Sunday, July 1, 2012
Solemnity of the Precious Blood of Jesus celebrated at Gethsemane.
Sunday, July 1, at the Basilica of the Agony on the Mount of Olives, celebration of the Solemnity of the Precious Blood of Jesus.
In the presence of about a hundred faithful, the Custos of the Holy Land, Friar Pierbattista Pizzaballa, flanked by the Custodial Vicar, Friar Artemio Vitores, Friar Ignacio Ceja Jiménez Provincial of the Pronvince of St. Francis and St. James in Mexico and many concelebrants, commemorated the Precious Blood of Jesus.
There were two significant gestures: at the beginning of the Mass, sprinkling the rock of agony with rose petals in remembrance of the drops of the Lord's shed blood and, in the homily, gathering from the new and ancient veins of Scripture the norms and salvific meaning of the Covenant with God sealed by the shed blood.
In Jerusalem and the Holy Land, the solemnity is celebrated every year to signify the universality and redemptive efficacy of the Precious Blood.
Christianity is the religion of the Blood of Christ, sanctification, grace and glory. The Church bears witness to the story of the Precious Blood through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
In the light of Mary, the Precious Blood becomes even more precious, for only in Her does it attain its full redemptive efficacy.
Devotion to the Precious Blood has very ancient origins. St. Paul is considered the true Doctor of the Precious
