NOVENA OF DEVOTION TO THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS
Begins tomorrow 22 June
“Blood that but one drop of has the world to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.”
(Adoro te Devote – St Thomas Aquinas)
In his book, The Precious Blood, Father Frederick William Faber CO (1814-1863). calls St Paul the “Doctor of the Precious Blood” owing to his evident fondness to preach on It in his epistles (Romans 3:25; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:12).
He recounts that the lives of Saints are replete with devotion to the Precious Blood, making special mention of St. John Chrysostom, St. Austin, St. Gertrude and St Catherine of Sienna, whom he considered the Prophetess of the Precious Blood for putting emphasis on It as the solution to the ills of her times.
Father Faber also remarks that the Precious Blood makes us appreciate more deeply, Christ’s Redemption of mankind, His Sacrifice and Passion.
It also makes us comprehend the beautiful doctrine and the august realities of the Blessed Sacrament as we kneel in front of the Tabernacle in humble adoration.
Over time the Church gave Her blessing to the devotion by approving societies like the Missionaries of the Precious Blood; enriching confraternities like that of St Nicholas in Carcere, in Rome and that of the London Oratory; attaching indulgences to prayers and scapulars in honour of the Precious Blood and instituting commemorative Feasts of the Precious Blood, Friday after the fourth Sunday in Lent and, since Pope Pius IX, the first Sunday of July.
Sadly, however, the Feast was removed from the Universal Calendar in 1969, the argument being that the cultus of the Precious Blood is included in the Mass and Divine Office of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Nevertheless, we who follow the Traditional Calendar still celebrate this Feast and the Month of July, as dedicated to the Most Precious Blood, just as Pope Pius IX intended it to be.
AnaStpaul 