PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS NOVENA - NINTH (FINAL) DAY

Novena Prayer in Honor of the Precious Blood

O Precious Blood of Jesus, infinite Price of our redemption and both the drink and laver of our souls, You continually plead the cause of all people before the throne of Infinite Mercy.  From the depths of my heart I adore You. Jesus, insofar as I am able I want to make reparation for the insults and outrages which You receive from human beings, especially from those who blaspheme You and deny Your presence. Who would not venerate the Blood of infinite value?!  Who does not feel inflamed with love for the Jesus Who shed it? What would have become of me had I not been redeemed by this Divine Blood?  Who has drained it all from the veins of my Savior?  Surely this was the work of Love!  O Infinite Love, which has given us this saving Balm!  O Balm beyond all price, welling up from the foundation of Infinite Love!  Grant that every heart and every tongue may render You praise and thanks, now and forever! Amen.

Litany of the Most Precious Blood

Lord, have mercy on us, Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, Have mercy on us.

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the eternal Father, save us.

Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God, save us.

Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament, save us.

Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in Agony, save us.

Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging, save us.

Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns, save us.

Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross, save us.

Blood of Christ, Price of our salvation, save us.

Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness, save us.

Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us.

Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us.

Blood of Christ, victor over demons, save us.

Blood of Christ, courage of Martyrs, save us.

Blood of Christ, strength of Confessors, save us.

Blood of Christ, bringing forth Virgins, save us.

Blood of Christ, help of those in peril, save us.

Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened, save us.

Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow, save us.

Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent, save us.

Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying, save us.

Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts, save us.

Blood of Christ, pledge of eternal life, save us.

Blood of Christ, freeing souls from purgatory, save us.

Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honour, save us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us.

Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, in Thy Blood. And made us, for our God, a kingdom.

Let us pray:

Almighty and eternal God, Thou hast appointed Thine only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world and willed to be appeased by his Blood.  Grant, we beg of Thee, that we may worthily adore this Price of our salvation and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of the present life so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

     The Precious Blood of Christ

       by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb of God not only because He sacrificed Himself, He is the Lamb of God because He continues sacrificing Himself in an unbloody way in every Mass He offers. And while His sacrifice is completed, ours must go on.

Having said that, the second primary foundation for the imitation of Christ is the Precious Blood of Jesus. The moment we say that Christ is the Lamb of God and explain that the Lamb of God was slain for our redemption, having further recognized and this is crucial - we further recognize that Christ, though Man, would not have died naturally because, unlike us, He was not a sinner. His death had to be inflicted outside of Himself. In a word, the Lamb of God - watch the verb - had to be slain in order to die. Moreover, Christ being the sinless Lamb of God, having no sin on His soul which would have deserved death, his mortal Body, mortal because He wanted it to be mortal, could only die by the Blood separating from that Body. Christ's Body was deprived of its Soul when the Blood left the Body. All of this, therefore, is locked up in realizing that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who by shedding His Blood redeemed the world.

The context which the Church over the centuries has used as the foundation for her devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ. Then, the understanding of the role of the Precious Blood in the life and sanctification of priests. And finally, what the Precious Blood should be in our own lives, and what devotion to the Blood of Christ ought to be in everyone who claims to be a true follower of the Lamb of God.

Church's Foundation for Devotion to Precious Blood of Christ

The revealed foundation for the Church's belief in the Precious Blood and the reason for her fostering devotion to the Precious Blood among the faithful occurs in the first chapter of the first letter of St. Peter, verses 18-19. Says Peter:

“You know that you were redeemed from the vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, not wish perishable things as silver or gold but with the Precious Blood of Christ as the Lamb without blemish and without spot.” Unquote Peter.

There are certain words and phrases in the revealed statement that we have just read that we should begin to unravel in order to understand something of the depth of meaning behind those two simple words, Precious Blood. Peter begins by reminding the faithful to remember the hardest thing in this life for us is to remain mindful of the truths of faith. Because what we believe on God's revealed Word is twice removed from the common experience that we have in this world. What we believe is first of all not immediately perceptible to the senses. Moreover, what we believe is not even penetrable to the naked reason. The word, remember, is an imperative: keep in mind. Arouse your faith in what and how you were redeemed. And it is the how we were redeemed that is the foundation stone of the mystery of the Precious Blood. God took on a human nature so that in that human nature He could die. In order to die, the soul had to separate from the body. But for the Body to have the soul separate, the body itself had to be deprived of His Blood. Theologically speaking and physiologically speaking, the All-Holy Son of God who became Man to redeem us could only have died by being drained of His Blood. Christ, listen, could not have died of some disease. Christ could not have died because of some mortal illness. All illness, disease, the natural debilitating of the body is the result of sin. Let me emphasize this. 

All our illness, our disease, our sickness, our wasting away of our body for all of us this is our faith - is the result of our sinful nature. Not so with Christ. 

That draining of the human body of His Blood was the one way that Christ, Sinless Son of God and Son of Mary that He was, the one way that He could die.

Peter goes on: “we were redeemed, we were ransomed.” What is Peter talking about? 

What is Peter saying when he says that we were redeemed? 

Literally it means “bought back”. Having sinned before God, we incurred a heavy debt. The debt was death. But all of the deaths (plural) of all of the human beings since the beginning of time, we believe, would not have been adequate - again, it is our faith – would not have been adequate to ransom, to make up for, the infinite gravity of the sin not only of our first parents but by now the accumulated - what a low figure of speech - mountain of sin. Because an infinite being was in His Being offended by His creatures, only an Infinite Being could provide adequate ransom to redeem.

Peter goes on: "We were therefore not redeemed by anything corruptible". 

And you would think that Peter would find two better words than gold and silver. Because of all material things that are corruptible, two of the most incorruptible are gold and silver. But not even the most precious things that the world can provide, no other ransom, would have been adequate. But we have been redeemed, bought back, ransomed, by the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God. Try not to forget the title. Precious Blood is the revealed title, part of God's inspired biblical teaching in the first letter of the first Vicar of Christ.

Why does Peter identify the Blood of the Lamb of God as “Precious?” 

Well, it is surely Precious because it is the Blood of no human being. It is the Blood of the living God who took on human nature, capable of shedding His Blood. Why was the Blood of Christ Precious? Because it is the Blood of God who took on human nature in order to be able to suffer and to bleed and, let us add, in order to bleed to death. Why Precious? Because it is the Blood of the living God.