Hail, sacred Blood, flowing from the wounds of Jesus Christ, and washing away the sins of the world! O cleanse, sanctify, and preserve my soul, that nothing in future may ever separate me from thee. Behold, O eternal Father, thy holy Jesus, and look upon the face of thy Christ, in whom thou art well pleased. Hear the voice of his blood crying out to thee, not for vengeance, but for mercy and pardon. Accept this divine oblation; and through the infinite merits of all the sufferings that Jesus endured on the cross for our salvation, be pleased to look upon us, and upon all thy people, with an eye of mercy.
During the remainder of the Canon contemplate in the most affectionate manner, your Saviour here present. Reflect on the mysteries he renews. Unite the sacrifice of your heart to that of his body. Offer him up to God his Father, with the several intentions of the four kinds of sacrifice offered in the Old Law, beseeching him to accept the prayers which his dear Son addresses to him in our behalf.
It is now, O eternal Father, that we truly and really offer to thy Divine Majesty, that pure, holy, and immaculate victim which thou thyself hast been pleased to grant us, and of which all other offerings were only the types and figures. The sacrifices of Abel, of Abraham, and of Melchisedech, were of no value, when compared to ours. This glorious victim, thy dear Son himself, the perfect object of thy eternal love, and alone worthy of thy altar, is an offering by so much the more precious than theirs, as God is greater than all creatures.
As A Holocaust, Or Whole-burnt Offering.
O sovereign Creator and Lord of all things! graciously vouchsafe to accept my humble homage, in union with that which thou here receivest from Jesus Christ, the only worthy adorer of thy infinite Majesty. Whilst, therefore, he immolates himself upon this altar, I unite my intentions with those views and purposes himself has, in offering to thee this his holy sacrifice. It is he alone can form a just conception of the boundless excellence and unspeakable majesty of The Great Creator of Heaven and earth; he alone fully comprehends the entire extent of thy dominion. He beholds (what we blind mortals cannot) how far all creatures, visible and invisible, depend on thee. He plainly conceives that thy dominion is absolute over all we are, all we possess or can hope for in time or eternity. It is in acknowledgment of this thy sovereign authority, and to make, in his name, a public profession of our total dependence on thee, that I unite with him in his daily renewal of this most holy sacrifice.
As A Sacrifice Of Thanksgiving.
Vouchsafe, O most bountiful Lord God, to receive this precious victim in thanksgiving for all thy benefits. Thou hast created me to thine own image and likeness, and if thy all-powerful hand had not continued to preserve the slender thread of my life, I must ere now have fallen back into my original nothing. For my sake thou didst abandon thy beloved Son to the cruelty of the Jews, and to an ignominious death; nor doth a single moment of my existence pass away without fresh proofs of thy bounty. O that I could, in some degree, acknowledge those thy innumerable favours, even at the price of my blood; but the offering I here make thee is infinitely more acceptable; it is nothing less than thy beloved Son, equal to thee in all things, the very figure of thy substance, and splendour of thy glory.