By tradition, the Catholic Church dedicates each month of the year to a certain devotion. In July, it is the Precious Blood of Jesus. (The Feast of the Precious Blood, established by Pope Pius IX in 1849, is celebrated each year on the first Sunday of July.) The Precious Blood, like the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, has long been venerated for its role in our redemption.
Some or all of the following prayers can be incorporated into our daily prayers during the Month of the Precious Blood.
Christ's Precious Blood, like His Sacred Heart, is a symbol of His love for all mankind. In this prayer, we recall the shedding of His Blood and ask that He may guide our lives so that we may be worthy of Heaven.
This short prayer calls to mind the Precious Blood of Jesus and asks Christ for His aid. It is a type of prayer known as an
ejaculation or
aspiration—a short prayer meant to be memorized and repeated throughout the day, either alone or in combination with longer prayers.
Christ shed His Blood for our salvation, and we in turn should join in His sacrifice by offering to God the Father the Precious Blood of Christ. In this prayer, we are reminded that repentance for our sins goes hand in hand with the struggles of the whole Church and concern for the souls in Purgatory.
By the shedding of His Precious Blood, Christ saved mankind from our sins. In this prayer, drawn from the traditional Roman Missal, we ask God the Father to help us to recognize our debt and thus properly to venerate the Precious Blood.
In this moving prayer, we recall the redemptive quality of the Precious Blood of Jesus and adore the Precious Blood, which represents Christ's infinite love for all mankind.
This long but beautiful prayer recalls that our salvation comes through Christ's shedding of His Precious Blood. We offer our intentions together with His merits, so that God may look with favor on the needs of the Church and of all Christians.
