PHhardcorepoetry
Established
The Miraculous Story Behind the Shoulder Wound of Jesus ✝
During His Passion, Jesus suffered terrible pain for the sins of the world. Catholics often remember the crown of thorns, the scourging at the pillar, and the Five Holy Wounds. But there is another wound that many people have never heard about.
It is the shoulder wound of Christ.
Tradition says that as Jesus carried the Cross from Pontius Pilate’s courtyard to Calvary, the heavy wood pressed deeply into His shoulder. The weight and rough surface tore into His flesh as He walked the Way of the Cross.
A pious tradition tells that Bernard of Clairvaux once prayed and asked Christ which suffering during the Passion had caused Him the greatest pain but was least known by people.
Christ answered him:
“I had on My Shoulder while I bore My Cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grievous Wound which was more painful than the others, and which is not recorded by men.”
According to this devotion, Jesus asked that the faithful honor this wound with prayer and love. He also gave this promise:
“Honor this Wound with thy devotion, and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit. And in regard to all those who shall venerate this Wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins, and will no longer remember their mortal sins.”
In response, Saint Bernard wrote a prayer honoring the wound of Christ’s shoulder:
“O Loving Jesus, Meek Lamb of God, I, a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Thy Shoulder on which Thou didst bear Thy heavy Cross, which so tore Thy Flesh and laid bare Thy Bones as to inflict on Thee an anguish greater than any other wound of Thy Most Blessed Body. I adore Thee, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify Thee and give Thee thanks for this most sacred and painful Wound, beseeching Thee by that exceeding pain and by the crushing burden of Thy heavy Cross, to be merciful to me, a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins and to lead me on towards Heaven along the Way of Thy Cross. Amen.”
Centuries later, the devotion appeared again in a surprising way through Padre Pio.
When John Paul II was still a young priest named Father Wojtyła, he once asked Padre Pio which of his stigmata wounds caused him the most pain. Many assumed it was the wound in his side.
But Padre Pio answered:
“It is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated.”
After Padre Pio died, a friar named Brother Modestino Fucci was asked to inventory the saint’s belongings in his cell at San Giovanni Rotondo. While examining Padre Pio’s undershirts, he noticed something strange.
They were stained with blood on the right shoulder.
That night Brother Modestino prayed and asked Padre Pio for a sign if the story was true. Around 1 a.m., he woke with intense pain in his right shoulder. The room filled with the scent of flowers, a sign many associated with Padre Pio’s presence. Then he heard a voice say:
“This is what I had to suffer!”
For centuries, Christians have reflected on the wounds of Christ as signs of His love for us. Yet this hidden shoulder wound reminds us that much of His suffering went unseen and unrecorded.
If Jesus endured pain like that for our salvation, what does it say about how seriously we take His sacrifice today?
Before today, had you ever heard about the shoulder wound of Jesus?
During His Passion, Jesus suffered terrible pain for the sins of the world. Catholics often remember the crown of thorns, the scourging at the pillar, and the Five Holy Wounds. But there is another wound that many people have never heard about.
It is the shoulder wound of Christ.
Tradition says that as Jesus carried the Cross from Pontius Pilate’s courtyard to Calvary, the heavy wood pressed deeply into His shoulder. The weight and rough surface tore into His flesh as He walked the Way of the Cross.
A pious tradition tells that Bernard of Clairvaux once prayed and asked Christ which suffering during the Passion had caused Him the greatest pain but was least known by people.
Christ answered him:
“I had on My Shoulder while I bore My Cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grievous Wound which was more painful than the others, and which is not recorded by men.”
According to this devotion, Jesus asked that the faithful honor this wound with prayer and love. He also gave this promise:
“Honor this Wound with thy devotion, and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit. And in regard to all those who shall venerate this Wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins, and will no longer remember their mortal sins.”
In response, Saint Bernard wrote a prayer honoring the wound of Christ’s shoulder:
“O Loving Jesus, Meek Lamb of God, I, a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Thy Shoulder on which Thou didst bear Thy heavy Cross, which so tore Thy Flesh and laid bare Thy Bones as to inflict on Thee an anguish greater than any other wound of Thy Most Blessed Body. I adore Thee, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify Thee and give Thee thanks for this most sacred and painful Wound, beseeching Thee by that exceeding pain and by the crushing burden of Thy heavy Cross, to be merciful to me, a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins and to lead me on towards Heaven along the Way of Thy Cross. Amen.”
Centuries later, the devotion appeared again in a surprising way through Padre Pio.
When John Paul II was still a young priest named Father Wojtyła, he once asked Padre Pio which of his stigmata wounds caused him the most pain. Many assumed it was the wound in his side.
But Padre Pio answered:
“It is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated.”
After Padre Pio died, a friar named Brother Modestino Fucci was asked to inventory the saint’s belongings in his cell at San Giovanni Rotondo. While examining Padre Pio’s undershirts, he noticed something strange.
They were stained with blood on the right shoulder.
That night Brother Modestino prayed and asked Padre Pio for a sign if the story was true. Around 1 a.m., he woke with intense pain in his right shoulder. The room filled with the scent of flowers, a sign many associated with Padre Pio’s presence. Then he heard a voice say:
“This is what I had to suffer!”
For centuries, Christians have reflected on the wounds of Christ as signs of His love for us. Yet this hidden shoulder wound reminds us that much of His suffering went unseen and unrecorded.
If Jesus endured pain like that for our salvation, what does it say about how seriously we take His sacrifice today?
Before today, had you ever heard about the shoulder wound of Jesus?