The observance was originally placed on the first Sunday in July by Pius IX in 1849, as the whole month is
dedicated to the Precious Blood. The Breviary reform of St. Pope Pius X assigned the feast to the present date
of July 1. The Epistle is the same as that on Passion Sunday; the blood of animals sacrificed in the temple
lacked power, for that ritual was essentially prefigurative. Transcendently greater is the efficacy of Christ’s
bloody sacrifice! The Gospel, identical with that on the feast of the Sacred Heart, describes the lancing of the
departed Savior’s sacred side. That our Redeemer shed all His Blood during His sacred passion is attested to by
an open and pierced heart! This act, so charged with mystery, likewise implies by way of symbol the formation
of the Church—through blood and water. When we begin the Sacrifice proper, we are reminded by St. Paul that
not only ought we to venerate the Blood of Christ at a distance, but we should partake of it Eucharistically, as
we truly do when we receive the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the sacred
host at Holy Communion.
