Precious Blood Chaplet
This devotional prayer chaplet consists of seven mysteries
on which we meditate on the seven times
Jesus shed His Most Precious Blood.
The Chaplet is divided into 6 sets of 5 beads (30)
and 1 set of 3 beads (3), a total of 33 beads,
in honor of the 33 years of Jesus' life.
1st Mystery - Jesus shed His Blood in His circumcision
We ask for chastity of body and spirit.
2nd Mystery - Jesus shed His Blood in the Garden of Olives
We ask for the spirit of prayer.
3rd Mystery - Jesus shed His Blood in the scourging
We ask for patience and self control.
4th Mystery - Jesus shed His Blood in the crown of thorns
We ask for the humility to atone for our pride.
5th Mystery - Jesus shed His Blood carrying the Cross
We ask for the strength to bear our earthly burdens.
6th Mystery - Jesus shed His Blood in the Crucifixion
We ask for contrition.
7th Mystery - Jesus shed His Blood as His side was pierced
We ask for the grace of perseverance.
Begin the chaplet by praying:
V. Incline unto my aid, O God!
R. O Lord, make haste to help me!
V. Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and the Holy Spirit
R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be
Amen
On the First 6 sets of beads:Pray 1 "Our Father" on each of the five beads
After each set:Pray one "Glory Be"
and the following prayer:
We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants whom
Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.
On the 7th/last set of beads:Pray 1 "Our Father" on each of the three beads
After this set:Pray one "Glory Be"
and the following prayer:
We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants whom
Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.
Closing Prayer:
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ in atonement for my sins, in supplication for the holy souls in Purgatory and for the needs of Holy Church. Amen .
see also:Letters of St. Gaspar
The rosary is a familiar form of prayer. Its repetition establishes a rhythm that steadies our hearts and minds. By involving our hands as we move along the beads, a rosary helps us tune out distractions. Young and old can pray a rosary. No book, no special place, are needed! For these reasons, many religious traditions have prayers that use beads, Buddhists and Sufis (the mystical branch of Islam) as well as Christians. Throughout the centuries, Christians have employed a variety of rosaries. Each rosary is designed to slowly immerse us in a particular spirituality or tradition. In the earliest centuries, monks used stones and strings of beads as aids to prayer and meditation on Scripture, including Lectio Divina or Divine Reading. The fifteen decade rosary, which brings together the major stories of the Christian mystery in the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries, is a Dominican tradition that dates to the 13th century. The Precious Blood Rosary or Chaplet is OUR rosary. This is the means of meditation on the principal blood-sheddings of Jesus that Saint Gaspar, our founder, so readily promoted. The Precious Blood Chaplet was composed by Father Francesco Albertini. He was a canon of the church of San Nicola in Carcere in Rome, which was privileged to have a relic of the Precious Blood. His devotion to the Precious Blood inspired Albertini to found the Arch-Confraternity of the Precious Blood, the forerunner of the Union of the Blood of Christ. Albertini invited Father Gaspar del Bufalo, a canon of the near-by church of San Marco, to preach the inaugural sermon for the Arch-Confraternity on December 8, 1808. Albertini wanted to compose a prayer for the Union, a prayer that would combine giving thanks to God for the gift of Jesus' most precious blood and intercession on behalf of the world. To prepare himself to undertake this responsibility, Albertini sought the solace of a retreat. In his account of this retreat, Albertini recounts how he was directly confronted by evil and inspired by meditating on the image of the cross. The fruit of this encounter is our community's Chaplet of the Precious Blood. The Chaplet has seven mysteries, according to a traditional listing of the seven significant times Jesus shed his blood -- the Circumcision, The Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar, The Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, Jesus Dies on the Cross, and the Piercing with the Lance. Devotion to Jesus' seven blood-sheddings goes back much farther than our community's founding. The heart of the chaplet is 33 Our Fathers, in honor of the number of years Jesus is believed to have lived among us. The first six mysteries consist of five "Our Father's" followed by a "Glory be" and the last mystery has three "Our Father's" to complete the total of 33. Following each mystery is a verse and response. Verse: “Come then, Lord, help your people.” Response: “Bought with the price of your own blood.” These are drawn from the conclusion of the church's great hymn Te Deum. The Chaplet was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on May 31, 1809 and 'indulgenced' October 18th, 1815(1) The Chaplet was one of the tools that St. Gaspar used in the preaching of missions. References to the chaplet are found in hundreds of Gaspar’s letters. It was the central means he had of inviting the people to pray the mysteries of the Precious Blood, and to provide a focus for the teaching during the mission. In a letter to Pope Gregory XVI in March of 1831, Gaspar points out the chaplet as one of the points in the missionary’s method of life. At the beginning of each day, one Missionary would lead the gathered faithful in the Chaplet while another offered the Mass. In an era when the Mass was in Latin and most people could not read the Chaplet enabled the people to enter more fully into the mystery which was being celebrated. Each of the Mysteries is taken from the Scriptures and is a great place for us to reflect on the meaning found there. The mystery of his Circumcision reminds us how Jesus and his family followed the law, and how the Son of God was incorporated into the family of a particular people in a particular place and time. The Agony in the Garden reminds us how we too seek to take up God’s will in every struggle. The Piercing with a Lance reminds us of the beginning of the sacraments. To pray over these mysteries slowly immerses us into the same mysteries that gave life to Gaspar’s preaching. Prayer was at the center of Gaspar’s life, and the chaplet bears fruit in immersing us in the mysteries of the Most Precious Blood. “Here is the fruit that I experience within myself as the result of this visitation of God; … I have come to realize more and more how needful I am of establishing myself in God's ways and how urgent prayer is, even though I must say that it has always been my delight; I would like to help sanctify the whole world.” (2) A version of the chaplet, with scripture verses for each Our Father, is available .
NOTES (1)Gaspare del Bufalo, Alejandro Rey, CPPS, Vol 1, pg 353 (2)Gaspar del Bufalo, Letter #3785 to Sr. Maria Giuseppa Pittorri,Letters of St. Gaspar