January 2025 monthly theme in preparation for the Jubilee of the Families of the Precious Blood in Rome, July 1, 2025
Prepared by Sisters of the Precious Blood, Dayton – Ohio
In the Catholic Church, a Jubilee Year typically occurs once every 25 years, though the Pope can call for extraordinary jubilee years more often.
A Jubilee Year is a holy year of the forgiveness of sin, conversion and joyful celebration.
In tune with the universal Church, the family of the Precious Blood is following the Holy Father’s invitation to live this year of preparation for the Jubilee as a year of prayer. We long to live a period of prayer and reflection together to feel in communion, knowing that not all of us could physically be present in Rome on the celebratory days.
The program of spiritual preparation for the Jubilee will be from Dec. 2024 to July 2025, with each of the seven months a reflection of the seven blood sheddings of Christ.
The sweat of the Blood of Christ and the blood sweat of those who are exploited in dignity and work, oppressed, and burdened with responsibilities and obligations by dictatorships, criminal organizations, drug cartels, sex, and from pseudo-obligations deriving from the exasperation of forms of faith and culture.
Prayer Service: The Agony in the Garden Today: Human Trafficking
Reflection on the monthly theme
Information about the theme of human trafficking:
Please prepare for this prayer by reflecting on the information on the following websites:
Alliance to End Human Trafficking
A Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Introduction:
Today we pray with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus faced suffering and death. He was afraid. In our world many people, labor trafficked and sex trafficked, are in their own Agony, waking up each morning wondering what they will suffer, if they will survive the day. They, too, sweat blood. We pray with Jesus, who holds all trafficked people in his heart. Let us also hold these brothers and sisters in our hearts.
Opening Prayer:
Let us pray.
God of freedom, beauty and truth we believe that your deepest desire,
your most powerful energy, is that all creation might know abundant life.
We raise our voices in anguished prayer for our sisters and brothers,
women and girls, men and boys, who are modern day slaves;
They are your beloved daughters and sons, exploited sexually or forced to work
because of human violence and greed.
Fill us with your holy anger and your sacred passion
that those who are trafficked might know healing and justice;
that traffickers will come to repentance and conversion;
that all of us might live in such a way that others are not made to pay the price
for our comfort and convenience.
Hasten the coming of the day when all people and our precious Earth itself
will be treated, not as a commodity, but as radiant images of your freedom, beauty and truth.
Amen.
(Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth)
Scripture: Genesis 37:12-28 (Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery)
Video Reflection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Xt87TTCwI
Song- “Stay with Me” by Taize
Stay with me,
Remain here with Me,
Watch and pray,
Watch and pray.
Reflection: (either shared reflections or silent individual reflection)
What is your reaction to hearing this song (in context of human trafficking) and seeing contemporary images of human labor trafficking from around the world?
What is the reality of human labor trafficking in your country or community?
Scripture – Woman caught in adultery – John 8:3-11
Video Reflection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA89fS9nUYg
Song- Stay with Me by Taize
Stay with me,
Remain here with Me,
Watch and pray,
Watch and pray.
Reflection
What is your reaction to hearing this song (in context of human trafficking) and seeing contemporary images of human sex trafficking from around the world?
What is the reality of human sex trafficking, including forced child marriage, in your country or community?
Action item
What concrete initiative resonates with you today?
Intercessions:
Leader: For the estimated 27 million women, men and children currently held in slavery-like conditions.
R. Loosen the chains, O Lord; loosen the heavy chains!
L: For those exploited and objectified in the commercial sex industry. R.
L: For those forced to become soldiers, especially children who are made into tools for violence. R.
L: For those exploited for their labor in agricultural fields, factories, restaurants, private homes, or anywhere in the shadows, where they are out of sight. R.
L: For conversion of heart for the perpetrators and organizers of human trafficking. R.
L: For governments, corporations, and consumers, that we will address the systems that make human trafficking possible. R.
L: For the success of efforts to stop the demand for human trafficking. R.
(adapted from Out of the Darkness, USCCB, 2014 National Migration Week)
Closing prayer:
Let us pray: God of hope and freedom, inspire and strengthen us in our work to loosen the chains of human trafficking in our world. May those who sweat blood with Jesus today find liberation and healing in his resurrection, through Christ our Lord. All: Amen
Brief presentation of the religious family
The Sisters of the Precious Blood, Dayton, Ohio were founded in Switzerland in 1834 by Maria Anna Brunner, we are an active apostolic congregation devoted to Eucharistic prayer and motivated by the redeeming love of Jesus. Empowered by Eucharist, we minister where the needs of the time call us. Our Sisters minister in the United States, Chile and Guatemala. We rely on the special gifts and talents of each of our Sisters to advocate for justice; provide voices for the unheard, hope to the hopeless, and light to those living in darkness.