«THE JUST WRATH OF THE CREATOR». – Hymn of Matins on the feast of the Most Precious Blood, composed and inserted into the Breviary under Pius IX.
The efficacy of Christ’s blood, which has washed the world clean of the stains of sin, is immense. Divine wrath punished the transgression of all humanity with the flood; God’s mercy has saved the world through the blood of His Son. Watered by this blood, the earth will yield no more thorns, but flowers, and bitterness will be turned into infinite sweetness. The Lord has freed His servant.
BIBL.: G. G. Belli, Gli inni del Breviario tradotti, Roma 1856, pp. 460-61; V. Terreno, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Mondovì 1932, pp. 224-25; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Napoli 1947, p. 147.