Vatican City, Jul 5, 2009 / 09:43 am
Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his reflections before today's Angelus prayer to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. Recalling that the first Sunday of July was in the past dedicated to the devotion of the Most Precious Blood of Christ, he spoke of the Blood of Christ as a “source of hope in a world torn apart by violence and hatred.”
The Holy Father began by mentioning the importance of blood in the Old Testament. "The sprinkling with the blood of sacrificed animals,” the Pope explained, “represented and established the covenant between God and his people.”
When Jesus gave his life for mankind, the Pope taught, he shed his blood as the sacrificial lamb of the Old Covenant: "From his scourging, to the piercing of his side after his death of the cross, Christ poured out all of his blood, as the true Lamb slain for universal redemption.”
The blood that is still being spilled in the world today, he said, "cries out to God" like that of Abel, killed by Cain. "And sadly, today as yesterday, this cry is incessant, because human blood continues to flow as a result of violence, injustice and hatred.”