Virgo Potens

2 of 2 The Fourth Shedding of the Precious Blood 2. This crowning of thorns was to atone for our proud thoughts, impure thoughts, uncharitable thoughts; the trickling blood covering His sacred face, for our wretched vanity and desire to beautify ourselves in the sight of men; the blinding of His eyes, for our immodest looks, careless looks, looks of curiosity and pride. O my Lord, how varied were the sufferings Thou hadst to undergo for my manifold sins! 3. Each form of suffering endured by the Son of God will have its own appropriate reward for His sacred humanity. As for each stripe a fresh ray of glory, for each insult a new song of praise from angels and saints, so the crown He will wear in heaven will be glorious in proportion to the suffering and the ignominy of the crown of thorns. All that we endure for Him will have a corresponding and appropriate reward in heaven. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 24th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 24th Day ~ The Fourth Shedding of the Precious Blood 1. After the scourging the soldiers devised a fresh torture for the Son of God. They wove of the spiny branches of the thorn a sort of helmet or crown of thorns, and put it on His head, pressing it down with their spears. The long sharp thorns pierce through the flesh, and the Precious Blood trickles down over His forehead and fills His eyes, blinding Him, and causing Him fresh pain and misery. (continued)

2 of 2 The Third Shedding of the Precious Blood 2. Watch the scene. The Son of God with His hands tied to a short pillar, on either side of Him an executioner with a scourge of many lashes, some tipped with barbed spikes of iron, lashing Him with brutal ferocity. His sacred body first covered with bruises and weals, and then the flesh cut open and the Precious Blood first trickling and then flowing down from the open wounds. Still they go on striking the wounds and sores and'bleeding flesh with unrelenting violence, the barbs tearing off morsels of flesh until the ground is covered not only with a pool of blood, but also with morsels of His sacred flesh. O Jesus, what didst Thou not suffer for me! 3. Hear Him moaning gently in His agony, and amidst the moans praying to the Eternal Father to accept each blow in expiation for the sins of men, and especially for the sinful indulgence of the flesh. O Jesus, may the thought of Thy scourging keep me from ever yielding to temptation, and may I mortify my body for love of Thee! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 23rd ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 23d Day ~ The Third Shedding of the Precious Blood. 1. When Pilate found that he could not persuade the Jews to consent to the release of Jesus, he ordered Him to be scourged, hoping that they might be satisfied with something short of His death, and that their rage might be softened at the sight of a punishment so cruel. The scourging was for this reason severe beyond what was usual, as the Pharisees are said to have bribed the executioners and plied them with drink to induce them to still greater barbarity. See how all seemed to unite to add to the tortures inflicted on the Son of God. (continued)

2 of 2 The Second Shedding of the Precious Blood 2. It happened to Jesus because on Him sin was allowed to wreak all its malice, to do all the havoc of which its immeasurable intensity of evil is possible, as far as was compatible with His sinlessness and His divine perfections. In some respects the very perfection of His nature caused Him to suffer more, as none was so sensitive to pain and disappointment as He, and His divinity, far from being used by Him to relieve His sufferings, was only employed to enable His sacred humanity to suffer more than it could have borne unaided. 3. Was this unjust? No, for He took it upon Himself and bore it willingly. Was it cruel? No, for His sacred humanity was to have a reward altogether exceeding such sufferings as His. It was to enjoy the glory of the highest heaven to all eternity in return for its brief agony on earth. For the joy that was set before Him He gladly endured it all, the joy of saving us from sin and death. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 22nd ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 22nd Day ~ The Second Shedding of the Precious Blood 1. It is said that those who have suffered an extremity of anguish have sometimes been bathed in a perspiration which was tinged with blood. In the Garden of Gethsemani, Jesus was bathed in a sweat of blood which poured down to the ground. Ah, what must have been tne intensity of His agony! None ever knew such sorrow as His. None ever was so crushed by the weight of intolerable misery. How could this happen to the Divine Son of God? To me it might have happened, and happened justly for my sins, but to Him it seems impossible, unjust, cruel. (continued)

2 of 2 The First Shedding of the Precious Blood 2. The Precious Blood flowing in those earliest days teaches us another lesson. It shows how sin never fails to bring suffering with it. If it did so in the case of God made Man, and that throughout His life so that He was never exempt from suffering, how much more is it reasonable that it should do so in the case of sinful man! If it did such things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? How then can I with all my sins expect to escape suffering? 3. Yet this first blood-shedding, this early suffering, was the occasion of the Name of Jesus being given to the Child Who endured it. He was our Saviour in, and because of, His suffering— in, and because of, the shedding of His Precious Blood. Hence to suffer for Him, to be willing to shed our blood for Him, is the condition of sharing in His glorious work as Saviour of the world. Without suffering, without shedding of blood is no remission. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 21st ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 21st Day ~ The First Shedding of the Precious Blood 1. It was but a few days after Our Lord's Birth that his Precious Blood first flowed for the sins of men. Itwas on the occasion of His circumcision, the rite which is generally believed to have been the condition of the cleansing away of original sin under the Jewish covenant. O Jesus, at least Thine infancy might have passed before the work of expiation began! No; from His earliest days Christ began His work of redemption. In His yearning love He longed for suffering on behalf of those He loved, and would brook no delay. (continued)

2 of 2 The Precious Blood a Lesson of Charity 2. This reconciliation He effected at the cost of His own blood. We read sometimes of a child who sheds his blood for father or mother, or a husband who sheds his blood for his beloved spouse. We admire exceedingly such noble and generous self-devotion. But who ever heard of one who shed his blood in order to reconcile to himself, and restore peace and happiness to, enemies who had wilfully and deliberately insulted him? Love so wonderful as this was possible only to the Son of God. 3. Yet if we are really to learn of Him to follow in His footsteps, we must imitate Him in this love for enemies. He Himself commands it: "Love your enemies!" "If you love them that love you, what reward shall you have?" The precept seems impossible, and becomes possible only when we contemplate Him Who shed the last drop of His blood for those who hated Him. Looking at Thee, O Lord, I not only will forgive those who have offended me, but I will seek to do them good, that I may have the happiness of doing to them as Thou hast done to me! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 20th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 20th Day ~ The Precious Blood a Lesson of Charity 1. "He loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood" (Apoc.i.5). St. John, the apostle of love, mentions this as the primary mark of the love of Jesus for us. He proved His love by saving those He loved from that which would have separated them forever from Him: and this although the loss was theirs, not His, and though it was one that they richly deserved to incur. Here is a model for us, when others wrong us and return ill-will for our love. (continued)

2 of 2 The Precious Blood a Lesson of Patience 2. At the pillar, again, what divine patience! Not a look of anger, not a word of reproach. There He stands, the picture of uncomplaining endurance. What a lesson for me! How ready I am to complain, even when I receive some fancied slight or some trifling injury! How different am I from the Son of God! What a contrast is my conduct to His! O Jesus! teach me to endure without complaint my sufferings, which are small indeed when compared with Thine! 3. See Him once more upon the cross! Listen to the gibes and sneers cast at Him by the priests, their taunts of His inability to save Himself, Messias though He was. How all this must have aggravated His physical agony! Yet His constant prayer was, Father, forgive them! O Jesus, grant me more of the patience and meekness Thou didst show while Thy Precious Blood was ebbing forth on the altar of the cross ! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 19th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 19th Day ~ The Precious Blood a Lesson of Patience 1. If we watch the Son of God during those scenes in His sacred passion in which He shed His blood for us, we notice in one and all His exceeding and incomparable patience. During the agony in the garden it was the sight of the brutal ingratitude of man that caused the sweat of blood to flow from His sacred limbs. How could He endure to suffer for such wretches? Yet meekly and patiently He endured their sacrileges, blasphemies, impurities, wanton hatred of God, which rose up before Him as He knelt there in Gethsemani. (continued)

2 of 2 The Precious Blood a Lesson of Sacrifice 2. The lesson of sacrifice for the sake of others is one that Our Lord’s life teaches us throughout. Nothing for Himself; no concession to His human nature for its own sake. No avoiding of pain or reproach on account of the suffering it entailed, but rather a joyful acceptance of all that might be to man a source of grace and a motive of virtue. May I rejoice, O Lord, to have the privilege of following Thee step by step along Thy path of suffering! 3. This road of suffering is also one that leads us to solid happiness in this world and eternal joy in the next. It is for our own interest to sacrifice ourselves. Who are so happy as they who shed their blood for Christ? For them no purgatory whatever through their past life, but an immediate entrance into the celestial paradise. Such a sacrifice as this may not be asked of me; but do I make those that I know would be pleas ing to Him Who sacrificed Himself wholly for me? ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 18th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 18th Day ~ The Precious Blood a Lesson of Sacrifice 1. Why did the Eternal Father choose for His co-equal Son that He should close His sojourn on earth by the cruel agony and unspeakable degradation of shedding for man the last drop of the Precious Blood. Would it not have sufficed to redeem us from sin if He had appeared on earth for one instant clad in human form? Yes; but then man would never have learnt the lesson of sacrifice. He would not have been moved to regard suffering as a necessary part of the ideal life. We thank Thee, O Lord, for this Thy commiseration for our blindness and our ignorance! (continued)

PRAYER to ST. ANNE May be said as a Novena (July 17th - July 25th) Begins today, July 17th, at Christus Regnat ~ https://t.me/RexUniversi

2 of 2 17th Day ~ The Precious Blood quenching the Flames of Hell 2. The guilt of mortal sin is entirely abolished by the blood of Christ, and also the eternal punishment. But the temporal punishment only so far as the sinner has a sufficient contrition for his sin and does all in his power to atone for it. For many who die in the love and fear of God there will remain a heavy debt still to be paid. 3. How are we to apply to our souls the blood of Christ so that we may be free from temporal punishment as well as from guilt? (1) We must offer up our sufferings in union with those of the Son of God, and bear them with meekness and resignation for His sake. (2) We must make frequent acts of the love of God and seek to bear Him in continual remembrance. (3) We must perform some determinate penances for determinate sins, both for sins in the past, and tendencies to sin in the present. (4) We must give alms if we can. (5) We must try and extinguish our own sins by saving others from sin. To prevent one mortal sin is to extinguish a virtual hell. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 17th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 17th Day ~ The Precious Blood quenching the Flames of Hell 1. Mortal sin can only have two endings: to be blotted out by the Precious Blood, or incur the eternal punishment of hell. By the first it is totally extinguished; by the second it is retained as a testimony to the justice of God and to His infinite holiness, which cannot endure to look upon iniquity. Pray for a great horror of mortal sin, which involves such consequences: everlasting misery for the unrepentant sinner, and the pouring forth of the Precious Blood as the only remedy even for those who do penance for their sins. (continued)

2 of 2 The Trampling on the Precious Blood 2. But there are others still worse, who, after having been enrolled in the army of Jesus Christ, desert His standard and profess themselves unable to accept the teaching of the Church. Through pride or vice or covetousness they lose all their love of their holy faith and appreciation of its truth. These do indeed trample on the Precious Blood, and put Christ Our Lord to shame. Yet at any time, without God's grace, I might be guilty of a like abandonment of my faith. O my God, make me always faithful to Thee! 3. There is a still lower depth. Some not only lose their faith, but become its enemies and traducers. They esteem the blood with which they are sanctified an unclean thing, and offer an affront to the Spirit of grace. They assail the Church, its ministers, its sacraments, its doctrines, with lying lips and open insult. How can any ever fall so low as this? Yet among them all will be found some who were once more pleasing to God than I. May I take warning from them and humble myself, and cherish as an inestimable treasure the grace won for me by the Precious Blood ! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Heureux ceux qui se désaltèrent souven à la source de vie. Happy those who quench their thirst often at the source of life. Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 16th ✧✿✿✧❁❁✧✿✿✧ 16th Day ~ The Trampling on the Precious Blood 1. There are some who not only waste the Precious Blood, but actually trample it under their feet. These are they who, being washed from all their sins in the most Precious Blood of Jesus, deliberately turn back again to the sins they have abandoned, and set at naught His proffered love and friendship, and become far worse at the end than they were at the beginning. My Jesus! may I never be guilty of such base ingratitude ! (continued)