DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR JULY 2009

+Let us be silent and prayerful as we contemplate the Most Precious Blood of our Holy Redeemer+

Let me look on Him Whom my sins have pierced; not indeed upon His Body’s wounds now glorified, but upon the actual anguish of His Heart, His inward wounds that bleed within with every new offence against His love. JESU! Thou art a priest for ever, and every day dost offer this Sacrifice of Thyself, whispering through the words of Thy ministers “This is the chalice of my Blood.”  This word is not an echo from the past, not a voice from the dead, but from Thyself, alive and present here. What then are Thy thoughts, sweet JESU? What Thy memories, what the emotions of Thy Heart when the awful hour of Thy Passion is thus revived and lives again ?. What mean those words to Thy Godhead Whose eyes gaze ever upon Calvary, seeing it as actual, as now? What to Thy Manhood in Whose most perfect faculties so intense an hour as that on Calvary can never be made dull by time? It must live for ever fresh and vivid in Thy memory and be as real and present in its manifestation in the Mass as in its first experience. Even we in our poor memories can revive the past – how much more Thou in Thy unageing life! Therefore Thy suffering Heart did institute the Mass that we with Thee might recall and even be present at Thy Passion which is ever part of Thy abiding consciousness.  Now Thy immortal Body cannot shed its blood and die. Yet, Saviour! On every altar Thy sacrificial words are uttered and have of themselves power to effect Thy death and to fill the chalice with Thy very Blood.
(Father W. Roche, S.J., Mysteries of The Mass in Reasoned Prayers, 1925)

Bishop Anthony writes: I ask you all to ponder the above words and to read them more than once – prayerfully. The Feast of The Precious Blood is no longer kept in the Novus Ordo and this is an utter tragedy because it is by the Precious Blood of JESUS that we are redeemed and may hope for Heaven!
The Collect for the Feast of the Precious Blood speaks of Almighty God accepting the Blood of His Son as the propitiation for our sins. And Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews that it is Christ’s Blood and not the blood of goats and calves that has enabled Him to enter into the sanctuary, that is into Heaven, once and for all. Through the shedding of Christ’s Blood on the Cross a new Covenant has been given us. That Covenant is our eternal Destiny – our Redemption if we truly believe what JESUS has done for us. At the consecration of the Chalice, the priest says: “This is the Chalice of my Blood, of the new and eternal Covenant. It shall be shed for you and many others so that sins may be forgiven.”
Those words, uttered at the First Mass – that is the Last Supper – led on to the agony of the Cross. So, Christ Himself tells us that the shedding of His Blood ushers in the possibility of forgiveness and eternal life. But this Sacrifice is of value to those who believe which is why JESUS says “many others” and not “all”. Since our Saviour has commanded us to eat His Body and to drink His Blood, we know that it is by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we are intrinsically connected to the Precious Blood. We adore the Precious Blood at the elevation of the Chalice -  nourishing Blood by which we will live for ever!
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Let us pray: We beseech Thee, Lord our God, that as the shedding of Thy Son’s Blood on the altar of the Cross hath wrought Redemption to mankind, so likewise that same Blood may cleanse us from all our sins. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord and Redeemer.  Amen

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And a Passing Thought
The Blood of the humble and immaculate Lamb takes away any doubt we might have about God wanting solely our good.   [Saint Catherine of Siena]
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LET US ADORE FOR EVER THE PRECIOUS BLOOD BY WHICH WE ARE SAVED!
GLORY BE TO THEE LORD JESUS WHO SHED THY BLOOD THAT WE MIGHT HAVE LIFE!
LOUDER STILL AND LOUDER PRAISE THE PRECIOUS BLOOD!
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We have a cup that we bless; is not this cup we bless a participation in Christ’s Blood?  (1 Corinthians)