July Devotion – The Most Precious Blood of Jesus

July Devotion – The Most Precious Blood of Jesus

Catholic doctrine teaches the faithful, that the Blood of Jesus Christ is part of His Sacred Humanity and hypostatically united to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
And as such, it is worthy of adoration and veneration proper to latreutical worship (cultus latriae) which is rendered only to God.   In other words, we adore the human nature of Christ because of its intimate and eternal union with the Person of the Divine Word.
It is for this same reason, that we honour the Most Sacred Heart or the Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Devotion to the Precious Blood:
This devotion is one of the most ancient of pious Church practices.   It is said that the Blessed Virgin venerated the Most Precious Blood of her infant Son on the day of His circumcision as she collected the first relics of His Precious Blood on a piece of cloth.
On that momentous occasion she united her tears with that of the Word Incarnate on account of, not so much of the sensible pain bu,t of His supernatural sorrow for the hard-heartedness of mortals.
This was the first of seven Blood-Sheddings of Our Divine Saviour, The rest being:

2. The Agony in the Garden

3. The Scourging at the Pillar

4. The Crowning with Thorns

5. The Way of the Cross

6. The Crucifixion

7. The Piercing of His Heart

The old sacrifice took a new form in the New Testament when the Immaculate Lamb of God offered Himself on the altar of the Cross, to redeem mankind from sin and the slavery of Satan.

And during the Last Supper, Our Lord offered Himself in an unbloody, yet real sacrifice when He uttered the following words:
“For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.” (Matthew 26: 28)

Truly, this “shedding of blood’ or “pouring out of blood” took place and forms one of the glorious mysteries of our Faith.