Month of the Precious Blood (Day 19)
July 19, 2025
Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Day 19

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.

Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgement, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy ‘on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:19-31)

RESPONSORY
 
We have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, -- by the new and living way that he opened for us.
 
We have a great priest over the house of God.  Let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.  -- by the new and living way that he opened for us.
 

From a meditation on the feast of the Precious Blood by St. John Henry Newman (+1890)

There are people who think that God is so great that He disdains to look down upon us, our doings and our fortunes. But He who did not find it beneath His Majesty to make us, does not think it beneath Him to observe and to visit us. He says Himself in the Gospel: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? and not one of them is forgotten before God. Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows”. He determined from all eternity that He would create us. He settled our whole fortune – and, if He did not absolutely decree to bring us to heaven, it is because we have free will, and by the very constitution of our nature He has put it in part out of His own power, for we must do our part, if to heaven we attain. But He has done everything short of this. He died for us all upon the Cross, that, if it were possible to save us, we might be saved. And He calls upon us lovingly, begging us to accept the benefit of His meritorious and most Precious Blood. And those who trust Him He takes under His special protection. He marks out their whole life for them; He appoints all that happens to them; He guides them in such way as to secure their salvation; He gives them just so much of health, of wealth, of friends, as is best for them; He afflicts them only when it is for their good; He is never angry with them. He measures out just that number of years which is good for them; and He appoints the hour of their death in such a way as to secure their perseverance up to it.

 

Musical Selection (Michael Card)

Year after year there the priest would stand
An offering of blood held out in in his hand
Before the curtain there he would stand in fright
It hung there to hold in the holy to keep in the light
 
A new and living way
Through the curtain that was torn
The climax of the cross
The moment our hope was born
By a new and living way
 
And when time was full another Priest came to save
He would offer forgiveness for He was the Offering He gave
From the sacrifice from that dark disgrace
Came the power to make anywhere a Most Holy Place
 
A new and living way
Through the curtain that was torn
The climax of the cross
The moment our Hope was born
By a new and living way
With confidence we come
 
So let us come now with confidence
With sprinkled hearts with reverence
And hold unswervingly to that Hope
As we look and see that day approach
 
A new and living way
A new and living way
 
A new and living way
Through the curtain that was torn
The climax of the cross
The moment our Hope was born
A new and living way
Through the curtain that was torn
The Climax of the cross
The moment our HOPE was born
By a New and Living Way
A New and Living WAY
A New and Living WAY
 
Collect
 
God of our salvation and our freedom,
you have redeemed us by the blood of your Son.
Hear the voices of your people
and grant that through you we may have life
and in you find eternal refuge.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen. (Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter) 

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