​"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 Saint Clement I, 96 A.D.

 

   The Church reminds us of the first drops of blood that flowed for our redemption on the day when Jesus was circumcised. Later, on the Mount of Olives, we see the Holy Face crimsoned with blood during the agony in the garden. Unhappy, despairing Judas casts the blood-money down in the temple. "I have betrayed innocent blood!" In the scourging chamber we see the Lord in deepest humiliation; under raw strokes the divine Blood spurts out over the ground. Christ is led before Pilate. Pilate shows the blood-covered Body to the crowds: Ecce Homo! We go through Jerusalem's streets following the bloody footsteps to Golgotha. Down the beams of the Cross blood trickles. A soldier opens the sacred side. Water and Blood. The Most Precious Blood of Christ, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel! (Heb.12:24)

 

   The month of July is traditionally devoted to the honor of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord began as a local devotion as early as the 15th century, celebrated on the Friday after the Fourth Sunday of Lent. It was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX as a universal feast for the first time, celebrated on the first Sunday of July, after which Pope Pius X transferred it to the 1st of July. Then, during the calendar reforms of the late 1960s, it was removed as a standalone feast from the General Roman Calendar we use today and 'merged' into the moveable feast of Corpus Christi. Nevertheless, veneration of our Lord's Precious Blood is as ancient as the Church herself, and continues to inspire special devotion, especially in the month of July.

 

   "The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it."

~ 'The Church’s Year of Grace', by Fr. Pius Parsch

 

   I encourage you to dedicate yourselves in this month of July to contemplating the Precious Blood of Jesus, which was poured out for the eternal freedom and life of all nations on earth, that all may know, in the fullness of time, true and everlasting peace! Please follow the link below for devotional resources related to the Most Precious Blood of Christ:

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https://traditionalcatholicprayers.com/2021/07/01/prayers-to-the-precious-blood-of-jesus/

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O Most Precious Blood of Jesus,

Save Us and Save the Whole World!

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Oremvs Pro Invicem!

Father Albert Beltz, KHS, Pastor​​

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