July is the month of The Precious Blood.

Frederick William Faber C.O. (28 June 1814 – 26 September 1863) was a noted English hymn writer and theologian, who converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845. When ordained as an Anglican clergyman he became Vicar of Elton, near Peterborough, where he introduced many catholic practices. After much heart searching he was received into the Church.   He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood subsequently in 1847. He wrote the hymn ‘Faith of our Fathers.’ He established the Brompton Oratory and became its first Provost. He was a great admirer of Blessed JH Newman. One of his important works is THE PRECIOUS BLOOD written in 1860 for the benefit of Members of the Confraternity of the Most Precious Blood. The book remains a classic handbook.

In the Precious Blood Fr. Faber writes: (p.110) ‘The Sacraments are not mere signs of grace, but causes of it. They cause grace in us physically by the omnipotence of God which exists in them as if it were their own proper virtue and energy; for the omnipotence of God exists so specially in the Sacraments that if, by impossibility, God were not omnipresent, he would nevertheless be present in the Sacraments. The Sacraments cause grace physically, just as Our Lord’s Blood, shed long ago, cleanses us from our sins physically, not morally only, and just as his Resurrection and Ascension cause our resurrection and ascension physically , by a force which God has appropriated to them……..

(p.113) God invented Sacraments for the most magnificent of purposes. He invented them, that by their means especially he might impart his Divine Nature to created natures, that he might justify sinners, that he might sanctify souls, that he might unite to himself the race whose nature he had condescended to single out and assume to himself.

Fr. Stephen July 13th, 2019