The month of July 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.
St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal revealed their thoughts on the Precious Blood of Jesus:
Friday, St Francis de Sales:
When you kneel before your spiritual father, imagine that you are on Mount Calvary at the feet of Jesus Christ crucified, whose Precious Blood drops down on all sides to wash and cleanse you from your iniquities. For though it be not the very Blood of the Savior, yet it is the merit of the Blood He shed for us that waters abundantly the penitent in the confessional. Open your heart perfectly, so that you may cast out your sins by confession. As fast as they depart from your heart, the precious merits of the divine Passion will enter in to fill it with His blessings.
IDL 1: 19
Saturday:St Francis de Sales;
Love your Bridegroom well on your bed of suffering, for it is on this bed that he fashioned your heart when he foresaw it in his divine plan before ever it was fashioned on earth. Your Savior counted all your pains, all your suffering and paid with the price of his blood for all the patience and all the love you need so as to offer up your distress meekly for his glory and your salvation. Be content with gently willing all that God wills for you.
LST 229
Monday
Such is infinite happiness and it has not only been promised to us but we have a pledge of it in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the perpetual feast of divine grace. In it we receive our Savior’s blood in his flesh and his flesh in his blood, for his blood is dispensed to us by his flesh, his substance by his substance. It is given into our bodily mouths so that we may know that he will give us his own divine essence in an eternal feast of glory. Here on earth, it is true, this boon is granted to us really but in a hidden way, under sacramental species and appearances, whereas in heaven, God will give himself openly and “we shall see him face to face, as he is.” TLG 1, 3: 11, 191-92
Tuesday
Our Savior has instituted the most August sacrament of the Eucharist, which contains His Flesh and His Blood in their reality, to the end that he who eats of it shall live forever. Whoever, therefore, frequently eats with devotion this food, so effectually confirms the health of his soul that it is almost impossible that he should be poisoned by any kind of evil affection. We cannot be nourished with this flesh of life and at the same time live with the affections of death. Thus, as men dwelling in the earthly paradise might have avoided corporal death by power of that living fruit which God had planted therein, so they may also avoid spiritual death by virtue of this sacrament of life.
IDL 2: 20
Wednesday: ST JANE DE CHANTAL SAID:
I am persuaded that Sister X does not understand what she is talking about when she says that Our Lord suffered but did not feel his pain. What distinction does she make between suffering and the feeling of suffering? How could one suffer without pain? And sorrow, would it be sorrow if it was not felt? Besides, apart from this natural reasoning it is an article of faith that Christ suffered and felt the pains of his Passion. It is true, as we know, that sorrow is the result of sin, and that our Lord never sinned, nor could sin. It is likewise true that in his eternal charity and incomprehensible sweetness, he has taken upon himself our offences and with the price of his interior and exterior sufferings, and of his Precious Blood, paid the debt to them. Inexplicable love! This thought has just come to my mind and I tell it to you simply. I see, besides, a very doubtful note in the spirituality of this sister, but I have not time to explain it. Make her speak to some learned and holy servant of God who will not snub her. This poor dear sister is good and virtuous and certainly, I think, dear to God.
JSJ 71