6 Reasons to Cultivate a Devotion to the Precious Blood

During the month of July, the Church invites us to grow in our love and devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ. Although Pope Pius IX instituted this feast in 1849, the devotion is as old as Christianity. According to the Church Fathers, its origin was the pierced side of Christ at the crucifixion, which gave birth to the Church.

Here are 6 reasons to cultivate a devotion to the Precious Blood:

1. Sensitivity to sin

Devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus restores our sensitivity to sin, much of which is tolerated and normalized in today's culture. We live in a world where sin produces little sensation of conscience, and those of us who still recognize it are encouraged to be "tolerant" of others, rather than express our moral discomfort. 

James 4:7 tells us to "Resist the devil, and he will take flight."

As a society, we have not resisted. We have opened the doors and invited him in. He's made himself quite comfortable and made sin so alluring we continue to be seduced.

We categorize our sins and tell ourselves we really "aren't that bad"—a move that plays right into his hand. It's a tired, predictable cycle, as old as Adam and Eve. None of us is immune.

Through devotion to His Precious Blood, we see with greater clarity the awful nature of sin and the importance of sorrow and reparation—for our sins, and those of the world.

Remember the 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ? 

Each Lent when I see the movie, as His blood spills onto the bricks of the praetorium in the scourging, I am moved by the agony of Christ and the depravity of my sins. It's nothing short of barbaric. The blood He sheds is so profuse, He slips in it as He tries to stand at the pillar.

Some years, I have to turn away. Every year, I feel the gravity of my own sins. 

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Devotion to His Precious Blood will not prevent us from all sin. It will move our consciences and restore our sensitivities so that we develop a distaste for sin and turn away from it more readily. It will help us recognize and avoid occasions of sin. When we do sin, this devotion will encourage us to flee to the Precious Blood, which is poured out upon us in the Sacrament of Confession.

2. Gratitude for His love & mercy

Devotion to the Precious Blood moves our hearts to gratitude for the gift of Jesus' sacrifice, and beyond that, His mercy for all mankind. 

From grave injustice and savage brutality—and from His wounded side—flow the Blood and water that create the Church and save the world! 

Sometimes it is hard to receive God's merciful love. We feel we don't "deserve" such largess. We feel we are not "good enough" or deserving enough. It's true, none of us are.

Yet it is a grace, given freely to us, by the Source of All Love. Through this love that is beyond our understanding, God has made a way to reclaim us for Himself. He desires us. He pursues us. He calls to us, through a magnificent love and mercy that defies our comprehension.

It's beyond our understanding, but our God is so good He awaits only our assent.

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Devotion to the Precious Blood helps us cherish our salvation, accept this inconceivable gift, and receive it in complete gratitude. In this way, we are reconciled to Him and to others as a part of His plan to save us and the whole world.

3. Generosity of spirit

The Precious Blood is perhaps the greatest symbol of Divine Love. Devotion to this Blood nurtures in us greater love and generosity of spirit. As we grow to reflect Him, we receive what we need to approach our own lives with a similar spirit of self-sacrifice. 

The Precious Blood models a life of complete self-giving. It calls us to extend ourselves and model Christ. It teaches us to open our arms wide, like Jesus, and embrace whatever God asks of us.

Because devotion to the Precious Blood brings awareness of our own sinfulness and His great mercy, it provides a keen insight: all of us humans are sinners (except Jesus and Mary of course), so who are we to reproach others when Christ forgives them, and us, so freely? 

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Part of our sinful nature involves the prideful temptation to judge others' actions harshly. In fact, we often call out in them what we subconsciously disdain in ourselves. 

Only Jesus and His Mother are perfect. In the Precious Blood is a remedy for this severity of judgment. How can we accept such generosity of spirit and fail to offer it back to others?

4. Atonement for sins & openness to grace

Through devotion to the Precious Blood, we atone for sin and obtain many graces. This is especially true when It is poured out daily in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

In the Consecration, the priest re-presents Jesus' sacrifice, applying its fruits to our lives. To participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice is to respond with all that we are, asking to be transformed in unity with the whole Body of Christ. When we do this, we become a living sacrifice. 

Christ left us His Body and Blood so that we could receive Him in the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the supreme source of reparation and grace for all Catholics.

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When we honor the Precious Blood, we reveal our understanding of the covenant between God and man, and the incredible sacrifice of Christ's pure nature for the restoration of our fallen nature. We express our desire to be made new, washed clean, and restored. Then we offer everything we are back to Him in return. 

5. Spiritual Protection

Devotion to the Precious Blood is a protective force beyond any power seeking to endanger us. In Sacred Scripture, Peter reminds us that we were ransomed by the Precious Blood. It redeemed us and It alone has the power to save us. In that sense, It is the greatest spiritual weapon of all time. 

The New Testament repeatedly speaks of the power of the Precious Blood. Jesus instructs His Apostles at the Last Supper, telling them He will pour out His Blood for the remission of sins and as the seal of the new and eternal covenant. Sts. Peter and Paul continually acclaim it and St. John affirms it. 

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Imagine the strength and security we call down when we ask the Precious Blood to cover ourselves, our loved ones, and the world. Yet even those of us who know Its power forget to call on It as a source of protection. 

Can there be a greater spiritual weapon in the arsenal of any believer than the Precious Blood of our Savior, which washed the whole world clean and brought us back into communion with God the Father? 

It is a force unequaled, containing the remedy for all the ills of mankind. 

6. Brotherly Love

The Precious Blood was shed for our redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. It is our justification and the source of our hope. Imagine Its impact on our wounded world if we all acknowledged Its gifts and opened ourselves to Its treasures. Let us deepen our devotion to His sacrifice and honor the Precious Blood. 

In his apostolic letter promoting devotion to the Precious Blood, Blessed Pope John XXIII shared how this devotion could bear fruit among all mankind. 

...Their upright lives would then be the shining example they ought to be; Christ’s Church would far more effectively fulfill its mission to men. God wants all men to be saved, for he has willed that they should all be ransomed by the Blood of his only-begotten Son; he calls them all to be members of the one Mystical Body whose head is Christ.

If only men would be more responsive to these promptings of his grace, how much the bonds of brotherly love among individuals and peoples and nations would be strengthened. Life in society would be so much more peaceable, so much worthier of God and the human nature created in his image and likeness."

May Sacred Tradition, Scripture, the saints, the history of our Church, and the remembrance of Christ's sacrifice encourage us to embrace this age-old devotion.

Precious Blood of Jesus, save us and the whole world!

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