The Most Precious Blood

Again, this year, for my friend, Father J.K., C.PP.S., on this Feast of the Most Precious Blood.

Priest of Jesus Christ,
you are forever marked by His Blood.
The Blood of the Lamb flows through you:
It sanctifies your touch;
It comes to flower on your lips;
It purifies and quickens all that you do
in your sacred ministry.

In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
you offer the Blood of Christ to the Father.
In the Sacrament of Penance
you apply the healing balm of the Precious Blood to souls
and wash them in It’s laver.

Your purity, priest of Christ,
is itself the fruit of your intimacy with the Precious Blood.
It manifests the power of the Precious Blood,
making you, in spite of all your weaknesses,
victorious over the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Cultivate, then, a strong a lively devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Christ.
Apply it mystically — that is, through your priestly intercession —
to souls in need of healing, deliverance, and inner cleansing.
You are the guardian of the Blood of the Lamb,
responsible for It being treated with the utmost reverence and adoration
in Holy Mass and, in particular, at the distribution of Holy Communion
under both species.

Preach often on the power of the Precious Blood
received in Holy Communion.
Tell souls that the Most Precious Blood of Jesus is
the price of our redemption.
the salvation of the world,
the glory of the Holy Sacrifice,
the vesture of Christ’s priesthood,
the beauty of His altar,
the splendour of His saints,
the defeat of Satan,
the reconciliation of sinners,
the healing of those wounded by the evil serpent,
the shining purity of priests,
the life of those who follow the Lamb,
the peace of the troubled,
the remedy for every ill,
the soul’s desire,
the astonishment of the angels,
and the joy of the Church.

Priest of Jesus Christ,
you are His minister, set apart to handle and to dispense His Precious Blood.
In making you the minister of His Blood,
Jesus entrusts you with His Life,
so that through you His life might be communicated to souls.
You are the guardian and dispenser of His Blood:
heaven’s greatest treasure and the salvation of the universe.

He is the Lamb once slain Who lives forever.
His Blood flows still from the wound in His Side;
It is the stream that irrigates the Church
and brings health to souls weakened by sin.
Cultivate an intense devotion to the Precious Blood.
The Blood of Jesus is the power of your priesthood
and, where His Blood is, there too is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is communicated most richly in the mystery of the Blood.
When you receive the Blood of Jesus
you receive an infusion of the Holy Spirit;
the Life of Jesus courses in your veins,
making you with Him one Priest, one Victim,
one Son eternally beloved of the Father.
Speak of the power of the Blood of Christ
to heal the soul’s wounds,
to bring peace to troubled hearts,
to reconcile enemies,
to transform sinners into saints,
to lift those degraded by vice into the pure and holy happiness of virtue.

Invoke the power of the Blood of Christ to defeat Satan,
to liberate souls from bondage to sin,
and to establish peace where there is unrest and disquiet.
Have a boundless confidence in the might of the Precious Blood.
Wheresoever you invoke the Blood of Jesus,
there will He establish the peace and joy of His Kingdom,
casting out the spirits of darkness who labour incessantly
to bring about the ruin of families,
and of communities,
and of every attempt to overcome evil with good
by living in prayer and in charity.

The Precious Blood is the most potent remedy
for the ills that cause so much suffering in the world;
and that remedy has been given to you, priest of Jesus Christ, in a limitless way.
You are a physician of souls,
sent out to bring healing to the brokenhearted
and freedom to those enslaved by sin.

When the Precious Blood of Jesus touches the lips of a priest,
it purifies them of sin,
and descending into his heart, makes him fit for the Work of God.
Reflect on the immense grace that is yours, day after day, at the altar.
You are marked by Christ’s Most Precious Blood in the eyes of the Father.
That same mark of the Precious Blood terrifies demons,
and It accredits you to do all that Christ commands you to do
through His Holy Church.

Priest beloved of the Heart of Jesus,
adore His Precious Blood.
Make known It’s power.
Teach souls to have the greatest reverence for the mystery of the Blood.
Call down upon yourself and upon souls
the protection and infinite merits of the Blood of the Lamb.

The Blood of Jesus Christ is fire in the soul of the priest who acknowledges It’s power.
Be the priest of His Precious Blood,
just as you are the priest of His Heart,
and of His Eucharistic Face.
These are the mysteries by which you are sanctified
and configured to Him,
Who is eternally Priest and Victim.