1st July. The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord.

Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Liturgy, that admirable summary of the history of the Church, reminds us every year that at this date in 1849, thanks to the French army, the revolution which had driven the Pope from Rome was vanquished. To perpetuate the memory of this triumph and to show that it was due to the Saviour's merits, Pius IX, at the time a refugee at Gaeta, instituted the Feast of the Precious Blood. Pius XI in 1934 raised it to the First Class.

The Heart of Jesus has made this adorable Blood circulate in His limbs; wherefore, as on the feast of the Sacred Heart, the Gospel presents to our view the thrust of the lance which pierced the side of the Divine Crucified, blood and water gushing forth. [The Office of Matins speaks of the blood which Jesus shed at the Circumcision, in the Garden of Olives, the flagellation, the crowning of thorns and on the cross.] Thus become united the two testimonies which the Holy Ghost bore to the Messias, when He was baptized in the water of the Jordan and when He was baptized in blood on the cross (Gradual). [The Docetes taught that Jesus was the Christ at His baptism, and had thus come by water, but being no longer Christ on the cross He had not come by blood.]

Let us do homage to the precious Blood of our Redeemer which the priest offers to God on the altar.

Redemisti nos, Domine, in sanguine tuo, ex omni tribu, et lingua, et populo, et natione: et fecisti nos Deo nostro regnum. * Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo: in generationem et generationem annuntiabo veritatem tuam in ore meo.
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. * The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever: I will show forth Thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation.
(Apoc. 5:9-10 and Psalm 88:2 from the Introit of Mass)

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui unigenitum Filium tuum mundi Redemptorem constituisti, ac ejus Sanguine placari voluisti: concede, quaesumus, salutis nostrae pretium solemni cultu ita venerari, atque a praesentis vitae malus ejus virtute defendi in terris; ut fructu perpetuo laetemur in caelis.
O almighty and everlasting God, who didst appoint Thine only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and hast willed to be appeased by His blood; grant unto us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate with solemn worship the price of our redemption, and by its power be so defended against the evils of this life, that we may enjoy the fruit thereof for evermore in heaven. Through the same our Lord.
(Collect)

Hic est qui venit per aquam et sanguinem, Jesus Christus: non in aqua solum, sed in aqua et sanguine. * Tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in caelo: Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus sanctus: et hi tres unum sunt. Et tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra: Spiritus, aqua, et sanguis: et hi tres unum sunt.
Alleluia, alleluia. Si testimonium hominum accipimus, testimonium Dei majus est. Alleluia.
This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. * There are three who give testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three are one.
Alleluia, alleluia. * If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. Alleluia.
(Gradual 1 John 5:6-8 and Alleluia ibid. 9)

Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. John.
At that time, Jesus, when He had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing His head, He gave up the ghost. Then the Jews (because it was the Parasceve), that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the sabbath-day (for that was a great sabbath-day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers, therefore, came: and they broke the legs of the first and of the other that was crucified with Him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it hath given testimony, and his testimony is true.
(St  John 19:30-35)



Accessistis ad Sion montem, et civitatem Dei viventis, Jerusalem caelestem et testamenti novi mediatorem Jesum, et sanguinis aspersionem melius loquentem quam Abel.
Ye are come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Testament, and to the sprinkling of blood, which speaketh better than that of Abel.
(Antiphon at the Magnificat at First Vespers: Hebrews 12:22)