July 1   How is it that Holy Church is now inviting all Christians to hail, in a particular manner, the stream of life ever gushing from the sacred fount? What else can this mean, but that the preceding solemnities have by no means exhausted the mystery? The peace which the Blood has made to reign in the high places as well as in the low; the impetus of its wave bearing back the sons of Adam from the yawning gulf, purified, renewed, and dazzling white in the radiance of their heavenly apparel; the Sacred Table outspread before them, on the waters’ brink, and the Chalice brimful of inebriation; all this preparation and display would be objectless, if man were not brought to see therein the wooings of a Love that could never endure its advances to be outdone by the pretensions of any other.  Prosper Louis Paschal Guéranger

 

July 2.  The Apostles were the heirs of Our Lord. They received from Him the price of Redemption to spread it all over the world, the fruits of His Blood. St. Peter Julian Eymard

 

July 3.   As we now approach the feast and month devoted to honouring Christ’s Blood —- the price of our redemption, the pledge of salvation and life eternal — may Christians meditate on it more fervently, may they savor its fruits more frequently in sacramental communion. Let their meditations on the boundless power of the Blood be bathed in the light of sound biblical teaching and the doctrine of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.  Pope St. John XXIII

July 4.  You offered your body and your blood upon the Cross * for the salvation of all, O Word:   * your body to re-create me * and your blood to cleanse me; * you handed over your spirit,  O Christ, * to bring me to the Father.  Orthodox Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

 

July 5.  Oh my Jesus, I pray that you accept the supplications of this holy month, in compensation for so many iniquities of humankind; and while the enemy of good seeks to keep the sons of Adam from remembering your love, may the devotion to the Divine Blood bring our souls closer to your Divine Heart: “you have been brought near in the Blood” [Eph 2: 13]. May our minds, therefore, always be occupied with pondering the mysteries of your love and may our hearts be occupied with love for its application. May our bodily sentiments be occupied with showing the triumphs of that love for our sanctification and that of others. Thus may this inestimable price by which we have been redeemed be indelible in our memory: “For you have been bought at a great price. Glorify God in your body” [1 Cor 6: 20].  St. Gaspar del Bufalo

 

July 6.  In this month of July, we do well to remember the bitter Passion of our Lord, and that giving of his life-blood which sealed it, and seals us through it. A price was paid to redeem you (St Paul says); and because the price paid was so high, because the world itself was not worthy of such a ransom, we must go on reiterating, blindly and uncomprehendingly, our gratitude. Moreover, because the price paid for us was so high, no price can be too high which is demanded of us by our loyalty to Christ, though it should be death itself. To be always generous with God, to go on and on giving him of our best in spite of weariness and disillusionment, to despise soft options, and interpret our duty in terms of love, not in terms of mere justice, to be ready if we might to give him more than he asks of us, ready if that were possible to give him more than he deserves of us - that is the meaning of our devotion to the Precious Blood; may his grace make us worthy of it.  Msgr. Ronald Knox

July 7.  Always trust in the satisfaction and merits of Jesus Christ than in your own works and merits; for one little drop of the precious Blood of our Lord Jesus is of more value than all human merits. Louis de Blois

 

July 8.  I cannot repeat often enough that good works take their rise, gain strength and are perfected only at the foot of the cross. Our Lord wills that we follow Him to Calvary, in order to allow us to participate in the work of the redemption of souls. which He effected by the shedding of His precious blood.  St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

 

July 9.  O sinners ... come to Jesus' heart; come to the cleansing of his most precious blood ... he awaits you with open arms to embrace you.  St. Veronica Giuliani

 

July 10.  With a mystic reference to the shedding of blood, it was a scarlet cord which the harlot Rahab (a type of the church) hung in her window to preserve her house in the destruction of Jericho.  St. Jerome

 

July 11.  In a certain sense it can be said that on Calvary Christ built a font of purification and salvation which He filled with the Blood He shed; but if people do not bathe in it and there wash away the stains of their iniquities, they can never be purified and saved.  Pope Pius XII

 

July 12.  Let us accept anything for the Word’s sake. By sufferings let us imitate His Passion: by our blood let us reverence His Blood: let us gladly mount upon the Cross. Sweet are the nails, though they be very painful. For to suffer with Christ and for Christ is better than a life of ease with others.  St. Gregory of Nyssa

July 13.  God taught the people of the old covenant how to celebrate the ritual offered to him in atonement for the sins of men. But you have come to Christ, the true high priest. Through his blood he has made God turn to you in mercy and has reconciled you with the Father. You must not think simply of ordinary blood but you must learn to recognize instead the blood of the Word.  Origen of Alexandria

 

 

July 15.  The sting of conscience is also sharpened when one considers the blood that was once shed on the cross to quicken, then cleanse, then finally soften man’s heart; or again, to remove man’s uncleanliness, change his death into life, and bestow fruitfulness upon his barren soul. Who would be so lost to reason as to let the sins of negligence, concupiscence, or malice reign in him while he sees himself bathed in this immeasurably precious blood? St. Bonaventure

 

July 17.  It was only at the cost of His bloodstained immolation and untold sufferings that Christ Jesus merited for us this wonderful grace of being united so closely to Himself in that He nourishes us with His Sacred Body, and gives us His Precious Blood to drink.  Bl. Columba Marmion

 

July 18.   I pray Thee, O Eternal Father, to pardon and save me, through the Precious Blood of Thy Son.  St. Camillus de Lellis

 

July 19.  Like the work of creation which it redeems and surpasses, the Incarnation, so desired of man, is an awe-inspiring work: it is achieved through blood. May the blood of the Lord Jesus — the blood which is infused into creatures and the blood which is shed and spread out over all, the blood of endeavour and the blood of renouncement — mingle with the pain of the world. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

July 20.  As well as being my Father, God has overwhelmed me with favors, countless favors that repeatedly bear witness against me: the daily nourishment of my body, the prolonged gift of time, and above all the blood of his beloved Son that cries out to him from the earth. I blush for my ingratitude.  St. Bernard of Clairvaux

 

July 21.  Oh, how sweet and pleasant to that soul and to Me is holy prayer, made in the house of knowledge of self and of Me, opening the eye of the intellect to the light of faith, and the affections to the abundance of My charity, which was made visible to you, through My visible only-begotten Son, who showed it to you with His blood! Which Blood inebriates the soul and clothes her with the fire of divine charity,  St. Catherine of Siena

July 22.  One can surmise she (Mary Magdalene) went to Calvary/ distraught and weeping, and with loud lament/ clung to the cross and bear upon its wood/ till Christ’s torn veins spread a soft covering/ over her hair and face and colored gown./ She took her First Communion in his Blood.  Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit (Jessica Powers)

 

July 23.  Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ.  You redeemed our souls with your precious blood and most holy death, and in your mercy you led them from exile back to eternal life. Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ.  For our salvation you allowed your side and heart to be pierced with a lance; and from that side water and your precious blood flowed out abundantly for our redemption.  St. Bridget of Sweden

July 24.  Christ served, even to the slavery of the cross, for the various and many-formed races of humankind, acquiring them by the blood and mystery of the cross.  St. Justin Martyr

 

July 25.   We have been anointed in the strength of the blood of alliance; in the bread we offer we already taste the sweetness of our perfect end; the aim of this alliance is the utter union of God with his creation.  Sr. Aemiliana Löhr

 

July 26.   There is a close connection between St. Anne and the sacrifice of the cross; because that human nature and that blood which Jesus offered up on the cross and which he received from the most pure womb of Mary was, in her turn, derived from her own holy mother, St. Anne, in whose womb she was conceived without original sin. Bl. Ildefonso Schuster

 

July 27.   Your Blood flowed in torrents and is still issuing from Your wounds.  We’ve not yet reached the last drop. St. Titus Brandsma

 

July 28.   His blood united to the precious blood of Jesus purifies and redeems even his enemies, they too being loved and forgiven.  Cardinal Angelo Amato on Bl. Stanley Rother

 

July 29.   If you find no special grace in your spiritual practices, then in God’s name, renounce once more all sense of ownership in them and devote yourself earnestly to meditating on the passion and death of our Lord, adoring His precious blood and His sacred wounds.  Johannes Tauler

 

July 31.   All of us are bound by a common obligation to rejoice in the good and profit of God’s image, which he redeemed with the precious Blood of his only begotten Son. St. Ignatius Loyola