tags: - subject/christology - term/christ - term/humiliations - term/jesus-christ - term/lord - term/passion-of-jesus - term/pride - term/redeemer-redemption created: 2025-07-25 modified: 2026-05-16 description: 376. Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ – Divine Intimacy Meditations publish: true circle: everyone permalink: /feast-of-the-most-precious-blood-of-our-lord-jesus-christ --- > [[375-sts-peter-and-paul|← 375. Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul--]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[377-visitation-of-bvm|377. The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary →]] # 376. Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ --- July *First* ## Presence of God O Jesus Who Redeemed Me By Your Precious Blood, Grant That It May Produce All Its Fruit In Me ## Meditation 1 N today's liturgy the majestic figure of Jesus stands before us as that of a king who presents himself to his people robed in his royal mantle. The first antiphon of Vespers says: "Who is this that cometh...with dyed garments? This beautiful one in his robe" (RB). But the mantle Jesus wears is not beautiful by reason of fine linen or purple, but rather because it is sprinkled with His Blood, which was shed for our sins. "He was clothed in a robe sprinkled with blood, and His Name is called the Word of God" (ibid.). That blood which the Word, when He became incarnate, took from our human nature, He gave back to us every drop of it as the price of our redemption. And He gave it back, not as if constrained by anyone, but freely, because He willed to, because He loved us. "Christ...hath loved us," says St. John, " and washed us from our sins in His own Blood " (Ab 1,5). All the mysteries of our redemption are mysteries of love; and, therefore, all urge us to love. But the one on which we meditate today is especially moving, since it makes us consider the Redemption from its most terrible aspect: the shedding of the Blood of Jesus, which, from Calvary, flowed forth to crimson the whole world, to sprinkle all souls. Christ has redeemed us, "neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own Blood," St. Paul exclaims in the Epistle (Heb 9,11-15). This is a great truth which, if really understood, would more than suffice to make us genuine saints. We must have a "sense" of Christ's Blood, that Blood which He shed to the last drop for us, and which, through the Sacraments, especially Penance, continually flows over our souls to cleanse them, purify them and enrich them with the infinite merits of the Redeemer. "Bathe in His Blood, immerse yourself in His Blood, clothe yourself in the Blood of Christ, " was [[catherine-of-siena-saint|St. Catherine of Siena]]'s continual cry. ## Meditation 2 In the Office of the day, St. Paul earnestly invites us to correspond with Christ's gift. "Jesus... that He might sanctify the people by His own Blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore to Him...bearing His reproach. " If we want the Blood of Christ to bear all its fruit in us, we must unite our own blood with it. His alone is most precious, so precious that a single drop is sufficient to save the whole world; nevertheless, Jesus, as always, wants us to add our little share, our contribution of suffering and sacrifice, "bearing His reproach." If we are sincere we will have to admit that we do all in our power to escape Christ's shame and disgrace. A lack of consideration, a slight offense, a cutting word, are all that it takes to arouse our passions. How can we say that we know how to share in Christ's humiliations? Behold our divine Master treated like a malefactor, dragged amidst the coarse insults of the soldiers outside the gate of Jerusalem and there crucified between two thieves! And we? What part do we take in His Passion? How do we share in His reproach? To redeem us, "Jesus...endured the Cross, despising the shame..." and "you," St. Paul reproaches us, "have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Heb 12,2 4). Can we say that we know how to struggle "unto blood " to overcome our faults, our pride, our self-love? Oh! how weak and cowardly we are in the struggle, how self-indulgent and full of pity for ourselves, especially for our pride! Jesus, Innocence itself, expiated our sins even unto a bloody, ignominious death! We, the guilty ones, far from atoning for our faults unto blood, cannot even sacrifice our self-love. The blood which flows from sincere, total renunciation of self, from humble, generous acceptance of everything that mortifies, breaks, and destroys our pride this is the blood which Jesus asks us to unite with His! The Precious Blood of Jesus will give us the strength to do so, "for the soul which becomes inebriated and inundated by the Blood of Christ, is clothed with true and genuine virtue" ([[catherine-of-siena-saint|St. Catherine of Siena]]). ## Colloquy "O sweet Jesus, my Love, to strengthen my soul and to rescue it from the weakness into which it has fallen, You have built a wall around it, and have mixed the mortar with Your Blood, confirming my soul and uniting it to the sweet will and charity of God! Just as lime mixed with water is placed between stones to cement them together, so You, O God, have placed between Your creature and Yourself, the Blood of Your only-begotten Son, cemented with the divine lime of the fire of ardent charity, in such a way that there is no Blood without fire, nor fire without Blood. Your Blood was shed, O Christ, by the fire of love!" ([[catherine-of-siena-saint|St. Catherine of Siena]]). "I adore You, O Precious Blood of Jesus, flower of creation, fruit of virginity, ineffable instrument of the Holy Spirit, and I rejoice at the thought that You came from the drop of virginal blood on which eternal Love impressed its movement; You were assumed by the Word and deified in His person. I am overcome with emotion when I think of Your passing from the Blessed Virgin's heart into the heart of the Word, and, being vivified by the breath of the Divinity, becoming adorable because You became the Blood of God. "I adore You enclosed in the veins of Jesus, preserved in His humanity like the manna in the golden urn, the memorial of the eternal Redemption which He accomplished during the days of His earthly life. I adore You, Blood of the new, eternal Testament, flowing from the veins of Jesus in Gethsemane, from His flesh torn by scourges in the Praetorium, from His pierced hands and feet and from His opened side on Golgotha. I adore You in the Sacraments, in the Eucharist, where I know You are substantially present.... "I place my trust in You, O adorable Blood, our Redemption, our regeneration. Fall, drop by drop, into the hearts that have wandered from You and soften their hardness. O adorable Blood of Jesus, wash our stains, save us from the anger of the avenging angel. Irrigate the Church; make her fruitful with Apostles and miracle-workers, enrich her with souls that are holy, pure and radiant with divine beauty" (St. Albert the Great). # References RB - Roman Breviary --- ![[bibliography#^biblio-di]] > [[375-sts-peter-and-paul|← 375. Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul--]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[377-visitation-of-bvm|377. The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary →]]