer, to become like the one Who ordains us, the High Priest Jesus Christ. A priest is ordained, not - dear Lord - not for himself but for others. He should spend himself."
The Precious Blood of my own children
This week John and I were given our greatest test of faith. Our beautiful, energetic, life-loving eleven-year-old daughter was diagnosed with bone cancer. This all comes after a difficult time which started with a diagnosis of auto-immune liver disease for our five-year-old daughter in December and a diagnosis of Type I Diabetes for our eight-year-old son in May. People have repeatedly asked me, "How are you surviving all this?"
The only way I can possibly survive all of this is to see it through the eyes of faith. God did not give my children these ailments, they come from elsewhere. These ailments come from a dark and sinister rejection of God, one that says there is no God because if there were, children would not suffer or die. They come from a place that says we must demand comfort for ourselves at all costs, we deserve it, and to be truly happy we must reject all suffering and chose self indulgence. It comes from a place where we don't make time for God because what we want to do takes precedence each day over the investment of time and energy spent in strengthening our faith. It comes from a place that separates our faith from our daily lives, Mon.-Sat. belongs solely to us, we will give God one hour on Sunday, if we aren't too distracted while we are there, or have something more inviting to do, but that is it. It comes from the one who first decided "I will not serve".
With this perspective in my mind, I can go forward one step at a time in faith. My God is an awesome God. He loved me so much that he allowed His very own son to offer His own life as my ransom. Jesus shed his Precious Blood for me, my husband and my children and for every soul ever created. And as I have watched three of my six children shed their blood in blood tests, IVs, glucose tests, insulin shots and biopsies, I've learned the preciousness of the blood of a child. God sent His son to suffer for us to redeem us, give us eternal life once again, but also to comfort us when we are facing suffering of our own. God also gave us men that have said, "I will serve, I will spend myself for others just as Christ did." I thank God today for Father Leo, and for placing us at Precious Blood. Yesterday, Father Leo served our family in a great way. He celebrated a mass for our daughter, Reagan and gave her the annointing of the sick. It means so much to me that this priest with such a special connection to the Precious Blood of Christ could adminster the sacraments to our family as we face the challenge of our lives.
In the words of Father Hardon,
Lord Jesus, You became Man in order by your Passion and Death and the draining of your Blood on the Cross, might prove to us how much You, our God, love us. Protect us, dear Jesus, from ever running away from the sight of blood. Strengthen our weak human wills so that we will not only not run away from the cross, but welcome every opportunity to shed our blood in spirit in union with your Precious Blood, so that, dying to ourselves in time we might live with You in Eternity. Amen
In the Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Mary Kidd Flemming blogs for The Handmaids of Mercy , The Splendor of Truth and The Compass Rose (Parenting and Family Life Issues). You may also enjoy her husband's website: Crossroads Family Center
does anyone have insight for a person suffering from juvenile diabetes?
Posted by: Melissa Davis | August 31, 2008 at 03:02 PM