Det er 50 år siden dette brevet kom ut, og jeg har jobbet litt med det de siste dagene. (Dessverre forsvant messen paven viser til her i 1970, og litaniet til Jesu dyrebare blod er vel heller ikke brukt.) Slik skriver han først om ulike forhetsøvelser som magisteriet alltid på oppmuntre de troende til å legge vekt på:
Now among the cares of our pastoral office, venerable brethren, we are convinced that, second only to vigilance over sound doctrine, preference belongs to the proper surveillance and development of piety, in both its liturgical and private expressions. With that in mind, we judge it most timely to call our beloved children’s attention to the unbreakable bond which must exist between the devotions to the Most Holy Name and Most Sacred Heart of Jesus — already so widespread among Christians — and devotion to the incarnate Word’s Most Precious Blood, «shed for many, to the remission of sins.»
It is supremely important that the Church’s liturgy fully conform to Catholic belief («the law for prayer is the law for faith»), and that only those devotional forms be sanctioned which well up from the unsullied springs of true faith. But the same logic calls for complete accord among different devotions. Those deemed more basic and more conducive to holiness must not be at odds with or cut off from one another. And the more individualistic and secondary ones must give way in popularity and practice to those devotions which more effectively actuate the fullness of salvation wrought by the «one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is a man, like them, and gave himself as a ransom for them all.»
Han skriver så om hvordan markeringen av Jesu dyrebare blod har utviklet seg:
… the devotion to the Most Precious Blood, which owes its marvellous diffusion to the 19th-century Ro man priest, St. Gaspar del Bufalo, has rightly merited the approval and backing of this Apostolic See. We may recall that by order of Benedict XIV the Mass and Office in honour of the divine Saviour’s adorable Blood were composed. And to fulfill a vow made at Gaeta Pius IX extended the feast to the whole Church. Finally, as a commemoration of the nineteenth centenary of our redemption, Pius XI of happy memory raised this feast to the rank of first-class double, so that the greater liturgical splendour would highlight the devotion and bring to men more abundant fruits of the re deeming Blood.
Following our predecessors’ example we have taken further steps to promote the devotion to the Precious Blood of the unblemished Lamb, Jesus Christ. We have approved the Litany of the Precious Blood drawn up by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and through special indulgences have encouraged its public and private recitation throughout the Catholic world.
Hele dette apostolisk brevet kan leses her.