It is late. It has been a long day. Full of meetings. My first International. Tomorrow the convention comes to an end, and then the International Board has a meeting on Monday. The Archdiocese of Vancouver is very fortunate to have Archbishop Adam Exner, His keynote address last evening was absolutely stunning. More later.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 11:54 PM link

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St. Francis

Blessed Feast of St. Francis Everyone. The day is full of meeting, and the opening Mass of the convention is in a few hours. So not much blogging today. My dad was Francis. My confirmation name is Francis. It is a wonder I did not become a Franciscan. I got hooked by St. Gaspar instead. His feast is October 21. May this day bring everyone the blessings of peace.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 6:44 PM link

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Martyrs of Charity

LOVE POURED OUT FOR LIFE:
THE MISSION OF THE ADORERS OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST IN LIBERIA
by Sister Clare Boehmer, ASC

In October of 1992 five Adorers of the Blood of Christ were killed in the civil war that had been raging in Liberia since December of 1989. The exact circumstances of and reasons for their deaths probably will never be known. It is believed that Sisters Barbara Ann Muttra and Mary Joel Kolmer were caught in the crossfire of an ambush as they drove one of their workers from Gardnersville to Barnersville on October 20. Three days later soldiers of Charles Taylor, then the commander of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), lined up Sisters Kathleen McGuire, Agnes Mueller, and Shirley Kolmer in front of their convent in Gardnersvile. The soldiers then shot and killed them in cold blood.

This year is the tenth anniversary of the deaths of the five women whom Pope John Paul II has called "Martyrs of Charity." These articles tells the interwoven stories of the Adorers’ mission in Liberia and work of these five who live still in the hearts of their sisters, families, and friends and in the hearts of the Liberian people whom they loved.

Adorers of the Blood of Christ from the United States Province began working with the church in Liberia, West Africa in 1971 when Sisters Bonita Wittenbrink and Alvina Schott established the first ASC mission on the Kru coast in Grand Cess. In 1973, Sisters Alvina Schott, Virginia Walsh, and Mary Evelyn Nagle opened a second mission in Gardnersville just outside of the capital city of Monrovia. On January 12, 1982, Sisters Barbara Ann Muttra and Antoinette Cusimano began working with the Liberian people in Bomi County and established a mission at Kle in Bomi County. Until the civil war forced their return to the States in August, 1990, the Adorer's presence in Liberia was uninterrupted as they engaged in health care, education, and parish work among the people of Grand Cess, Gardnersville, and Kle.

Although there have been no Adorers working in Liberia since October of 1992, the people of Liberia have remained close to the hearts of U.S. Adorers. Over the past ten years the Adorers have supported the education of several Liberian young women living in the United States and in Liberia and have worked for the cause of peace and justice in that country that remains torn by civil war.

The five Martyrs of Charity continue to live in the hearts of the Liberian people. In June of 1993, the Sister Barbara Ann Muttra Memorial Health Center and the Sister Agnes Mueller Memorial Maternity Center were dedicated in Gardnersville. The school at St. Mulumba's parish in a small town between Gardnersville and Robertsfied Airport is named after Sister Kathleen McGuire. The Catholic parish in Barnersville has been dedicated to the Sisters and named Holy Martyrs Church. Five Liberian Marist brothers teach at the Sister Shirley Kolmer School in Barnersville. Former Liberian aspirants who received their early training from Sister Joel and now reside in the United States and elsewhere are living memorials to her work in Liberia.

The work of others of the Liberian missionaries has also flourished. The 10 villages in Bomi County that Sister Antoinette Cusimano and Father Garry Jenkins SMA evangelized during the 1980's have grown to over 100 villages through the good work of the Liberian catechists, many of whom received their initial training from Sister Antoinette. The Liberian ASC Associates program developed by Sisters Rachel Lawler and Raphael Ann Drone still flourishes under the guidance of Josephine Wernah, a young Liberian woman who is a former professed Adorer. Many of the ASC works in health care and education have been continued by the Liberian people.

The bond between the Adorers of the Blood of Christ and the Liberian people goes much deeper than monetary support, advocacy for justice, and even deeper than the continuation of the Sisters' work. The blood of five U.S. Adorers has mingled with that of the thousands of Liberians killed during the civil war, and the Adorers have shared with the Liberian people the grief of losing loved ones through violence. This sharing has irrevocably bound the Adorers of the Blood of Christ and the people of Liberia in a way that no one could possibly have imagined when the first Adorers were welcomed by the Liberian people over thirty years ago.

The story of these women, the Martyrs of Charity, tells us one thing. It takes courage, confidence and commitment to follow one's personal journey to God. The Adorers LifeChoices program is an uncommon vocational discernment program that assists women and men in a thoughtful exploration of how God might be asking one to use their personal gifts. If you'd like more information contact ASCVocations @adorers.org

For more information about the Martyrs of Charity and the mission of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Liberia, visit the Adorers of the Blood of Christ website.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 6:55 PM link

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The Casualties of War

This was recieved today from Bread For The World

CITIZENS' ALERT

MARCH TOWARD WAR LEAVES HUNGRY AND POOR PEOPLE BEHIND

As the United States heads toward war with Iraq, congressional action on key issues has ground to a halt. Even before the first bomb is dropped, the headlong rush toward war is making hungry and poor people its first victims. The possibility of war, combined with eagerness in Congress to go home and campaign for re-election, has left a platter of unfinished legislation.

Key measures to help those struggling with hunger and poverty–-in the U.S. and overseas-–are being pushed aside:

* The renewal of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is at an impasse. The WORK Act passed with bipartisan support by the Senate Finance Committee would open doors for more education and job training and bolster support for child care and transportation. Passing it would be the single best thing Congress can do for hungry and poor people in the U.S. this year.

* The foreign operations spending bill, passed by both the House and Senate appropriations committees, is stalled. Both the House and Senate versions add $500 million in poverty-focused development assistance to last year’s allocation. Now there is talk that these increases may be stripped from the
final bill.

TAKE ACTION

Bread for the World urges all citizens to do the following:

* PRAY. As people of faith we are called to pray on behalf of those who do not have enough. Congress and the president need to take action on measures to help hungry and poor people. Bread for the World members around the country will join in saying a simple prayer at 12 noon, Monday through Friday, from now until Congress passes improved TANF legislation and increased poverty-focused development assistance, or until it adjourns for the year. Because our members live in different time zones, by praying at noon we will offer up our petitions for several hours of each day.

* CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE. Call the Capitol switchboard, 202-224-3121, and ask for your members’ offices. Let them know you are praying for them and urge them to pass these specific bills. Let them know that whatever else Congress must do, hungry and poor people must not be left behind.

A NOONDAY PRAYER FOR JUSTICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE

Gracious and Loving God, how thankful I am to have enough food. Please be with the 33 million people in the U.S. who live in poverty and the nearly 800 million people worldwide who are hungry today.

I pray especially for the leaders of this nation, that they will hear your call to defend the rights of poor people. Please give them the wisdom and guidance they need to improve TANF and increase assistance for poor countries this year. Help them, O God, to do everything in their power to give hardworking families the chance to move from poverty to promise.

(Please feel free to add your own prayers…)

ALSO: Read Bread for the World’s “Statement on War Against Iraq” at (click here)

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 6:36 PM link

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Greetings from Vancouver

It is a day full of meetings preparing for the opening of the Retrouvaille International Council on Friday. Couples and priests are here from all over the world. This is the 25th anniversary of Retrouvaille. I may get to do some blogging tonight. Go Giants!

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 11:54 AM link

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Humility

St. Gaspar had a fondness for the virtue of humility. It was something he wrote about often. I will go looking for some of his more treasured quotes on the topic. Steven Riddle is a regular reader of this Blog and is developing a fondness for Gaspar, so thought I would point you in the direction of his Blog today. He has a remarkable post on humility that is very challenging and humbling in itself.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 7:41 PM link

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On the Road Again

Leaving early in the morning for the airport. I have to leave from O'Hare this time so get to be inserted into Chicago morning traffic which is the worst I have seen anywhere. Anyway we are giving ourselves an hour and a half to get to the airport.

First stop: Vancouver, BC. It is the Retrouvaille International Council. Then on to Wichita for a couple of Precious Blood Community meetings. Blogging will depend on what kind of internet access I can find. Prayers for all the Retrouvaille Community would be appreciated. It is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. What a wonderful day to be flying.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 10:48 PM link

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The Seven Offerings


I. Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar, for the glory of your name, for the coming of your kingdom, for the salvation of all people.

Leader: Praise and thanksgiving be evermore to Jesus.

All: Who with his Blood has saved us.

Leader: Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen

II. Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar, for the spread of the church, for Pope John Paul, for bishops, priests, religious and for the sanctification of all the people of God.

Leader: Praise and thanksgiving be evermore to Jesus.

All: Who with his Blood has saved us.

Leader: Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen

III. Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar, for the conversion of sinners, for the loving acceptance of your word, and for the union of all Christians.

Leader: Praise and thanksgiving be evermore to Jesus.

All: Who with his Blood has saved us.

Leader: Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen

IV. Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar, for our civil authorities, for the strengthening of public morals, and for peace and justice among all nations.

Leader: Praise and thanksgiving be evermore to Jesus.

All: Who with his Blood has saved us.

Leader: Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen

V. Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar, for the sanctification of our work and our suffering, for the poor, the sick, the afflicted, and for all who rely on our prayers.

Leader: Praise and thanksgiving be evermore to Jesus.

All: Who with his Blood has saved us.

Leader: Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen

VI. Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar, for our own special needs both spiritual and temporal, for those of our relatives, friends and benefactors, and also for those of our enemies.

Leader: Praise and thanksgiving be evermore to Jesus.

All: Who with his Blood has saved us.

Leader: Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen

VII. Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar, for those who are to die this day, for the souls in purgatory, and for our final union with Christ in glory.

Leader: Praise and thanksgiving be evermore to Jesus.

All: Who with his Blood has saved us.

Leader: Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen

Leader: Let us pray, ....Eternal God, ever-faithful and true, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. May its almighty power free us of our sins, lead our departed sisters and brothers to eternal joy , and immerse your church in love and unity. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 8:54 PM link

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The Seven Offerings

This is my most recent article for magazine, Precious Blood Family.

What does it mean to offer to God the Blood of Jesus? In our culture it seems that we can only offer what we have. We can only give what is ours, what we have a right to give.

Has not the Blood of Jesus already been offered, given for the life of the world? Is this not, as some of our Christian friends try to remind us, something that happened once for all and cannot be repeated?

Eternal Father, we offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out on the cross and offered daily on the altar.

This is a prayer that Precious Blood Missionaries and their companions and associates pray seven times every day. These seven offerings express the reason for our hope. (1) It is the Blood of Jesus poured out once for all and renewed(2) each day in the Eucharist that is our hope and our salvation. It is gift and mystery that has been bestowed on us and brought us near. In this prayer we are invited to trust, not in our own abilities and accomplishments, but in the gift that is given. As Gaspar would often remind us, this is God’s work.

In the first petition we focus our attention on the giver of every perfect gift(3), placing ourselves in a posture of praise and gratitude. In the second petition we are reminded that we are people of communion, that we are not alone, and that we belong to the Body of Christ throughout the world. We pray for all the members of the Church, especially those who lead the Church.

In the third petition we remember that we are missionaries and that the Church has a role in the world. This missionary focus is taken to another level in the fourth petition as we pray for civil authorities and for all responsible for relations among nations. This is a very important part of our prayer in a world that seems to be built on mistrust, violence and war. Christ is the light of all nations and the Blood of Christ is poured out for all people, and all who were far off have been made near by the Blood of Christ.(4) It is great tragedy magnified by each day of bloodshed and violence when this truth is kept hidden from so many people.

In the fifth offering we offer our day and our work, and we remember those who are most in need. The sixth offering we pray for our own needs and for the needs of those who are close to us. Older forms of the prayer included a line praying for all “those who truly love this treasure.” As beautiful as it is the current form seems to be more all-embracing. Many of my friends and family do not treasure this spirituality in the same way that I do, and yet I do not cease to treasure them. The seventh petition prays for those who are at the point of death, and for all who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. (5)

The Seven Offerings have gone through many revisions of language in past several years, but the form remains the same. It is not known if Gaspar composed the prayer or if it is something composed by Fr. Albertini, Gaspar’s spiritual Director who also composed the Precious Blood Chaplet. What is known is that Gaspar promoted this prayer, especially as a means for those who entered the various associations and oratories founded by the missionaries to remember the fruits of the missions and to inspire them to live the spirituality of the Precious Blood. During the period of adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament, each one privately recites the Seven Offerings to the Divine Blood, with the particular unction of spirit that one can arouse in the interior affections of his soul.(6)

The prayer is fundamentally intercessory. It reminds us that Jesus gave his very self for the life of the world. The prayer forms us, helping us acknowledge ach day the gift of God and forming our heart to be as generous as his. So we offer to God the Precious Blood of Jesus, the gift of his life and his humanity, the gift of his divinity, so that we may learn to trust entirely in the gift of God, for ourselves, for those who are close to us, and for the needs of the whole world redeemed by the blood of the cross.
_______________________
FOOTNOTES

(1) 1 Pet 3:15b, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.”
(2) Lam 3:22-23 “The favors of the LORD are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; they are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness.”
(3) James 1:17 “All good giving and every perfect gift is from above.”
(4) Eph 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ.”
(5) from the first Eucharistic Prayer
(6) Gaspar, “Method for the Spiritual Exercises”

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 8:08 PM link

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Feast of St. Therese
Patroness of Missions

One Sunday, on closing my book at the end of Mass, a picture of the crucifixion slipped partly out, showing one of the Divine Hands, pierced and bleeding. An indescribable thrill, such as I had never experienced before, passed through me; my heart was torn with grief at the sight of the Precious Blood falling to the ground with no one caring to treasure it as it fell. At once I resolved to remain continuously in spirit at the foot of the Cross, that I might receive the divine dew of salvation and pour it forth upon souls.

St. Therese, "Story of a Soul"

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 9:26 AM link

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A Full Plate

Things I do these days:

-I am Director of Formation for the Missionaries of the Precious Blood here in Chicago
-I am the priest for Retrouvaille communities in Oakland, CA and Fort Wayne, IN, and this year will be helping out in a couple more cities.
-I am the Priest on the Deputy International Coordinating Team for Retrouvaille International.
-I write articles for “Precious Blood Family”
-I am the editor of “Cup and Cross”
-I am on the Provincial Council for the Pacific Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.
-I am the Provincial Secretary
-I represent the Province on the Human Rights Initiative (HRI) of the Precious Blood Leadership Conference. (PBLC)
-I represent the Province on the Planning Board for the Precious Blood Congress in 2005.
-I help out at Calvert House, the Catholic Campus Ministry of the University of Chicago
-There are a couple of things I am forgetting.

And none of this really describes who I am or what I do. I love to sing. Apparently Sr. Lois, C.PP.S. appreciated the way I sang the Eucharist at Sr. Joni’s recent Final vows. So Sr. Lois sent me the nicest note. It is still affirming now, days after I read it. She wants me to come back to O’Fallon and preside at the Mass when she and Sr. Hubert celebrate their 50th anniversary. On of the things I have to remember when I am doing all that stuff listed above, is that God is really in control of the harvest, and will do through me things that I am barely aware of. Thanks Sr. Lois. I look forward to meeting you this next month when we have an HRI meeting back in O’Fallon.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 10:49 PM link

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Jerome

Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ

I have used this wonderful quote from Jerome often in my preaching and teaching of the Word.


C3. The Society dedicates itself to the service of the Church through the apostolic and missionary activity of the ministry of the word.

from our Normative Texts

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 6:41 PM link

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Weigel

Excellent summary of an excellent book.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 8:10 PM link

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