Eternal Father, I offer Thee the precious blood, etc., etc.
Seventeenth Day.
In nothing is the beauty of the Church more noticeable than in her love of devotions. The devotion to the precious blood becomes manifest on many occasions. She has established the feast of the precious blood, and others more or less intimately united to this sacred practice of piety. Full of divine instincts, her worship grows with all the exuberance of a tropical plant, covering herself with verdure and blossom; she makes devotions of joys and of sorrows; none of the old blossoms fall off—on the contrary new varieties make their appearance. The Church is more beautiful now than she was three centuries ago, and three centuries from the present time new glories will have developed themselves. Every century has given rise to new devotions, according to the needs of the Church. Sometimes a holy man looks at the incarnation in a [pg 300] new light, and a new devotion springs up. The devotion of the Holy Childhood has developed itself into devotion to the Infant of Prague, or has taken a more practical turn in the society of the Holy Childhood for the redemption of heathen children.
Prayer.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the precious blood, etc., etc.
Eighteenth Day.
Who were the great worshippers of the precious blood? St. Paul wrote in his epistles most beautifully of the precious blood, and he may be said to be the author of this devotion. It was in this devotion that the power of his apostolate consisted. St. Chrysostom, the great preacher of the East, spoke most touchingly of the precious blood, and of the sufferings of Our Lord. St. Augustine, after his conversion, attributed all his improvement in the supernatural life to the love that Jesus bore him. St. Gertrude's writings are full of the most beautiful sentiments concerning the precious blood. In modern times, St. Catharine of Sienna, the prophetess of the precious blood, singled out this devotion with a special love, with reference to the needs of her time, to which, in her judgment, sufficient importance had not been given. We read of Frances of the Mother of God, a Carmelite, that these words of the Apocalypse were deeply imprinted in her mind: “He hath loved us, and washed away our sins in His blood.” Our Lord said to her interiorly, “I have shed My blood for your sins, and now I come in holy communion to wash away [pg 301] the stains which remain.” When she had received Our Lord she saw her soul all covered with blood.
Prayer.