Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament - Province of Saint Ann

Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament - Province of Saint Ann Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament - Province of Saint Ann, Catholic Church, Highland Heights, OH.

We are a Catholic religious congregation of priests and brothers partnered with lay associates whose mission is to share the riches of God’s love manifested in the Eucharist: by prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and an active apostolic life.

09/07/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
September 7, 2026
Labor Day (in the USA)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus confronts more than a physical illness. He exposes hearts that have become hardened by legalism, pride, and fear. While the Scribes and Pharisees search for a reason to accuse Him, Jesus sees only a man in need. He calls him forward, not to make a point, but to reveal God’s mercy.

The command, “Stretch out your hand,” seems impossible. Yet the man responds in faith, trusting Jesus more than his lifetime of limitations. In that simple act of obedience, healing is given, and we are reminded that faith often begins with taking one small step toward the Lord, even when we cannot yet see the outcome.

At every Mass we encounter this same Lord, asking us to stretch out our hearts. Jesus invites us to come before Him with the parts of our lives that are wounded, weak, or hidden. He asks us to trust that His presence can restore what sin, fear, resentment, or discouragement has diminished or seemingly destroyed. Yes, at times our soul may feel withered, but through God’s endless mercy He alone makes us whole.

Saint Peter Julian Eymard, the great Apostle of the Eucharist, reminds us, “The Holy Eucharist is the greatest proof of the love of Jesus Christ.” Every celebration of the Mass is a living encounter with that perfect love — a love that mercifully heals and saves us.

As we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, may we not judge as the Pharisees did and instead become instruments of compassion. May our lives proclaim that love is always stronger than condemnation, mercy always greater than fear, and that Christ patiently awaits us in the Eucharist, ready to reward our faith.

Frank Guerra
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
San Antonio, Texas

Prayer:
Creator God, on this Labor Day, we give you thanks for the work of creation and salvation we have been given. We ask that, through the love and mercy we experience in the Eucharist, we may be strengthened to go into our world and work, bringing mercy and love to others. Amen.

09/06/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
September 6, 2026 Sunday
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Saint Augustine wrote that our hearts remain restless until they rest in God. Today's liturgy speaks to us in the same way but using different language. The Communion Antiphon reminds us that we are like the deer that yearn for running streams; so too does my soul yearn. Psalm 42, quoted in this Sunday's Communion Antiphon, says that my soul is also restless in its thirst for God. In our journey of faith, we seek God first, usually in prayer. However, the Offering Prayer clearly tells us that prayer is a gift we need to request, along with God's presence in God's word and Eucharist.

I recall that this faith journey is regularly undertaken in prayer, especially where two or three are gathered in Jesus' name, and by the Word and Sacrament. So, in a real sense, normal presence is to be found in people, and together we are on that same journey about which Saint Augustine spoke, but which is rephrased, refined, and expanded in today's liturgy.

Let us not forget that prayer and the faith journey itself are gifts from God. These are not spiritual decorations that we earn or even merit. Like the deer in today's liturgy, we too yearn for running water. That water is nothing other than the God Saint Augustine wrote about centuries ago.

Father Norman B. Pelletier SSS
Highland Heights, Ohio

Let Us Pray:
Grant that your faithful, O Lord, whom you nourish and endow with life through the food of your Word and heavenly Sacrament, may so benefit from your beloved Son’s great gifts that we may merit an eternal share in his life. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. (Prayer After Communion)

09/05/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
September 5, 2026 Saturday
Memorial of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, virgin

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus say: “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath” (Luke 6:5). The NABRE commentary for verses 1-11 of the Gospel of Luke says: “… Jesus argues that satisfying human needs such as hunger and performing works of mercy take precedence even over the sacred sabbath rest.”

Today we remember Mother Teresa, a Saint who deeply understood what Jesus meant.

In his book, Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait, Monsignor Leo Maasburg relates: “I would even venture to say that she could not handle bread without thinking of the Eucharist. In her view, physical hunger and other sorts of neediness were always the expression of our hunger for Christ.” Later, Monsignor tells the story of what Mother told a journalist who asked for the secret of her worldwide success: “Every day, every morning, I receive Holy Communion.”

We cannot give what we don’t have. Jesus said that the sabbath was made for man (cf. Mark 2:27). We need worship that is only satisfied when we worship God. We have a thirst for God that is only satisfied when we satisfy His thirst through us.

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

When we satisfy human needs, we are not putting the love of creatures above the love of God. That is how God asks to be loved. We are called to serve Jesus disguised among the least of us. This was the mystery Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s eyes clearly saw. In the midst of her own darkness, her sight focused on our crucified Lord. She got to know him so deeply in the Eucharist that she could recognize him where others don’t.

Ivonne J. Hernandez
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Trinity, Florida

Let us pray:
Lord, help me fall more and more in love with you. Amen.

09/04/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
September 4, 2026 Friday

No one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, “The old is good.”

This statement concludes the gospel reading for Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time. At first reading, it doesn’t look very inspirational. While it might be very true about wine, when we ask how it applies to us today, the answer is somewhat somber. We can see it applied, for example, to those who wish to die on the altar of the Latin Mass. It reflects those who reject change in the church or society by saying, “We’ve always done it that [other] way.” And that debate about the relationship between the old and the new is at the heart of this gospel reading. What can we learn from it?

The context of this parable from Jesus is that the Pharisees criticized him after he attended a dinner with Levi, the tax collector. They were unhappy that Jesus, as a religious leader, was spending time with someone who was such a hated figure, someone who was on the margins of their society. And so, they were trying to find a way to catch him out. Their accusation implies that Jesus’ followers weren’t as spiritual as the followers of other religious leaders of the time. The critique is somehow that to be a follower of Jesus is lazy spirituality, pick ‘n’ mix spirituality.

From the parable, we are left to ponder two issues for ourselves today — the first concerns our relationship, as a church, to tradition. And the second concerns our personal relationship with God in the context of our daily lives.

How do I strive to follow Jesus more closely in all my actions?

Father Paul Bernier SSS
Richfield, Ohio

Let Us Pray:
O Jesus, give me the insight to know how best to follow you in all that I do.

09/03/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
September 3, 2026 Thursday
Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor

I am getting to the age where my retirement from over forty years in accounting is looming. I've worked hard to provide security for the "fourth quarter" of my life, and I'm now struggling a bit to let go of the reins!

I think that is a bit how Simon Peter must have felt in our Gospel reading today. Simon was an accomplished fisherman who had been out fishing all night and caught nothing. Jesus' request for Simon to "put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch" must have gone completely against all of Simon's vast fishing wisdom. And yet, Simon chose to trust Jesus. His response was, "...at your command I will lower the nets." And just a few minutes later, Simon took an even bigger leap of faith, leaving everything to follow Jesus and become a fisher of men.

The Cross of Christ is a complete challenge to our human reason: God will overcome sin and death by allowing his Son to be put to death. It makes no human sense, but "the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God." (1 Corinthians 3:19.)

The lesson for us is not to let our human wisdom put limitations on what God can do in response to our faith and trust. God is not limited by what we think is possible!

As we contemplate our role as the Body of Christ today, can we let go of the reins and take Jesus at his word when he bids us to attempt the impossible?

Michele Wales
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Oviedo, Florida

Let Us Pray:
Lord God, help us to trust in you with our whole heart today and to lean not on our own understanding. Thank you for the assurance that as we trust in you, submit to your ways, and seek your guidance, you will lead us on a straight and purposeful path. We surrender our plans, desires, and ambitions to you, knowing that your ways are wiser than ours. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

09/02/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
September 2, 2026 Wednesday

We are all familiar with the stories of Jesus’ healing individuals. The Gospels highlight many of them: the cure of the ten lepers, the man born blind, the crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda, the centurion’s servant, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and, cited in today’s Gospel, the cure of Peter’s mother-in-law. There is a certain drama in these cures.

But today’s reading, along with many similar passages in the Gospels, describes scenes of multiple healings. “And when the sun was down, all that had any sick with diverse diseases, brought them to him. But he laying his hands on them, every one of them, he healed them.”

Jesus proclaimed the nearness of the Kingdom of God by his preaching, but he realized it by his making people whole. This Kingdom, which he personified and proclaimed, was the restoration of all that had been lost in the Fall. Genesis tells of God’s punishment of all of creation because of disobedience and pride. The wholeness, the peace, the integrity of creation was lost.

Jesus’ incarnation, preaching, death and resurrection brought the Kingdom into reality. But it was clear that the work of continuing the realization of that Kingdom was handed on to his disciples as he sent them forth and commissioned them. We, as his disciples, are commissioned in every Eucharistic celebration to continue this mission.

How do we, as disciples, bring wholeness to those who are forgotten on the fringes, those who live in terror as refugees, those who suffer depression, loneliness, mental illness, hunger and alienation?

Patrick J. Riley
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Let Us Pray:
God of all creation, all that comes from you is good. Your Word, in the Incarnate Jesus, showed us your love and your passion to transform us once again into people of peace, compassion, love, and wholeness. God, we beg you, bestow upon us an abundance of your grace to respond to your love by our love for all that you have created in love. Amen.

09/01/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
September 1, 2026 Tuesday

How can we know the “mind of the Lord”? This question occurs to many Christians, not only to Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians. In Old Testament times, God’s plan was a deep mystery: inscrutable, unknowable. Through our deep faith, God has sent us the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds: we know God’s plan for our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, whose Body and Blood are given to us in the Holy Eucharist, our Bread of Life.

“But we have the mind of Christ” is Paul’s joyous proclamation that ends this passage. With this salvation message (‘the Good News’) comes the gift of the Holy Spirit: understanding. (Paul does get his point across: some form of ‘spirit’ appears eleven times in these seven verses!)

Jesus encounters a different kind of spirit (lowercase ‘s’) in Matthew’s story from Capernaum. This “unclean demon” is torturing a man, elsewhere called a “demoniac”. With a few powerful words of rebuke, Jesus casts out the demon. To our Lord’s titles of priest, prophet, savior, and king, we add exorcist! Rejoice that the Holy Spirit comes to us and gives our own words power, too. Don’t be shy! Use the Word of the Lord in your own voice to inform, to explain, to invite and to welcome everyone you meet to join God’s people at the Lord’s table! There we may all share the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation!

Dan Lewis
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Highland Heights, Ohio

Let us pray:
O Lord, send down your Spirit and renew your people here on earth. Help us use our words to spread your message of love and salvation and our own message of hunger and thirst for your Holy Eucharist present here for all. Amen.

08/31/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
August 31, 2026 Monday

The Force Is with Us.

We love heroes, especially those born at the right moment, unknowingly. Luke Skywalker of Star Wars fame became the hero he was meant to be, but we have an advantage. From the time that we can grasp and understand what our baptism means, a path has been laid out for us to begin the journey.

David Copperfield, the main character in Charles Dickens’ novel, asks himself, “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” Such could apply to our own pages of life. What are we born to become? Now, here is Jesus looking like a student returning home to tell of everything he has learned. He teaches us; we are to be listening students. Scripture gives us a wonderful background in the Old Testament, where we see the hand of God participating in an unimaginable plan.

Reading from the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. A contradiction casts doubt on his heritage. How can he be the Messiah? We know he is the son of Joseph. And the scene gets ugly. Jesus is forced out of the synagogue, and the plan was to throw him off a cliff, to no avail.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. We know about anointings. There’s the chrism used at our baptism, the chrism used for confirmations, and ordination. The anointing empowers us. Let the Force of the Holy Spirit be with you, and great things will happen.

Joe McCormack
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Highland Heights, Ohio

Prayer:
From every evil way I withhold my feet, that I may keep your words. From your ordinances I turn not away, for you have instructed me. (Psalm: 119:101-102)

08/30/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
August 30, 2026 Sunday
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Peter rebuked Jesus for saying he would suffer many things and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

Peter focused directly on the negative aspects of this warning, as most of us would. However, he did not hold on to the message that Jesus was raised on the third day. He did not think of the message Jesus was teaching all along. Peter did not recognize the divine Jesus, but the human Jesus.

There are many times we may not trust God in situations. We look through our human eyes and see limitations. Let us remind ourselves to look for the divine in all circumstances.

Saint Eymard experienced that limitations were not necessarily negative but a grace during his Retreat in Rome, when he saw the Cenacle through the lens of his heart.

Susan Work Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament Willoughby, Ohio

Prayer
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what the hope that belongs to our call is. Amen.

08/29/2026

DAILY EUCHARISTIC REFLECTION
August 29, 2026 Saturday
Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.

Speaking truth to power is a phrase that originated as a non-violent political and religious principle to give voice to those at the margins of society. It refers to confronting authority with moral honesty and challenging injustice. It also reminds us of the risk that speaking truth to power presents, especially when the power refuses to listen.

John the Baptist spoke truth to power by reminding Herod that it was unlawful for him to marry his brother’s wife. Of course, this does not go well with Herodias, who, rather than listening to the message, decided to find a way to kill the messenger. Her daughter provided the opportunity, but Herod’s inability to do what was right in front of his guests provided the means.

John the Baptist gave his life to the truth. His mission was to conform his life to truth so that he might recognize and proclaim Christ and prepare others to receive Jesus. Paul invites us to consider our calling. We share with John the Baptist a calling to conform our lives to the truth of God’s presence and love in our lives. And as we experience in each Eucharist, we are sent forth to bring that truth to others by how we live.

And yet at times we are caught in the same dilemma Herod experienced. Knowing the truth of what is right but allowing fear or prejudice or social pressure to turn us away from those whose dignity and freedom are being denied. We allow the powers who can bring about change to go unchallenged. And we allow the powers within ourselves that keep us from being true to our call to continue to control our response.

How am I being called to speak truth to power today?

Mary Muehle
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Richmond Heights, Ohio

Let Us Pray:
Lord, may your Spirit enlighten our minds with the truth and grant us the courage to live that truth in our actions each day. Amen.

Address

Highland Heights, OH

Telephone

+14404423410

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament - Province of Saint Ann posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Place Of Worship

Send a message to Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament - Province of Saint Ann:

Shortcuts

Share

Category