01 July 2009

Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, in Thy Blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom. (Psalm) The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever: I will show forth Thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation. Glory be to the Father... Thou hast...

The whole month of July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of our Lord. Today's feast is, I think, the highest ranking feast day (I Class) to fall under the axe of the post-Vatican II liturgical reformers. It's quite remarkable that Pope John XXIII himself, who convoked the Council which led to this feast's suppression, had published an Apostolic Letter in 1960 On Promoting Devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It's quite short, and a good read. Here is one quote:

"Unlimited is the effectiveness of the God-Man's Blood - just as unlimited as the love that impelled him to pour it out for us, first at his circumcision eight days after birth, and more profusely later on in his agony in the garden, in his scourging and crowning with thorns, in his climb to Calvary and crucifixion, and finally from out that great wide wound in his side which symbolizes the divine Blood cascading down into all the Church's sacraments. Such surpassing love suggests, nay demands, that everyone reborn in the torrents of that Blood adore it with grateful love."

Here is the litany of the Most Precious Blood.

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