Blood was the furthest thing from my mind, which might surprise you. As a Missionary Sister of the Precious Blood, not only am I steeped in the spirituality of the Precious Blood, I also work at a hospital. Where else but in a hospital is there such close proximity to blood, the stuff of life?
As a hospital chaplain, I rub shoulders daily with those committed to healing and saving lives. However, when two cellophane wrapped cookies were slapped on the palm of my outstretched hand, why would I think of blood? It was the end of another emotionally draining day at the hospital and here was an instant energy booster - just what the doctor ordered. No, it wasn’t. The cookies were after my blood!
Oblivious to how tired I was, a tiny sticker on those tempting cookies admonished me to “roll up your sleeves … donate blood.” As I tucked the cookies into my pocket, I got to thinking, “One can donate money. One can volunteer and give of one’s time but donating blood is a totally different story.” My friend, Sister Loretta, csj, whom I admire, has donated plasma, the colourless fluid part of blood, an awesome 625 times. If that’s not what shedding your blood for others is about, then I don’t know what is! My friend shed hers, over and over again. She is a true life saver.
I would think my friend is inspired by Jesus who shed his Precious Blood for her, for you and for me. As we read in the Book of Revelation “… you [Jesus] were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (5:9). Like Jesus, who poured out his Precious Blood for you and for me, all of us are invited to pour out our blood for others. Cookies do not inspire us to do so. Jesus, our Life Saver par excellence, is the one who inspires us!
Most of us are not called to literally shed our blood. However, in our fractured world, the blood of many 
women and men has been shed. We only have to think of the most recent horrendous bloodshed in Charleston, South Carolina. Hatred prompted a young man to end the lives of innocent women and men who were peacefully at prayer in their church.
Many missionaries, like our sisters in Kenya, Tanzania and the Sudan, are at times working in very difficult situations where their lives are actually at risk. When a recent visitor to Kenya asked Sister Regina, cps, if she ever felt frightened, her immediate response was, “What? I am covered by His Precious Blood – why would I be afraid?”
Guest Blogger: Sr. Magdalena Vogt, cps