JULY - The Month of the Precious Blood

Blood of Christ, inebriate me!

"Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy Blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth." -Revelations 5:9-10

Holy Mother Church has a profound love for the Most Precious Blood of her Divine Spouse, since It is the Price of our salvation! Without the shedding of the Blood of the Lamb of God, we could not be redeemed. Without His cleansing and vivifying Blood coursing through the Church, there would be no Mystical Body of Christ. Without His glorious Blood, the Sacraments would have no effect. Without His redeeming Blood, Mary would never have been conceived without sin, and there would be no saints whatsoever, for "they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb" (Rev 7:14)

The Most Precious Blood of Christ is an aspect of His Sacred Humanity. It is therefore hypostatically united to His Deity, and so can receive our worship, adoration, and love. When we pray to the Precious Blood, we are praying to the Person of Jesus Christ, our Savior, present in His Blood.



Prayer in Honor of the Precious Blood

O Precious Blood of Jesus, infinite Price of our redemption and both the drink and laver of our souls, You continually plead the cause of all people before the throne of Infinite Mercy. From the depths of my heart I adore You. Jesus, insofar as I am able I want to make reparation for the insults and outrages which You receive from human beings, especially from those who blaspheme You and deny Your presence.

Who would not venerate the Blood of infinite value?! Who does not feel inflamed with love for the Jesus Who shed It?! What would have become of me had I not been redeemed by this Divine Blood?! Who has drained It all from the veins of my Savior? Surely this was the work of Love! O Infinite Love, which has given us this saving Balm! O Balm beyond all price, welling up from the foundation of Infinite Love! Grant that every heart and every tongue may render You praise and thanks, now and forever! Amen.

June – The Month of the Sacred Heart

If you want to know the true devotion to the Sacred Heart, you must study the Passion. See the agony in the garden, the keen cutting pain at the kiss of Judas, the cold shiver at the denial of Peter, the dragging with cords, the blow on the Sacred Face, the spitting, the shame, the foul words, yet all this was nothing, it was little to the longing pain of God seeking man’s love. The scourging, the crowning with thorns, the heavy cross placed on those poor, torn, bleeding shoulders, yet this is little, and why? Because there is still a greater proof of love. “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.”

Study the Crucifixion; see there what God rejoiced to suffer, if so He only might give us proofs which we might believe of this longing for our love. He chose gladly, nay even willingly, to suffer all this; it was even less pain to Him than the coldness of our hearts. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is simply this: Devotion to a Heart that loves and is not loved, that is lavishing favors on His loved ones and is in return treated with coldness, ingratitude and outrage.

So the two special objects of this devotion are love and reparation. And now how are we to do this? It is easy enough. Do what your own heart dictates. Do what you think would please this dear Lord, and avoid what would cause Him pain. The dictates of a loving heart are sure to be unerring in this respect to the Prisoner of Love in the Tabernacle.

We know that He is there, whole and entire, that His Heart is there, loving, praying and suffering. That every drop of His Precious Blood and every fiber of His Sacred Heart are there. Oh! How He longs for love and sympathy; let us try to be filled with this thought, so that it may become part of our very life, and thus render our very thought, word, and deed, a message of love and reparation to that loving, outraged Heart. Let us try to think of how He loves us, and let us ever remember that it is on those hearts on which He has lavished His greatest gifts and graces, that He inflicts the deepest wounds.

It may be only a simple aspiration of love we can offer Him, a simple thought of Him in His loving abjection, a little flower laid at His feet, but whatever it is it speaks to Him a language He understands, and which He will not forget. Let us try to make others realize this love and remember the great secret of influence over souls is – to make them know and feel that Jesus loves them, before we try to make them love Him, and in our work when we have to deal with souls who perhaps have very little intellect, but often a great deal of heart, this is the only means of doing real good. Let us when we come down before Jesus in the Tabernacle bring a lively faith in His presence and in His loving, suffering Heart. – Father Dignam, S. J.

PENANCE

We must all do penance for our sins. If we do not, we shall have long years of suffering in the awful fires of Purgatory. This fire is just the same as the fire of Hell. Now if we offer our sufferings – the very little ones as well as the greater ones – in union with the sufferings of Jesus Christ, we are doing the easiest and best penance we can perform. We may thus deliver ourselves entirely from Purgatory, while at the same time gaining the greatest graces and blessings.

Let us remember clearly that:

1. Sufferings come from God for our benefit.

2. When we are in the state of grace, we derive immense merit from every suffering borne patiently, even the little sufferings of our daily lives.

3. God will give us abundant strength to bear our sufferings if we only ask Him.

4. If we bear our sufferings patiently, they lose their sting and bitterness.

5. Above all, every suffering is a share in the Passion of Our Lord.

6. By our sufferings, we can free ourselves in great part, or entirely from the pains of Purgatory.

7. By bearing our sufferings patiently, we win a glorious crown of martyrdom.

Of course we may do all in our power to avoid or lessen our sufferings, but we cannot avoid all suffering. Therefore, it is clearly necessary for us to learn how to bear them. In a word, we must understand clearly that if we remain calm, serene and patient, suffering loses all its sting, but the moment we get excited, the smallest suffering increases a hundredfold. It is just as if we had a sore arm or leg and rubbed it violently; it would become irritated and painful; whereas, if we touch it gently, we soothe the irritation.

We suffer from ill-health, from pains, headaches, rheumatism, arthritis, from accidents, from enemies. We may have financial difficulties. Some suffer for weeks in their homes, some in hospitals or nursing homes. In a word we are in a vale of tears. Almighty God could have saved us from all suffering, but He did not do so because He knows in His infinite goodness that suffering is good for us.

(I can't exactly remember where this came from-good advice nontheless. GM)