Devotion of the month: The Precious Blood

“You know that you were redeemed from the vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, not with perishable things as silver or gold but with the Precious Blood of Christ as the Lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter: 18-19

"Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realize how truly precious It is, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world."  ~ Pope St. Clement I

Act of Consecration to the Most Precious Blood

Blood of Jesus, inebriate me! O Jesus, my Beloved Savior, ever present in the Tabernacle, to be the strength, the joy and the food of souls, I come to consecrate myself to Thy Precious Blood, and to pledge Thee my sincere love and fidelity. Pierced with sorrow at the remembrance of Thy sufferings, the contemplation of the Cross, and the thought of the outrages and contempt lavished by ungrateful souls upon Thy dear Blood, I long, O my Jesus, to bring joy to Thy Heart, and to make Thee forget my sins, and those of the whole world, by consecrating my body and soul to Thy service. I desire, my Jesus, to live henceforth, only by Thy Blood and for Thy Blood. I now choose It as my greatest treasure and the dearest object of my love.

O merciful Redeemer, deign to regard me as a perpetual adorer of Thy Most Precious Blood, and be pleased to accept my prayers, my deeds and my sacrifices, as so many acts of reparation and love.

"May the Blood of Christ bring us all to everlasting life."

In the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” there is a scene, after Christ has been horribly scourged, that shows His Mother, Mary, wiping His blood off the floor. To Catholic eyes this scene is about more than a mother’s love. After the horror and extreme violence of the whipping, during which we wince right along with Mary as the blood of our Divine Savior spatters everyone and everything, the transition to a shot of a grieving mother on hands and knees going through blood-soaked rag after blood-soaked rag in an attempt to wipe up every last bit of her Son’s Precious Blood is profoundly moving. But there is more than a mother’s love at work there. She seems not just to be cleaning but to be preserving. There is a sense that the very Blood is precious, even sacred.


Later after Jesus has died on the Cross, a soldier drives his lance into His side. Out pours the blood and water, showering him in a type of baptism.


What is it with Catholics and the blood of Christ? Why does the priest say “May the blood of Christ bring us to everlasting life?” A bit morbid is it not?


No. If we are to be Bible-believing Christians, we do well not to forget the following line from Romans: “we are justified by His blood,” or this from the Letter to the Hebrews: “and so Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His blood, suffered outside the gate,” or this from John: “and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”


Devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus reminds us at what price our very souls were bought. Precious indeed.

GLEANINGS: Quotations from St. John Vianney

Man is a beggar who needs to ask God for everything.


All our religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God, if we have not that universal charity for everyone - for the good, and for the bad, for the poor and for the rich, and for all those who do us harm as much as those who do us good.

I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the Cross than in serving the world and its pleasures.

If people would do for God what they do for the world, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven.
You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.
We should consider those moments spent before the Blessed Sacrament as the happiest of our lives.

My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God.

We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favor of a person we love, the other in favor of a person who has done us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter.
You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God.

My little children, reflect on these words: the Christian’s treasure is not on earth but in heaven. Our thoughts, then, ought to be directed to where out treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man’s happiness lies. Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can every pull apart. This union of God with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding.

Sermon of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars

My children, we have come to the Sacrament of Orders. It is a Sacrament which seems to relate to no one among you, and which yet relates to everyone. This Sacrament raises man up to God. What is a priest? A man who holds the place of God—a man who is invested with all the powers of God. “Go,” said our Lord to the priest;” as my father sent Me, I send you. All power has been given me in heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all nations….He who listens to you listens to me; he who despises you, despises Me.” When the priest remits sins, he does not say, “God pardons you;” he says, “I absolve you.” At the Consecration, he does not say, “This is the Body of our Lord;” he says, “This is My Body.”

Saint Bernard tells us that every thing has come to us through Mary; and we may also say that every thing has come to us through the priest; yes, all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts.

If we had not the Sacrament of Orders, we should not have our Lord. Who placed him there, in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was it that received your soul, on its entrance into life? The priest. Who nourishes it, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, by washing that soul, for the last time, in the Blood of Jesus Christ? The priest—always the priest. And if that souls comes to the point of death, who will raise it up, who will restore it to calmness and peace? Again, the priest. You cannot recall one single blessing from God without finding, side by side with this recollection, the image of the priest.

Go to confession to the Blessed Virgin, or to an angel; will they absolve you? No. Will they give you the Body and Blood of our Lord? No. The Holy Virgin cannot make her Divine Son descend into the Host. You might have two hundred angels there, but they could not absolve you. A priest, however simple he may be, can do it; he can say to you, “Go in peace; I pardon you.”


Oh, how great it is to be a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love.


The other benefits of God would be of no avail to us without the priest. What would be the use of a house full of gold, if you had nobody to open the door? The priest has the key of heavenly treasures; it is he who opens the door; he is the steward of the good God, the distributor of His wealth.


Without the priest, the Death and Passion of our Lord would be of no avail. Look at the heathens: what has it availed them that our Lord has died? Alas! They can have no share in the blessings of redemption, while they have no priests to apply His Blood to their souls.


The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you.

After God, the priest is every thing. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts.

If the Missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, “What can we do in this church? There is no Mass; our Lord is no longer there: we may as well pray at home.”

When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice, there is no religion.

When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, “Where are you going?” you might answer, “I am going to feed my soul.” If someone were to ask you, pointing at the tabernacle, “What is that golden door?” “That is our storehouse, where the true Food of out souls is kept.” “Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?” “The priest.” “And what is the Food?” “The precious Body and Blood of our Lord.” O God! How thou hast loved us!…

See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world...

Some one said, “Does St. Philomena, then, obey the Curè of Ars?” Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him

If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. St. Theresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed. When you see a priest, you should say, “There is he who made me a child of God, and opened heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul.” At the sight of a church tower you may say, “What is there in that place?” “The Body of our Lord.” “Why is He there?” “because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass.”


What joy the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of our Lord, at seeing the Master whom they had loved so much! The priest must feel the same joy, at seeing our Lord whom he holds in his hands. Great value is attached to objects which have been laid in the drinking cup of the Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus at Loretto. But the fingers of the priest, that have touched the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that have been plunged into the chalice which contained His Blood, into the pyx where His Body has lain, are they not still more precious?
The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of our Lord Jesus Christ. The priest continues the work of redemption on earth. If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die, not of fright but of love.

The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.