July 1st - Feast of the Most Precious Blood

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July 1 – Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

John the Baptist has pointed out the Lamb, Peter has firmly fixed His throne, Paul has prepared the Bride; this their joint work, admirable in its unity, at once suggests the reason for their feasts occurring almost simultaneously on the cycle. The alliance being now secured, all three fall into shade; while the Bride herself, raised up by them to such lofty heights, appears alone before us, holding in her hands the sacred cup of the nuptial-feast.

This gives the key of today’s solemnity; revealing how its illumining the heavens of the holy Liturgy, at this particular season, is replete with mystery. The Church, it is true, has already made known to the sons of the New Covenant, and in a much more solemn manner, the price of the Blood that redeemed them, its nutritive strength, and the adoring homage which is its due. Yes; on Good Friday, earth and heaven beheld all sin drowned in the saving stream, whose eternal flood-gates at last gave way, beneath the combined effort of man’s violence and of the love of the divine Heart. The festival of Corpus Christi witnessed our prostrate worship before the altars whereon is perpetuated the Sacrifice of Calvary, and where the outpouring of the Precious Blood affords drink to the humblest little ones, as well as to the mightiest potentates of earth, lowly bowed in adoration before it. How is it, then, that Holy Church is now inviting all Christians to hail, in a particular manner, the stream of life ever gushing from the sacred fount? What else can this mean, but that the preceding solemnities have by no means exhausted the mystery? The peace which the Blood has made to reign in the high places as well as in the low; the impetus of its wave bearing back the sons of Adam from the yawning gulf, purified, renewed, and dazzling white in the radiance of their heavenly apparel; the Sacred Table outspread before them, on the waters’ brink, and the Chalice brimful of inebriation; all this preparation and display would be objectless, if man were not brought to see therein the wooings of a Love that could never endure its advances to be outdone by the pretensions of any other. Therefore, the Blood of Jesus is set before our eyes, at this moment, as the Blood of the Testament; the pledge of the alliance proposed to us by God; the dower stipulated upon by Eternal Wisdom for this divine union to which he is inviting all men, and whereof the consummation in our soul is being urged forward with such vehemence by the Holy Ghost. This is why the present festival, fixed as it is upon a day that must necessarily be one of the Sundays after Pentecost, does not interrupt, in any way, the teaching which these Sundays are particularly meant to convey, but tends rather to confirm it.

“Having therefore, Brethren, a confidence in the entering into the Holies by the Blood of Christ,” says the Apostle, “a new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, let us draw near with a pure heart in fullness of faith, having oru hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that hath promised. Let us consider one another to provoke unto charity and to good works. And may the God of peace who brought again from the dead the great pastor of the sheep, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Blood of the everlasting Testament, fit you in all goodness, that you may do his will: doing in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen!”

Nor must we omit to mention here, that this feast is a monument of one of the most brilliant victories of Holy Church, in our own age. Pius IX had been driven from Rome in 1848, by the triumphant revolution; but the following year, just about this very season, his power was re-established. Under the ægis of the Apostles on June 28th and the two following days, the eldest daughter of the Church, faithful to her past glories, swept the ramparts of the Eternal City; and on July 2nd, Mary’s festival, the victory was completed. Not long after this, a twofold decree notified to the City and to the world the Pontiff’s gratitude and the way in which he intended to perpetuate, in the sacred Liturgy, the memory of these events. On August 10th, from Gaëta itself, the place of his exile in the evil day, Pius IX, before returning to re-assume the government of his States, addressing himself to the invisible Head of the Church, confided her in a special manner to His divine care, by the institution of this day’s Festival; reminding him that it was for His Church that He vouchsafed to shed all His Precious Blood. Then, when the Pontiff re-entered his Capital, turning to Mary, just as Pius V and Pius VII had done under other circumstances, he, the Vicar of Christ, solemnly attributed the honor of the recent victory to Her who is ever the “Help of Christians,” for on the Feast of Her Visitation it had been gained; and he now decreed that this said Feast of July 2nd should be raised from the rite of double-major to that of second class throughout the whole world [Pius XI in 1934 subsequently raised it to the First Class]. This was but a prelude to the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which the immortal Pontiff had already in project, whereby the crushing of the serpent’s head would be completed.

Mass

The Church, gathered by the Apostles from the midst of all the nations under heaven, advances toward the Altar of the spouse who hath redeemed her in his Blood, and in the Introit hails his Merciful Love. She, henceforth, is the Kingdom of God, the depository of Truth.

Introit
Redimisti nos, Domine, in Sanguine tuo, ex omni tribu, et lingua, et populo, et natione, et fecisti nos Deo nostro regnum.
Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, in thy Blood, out of every tribe and tongue, and people and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom.

Ps. Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo: in generationem et generationem annuntiabo veritatem tuam in ore meo.
℣. Gloria Patri. Redemisti nos.

Ps. The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever: I will show forth thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation.
℣. Glory, &c. Thou hast.


The Blood of the Man-God being the pledge of peace between heaven and earth, the object of profoundest worship, yea, itself the very center of the whole Liturgy, and our assured protection against all the evils of this present life, deposits, even now, in the souls and bodies of those whom it has ransomed, the germ of eternal happiness. The Church, therefore, in her Collect, begs of the Father, who has given us His Only-Begotten Son, that this divine germ may not remain sterile within us, but may come to full development in heaven.

Collect
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui Unigenitum Filium tuum mundi Redemptorem constituisti, ac ejus Sanguine placari voluisti: concede quæsumus, salutis nostræ pretium solemni cultu ita venerari, atque a præsentis vitæ malis ejus virtute defendi in terris; ut fructu perpetuo lætemur in cœlis. Per eumdem Dominum.
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast appointed thy Only-Begotten Son to be the Redeemer of the world, and hast been pleased to be appeased by his Blood: grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate with solemn worship the price of our salvation, and to be on earth so defended by its power from the evils of this present life, that we may rejoice in its perpetual fruit in heaven. Through the same Lord, &c.

A commemoration is here made of the Sunday, which cedes to the Feast of the Precious Blood the first honors of this day.


Epistle
Lesson of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews. Ch. IX.

Brethren, Christ, being come an High Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation: Neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament: that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions, which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance; in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Epistle that has just been read to us is the confirmation of what we were saying above, as regards the special character of this festival. It was by his own Blood that the Son of God entered into heaven; this divine Blood continues to be the means whereby we also may be introduced into the eternal alliance. Thus, the Old Covenant founded, as it was, on the observance of the precepts fo Sinai, had likewise by blood consecrated the people and the law, the tabernacle and the vessels it was to contain; but the whole was bug a figure. “Now,” says Saint Ambrose, “it behooves us to tend to Truth. Here below, there is the shadow; here below, there is the image; up yonder, there is the Truth. In the law was but the shadow; the image is to be found in the Gospel; the Truth is in heaven. Formerly a lamb was immolated; now Christ is sacrificed, but he is so only under the signs of the mysteries, whereas in heaven it is without veil. There alone, consequently, is full perfection, unto which our thoughts should cleave, because all perfection is in Truth without image and without shadow.” Yea! there alone is rest: thither, even in this world, do the sons of God tend; without indeed attaining fully thereunto, they get nearer and nearer, day by day; for there alone is to be found that peace which forms saints.

“O Lord God,” cries out in his turn another illustrious Doctor, the great Saint Augustine, “give us this peace, the peace of repose, the peace of the seventh day, of that Sabbath whose sun never sets. Yea! verily the whole order of nature and of grace is very beautiful unto thy servitors, and goodly are the realities they cover; but these images, these successive forms, bide only awhile, and their evolution ended, they pass away. The days thou didst fill with thy creations are composed of morning and of evening, the seventh alone excepted, for it declineth not, because thou hast for ever sanctified it, in thine own Rest. Now what is this Rest, save that which thou takest in us, when we ourselves repose in thee, in the fruitful peace which crowns the series of thy graces in us? O sacred Rest, more productive than labor! the perfect alone know thee, they who suffer the divine Hand to accomplish within them the Work of the Six Days.”

And, therefore, our Apostle goes on to say, interpreting, by means of other parts of Scripture, his own words, just read to us by holy Church, and therefore today if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts. The Blood Divine hath rendered us participators of Christ: it is our part not to squander, as though it were worthless, this immense treasure, this initial incorporation which unites us to Christ, the divine Head; but let us abandon ourselves, without fear and without reserve, to the energy of this precious leaven whose property it is to transform our whole being into him. Let us be afraid lest we fall short of the promise referred to in our today’s Epistle, that promise of our entering into God’s Rest, as Saint Paul himself tells us. It regards all believers, he says, and this divine Sabbath is for the whole people of the Lord. Therefore, to enter therein, let us make haste; let us not be like those Jews whose incredulity excluded them forever from the promised land.

The Gradual brings us back to the great testimony of the love of the Son of God, confided to the Holy Ghost, together with the Blood and Water of the Mysteries; a testimony which is closely linked here below with that which is rendered by the Holy Trinity in heaven. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, sings the Verse. What is this, but to say, once again, that we must absolutely yield to these reiterated invitations of love? None may excuse himself, by arguing either ignorance, or want of vocation to a way more elevated than that wherein tepidity is dragging him. Let us hearken to the Apostle addressing himself to all, in this same Epistle to the Hebrews: “Yea, verily; great and ineffable are these things. But if you have become little able to understand them, it is your own fault; for whereas for the time you ought to be masters; you have need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God: and you are become such as have need of milk, though your age would require the solid meat of the perfect. Wherefore, as far as concerns us in our instructions to you, leaving the word of the elementary teaching of Christ, let us go on to things more perfect, not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works, and of faith towards God. Have you not been illuminated? have you not tasted also the heavenly gift? have you not been made partakers of the Holy Ghost? What showers of graces, at every moment, water the earth of your soul! it is time that it bring in a return to God who tills it. Ye have delayed long enough: be now, at last, of the number of those who by patience and faith shall inherit the promises, casting your hope like an anchor sure and firm, and which entereth in within the veil, where the forerunner Jesus is entered for us, that is, to draw us in thither after Him.”

Gradual
Hic est qui venit per aquam et sanguinem, Jesus Christus: non in aqua solum, sed in aqua et sanguine.
This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood.

℣. Tres sunt qui testimonium dant in cœlo: Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus Sanctus; et hi tres unum sunt. Et tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra: Spiritus, aqua, et sanguis; et hi tres unum sunt.
℣. There are three that give testimony in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth; the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three are one.

Alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia.

℣. Si testimonium accipimus, testimonium Dei majus est. Alleluia.
℣. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. Alleluia.


Gospel
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to John. Ch. XIX.

At that time, when Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. Then the Jews, (because it was the parasceve,) that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that was a great sabbath day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it, hath given testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true; that you also may believe.

On that stupendous Day, Good Friday, we heard for the first time this passage from the Beloved Disciple. The Church, as she stood mourning at the foot of the Cross whereon her Lord had just died, was all tears and lamentation. Today, however, she is thrilling with other sentiments, and the very sane narration that then provoked her bitter tears, now makes her burst out into anthems of gladness and songs of triumph. If we would know the reason of this, let us turn to those who are authorized by her to interpret to us the burden of her thoughts this day. They will tell us that the new Eve is celebrating her birth from out the side of her sleeping Spouse; that from the solemn moment when the new Adam permitted the soldier’s lance to open his Heart, we became, in very deed, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Be not then surprised, if holy Church sees naught but love and life in the Blood which is gushing forth.

And thou, O soul, long rebellious to the secret touches of choicest graces, be not disconsolate; say not: “Love is no more for me!” How far away soever the old enemy may, by wretched wiles, have dragged thee, is it not still true that to ever winding way, yea, alas! perhaps even to every pitfall, the streamlets of this Sacred Fount have followed thee? Thinkest thou, perhaps, that thy long and tortuous wanderings from the merciful course of these ever pursuant waters may have weakened their power? Do but try: do but, first of all, bathe in their cleansing wave; do but quaff long draughts from this stream of life; then, O weary soul, arming thee with faith, be strong, and mount once more the course of the divine torrent. For, as in order to reach thee, it never once was separated from its fountain head, so likewise be certain that by so doing, thou needs must reach the very Source Itself. Believe me, this is the whole secret of the Bride, namely, that whence soever she may come, she has no other course to pursur than this, if she would fain hear the answer to that yearning request expressed in the Sacred Canticle: Show me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou restest in the mid-day! So much so indeed, that by re-ascending the sacred Stream, not only is she sure of reaching the Divine Heart, but moreover she is ceaselessly renewing, in its waters, that pure beauty which makes her become, in the eyes of the Spouse, an object of delight and of glory to him. For thy part, carefully gather up today the testimony of the Disciple of love; and congratulating Jesus, with the Church, his Bride and thy Mother, on the brilliancy of her empurpled robe, take good heed likewise to conclude with St. John: Let us then love God, since he hath first loved us.

The Church, while presenting her gifts for the sacrifice, sings how that Chalice which she is offering to the benediction of her sons, the priests, becomes by virtue of the sacred words, the inexhaustible source whence the Blood of her Lord flows out upon the whole world.

Offertory
Calix benedictionis, cui benedicimus, nonne communicatio Sanguinis Christi est? Et panis quem frangimus, nonne participatio Corporis Domini est?
The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?


The Secret begs for the full effect of the divine alliance, of which the Lord’s Blood is both the means and the pledge; since its effusion, continually renewed in the Sacred Mysteries, has hushed the cry of vengeance that the blood of Abel had sent up from earth to Heaven.

Secret
Per hæc divina mysteria, ad novi, quæsumus, Testamenti mediatorem Jesum accedamus; et super altaria tua, Domine virtutum, aspersionem Sanguinis melius loquentem quam Abel innovemus. Per eumdem.
By these divine mysteries, we beseech thee that we may approach to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament; and that upon thy Altars, O Lord of Hosts, we may renew the sprinkling of that Blood, speaking better than that of Abel. Through the same, &c.

A Commemoration of the Sunday is then made: and the Priest entones the triumphant Preface of the Cross, for thereon was the ineffable union concluded in the divine Blood.


Preface
Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, æterne Deus: Qui salutem humani generis in ligno Crucis constituisti: ut unde mors oriebatur, inde vita resurgeret: et qui in ligno vincebat, in Ligno quoquo vinceretur: per Christum Dominum nostrum. Per quem Majestatem tuam laudant Angeli, adorant Dominationes, tremunt Potestates. Cœli, cœlorumque Virtutes, ac beata Seraphim, socia exsultatione concelebrant. Cum quibus et nostras voces, ut admitti jubeas deprecamur, supplici confessione dicentes; Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, &c.
It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God. Who hast appointed that the salvation of mankind should be wrought on the wood of the Cross; that from whence death came, thence life might arise; and that he who overcame by the tree, might also by the Tree be overcome; through Christ our Lord; by whom the Angels praise thy Majesty, the Dominations adore it, the Powers tremble before it; the Heavens and the heavenly virtues, and the blessed Seraphim, with common jubilee glorify it. Together with whom, we beseech thee that we may be admitted to join our humble voices, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, &c.


The Communion Antiphon hails the merciful love of which our Lord gave proof by his coming, not suffering himself to be turned aside from his divine projects by the accumulation of crimes which he must destroy in his own Blood, in order to purify the Bride. Thanks to the adorable mystery of faith operating in the secret of hearts, when he shall come again visibly, nothing will remain of this sad past but a memory of victory.

Communion
Christus semel oblatus est ad multorum exhaurienda peccata; secundo sine peccato apparebit exspectantibus se, in salutem.
Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many; the second time he shall appear without sin to them that expect him, unto salvation.


Inebriated with gladness at the Savior’s fountains, his sacred Wounds, let us pray that the Precious Blood now empurpling our lips may remain unto eternity, the living Source whence we may ever draw beatitude and life.

Postcommunion
Ad sacram, Domine, mensam admissi, hausimus aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris: Sanguis ejus fiat nobis, quæsumus, fons aquæ in vitam æternam salientis. Qui tecum vivit et regnat.
Having been admitted to the holy Table, O Lord, we have drawn waters in joy from the fountains of our Savior: may his Blood, we beseech thee, become within us a fountain of water springing up to Eternal Life. Who liveth and reigneth, &c.

Then is made a Commemoration of the Sunday, the Gospel of which is likewise read instead of that of Saint John, at the end of Mass.

... The Matins hymn of the feast, which is redolent of grace and tenderness.

HYMN

The just ire of the Creator did erst the guilty world submerge beneath the vengeful rain of waters, Noe, in the Ark sequestered safe the while. But yet more wondrous still the violence of love that hath the world in Blood now laved.

The happy world, watered by such salubrious rain, now buds forth fair flowers, where erst sprang naught but thorns: yea, now hath wormwood nectar’s savory sweetness e’en assumed.

The cruel serpent hath suddenly laid aside his poison dire, and vanished is the wild ferocity of beasts: such the victory of the wounded Lamb all meek!

O depth inscrutable of heavenly wisdom! O benignant tenderness of love Thus every heart aloud proclaims: The slave was worthy of death, and the King, in goodness infinite, did undergo the punishment.

When by his sin we provoke the wrath of the judge divine, then by the pleading of this eloquent Blood may we be protected.

Then may the throng of threatened evils pass from us away!

Let the ransomed world praise thee, bringing her grateful gifts, O thou, the leader and loving author of eternal salvation, who, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, dost possess the blessed kingdom. Amen.

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The Most Precious Blood
Homily of St. Augustine
Treatise 120 on John

A suggestive word was made use of by the Evangelist, in not saying: he pierced His side; or: he wounded; or anything like that, but: he opened; that therein might, as it were, be thrown open the door of life, from which have flowed forth the sacraments of the Church, without which there is no entrance into life that is truly life. The blood that was shed, was shed for the remission of sins. That water makes up the health-giving cup; and gives at the same time a bath and a draught. This was announced beforehand, when Noe was commanded to make a door in the side of the ark, through which the animals, not destined to perish in the flood, might enter, and by which the Church was prefigured. Because of this, the first woman was made from the side of the man while he slept, and she was called Life and Mother of the living. For the name signified a great good, before the great evil of her sin. This second Adam bowed His heads fell asleep on the cross, in order that from there a spouse might be formed for Him from that which He shed from His side as He slept. O death whereby the dead are raised anew to life! What is purer than this blood? What more health-giving this wound?

Men who were held in slavery under the devil served the devil and served the demons; but they have been redeemed from captivity. For they could sell themselves, but they could not redeem themselves. The Redeemer came, and paid the price; He shed His blood, and bought the world. Do you ask what He bought? See what He gave, and you will find out what He bought. The blood of Christ is the price. What is it worth? What, but the whole world? What, but all nations. Very ungrateful for their price or very proud, are they who say that the price is of such small worth as to buy only the Africans; or that they are so great, that it was given for them alone. Therefore let them not rejoice or be proud. What He gave, He gave for the whole world.

He had His blood, by which He redeemed us; and to this end He took blood, that He might shed it in order to redeem us. If you wish it, the blood of your Lord was given for you; if you do not wish it, it was not given for you. For perhaps you will say: My God had blood, with which He redeemed me, but now since He has suffered, He has given it all; what has remained to Him, that He may also give for me? This is a great thing, because He gave once, and He gave for all. The blood of Christ is salvation to him who wishes it, punishment to him who does not wish it. Why, therefore, do you hesitate to be set free from the second death, you who do not wish to die? By this you are set free, if you are willing to take up your cross, and follow the Lord; for He took up His cross and looked for His servant.

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The Feast of the Precious Blood
by Fr. Johann Evalgelist Zollner, 1883

"Converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible gold or silver,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled." -- Pet. 1: 18.

On this day, the Church celebrates the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. This feast, which had been celebrated in some dioceses since the fifteenth century, on Monday after Trinity Sunday, was extended by Pope Pius IX. over the whole Christian world, and its celebration prescribed for the first Sunday of July. The time of persecution and suffering had already begun for the Sovereign Pontiff. Compelled by a revolution to leave Rome, he repaired to Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples, where he lived in exile for seventeen months, till April, 1850. Here it was that on the tenth day of August, 1849, he instituted the feast of the Precious Blood. That most sacred blood is the price of our Redemption, and is poured out daily in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, whence it flows into the channels of the seven Sacraments, as an atonement for our sins and for our sanctification. For, as in Egypt, God was propitiated by the blood of the paschal lamb, the type and figure of the true Lamb of God, so He is propitiated by the blood of his Son, the true Paschal Lamb, which speaketh better than Abel's. Herein is the strongest evidence of the infinite love of Jesus Christ, who not only once, but seven times, shed his precious blood amidst the most cruel sufferings for our salvation. Let this seven-fold shedding of the precious blood be the subject of our present meditation.


1. The first shedding of blood was at His Circumcision:

Jesus shed His blood the first time when He was circumcised. According, to the law of Moses, every Israelitish male child was to be circumcised eight days after his birth. This circumcision was a sign of the covenant which God had made with the children of Israel. The circumcised belonged only to the people of Israel, and partook of the graces which God bestowed on this people; they were also obliged to observe the law of Moses. Out of obedience to the laws Jesus permitted himself to be presented in the temple, to be circumcised, but thereby he had a far higher purpose; he wished to indicate the mystery that he would redeem us by the shedding of His precious blood. When our Saviour was born in Bethlehem, the holy angels announced Him as our Redeemer, without intimating, however, in what manner He was to redeem the world. Eight days later Jesus himself revealed this mystery of blood by His circumcision. As a rosy morn announces an evening rain, so this rosy morn of circumcision means nothing else than that in the evening of His life His blood was to flow, like rain, from all the veins of His sacred body.

This first shedding of the precious blood is an exhortation to us to serve Jesus from our earliest childhood. When He shed His blood as a mere infant, is it not becoming that we should devote to His service the years of our childhood? But, alas! how many of us have urgent reasons to exclaim with David: "The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember."--Ps. 24: 7. Think of the years of your childhood; did you not pass them in levity? Did not some of you suffer shipwreck of your innocence and commit grievous sins in those years. Call to mind the years of your youth. Did you not commit sins then, which perhaps on your death-bed will lie on your conscience as a heavy load? Let us then repent of the many sins of our childhood and youth and let us at least henceforth lead a penitent life. You, Christian parents, possess a special means of atoning for the sins of your youth by educating your children in the fear and love of God.


2. The shedding of blood in the garden of Olives:

The Evangelist says: "And being in an agony, He prayed the longer And His sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground."--Luke, 22: 43. 44. The love of Jesus was so great that He would not wait for the scourges, thorns and nails, but, as the myrrh sends forth its precious oil through the foliage before its bark is cut, so His infinite love and His desire to redeem us urged Him to shed for us His innocent blood in the garden of Olives as a sacrifice of propitiation. This sheding of blood in the garden of Olives was the most painful of all His sufferings; for it was not caused by external, bodily wounds, but by internal sufferings, by the agony of His soul. Jesus anticipated in it His entire Passion, which was vividly represented before His eyes. He trembled at the thought of the loss of so many souls for whom he foresaw he would die in vain; who might be saved, but will not. When the death agony is very severe, you notice with heartfelt compassion, large drops of sweat on the brow and face of the dying. But there was never heard of a dying man who sweat drops of blood. Our Saviour alone exhibited this sign of mortal anguish at the moment when He commenced His sacred Passion.

A legend says that on every place where a drop of Jesus's blood trickled down, a flower sprang up. Spiritually explained, this legend is literally true. Meditation on our Saviour's shedding blood in the garden is the fruitful seed of virtue. Can you be so cruel as to offend Jesus again by sins, when you remember his sadness of spirit and his agony caused by your sins, which was so vehement that he sweat blood? Or can you be indifferent to your own salvation and persevere in an impenitent spirit when you reflect that the remembrance of His sacred Passion being fruitless in regard to many sinners because of their obduracy, made the Son of God sweat blood?


3. Jesus is scourged. The four Evangelists narrate that Jesus was Scourged:

Thus St. Matthew says that ''Pilate having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to the Jews to be crucified. The Jews were forbidden by law to inflict more than forty stripes. The Romans had no number of stripes fixed by law. That Jesus was scourged after the manner of the Romans is evident from the fact that it was a Roman judge that passed sentence upon Him, as also from the words of Jesus: "They shall deliver the Son of Man to the Gentiles to be mocked, and to be scourged, and to be crucified."--Matt. 20: 19. This punishment, as inflicted by the Romans, was one of excessive cruelty. Many expired before it was finished. As Pilate by the punishment of scourging intended to move the Jews to compassion, it is to be inferred that it was inflicted on Jesus with the utmost cruelty. The prophets who saw in spirit our scourged Saviour, say of him that "from the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein; wounds and bruises and swelling sores."--Isaiah, 1: 6. They say there was no beauty in Him, nor comeliness; that they thought Him, as it were, a leper, and as one struck by God.--Is. 53: 2-5. Our Saviour was so cruelly scourged that even Pilate, the heartless Gentile, cried out at the pitiable sight: "Behold the man."

St. Bridget, when a child of ten years, saw in a vision our Saviour in the act of being scourged. The good child, moved to compassion, said: "Who has disfigured you thus?" Jesus answered: "Not the Jews only have done it, but all those who despise my love." And who are these? Especially those Christians who do not endeavor to restrain the passions of their flesh. If your conscience reproaches you with having scourged your Redeemer anew by committing such heinous sins, repair the outrage by a virtuous and penitential life. "Let not sin therefore, reign in your mortal body so as to obey the lusts thereof," (Rom. 6: 12); on the contrary, "mortify your members which are upon the earth," (Col. 3: 5); and make no provision for the flesh in its concupiscences.--Rom. 13: 14.


4. Jesus shed His blood the fourth time, when he was crowned with thorns:

The Evangelist, St. Matthew, relates this cruel coronation, in the following manner: "Then the soldiers of the governor, taking Jesus into the hall, gathered together unto Him the whole band, and stripping Him, they put a scarlet cloak about Him. And plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand. And bowing the knee before Him, they mocked Him saying: Hail, king of the Jews. And spitting upon Him, they took the reed and struck His head."--Matt. 27: 27-30. The adorable head of Jesus had thus its own sufferings. The coronation was as ignominious as it was painful; ignominious, because in order to jeer at His pretensions, they put a crown of thorns upon his head; painful, because of the many wounds the thorns made in His head.

The coronation is to us an earnest exhortation to banish all proud and ambitious thoughts from our minds. Jesus crowned with thorns says to us: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart."--Matt. 11: 29. "Far be it from me," said St. Elizabeth of Hungary, "that I, poor creature that I am, should appear with a bright crown upon my head before my God and Saviour, who, being king of heaven and earth, wore a crown of thorns."


5. Jesus shed his blood the fifth time, carrying the cross:

We cannot doubt that Jesus shed blood when He carried the cross. When he took the cross upon his shoulders, he was already bruised, and full of wounds, which, being fresh, bled continually; He also fell several times under the heavy weight of the cross, whereby He received new wounds, out of which blood flowed; He was also struck by the soldiers and executioners, and this could not be done without shedding blood.

The precious blood which Jesus shed when carrying the cross, points out to us the way that leads to heaven. It is no other way than that which He trod before us; the way of the cross. Jesus Himself declares: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."--Matt. 16: 24. Both the sinner and the just man must tread this bloody way; the sinner, because without mortification he is not able to overcome his passions and do penance; the just man, because without self-denial it is impossible to resist the many temptations with which all are assailed, to make progress in virtue, and to persevere in justice to the end. Let us follow Jesus on the way of the cross, let us suffer with Him, that we may be glorified with Him.--Rom. 8: 7.


6. Jesus shed his blood the sixth time, when He was crucified:

St. John (19: 18) says: "Bearing His own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him." Having arrived at the place of execution, the soldiers stripped off His clothes, and crucified Him, by piercing His hands and feet with heavy nails, and fastening them to the wood of the cross. Who is able to describe the torments of our dear Lord, when He was nailed to the cross and hung thereon, supported by His own wounds? How truly can He cry out with the Prophet: "O all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow."-- Lam. 1: 12.

Cast one glance at your crucified Redeemer and take to heart the words of St. Bernard: "I need no other evidence to convince me how grievous an evil sin must be. I know sufficiently from the nature of the medicine; the nature of my wound, and the remedy being so painful, I clearly see how dangerous my disease was. God himself, the holy and innocent God, would suffer in His human nature for the sins that we regard so little; for the guilty pleasures we enjoy so easily, God Himself would die the death, the most ignominious death, of the Cross." O let us make the resolution, never again to offend God by a mortal sin.


7. The seventh and last time Jesus shed His blood was when His side was opened:

"When the soldiers came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers opened His side with a spear and immediately there came out blood and water."--John, 19: 33, 34. Blood and water came out as an evidence that these were the last drops of the Sacred Blood. Thus it is literally true, that our Redeemer shed the last drop of his blood for us. We are reminded of this infinite charity by the separate consecration of bread and wine in holy Mass, for after the Elevation the Body and the Blood of Christ appear separated, the sacred species being separated on the altar.

By the shedding of the precious blood from the wound of the Sacred Heart our Saviour gave us the last proof of His infinite love. Let us return the love of Jesus by devoting to Him all the affections of our heart. Let us give Him a proof of our love by fulfilling His divine will and fearing nothing so much as to offend Him. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me."--John, 14: 21.

Peroration

Thus Jesus shed His precious blood seven times, and the price of these seven sheddings of blood is found in the seven Sacraments, by which we are cleansed from sin and sanctified. These seven sheddings of blood remind us also of the three Theological and the four Cardinal virtues; also of the seven virtues opposed to the seven deadly or capital sins, which are infused into us by baptism; also of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, which we receive in confirmation, and finally of the seven days of the week, which we should dedicate to the service of God. The covenant between God and the Israelites was sealed with blood. The new covenant was sealed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The covenant between God and men is sealed again as many times as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to God. Assist, whenever you can, at the tremendous Sacrifice of the Mass, and frequently receive holy communion.

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SALVATION

by Fr. Frederick William Faber

SALVATION! What music there is in that word, music that never tires but is always new, that always rouses, yet always rests us! It holds in itself all that our hearts would say. It is sweet vigor to us in the morning and in the evening it is contented peace. It is a song that is always singing itself deep down in the delighted soul. Angelic ears are ravished by it up in Heaven; and our Eternal Father Himself listens to it with adorable complacency. It is sweet even to Him out of Whose mind is the music of a thousand worlds. To be saved! What is it to be saved? Who can tell? Eye has not seen, nor ear heard. It is a rescue, and from such a shipwreck. It is a rest, and in such an unimaginable home. It is to lie down forever in the Bosom of God in and endless rapture of insatiable contentment.

Thou shalt call His Name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins. Who else but Jesus can do this, and what else even from him do we require but this; for in this lie all things which we can desire? Of all the miseries the bondage of sin is the most miserable. It is worse than sorrow, worse than pain. It is such a ruin that no other ruin is like unto it. It troubles all the peace of life. It turns sunshine into darkness. It embitters all pleasant fountains, and poisons the very blessing of God which should have been for our healing. It doubles the burdens of life, which are heavy enough already. It makes death a terror and a torture, and the eternity beyond the grave an infinite and intolerable blackness.

It is from the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ alone that our salvation comes.

Alas! we have felt the weightiness of sin, and know that there is nothing like it. Life has brought many sorrows to us, and many fears. Our hearts have ached a thousand times. Tears have flowed. Sleep has fled. Food has been nauseous to us, even when our weakness craved for it. But never have we felt anything like the dead weight of a mortal sin. What then must a life of such sins be? What must be a death in sin? What the irrevocable eternity of unretracted sin?

From all this horror whither shall we look for deliverance? Not to ourselves; for we know the practical infinity of our weakness, and the incorrigible vitality of our corruption. Not to any earthly power; for it has no jurisdiction here. Not to philosophy, literature, or science; for in this case they are but sorry and unhelpful matters. Not to any Saint however holy, nor to any Angel, however mighty; for the least sin is a bigger mountain than they have faculties to move. Not to the Crowned Queen of God's creation, the glorious and sinless Mary; for even her holiness cannot satisfy for sin, nor the whiteness of her purity take out its deadly stain. Neither may we look for deliverance direct from the patience and compassion of God Himself; for in the abyss of His wisdom it has been decreed, that without shedding of blood there shall be no remission of sin. It is from the Precious Blood of Christ alone that our salvation comes. Out of the immensity of its merits, out of the inexhaustible treasure of its satisfactions, because of the resistless power of its beauty over the justice and wrath of God, because of that dear combination of its priceless worth and its benignant prodigality, we miserable sinners are raised out of the depths of our wretchedness, and restored to the peace and favor of our Heavenly Father.

For, as there is no earthly misery like sin, so there is no deliverance like that with which Jesus makes us free.

Is hope sweet where despair had almost begun to reign? Is it a joy to be emancipated from a shameful slavery, or set free from a noxious dungeon? Is it gladness to be raised, as if by miracle, from a bed of feebleness and suffering to sudden health and instantaneous vigor? Then, what a gladness must salvation be! For, as there is no earthly misery like sin, so there is no deliverance like that with which Jesus makes us free. Words will not tell it.

Thought only can think it, and it must be thought out of an enlightened mind and a burning heart, dwelt on for a long, long while. The first moment after death is a moment which must infallibly come to every one of us. Earth lies behind us, silently wheeling its obedient way through the black-tinted space. The measureless spaces of eternity lie outstretched before us. The words of our sentence have scarcely floated away into silence. It is a sentence of salvation. The great risk has been run, and we are saved. God's power is holding our soul lest it should die of gladness. It cannot take in the whole of its eternity. The least accidental joy is a world of beatitude in itself. The blaze of the Vision is overwhelming. Then the truth that eternity is eternal, - this is so hard to master. Yet all this is only what we mean when we pronounce the word salvation. How hideous the difference of that first moment after death, if we have not been saved! It turns us cold to think of it. But oh, joy of joys! We have seen the Face of Jesus; and the light in His eyes, and the smile upon His face, and the words upon his lips were salvation.

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Memorare to Our Lady of the Precious Blood

REMEMBER, O Lady of the Precious Blood, the sorrowful Sheddings of the Blood of thy Jesus and the most bitter tears thou didst mingle with His Redeeming Blood. In the name of the Blood of the Victim of Reparation and of thy holy tears; in the name of the seven swords which pierced thy heart, by which thou didst become the Mediatrix of all graces for the human race and the Queen of Martyrs, have pity on my soul and on all its miseries; have pity on sinners and on the innocent souls they seek to pervert; have pity on the poor, the sick, the infirm, on all their sufferings, both physical and moral; have pity on the agonizing, especially upon those who, except for thine intercession, would leave this world without being purified in the Blood of the Lamb.

It is by the Blood of thy Dying Son, by His inexpressible Sufferings, by His last plea to His Father in favor of mankind, by His ignominious Death and by the perpetuation of His Sacrifice on Catholic Altars, that I beg thee not to reject my supplications, but graciously to hear them. Amen.

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Feast of the Most Precious Blood




I Peter i. 28: "You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver . . .but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled."

I. Blood is the price of heaven;
All sin that price exceeds;
Oh, come to be forgiven:
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

II. Under the olive-boughs,
Falling like ruby beads,
The blood drops from His brows:
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

III. While the fierce scourges fall,
The precious blood still pleads;
In front of Pilate's hall,
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

IV. Beneath the thorny crown
The crimson fountain speeds;
See how it trickles down:
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

V. Bearing the fatal wood,
His band of saints He leads,
Marking the way with blood:
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

VI. On Calvary His shame
With blood still intercedes;
His open wounds proclaim
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

VII. He hangs upon the tree,--
Hangs there for my misdeeds;
He sheds His blood for me:
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

VIII. His blood is flowing still:
My thirsty soul it feeds;
He lets me drink my fill:
He bleeds, my Saviour bleeds!

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Praise to the Most Precious Blood

Heb. xii. 24: "But you are come to Jesus the mediator of the New Testament, and to the sprinkling of blood, which speaketh better than that of Abel."

I. Hail, Jesus! hail! who for my sake
Sweet blood from Mary's veins didst take,
And shed it all for me;
Oh, blessed be my Saviour's blood,
My life, my light, my only good,
To all eternity.

II. To endless ages let us praise
The Precious Blood, whose price could raise
The world from wrath and sin;
Whose streams our inward thirst appease,
And heal the sinner's worst disease,
If he but bathe therein.

III. O Sweetest Blood, that can implore
Pardon of God, and heaven restore,
The heaven which sin had lost;
While Abel's blood for vengeance pleads,
What Jesus shed still intercedes
For those who wronged Him most.

IV. Oh, to be sprinkled from the wells
Of Christ's own Sacred Blood excels
Earth's best and highest bliss;
The ministers of wrath divine
Hurt not the happy hearts that shine
With those red drops of His!

V. Ah, there is joy amid the saints,
And hell's despairing courage faints
When this sweet song we raise:
Oh, louder then, and louder still,
Earth with one mighty chorus fill,
The Precious Blood to praise!

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A reminder ...