The Feast Of The Most Precious Blood. 1 July.

Text from SOCIETY OF ST. BEDE - LITURGICAL RESOURCES

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From the Roman Antiphonale 1912, Pro aliq. locis.

This Feast is now Celebrated on 1 July.

It is also Celebrated on the Friday after the 4th Sunday of Lent in certain places as one of the Feasts of the Instruments of the Passion.

From The Liturgical Year:

“John the Baptist has pointed out The Lamb, Peter has firmly fixed His Throne, Paul has prepared the Bride; this, their joint work, admirable in its unity, at once suggests the reason for their Feasts occurring almost simultaneously on the Cycle.

“The alliance being now secured, all three fall into shade; whilst the Bride herself, raised up by them to such lofty heights, appears alone before us, holding in her hands the Sacred Cup of the nuptial-feast.

“Nor must we omit to mention here, that this Feast is a monument of one of the most brilliant victories of Holy Church, in our own age. 

“Pope Pius IX [Editor: Blessed Pio Nono] had been driven from Rome in 1848, by the triumphant revolution; but the following year, just about this very season, his power was re-established.

“Under the ægis of the Apostles on 28 June and the two following days, the eldest daughter of The Church, faithful to her past glories, swept the ramparts of the Eternal City; and, on 2 July, Mary’s festival, the victory was completed.

“Not long after this, a twofold decree notified to the City and to the World the Pontiff’s gratitude and the way in which he intended to perpetuate, in the Sacred Liturgy, the memory of these events.

“On 10 August, from Gaeta, itself, the place of his exile in the evil day, Pope Pius IX, before returning to re-assume the government of his States [Editor: “The Papal States”], addressing himself to the invisible Head of The Church, confided her in a special manner to His Divine Care, by the institution of this day’s Festival; reminding Him that it was for His Church that He vouchsafed to shed all His Precious Blood.

“Then, when the Pontiff re-entered his Capital, turning to Mary, just as Pius V and Pius VII had done under other circumstances, he, the Vicar of Christ, solemnly attributed the honour of the recent victory to Her, who is ever “The Help of Christians”, for on the Feast of Her Visitation it had been gained.

“And he now decreed that this said Feast of 2 July should be raised from the Rite of Double-Major to that of Second-Class throughout the whole World.

“This was but a prelude to the definition of the Dogma of The Immaculate Conception, which the immortal Pontiff had already in project, whereby the crushing of the serpent’s head would be completed.”