A Letter to the Confraternity of the Precious Blood

TO

THE MEMBERS OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD.

My Dear Friends:

1. The Confraternity of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, established in the Chapel of the London Oratory, now numbers not far from seven thousand members. The time, therefore, is passed, when the Director of the Confraternity could meet the few hundreds who then composed it, at the Friday evening gatherings at the Oratory; though it will not be easy to forget the fervor and joy which reigned at those unions, or the manner in which the whole assembly joined aloud in the prayers for the intentions of the Confraternity. It seems then natural that I should now address a few words to the Members in a way which may reach them all, lest as we extend more widely, we should forget the first spirit of our institute, and lose in zeal what we gain in numbers. Our simple object is to make our dearest Lord better known and better loved; to have His Precious Blood worshipped with a more tender, affectionate, and thankful adoration; and to unite ourselves to the intentions of His Sacred Heart, the Fountain of that Blood, for the conversion of perishing sinners. Allow me, then, my dear friends and fellow-laborers, to say a few words to you in all love, to quicken your zeal and fervor, and to keep you true to one idea with which we were all unanimously possessed in the beginning of our undertaking.

2. The original idea of the Confraternity was, that it should be exclusively an association of prayer. No money collections were to be made in connection with it. No committees, or sub committees, or collectors were to be necessary or even possible in it. No external work of charity or benevolence was to be grafted upon it. For all these good ends there are already societies and confraternities, all of which may God abundantly bless and prosper! But we were to keep to prayer; we were to have an exclusively spiritual end, and we were jealously to exclude all other ends, lest they should at last come to swallow up our one solitary but dearly cherished practice of intercessory prayer. To introduce other practices into the Confraternity will be, not to extend its usefulness, but to destroy its primitive idea. I beg of you to keep close to this. Value nothing in the Confraternity so much as its simplicity, its undivided attention to the spirit of intercession and prayer. Thus you will avoid trespassing on the ground already well occupied by other holy Confraternities: you will keep clear of the little troubles and disquiets which the collecting of money even for pious purposes is sure to bring about; and you will be free also of the distractions which external works of active charity must necessarily gather round you.

Confraternities established for these ends have their special benediction, that these things should not harm them. We, remember, are blessed simply as an association of intercessory prayer. This is our work, our life, our specialty, our power.

3. The first practice which we took upon ourselves in our Friday meetings in London, was an engagement to choose three souls; first and foremost, some bad, non-practising Catholic; secondly, some heretic or unbeliever; and thirdly, some soul in purgatory: and to let the mercy of God have no rest from our importunity until He had answered our prayers, brought our bad Catholic to the Sacraments, and converted our unbeliever. We add to these two some soul in purgatory, in order that we might not lose heart, and intermit our prayers, if, for our sins or in His secret judgments, the Most High delayed or refused our petitions in the other cases; for we knew that our prayers for the Holy souls, delayed from the vision of God, would, if not infallibly, yet more readily be heard; for they, true spouses of Jesus, could themselves put no obstacle in the way. This was our first practice, and it em-bodied the whole spirit of our Confraternity.

4. Why should we so greatly value and esteem this spirit and this practice? Because, dear brethren, God has so remarkably blessed them. It is a very solemn thing to receive a special blessing from Almighty God. It is almost a frightening thing when He opens heaven and lets the light of His loving kindness shine visibly upon ourselves; it is frightening, from the very greatness of the consolation, and from the opposite consideration of our own unspeakable un worthiness. I assure you I have sometimes felt quite nervous, as week after week we were called upon to read, at the Friday meetings, the numerous letters recording the wonderful and speedy answers which God had vouchsafed to our prayers. They who have been in the habit of attending those meetings know well how seldom it is that a week passes over without some letter of this sort; and more often they range from six to a dozen. A Protestant lady who has been kind to Catholics in these unkind days, but who never exhibited any other leaning toward our holy religion, is prayed for at the Confraternity at the request of one whom she has benefited. This is on the Friday evening; on the Sunday afternoon she sends for a priest to her sick bed, and is reconciled to God. Again— a niece requests the prayers of the Confraternity for a sick aunt, who is lying insensible at the time. Shortly she awakens from her insensibility, asks for a priest, and has no sooner received the Sacraments than she becomes insensible again. These are but specimens of a large class of graces accorded to the prayers of the Confraternity; and it is observable, as if in sanction of the spirit with which we started, that by far the greater proportion of them are cases of the conversions of bad Catholics. Surely we ought to lay these things up in our hearts, and show our gratitude to God by increased diligence in a more joyful perseverance in prayer. Again I say, Let us be true to our first idea, and who shall say where the outpourings of God's mercies may end? Let us ask more and we shall receive more. Let us be bold in prayer, knowing assuredly that what we ask is nothing else than the burning desire of the loving heart of Jesus Himself, the conversion of sinners for whom He shed His precious Blood.

5. Some Branch Associations of our Confraternity have been established by several parish priests in their parishes. Nothing is necessary, in order that the members of these should enjoy the indulgences granted to our Confraternity, but that the names of the members should be sent here for enrolment. It is very much to be desired that the members of such associations should keep true to the end of the institute, and so not in any way interfere with the operation of other confraternities in their parish, that they may rather be a bond of peace than even a possible and innocent occasion of disunion. It need hardly be said that in such associations all the good works of the parish, and the intentions of the pastor, should be always included in the intentions of the prayers, as well as local scandals, if there be any. Neither should members of the Confraternity meet together at all without the knowledge and sanction of their pastors; but they should be not only ready, but anxious, to receive his suggestions, to put away their own lights for his, and go his road rather than their own. The prayers of the self-willed can have no benediction, except when grace moves such men to pray for their own conversion.

6. As some inquiries have been made as to the prayers used at the Friday meetings in London, it may be well to mention them here, not of course as a rule to others, but as a suggestion. We begin our meetings with the hymn " Daily, daily," p. 85 of the Oratory

Hymn Book: then follow the indulgenced offerings of the Precious Blood, p. 27 of the Confraternity Book; the notices, letters, requests for prayers and thanksgivings are then read, and these occupy sometimes a quarter of an hour. After this, seven Our Fathers and seven Hail Maries are said by the whole assembly for the intentions just read, each Our Father and Hail Mary being prefaced by the words, " In honor of the (First, Second, &c.) Blood Shedding." Another hymn is then sung; St. Philip's Converts, p. 95, or Hail, Holy Joseph, p. 35 of our Hymn Book. Then follows the sermon, on some subject connected with the Precious Blood, the mysteries of Jesus and Mary, the conversion of sinners, or an account of some famous confraternity or work of charity in Catholic countries, or some intelligence about the labors of missionaries, and the propagation of the faith. At the conclusion of the Sermon, the Hymn of the Precious Blood, p. 18, is sung, and the meeting concludes with one Our Father and Hail Mary for the sick, sorrowing, and absent members of the Confraternity. These meetings have been found, not only to keep up the spirit and fervor of the members, but to have been greatly blessed to their own sanctification and more frequent attendance on the sacraments. We have learned to value them very greatly as seasons of more than common grace.

7. And now having pointed out, to you especially who reside at a distance, what was the spirit and idea of our Confraternity at first, I may be allowed, dear brethren, to recommend an object to your notice, and for your future prayers, which I have long had greatly at heart. The Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass is the life of the Catholic Church, and the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is the earthly paradise of all her loving Children. Yet whose heart, if he but loves God, does not bleed over the sad ingratitude of men in these respects? What multitudes of poor Catholics are there among us who do not hear Mass even on days of obligation! What multitudes that hear it inattentively and indevoutly! What multitudes that for the least pretext stay away from benediction, because it is not of precept! Now, let us suppose that the seven thousand members of the Confraternity give themselves up to this work; let them besiege heaven with their prayers; let them remember it at mass, at communion, at rosary, at benediction, at examen of conscience, always and everywhere. Oh my dear friends! from what we know of God, and have experienced of His boundless compassion, is it an extravagance to believe that each member of the Confraternity may, by his prayers, at least win seven who now neglect to come to mass, and that within a year? And if so, what a work is this, — seven times seven thousand worshippers brought back to the foot of the altars of the Church! It is impossible to overrate the importance of this work. Those whose toil lies in the deep places of the Church, the crowded haunts of the English and Irish poor, know well, that in the Adorable Sacrifice is their only power; and that, if the people could be brought within the blessed sound of the mass-bell, the great work of conversion would be as good as done. Once more — why should not you, children and worshippers of the Precious

Blood! take this object upon yourselves as a great end of your prayers? You will pray: and God will touch the hearts of the neglectful, or He will raise up Confraternities and bands of visitors to go out and compel the people with an affectionate compulsion to come to this Blessed Sacrifice, or He will send missions here and there that shall do the work. You have simply to give yourselves to prayer. Meditate on this, and see if it be not an object worthy of your chief attention as members of the Confraternity. The Saints of God would have wept tears of holy bitterness over the multitudes who now neglect the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass.

8. But if we are to pray for others, we must first sanctify ourselves. If we are to make Jesus better known and better loved among men, we must know Him well, and love Him ardently ourselves. If we are to spread devotion to the Precious Blood, and bring many souls into its healing streams, it must be with our own souls ever glistening with fresh drops of constantly frequented Sacraments. My dear Brothers and Sisters! If you think what we are, and what God is, you will see that it is a solemn thing that has happened to you in the wonderful, and still more, (for it is not God's common way,) the quick answers to your prayers. God has not made use of you for nothing. He has but blessed you to-day that He may more abundantly bless you to-morrow. We have found a vein of gold in the Church of God: these early benedictions are, depend upon it, but the first fruits of what is yet to come, if we continue but to toil, with the utmost humility, and the lowliest opinion of ourselves, yet, with such bold confidence as humility alone can give, in this little vineyard of the Confraternity of the Precious Blood.

F. W. Faber,

Priest of the Oratory and Director of the

Confraternity.

The London Oratory, Feast of St. Ursula, 1853.

THF END.

INDEX.