A popular devotion as old as Christian reflection on the Passion, given a liturgical shape when Pius IX, in exile at Gaeta in 1849, extended the feast of the Most Precious Blood to the whole Church. It was carried through the nineteenth century above all by St Gaspar del Bufalo and the Missionaries of the Precious Blood he founded. The separate feast was removed in the reform of the calendar, its content taken up into the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, and the devotion continues through the month of July. The Litany of the Most Precious Blood was drawn up by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and promulgated by John XXIII on 24 February 1960.

Through July, pray the Litany of the Most Precious Blood once a day from an approved text, or, if that is too long, make the seven offerings of the Blood of Christ for the Church, for sinners, for the dying, for the holy souls, for your family, for your enemies and for yourself. Offer the Precious Blood at the elevation of the chalice at Mass. Meditation on the Agony in the Garden and on the piercing of the side of Christ belongs naturally to this month, as does a decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries each day.

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