NOVENA OF DEVOTION TO THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS
Reminder – begins tomorrow – 22 June!
I nearly forgot to remind you – please pray with me.
Devotion to the Most Precious Blood is not a spiritual option, it is a spiritual obligation and that, not only for Priests but for every follower of Christ. I really believe that one of the symptoms of modern society (and I would even include, sadly, modern Catholic society) one of the symptoms of a growing, gnawing secularism is the lessening and the weakening of devotion to the Precious Blood. Devotion, as we know, is a composite of three elements: -It is first- veneration, it is secondly- invocation, and it is thirdly- imitation. In other words, devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain, is first of all to be veneration on our part, which is a composite of knowledge, love and adoration. We are to study to come to a deeper understanding of what those two casual words, Precious Blood, really mean.
I found this passage in the oldest document, outside of Sacred Scripture, from the first century of the Christian era – to be exact, from Pope St. Clement I, dated about 96. Says Pope Clement: “Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realise how truly precious It is, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world.“
To understand the meaning of the Precious Blood, we must get some comprehension of the gravity of sin, of the awfulness of offending God because, it required the Blood of the Son of God to forgive that sin. We are living in an age in which to sin has become fashionable.
This veneration of the Precious Blood, which is the first element in our devotion to the Precious Blood, means, that we have a deep sensitivity to the awfulness of sin. Sin must be terrible. It must be awful. It must be the most dreadful thing in the universe. Why? Because it cost the living God in human form, the shedding of His Blood.
Lord Jesus,
You became Man, in order, by Your Passion and Death
and the draining of Your Blood on the Cross,
might prove to us, how much You, our God, love us.
Protect us, dear Jesus,
from ever running away from the sight of blood.
Strengthen our weak human wills
so that we will not only, not run away from the Cross
but welcome every opportunity
to shed our blood in spirit,
in union with Your Precious Blood,
so that, dying to ourselves in time.
we might live with You in Eternity.
Amen
Excerpted from The Precious Blood of Christ, Servant of God Fr John A.Hardon, S.J.
AnaStpaul 