When St. Gaspar del Bufalo founded the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, he and his new congregation took on a very large mission: to offer reconciliation and healing through the Blood of Christ and to the world.

But it is not a mission that is theirs alone; it is the responsibility of every Christian, said Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S., the moderator general.

Fr. Nordenbrock was one of the keynote speakers at the annual conference of the U.S. Catholic Mission Association in Cincinnati on October 28-30. “If we have been brought into communion with God through the grace and mercy of Christ, then that grace comes with a responsibility, a vocation to a mission of reconciliation. Period. Full stop,” he said, citing II Cor 5: 15, 17-20a:

He died for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who for their sakes died and was raised up . . . This means that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old order has passed away; now all is new! All this has been done by God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. I mean that God in Christ, was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s sins against them, and that he has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us. This makes us ambassadors of Christ, God as it were appealing through us.

“That’s our invitation and our instruction on how to be faithful as missionary disciples,” he said.

“I am a Missionary of the Precious Blood and we claim a spirituality of reconciliation as our charism. But it is not just the charism of my congregation. It is a charism for all missionary disciples—priest, religious and lay—those who minister in foreign lands and those who serve in places close to their place of birth. If we know if we have experienced the grace and mercy of Christ, then we have a vocation as an ambassador of Christ and the message and ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to us.”

Fr. Nordenbrock was speaking to over 300 priests, religious, lay associates and staff members of dioceses, religious communities and nonprofit organizations. They also heard presentations on Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), and on the Underground Railroad and its role in providing a path to freedom for slaves in America. (Cincinnati is home to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which participants visited during the conference.)

The full text of Fr. Nordenbrock’s talk can be found on the website of the Generalate, https://www.cppsmissionaries.org/download/mission/Reconciliation-An-Essential-Element-of-Mission.pdf.

Article and photo provided by Jean Giesige, Cincinnati Province Communications Director