O PRECIOUS BLOOD, BATHE THEM ALL, FOR ALL ARE SIN-STAINED

Prayer to the Precious Blood

O Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, shed that Thou mightest show mercy to all men, behold! We draw near to Thee; flow Thou upon us in Thy lavish abundance! Behold our heads, our hands, our wills, our minds our memories, our affections, our works, our interior and exterior senses. Bathe them all, for all are sin-stained; purify them all, for all are corrupt; heal all, for all are sick. Do Thou so change us by Thine admirable virtue, that we may unite ourselves to Thee, O infinite purity! Cleanse us, adorn us, save us, crown us! Amen.

This stirring and sacrosanct prayer was found in the church of Michilimacinac, in Michigan, USA in the year 1832. The prayer was composed by the Catholic missionaries who strove to unashamedly disseminate it among the Native American Indians in the 1700s. I note that the prayer does not have "a them and us theme"; it is not of the superior mindset that only the Native Americans had need of being bathed in the Precious Blood while those who gave the prayer were not in need of having their sins washed away in the Precious Blood. Rather the prayer asks of Our Lord that He thoroughly chelate both missionary and Native American neophyte in His Precious Blood so as to render them purified and healed.

I believe in our times we have an especially great need of offering a formal prayer like the one above and offering mental prayer that our souls be completely cleansed in the Precious Blood which is the ultimate chelating agent for our souls' purification. I stress that we have a dire need now because never before has the reputation of missionaries who taught the Infinite Value of the Precious Blood to new converts been so badly maligned, as statues of Christian missionaries are desecrated. As a result, far, far fewer people do as the missionaries did for themselves and others; ask that souls be scoured and sanitized in Christ's Blood. Yet, amid the maddening fray, even when evangelism is more perilous for our good names than ever before (many would-be missionaries may fear that future generations will scorn them), we may pray that Our Lord bathe "all" who we may wish to be converted.