Search
Most Precious Blood of Jesus
-
-
Click image to download the Litany
-
The feast of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood.
"The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it."
-
-
-
Father Gorka's Thoughts
-
The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic Questions and Answers
CLICK HERE
Produced by the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and approved by the full body of bishops at their June 2001 General Meeting. -
O God, who by the Precious Blood of your Only Begotten Son have redeemed the whole world, preserve in us the work of your mercy so that, ever honoring the mystery of our salvation, we may merit to obtain its fruits. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
-
-
More Resources
-
Why this devotion might speak to you...
Annabelle Moseley - published on 07/29/18
https://aleteia.org/2018/07/29/why-julys-devotion-to-the-precious-blood-might-speak-to-you
Why July’s devotion to the Precious Blood might speak to you.
Far from an outdated tradition, this sign of piety has much to heal our hearts …In the Catholic Church, the month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood. It is a wonderful time to be reminded of that gift, recalling all the while that devotion to the Precious Blood marks not only one fleeting summer month but our entire year, offering true and abiding sustenance.
The privilege of receiving the Blood of Christ is even more profound when we remember that Christ is the fulfillment of the Scriptures, and the fulfillment of many ancient covenants associated with blood. The first sacrifice pleasing to God was Abel’s slain lamb. This angered Cain, who spilled Abel’s blood. To the ancient Hebrews, blood was associated with the soul. God says to Cain: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” (Gen 4:10) And so, the soul of Cain cries out to God for peace.
Abraham established the covenant of circumcision. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts at Passover spared the Israelites’ children from death. Moses sprinkled the blood of animal sacrifices on the people to bless them as part of rituals commanded by God. In His own time, Jesus would have been very familiar with the sight of sinners coming to the temple with the offering of a lamb, confessing their sin while they placed their hands on the animal’s head, and then slitting its throat as a substitute, to die for them. “I am the Lamb of God,” would have had such a visceral meaning when spoken to a people familiar with that common occurrence. The Shepherd of us all becomes the Lamb of sacrifice. The blood of Jesus delivers the peace for which Abel’s blood cried. We are the blood-purchased children of God. At Gethsemane and Golgotha, the blood of Christ fell to the ground and answered Abel’s cry with a searing beauty beyond imagining.
An ancient medieval tradition spoke of “the Pelican-in-Her-Piety,” as a symbol of Christ, and it is an image prevalent in many a church and cathedral, from stained glass windows to floor mosaics. Legend held that when a mother pelican’s young were languishing or dying, she would impale her own breast to feed them from her blood, which would revivify them even at the expense of her life. It is a stunning symbol of Christ. If you encounter someone who is shocked by such images of consuming or being blessed by blood, tell them, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, “God is good, but He is not tame.” The new life Jesus gave came “with water and blood.” (1 John 5:6).
St. Longinus, yes, saint, is the soldier who pierced the side of Christ with a lance. He declared that truly Jesus was the son of God, because the blood of Christ spilled on Longinus and healed his eyes. Tradition tells us that Longinus converted, left the army and spread the Gospel until his own martyrdom.
In honor of the Precious Blood, let us receive the Eucharist with ever more gratitude for the Lamb of God. May we find compelling ways, like the storied Pelican, to nourish others, giving without limit. And may we pray to St. Longinus, whose vision was blessed by Calvary’s blood, to spread the Gospel in whatever ways, be they small or great, that we can.
What a faith, what a savior have we, that even a man who wounded the side of God may become a saint. Thus, what is our excuse not to try?
-
A Doctor's Point of View...
Kathleen N. Hattrup - published on 06/22/19https://aleteia.org/2019/06/22/a-doctor-on-why-blood-and-water-gushed-from-jesus-heart
A doctor on why “blood and water” gushed from Jesus’ heart
St. John records what he saw; even if the Evangelist was thinking of the Sacraments, Our Lord's body was simply experiencing the processes of death.But when [the soldiers] came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. ~John 19:33-34
St. John, the eyewitness of this event who subsequently recorded it in his Gospel, would not have had a medical explanation for this outpouring of "blood and water." For him -- his Gospel is represented with an eagle because of his piercing spiritual insight -- God had a message in the blood and water that pointed to baptism and Eucharist, to infinite mercy.But the spiritual depth of this occurrence doesn't negate that a medical explanation could be quite likely.In this regard, a retired cardio-thoracic surgeon, Dr. Antony de Bono, feels that there is a simple reason for the outpouring of the "blood and water."
He writes:
Jesus had a haemothorax, which in the stillness of the dead body, had separated out as they do into two layers: the heavier red cells below and the light watery plasma above. The haemothorax was the result of the savage flagellation.
The withdrawal of the spear would have been followed first by the red cells (blood), then by the lighter plasma (water).
The body of Jesus had been hanging on the cross, dead, for some time. Obviously the fluid must have accumulated during life by a bleeding into the chest cavity, almost certainly due to the savage flagellation.
It is well known that blood in these circumstances in a still dead body starts to separate out, to sediment, the heavier red cells sinking to the bottom leaving a much lighter, straw colored fluid, the plasma above.
When a hole is made by the spear, the red cells, which John describes as blood, gushes out first, followed by the plasma, which John saw as water.
"I can think of no other explanation," the doctor reports, adding, "technically the process for draining the chest is known as a thoracocentesis."
As we contemplate Jesus' love for us, made visible in this total self-emptying, we can thank him not only for his infinite mercy, but also for his very human devotion to his adopted brothers and sisters, a love, mercy, and devotion so great that it led him to the cross.
-
