Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Perhaps you have come across inciteful quotes or stories that help you to make sense out of trials, setbacks, or struggles you are going through. Recently I came across a little story that was shared by Dr. Regis Martin, a professor of dogmatic and systematic theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, since 1988. The story was originally authored by G.K. Chesterton and it challenges the temptations we all have to complain about the state of things in our troubled world.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the New Testament, the Church reminds us of the first drops of blood that flowed for our redemption on the day when Jesus was circumcised. It is night on Mount Olivet, and the moon is shining. We see the holy face crimsoned with blood during the agony in the garden. Unhappy, despairing Judas casts the blood-money down in the temple. "I have betrayed innocent blood!" In the scourging of Our Lord, we see Jesus humiliated as blood flows from the beatings out onto the ground.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus. The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood. In 96 AD, Pope St. Clement I wrote: “Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realize how truly precious it is, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world” (First Letter to Church at Corinth).

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Catholic Church is now the largest religious denomination in the United States, and it may be hard to imagine that we were once considered missionary territory. However, in the 1840s, Catholic missionaries from Europe responded to the call to help spread the Faith in America. Two French nuns came as missionaries, teaching and serving the people of the Midwestern United States, then the western frontier of our nation. St. Théodore Guérin spread the Faith by founding many schools in Indiana, while St. Rose Philippine Duchesne founded several religious congregations of nuns and ministered to the Native American tribes throughout the Missouri Territory.