Solemnity of Saint Gaspar
By the V. Rev. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S.
This time each year, Missionaries of the Precious Blood around the world celebrate our founder, St. Gaspar del Bufalo, whose feast day falls on October 21.
The Solemnity of St. Gaspar may be moved to the nearest Sunday—which this year is October 22, when the Church is celebrating World Mission Sunday. It is appropriate for our favorite Missionary, who never left his home country of (what is now) Italy, but had a vision of a thousand tongues proclaiming the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus.
St. Gaspar remained true to his mission of preaching and demonstrating the great love that Jesus showed in the shedding of his Precious Blood, right up until Gaspar’s death on December 28, 1837. Weakened by his constant ministry to people who were struck by a cholera epidemic in Rome, St. Gaspar was called “a victim of charity.”
May we all remain true to the mission that God places in our hearts. It is that mission that gives our lives meaning. May we live so that others are drawn to the great mission of the followers of Christ, to love one another as Jesus loves us, and to convince all people that they are worthy of such love. St. Gaspar del Bufalo, pray for us!
The V. Rev. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S., is the provincial director of the United States Province. Previously, he served as the secretary general of the worldwide Congregation and was also in ministry at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., of which he is an alumnus.