MONTH OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS - SIXTH DAY

       This Beautiful One in His Robe

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength. I that speak justice, and am a defender to save. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? - Isaiah 63:1

Clothed with the purple of His own Blood how beautiful Jesus Christ must have appeared to His Heavenly Father even at the very time when Pilate showed Him to the people with the words, Ecce Homo! He was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood, and his name is called, the Word of God (. His body covered with bleeding wounds and standing like a culprit about to be condemned to an ignominious death, Jesus is nevertheless the Son of the living God, of Whom He Himself said: Thou hast loved me before the creation of the world. Immediately after Judas had gone out to betray our Lord, Jesus said: Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him (John XIII, 31). Like the waters of an impetuous stream His love and desire to shed His Blood for us can no longer be constrained, and He speaks of His impending sufferings in the most glorious terms as His glorification. And again just before going to Gethsemane to begin His Passion,these things Jesus spoke, and lifting up His eyes to worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and benediction (Apoc. V, 11,12). The Precious Blood is glorified in heaven in the Lamb that was slain. Looking upon devotion to the Blood of our Redeemer as founded in Sacred Scripture, we are at once amazed at the mystery of this Precious Blood, conveyed in the words of the Prince of the Apostles telling us that it lay in the mind of God from all eternity to redeem us by the Blood of Christ. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefined, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times for you (I Peter I, 18-20). This is the mystery that fills us with awe: before the foundation of the world, before the air which we breathe, before the water which we drink, before the food which we eat, before Adam was created, it was ordained by the mercy of God, Who foresaw the downfall of our first parents with all the evil consequences of their sin inherited by the whole human race, that man should again receive his heavenly heritage, or the right and means to merit entrance into heaven, through the bloody passion and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

The Precious Blood is the visible token and pledge of God s eternal love and mercy for fallen mankind, and going forth to accomplish this purpose Jesus is called by the Prophet Isaias this beautiful one in his robe.

 He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

  

Brethren, Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His Own Blood, He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.

St. Joseph: To Thee Do We Cry

By Pope Leo XIII

St. Joseph to thee do we cry in our tribulations, O Blessed Saint Joseph, as we confidently invoke your patronage, after that of your most holy spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary. By that sacred bond of devotion which linked you to the Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, and for the fatherly love you lavished on the child Jesus, we beg you to cast a glance on those heavenly gifts which the Divine Redeemer has obtained for all mankind through His Precious Blood  and through your power and mercy, help us in our needs.

O holy protector of the holy family, protect us children of the Lord Jesus Christ; keep far from us the errors and evils which corrupt the world; assist us from Heaven in our struggles against the powers of darkness. And as you once protected the Divine Child from the cruel edict of Herod, now defend the church and keep it safe from all dangers and threats; spread over all of us your holy patronage

so that by following your example and aided by your spiritual guidance, we may all aspire to a virtuous life, look to a holy death and secure for ourselves the blessing of eternal happiness in Heaven. Amen.