It was a cold winter night in December, with only one or two days left to usher in the new year. As I was sleepy, I hit the bed after the evening family prayers and an unusually long personal prayer.
But somewhere and sometime in the middle of the sleep, I encountered a frightening dream -- or is it a vision? I couldn't figure it out. I could sense an evil presence in the room. The environment was clearly devilish and I was frightened. I was shivering. I realized something is going to attack me mentally or physically.
Then immediately, I tried with lot of efforts to utter the words “Precious Blood of Jesus Christ protect me” but something was trying to prevent me from uttering those words. I finally managed to say “the Precious Blood”. Before I could complete it, the evil presence was gone. It was once again serene and calm. I could feel the Holy presence of Jesus. I was relieved after the initial chilling experience.
Dear friends, the Precious Blood Jesus is most powerful weapon to get rid of such evil encounters, sins and sinful nature. Devil can’t stand it.
The Precious Blood of Our Lord was shed on the Cross; by It Our Lord won all the graces necessary for the salvation of every human being. The Bible says that, indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Blood was shed for purification of our body, mind and spirit. We simply need to grasp these graces and apply them to ourselves and others. The Precious Blood is a flowing Fountain of spiritual gifts that will never run dry.
German Benedictine St Gertrude's writings are abounding with most beautiful sentiments concerning the Precious Blood. To St Mechtilde, also a Benedictine nun, Lord Jesus once revealed Himself on the altar, with hands extended and Blood streaming from His Wounds: "I show these bleeding Wounds to My Father to appease His wrath, to disarm His Divine justice against sinners. He pardons when He sees the Blood”. In His mysterious Providence God has put the salvation of others in our hands: we must ask for it, and ask fervently and often.
The foundation for the Church's belief in the Precious Blood and the reason for the devotion to the Precious Blood among the faithful occur in the first chapter of the first letter of St. Peter 18-19. ” You know that you were redeemed from the vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, not with perishable things as silver or gold but with the Precious Blood of Christ as the Lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Fr. John A Hardon S.J. (1914-2000), noted theologian and writer, says God took on a human nature so that in that human nature He could die. In order to die, the soul had to separate from the body. But for the Body to have the soul separate, the body itself had to be deprived of His Blood. The All-Holy Son of God who became Man to redeem us could only have died by being drained of His Blood. Christ could not have died of some disease. Christ could not have died because of some mortal illness. All illness, disease, the natural debilitating of the body is the result of sin. All our illness, our disease, our sickness, our wasting away of our body for all of us this is our faith is the result of our sinful nature. Not so with Christ. That draining of the human body of His Blood was the one way that Christ, Sinless Son of God and Son of Mary that He was, the one way that He could die, Fr Hardon says.
If Christ showed His love for us by the shedding of His Blood, we are supposed to show our love for Him by the shedding of our blood, shedding our blood in spirit. That is what the Church means when she says that when Christ offers Himself daily on the altar in the Sacrifice of the Mass, we are told to identify that as our sacrifice - His and ours. He, the Head of the Mystical Body, can no longer suffer, but thank God, we can.
But somewhere and sometime in the middle of the sleep, I encountered a frightening dream -- or is it a vision? I couldn't figure it out. I could sense an evil presence in the room. The environment was clearly devilish and I was frightened. I was shivering. I realized something is going to attack me mentally or physically.
Then immediately, I tried with lot of efforts to utter the words “Precious Blood of Jesus Christ protect me” but something was trying to prevent me from uttering those words. I finally managed to say “the Precious Blood”. Before I could complete it, the evil presence was gone. It was once again serene and calm. I could feel the Holy presence of Jesus. I was relieved after the initial chilling experience.
Dear friends, the Precious Blood Jesus is most powerful weapon to get rid of such evil encounters, sins and sinful nature. Devil can’t stand it.
The Precious Blood of Our Lord was shed on the Cross; by It Our Lord won all the graces necessary for the salvation of every human being. The Bible says that, indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Blood was shed for purification of our body, mind and spirit. We simply need to grasp these graces and apply them to ourselves and others. The Precious Blood is a flowing Fountain of spiritual gifts that will never run dry.
German Benedictine St Gertrude's writings are abounding with most beautiful sentiments concerning the Precious Blood. To St Mechtilde, also a Benedictine nun, Lord Jesus once revealed Himself on the altar, with hands extended and Blood streaming from His Wounds: "I show these bleeding Wounds to My Father to appease His wrath, to disarm His Divine justice against sinners. He pardons when He sees the Blood”. In His mysterious Providence God has put the salvation of others in our hands: we must ask for it, and ask fervently and often.
The foundation for the Church's belief in the Precious Blood and the reason for the devotion to the Precious Blood among the faithful occur in the first chapter of the first letter of St. Peter 18-19. ” You know that you were redeemed from the vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, not with perishable things as silver or gold but with the Precious Blood of Christ as the Lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Fr. John A Hardon S.J. (1914-2000), noted theologian and writer, says God took on a human nature so that in that human nature He could die. In order to die, the soul had to separate from the body. But for the Body to have the soul separate, the body itself had to be deprived of His Blood. The All-Holy Son of God who became Man to redeem us could only have died by being drained of His Blood. Christ could not have died of some disease. Christ could not have died because of some mortal illness. All illness, disease, the natural debilitating of the body is the result of sin. All our illness, our disease, our sickness, our wasting away of our body for all of us this is our faith is the result of our sinful nature. Not so with Christ. That draining of the human body of His Blood was the one way that Christ, Sinless Son of God and Son of Mary that He was, the one way that He could die, Fr Hardon says.
If Christ showed His love for us by the shedding of His Blood, we are supposed to show our love for Him by the shedding of our blood, shedding our blood in spirit. That is what the Church means when she says that when Christ offers Himself daily on the altar in the Sacrifice of the Mass, we are told to identify that as our sacrifice - His and ours. He, the Head of the Mystical Body, can no longer suffer, but thank God, we can.
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