Tuesday 30 June 2015

July Dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus


Wednesday, 1 July 2015

July Month of Precious Blood Dom Donald's Blog:

COMMENT:
Early eve of 'July Month Precious Blood' Google prompted us massive;
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Andwelcomes Catholic Cuture .org below.
Month of the Precious Blood
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The month of July (Overview - Calendar) is dedicated to the Precious Blood. The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood.
"The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Saviour shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it."
The Old Testament
Cain and Abel are making an offering. Abel's sacrifice is pleasing to God, Cain's is not. This gives rise to the sin of hatred, and fratricide is its resolution. The thirsting earth soaks up Abel's blood as it shouts to heaven for vengeance. This shouting prefigured the scene on Calvary, where Christ's Blood cried to heaven for the redemption of mankind.
Millenia pass, and now we see Israel oppressed by Egypt. God commands the people to kill a lamb and to sprinkle the doorposts with its blood; houses thus besprinkled are spared by the messenger of death. But where the doors are not reddened with the blood of the lamb, all male firstborn from king to slave die. This blood on the doorposts was a type of the Blood of Christ. Can the blood of a lamb save a man? No, but as a figure of the Redeemer's Blood it certainly does. For when the Destroyer sees the thresholds of a human heart marked with Christ's sacred Blood, he must pass by. And another soul is saved.
In a vision the prophet Isaiah saw a man treading out grapes (in the Orient, trampling upon grapes in the wine-press was the usual means of extracting the juice). The prophet asked the man: "Why are your garments so red? "The wine-press I have trodden alone," he answers, "because from the nations there is no one with me." The trodder of the wine-press is Christ, His garments crimsoned by the Blood of redemption.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace , Pius Parsch
The New Testament
The Church reminds us of the first drops of blood that flowed for our redemption on the day when Jesus was circumcised.
It is night on Mount Olivet, and the moon is shining. We see the holy face crimsoned with blood during the agony in the garden.
Unhappy, despairing Judas casts the blood-money down in the temple. "I have betrayed innocent blood!"
In the scourging chamber we see the Lord in deepest humiliation; under raw strokes the divine Blood spurts out over the floor. Christ is led before Pilate. Pilate shows the blood-covered Body to the crowds: Ecce homo! We go through Jerusalem's streets following the bloody footsteps to Golgotha. Down the beams of the Cross blood trickles. A soldier opens the sacred side. Water and Blood.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace , Pius Parsch
Symbols of the Precious Blood
Adam is sleeping an ecstatic sleep. God opens his side, removes a rib and forms Eve, the mother of all the living. But our view transcends this action and in spirit we behold the second, the divine Adam, Christ. He is sleeping the sleep of death. From His opened side blood and water flow, symbols of baptism and the Eucharist, symbols of the second Eve, the Church, the Mother of all the living. Through blood and water Christ willed to redeem God's many children and to lead them to an eternal home.
At Jerusalem a service in Yahweh's honor is taking place on the Day of Atonement. The high priest is making his annual entrance into the holy of holies to sprinkle the blood of bucks and bulls upon the covenant in expiation for the sins of the people. The Church shows us the higher meaning of this rite. Our divine High Priest Christ on the first Good Friday entered that Holy of Holies which is not made with hands nor sprinkled with the blood of bucks and bulls; there He effects, once and for all, with His own Blood man's eternal redemption.
A finale. Holy Church transports us to the end. The heavenly liturgy is in progress. Upon the altar is the Lamb, slain yet alive, crimsoned by His own Blood. Round about stand the countless army of the redeemed in garments washed white in the Blood of the Lamb. Hosts of the blessed are singing the new canticle of redemption: "You have redeemed us out of every tribe and tongue and nation by Your Blood."
Now from vision to present reality. How fortunate we are to have divine Blood so near to us, to offer it to the heavenly Father for the sins of the whole world!
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace , Pius Parsch
Devotion to the Precious Blood
Devotion to the Precious Blood is not a spiritual option, it is a spiritual obligation, and that not only for priests, but for every follower of Christ. I really believe that one of the symptoms of modern society (and I would even include, sadly, modern Catholic society) one of the symptoms of a growing, gnawing secularism is the lessening and the weakening of devotion to the Precious Blood. Devotion, as we know, is a composite of three elements: It is first- veneration, it is secondly- invocation, and it is thirdly- imitation. In other words, devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain, is first of all to be veneration on our part, which is a composite of knowledge, love and adoration. We are to study to come to a deeper understanding of what those two casual words, Precious Blood, really mean.
I found this passage in the oldest document, outside of sacred scripture, from the first century of the Christian era – to be exact, from Pope St. Clement I, dated about 96 A.D. Says Pope Clement: "Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realize how truly precious It is, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world."
To understand the meaning of the Precious Blood we must get some comprehension of the gravity of sin, of the awfulness of offending God, because it required the Blood of the Son of God to forgive that sin. We are living in an age in which to sin has become fashionable.
This veneration of the Precious Blood, which is the first element in our devotion to the Precious Blood means that we have a deep sensitivity to the awfulness of sin. Sin must be terrible. It must be awful. It must be the most dreadful thing in the universe. Why? Because it cost the living God in human form the shedding of His Blood.
Lord Jesus, You became Man in order by your Passion and Death and the draining of your Blood on the Cross, might prove to us how much You, our God, love us. Protect us, dear Jesus, from ever running away from the sight of blood. Strengthen our weak human wills so that we will not only not run away from the cross, but welcome every opportunity to shed our blood in spirit in union with your Precious Blood, so that, dying to ourselves in time we might live with You in Eternity. Amen
Excerpted from The Precious Blood of Christ, Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us.

Prayer of the Month

Prayer from the Roman Missal
Almighty, and everlasting God, who hast appointed Thine only-begotten Son to be the Redeemer of the world, and hast been pleased to be reconciled unto us by His Blood, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate with solemn worship the price of our salvation, that the power thereof may here on earth keep us from all things hurtful, and the fruit of the same may gladden us for ever hereafter in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Devotions to the Precious Blood of Christ

Precious Blood,
Ocean of Divine Mercy:
Flow upon us.
Precious Blood,
Most pure Offering:
Procure us every Grace!
Precious Blood,
Hope and Refuge of sinners:
Atone for us!
Precious Blood,
Delight of holy souls:
Draw us! Amen.

St. Catherine of Siena

Documents

Websites

Blood of Christ falling upon the earth in the Agony. Have mercy on us.

Monday 29 June 2015

National Gallery, Episode 4 | Infancy | Saint John the Baptist: From Birth to Beheading | ...


Birth of John the Baptist, 24 June 2015  

Mass Intro. Fr. Mark   
Today we
celebrate the birth of John the Baptist.
Whenever family and friends gather at the birth and baptism of a child,
the thought is not far away: 'What will this child turn out to be?'  It is as much a prayer as a question: a prayer
that the little one, like John the Baptist, will grow up to be a witness to
Christ and a messenger and a true light of his gospel to others*.

We were that child once.  We need the
Christ that John the Baptist witnessed to and to become witnesses to him
ourselves.
1.        Lord Jesus, you are the One whom all
Israel awaited

            and whom John the Baptist
announced.

2.        Christ Jesus, you are the
Saviour of the World.


3.        Lord Jesus, you are our hope of
new life and resurrection.
Conclusion
to Pr of Faithful

Loving Father, you heard the prayer of Elizabeth and Zachary and gave them the
birth of a son.  Hear our prayers that
our lives may become a sign of joy and hope for the world, through Christ our
Lord**.

COMMENT:  

   We had, below, the National Gallery,  Video of the Infancy of John the Baptist.
The contact kept evading me.
So we have the screen copies, and even the more powerful revealing SUBTITLES.   
All a demonstration...     
2nd COMMENT:
Learning hear about Domenico Cavalca who wrote a life of John the Baptist, points for further search!
 


Episode 4 | Infancy | Saint John the Baptist: From Birth to Beheading | National Gallery, London   


  


Published on 24 Jun 2014
The Bible reveals very little about the childhood of John the Baptist. In the 14th century however, a Dominican friar called Domenico Cavalca wrote a biography of the saint that filled in the gaps. This work's popularity inspired Italian Renaissance artists to represent new episodes from his life and to show the infant Baptist in the company of the Christ Child.

Art historian Jennifer Sliwka and theologian Ben Quash look at Leonardo da Vinci's, 'The Virgin of the Rocks', about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8, Bronzino's 'The Madonna and Child with Saints', probably about 1540 and Garofolo's 'The Holy Family with Saints', about 1520

'John the Baptist: From Birth to Beheading' is a series of 10 films sharing the highlights of the collaborative MA course taught by Dr Jennifer Sliwka, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Fellow in Art and Religion at the National Gallery and Professor Ben Quash, Director of the Centre for Arts and the Sacred, King's College London.



    


Other connection

   Preview | Saint John the Baptist: From Birth to Beheading | National Gallery, London  

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Domenico Cavalca wrote a life of John the Baptist