Precious Blood Gems (January)
January 31, 2025
January 1. My Savior, some will doubt the power of your blood. Yet it is most fitting that the precious blood of the Son of the Virgin should exercise all its power upon her in order to honor the place from which it came…. She has this in common with all the faithful: that Jesus gives her his blood; she has this all her own: that he first received it from her. She has this in common with us: that this blood was poured out upon her for her sanctification; but she has this as her own: that she was its source. (Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet)own: that she was its source.
January 2. It is good and beneficial to communicate every day, and to partake of the holy body and blood of Christ. For He distinctly says, “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” And who doubts that to share frequently in life, is the same thing as to have manifold life. (St. Basil the Great)
January 3. We judge it most timely to call our beloved children’s attention to the unbreakable bond which must exist between the devotions to the Most Holy Name and Most Sacred Heart of Jesus — already so widespread among Christians — and devotion to the incarnate Word’s Most Precious Blood, “shed for many, to the remission of sins.” (Pope St. John XXIII)
January 4. Can you expect to go to heaven for nothing? Did not our Savior track the whole way to it with His tears and blood? And yet you stop at every little pain. (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)
January 5 (Epiphany). No king rules my soul except you, Christ, who without force submits me to your easy yoke, who lifts away my sinful passions with your all-powerful word, who redeems me with your blood and nourishes me with your body, who sets forth and establishes the unchanging covenant of life. (St. Gregory of Narek)
January 6. What a great thing it is that the Blood of Jesus is even our drink in the Eucharist and how, finally, through the merits of the Blood of Jesus Christ we shall arrive in Paradise. “ (St. Gaspar Balthasar Melchior del Bufalo)
January 7. Ah, sweet Blood, that raises the dead! You give life, you dissolve the shadows that darken the minds of reasonable creatures, and gives us light! (St. Catherine of Siena)
January 8. Altars are not sprinkled with the blood of dumb beasts any more; they are consecrated by the precious blood of Christ. Instead of the blood of bulls and goats, priests and deacons minister the word of God through the grace of the Holy Spirit. (Origen of Alexandria)
January 9. The truth is that when Christ bought us at such great cost to himself - at the cost indeed of his most precious blood - it was not with the intention of making us his slaves; his purpose was to create a royal race of priests to the honour of God his Father. (Rupert of Deutz)
January 10. Christ was free from all sin, and gives no price of redemption for his own soul: the price of his blood was more than sufficient to redeem all the sins of the world. Justly then he sets others free, owing nothing for himself. (St. Ambrose of Milan)
January 11. If we escape another punishment from God - which is near to us - it will be only by the blood of the divine Lamb. Beyond that, what will comfort us at the point of our death? The Blood of Christ. (Bl. Giovanni Merlini)
January 12 (Baptism of the Lord). Freed therefore from our bonds, when through the Sacrament of Baptism we come unto the Sign of the Lord, we renounce the Devil and all his angels, whom before we served, that we should now serve them no longer, being delivered by the Blood and Name of Christ. (St. Pacian of Barcelona)
January 13. Because Christ, who bore our sins, also bore us all, we see that people are understood in the water, but in the wine the blood of Christ is shown. But when water is mixed with wine in the chalice, the people are united to Christ, and the people of the believers is bound and joined to Him in whom they believe. … Whence nothing can separate the Church…from Christ (St. Hilary of Poitiers)
January 14. To shame our sins He blushed in blood; He closed His eyes to show us God; Let all the world fall down and know That none but God such love can show. (St. Bernard of Clairvaux)
January 15. Jesus lives in us as God and man at the time of Communion. His divine body touches us and we touch him. But how wonderfully the body of Jesus works! The whole of humanity was redeemed through the suffering and the shedding of the blood of this holy body. And now the holy body of Jesus sanctifies us in Holy Communion. (St. Arnold Janssen)
January 16. Our Lord Jesus Christ made Himself empty that He might wisely draw all things to Himself. Therefore He let all the blood that was in His Body flow out, and so attracted to Himself all the compassion and grace that was in His Father’s heart, so completely and profitably as to suffice for the whole world. (Meister Eckhart)
January 17. Your brothers are hungry and in need; they may be racked with anxiety, hard pressed by some creditor. They have no money; you have. They are your brothers; you were ransomed together, bought at the same price, all redeemed by the blood of Christ See if you cannot have pity on them, you who possess this world’s goods. (St. Augustine of Hippo)
January 18. My Jesus, Grant me a way of life corresponding worthily to the price of your blood. (St. Gertrude the Great)
January 19. Christ gives the beginnings of the signs from heaven, when he changes water into wine. But water was to be changed into the mystery of the blood, so that Christ, from the goblet of his Body, might give pure draughts to those who drink, to fulfil that saying of the prophet: My chalice which inebriates me, how good it is. (St. Peter Chrysologus).
January 20. Let us rouse ourselves to devotion by thoughts of faith and devout reflections such as these: Behold the one who was born of Mary. Behold the body that was in her womb and which she carried in her arms. Behold the flesh that was crucified for me and the blood that was poured out on Calvary. Let us go through the different events in the life of our Lord that we might have more reasons for reviving our faith and enkindling our love. (Bl. Basil Moreau)
January 21. "I have drawn milk and honey from his lips, and his blood hath given fair color to my cheeks." (Antiphon for Feast of St. Agnes)
January 22. All must be well-penetrated with the importance of the salvation of souls redeemed by the price of the blood of Jesus Christ. (Bl. William Joseph Chaminade)
January 23. It is from the blood of Christ that all draw the strength to commit themselves to promoting life. It is precisely this blood that is the most powerful source of hope, indeed it is the foundation of the absolute certitude that in God’s plan life will be victorious. (Pope St. John Paul II)
January 24. On the day of His Passion, when He offered His tears, His prayers, His blood, and His life for us all, He darted forth in particular for yon these thoughts of love. (St. Francis de Sales)
January 25. The precious plenty of his precious blood ascended into heaven in the blessed body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is flowing there in him, praying to the Father for us, and this is and will be so long as we have need. And furthermore, it flows in all heaven, rejoicing in the salvation of all mankind which is and will be there, and the filling up the number which is lacking. (Julian of Norwich)
January 26. Whoever fails to love their neighbor fails to love you, my Lord, since we see you showed the very great love you have for the children of Adam by shedding so much blood. (St. Teresa of Avila)
January 27. There are three things necessary for writing: paper, ink and pen. Christ’s hands were as it were paper, his blood ink, the nails the pen. Christ wrote us upon his hands for three reasons: first, to show the Father the scars of the wounds he bore for us, and so move him to mercy. (St. Anthony of Padua)
January 28. Blood where one drop for human-kind outpoured| Might from all transgression have the world restored. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
January 29. Like the publican I sigh, like the harlot I shed tears, like the thief I call out, like the prodigal son I entreat you. O Christ my Savior and Lover of humanity, strengthen my soul which has grown faint, which has been paralyzed with the intoxication of delights; heal its scabs and wash it, blackened with sin, with your honorable blood! (St. Ephrem the Syrian)
January 30. In my own life, I have so often seen God’s merciful countenance, his patience; I have also seen so many people find the courage to enter the wounds of Jesus by saying to him: Lord, I am here, accept my poverty, hide my sin in your wounds, wash it away with your blood. And I have always seen that God did just this – he accepted them, consoled them, cleansed them, loved them. (Pope Francis)
January 31. What worthier use for the vessels chosen to hold Our Redeemer's Blood than to employ them to ransom again those redeemed by this same Blood? (St. John Bosco)