I am blessed to have a devout co-worker to talk about our Catholic faith often. Yesterday he was telling me about a dream he had two nights ago where a Saint appeared to him and told him to look for what he called a forgotten prayer. He knew in the dream the Saint was St. Bernard but he did not know anything about him. He looked today and found this saint and his prayer and I just wanted to pass it on in case you did not know it because it seems to be quite the powerful prayer! "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." According to St. Bernard, he asked Jesus which was His greatest unrecorded suffering and the wound that inflicted the most pain on Him in Calvary and Jesus answered: "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. 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."[3] The modern version of the prayer bears the imprimatur of Bishop Thomas D. Bevan According to Marie-Julie Jahenny(1850-1941), also known as "The Breton Stigmatist", Christ granted additional promises and graces to those who venerated this wound and spread the devotion.[5] A list of the promises in Christ's own words according to the visions of Marie-Julie: 1) “I will bless all the souls who propagate this devotion: I grant them abundant graces.” (March 29, 1878) 2) “O souls who love Me, who propagate this devotion, I take you under My protection, I keep you under the mantle of My affection.” (March 29, 1878) 3) “I will dispel the darkness that will come in their hearts.” (December 28, 1877) 4) “I will console them in their pains.” “I will come in the midst of their greatest afflictions, to enlighten, to comfort them.” (February 8, 1878) (December 28, 1877, February 8, and April 12, 1878) 5) “I will come to bless them in their undertakings.” (March 29, 1878) 6) “I will give them a tender love for the Cross. I will come to assist them at the time of death with this cross and I will introduce them into My Heavenly Kingdom.” (April, 12 1878) 7) “I will sweeten their agony.” (December 28, 1877) “I will come at the hour of death. I will console them in their passage.” (February 8, 1878) “Especially at the hour of death, I will come to give them a sweet moment of calm and tranquillity. I will tell them: ‘O good holy soul, who has spread this devotion that I had so much at heart that it be made known, come to receive the reward of your labours, the fruit of blessing.” (March 29, 1878) 8) “I will shelter them, I will assist them, I will console all the souls that seek to propagate this Sacred Wound. At the time of death, I will console the souls that have compensated Me by their devotion and compassion to the Wound so deep and painful. I will come to strengthen them in their final fears. I will come and prepare their passage: Thank you, you who have compensated Me for My Pains.” (May 17, 1878) 9) “See,” Jesus said, pointing to His Wound with extreme tenderness, “all My children who have recognized this Wound, who have venerated It, have prayed to It, will have on the Last Day a great and generous reward. I do not simply show it, I pronounce it. My Word is Divine.” (May 1878) (Note promise number 2, Our Lord said, “O souls who love Me,”. We must remember that those who love Him keep His commandments.) Meditations we should reflect on while venerating the Holy Wound on His Shoulder: 1) The infinite generosity of Our Lord Jesus Christ for having willingly taken upon Himself our iniquities. (March 29, 1878) 2) His immense goodness in promising to carry our thankless sins on the road to Calvary. (December 28, 1878) He was overwhelmed, even to succumbing to the painful falls on the Way of the Cross. (February 8, 1878) 3) Marie-Julie: “Lord, it is our sins that You carry on this bloody and bruised Shoulder. It is our sins that make you suffer great incomprehensible pains as large as the sea. They are our sins that tore Your Sacred Flesh, which turned the Cross crimson.” 4) The infinite tenderness with which Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered this cruel Wound, which shows how heavy are our iniquities. Sympathize with this immense pain, so little known on earth. (December 28, 1877) 5) Our Lord invites us to contemplate the Wound so deep and painful, in which we have all participated. Ask for repentance and tears, gratitude and love. (February 8, 1878) It is there that our sins were drowned. Marie-Julie: “When I see the blood that bathes the Cross, when I see it driven into this Wound, ah! Enormous weight of the Cross, how you make our Redeemer suffer! I can still see the Blood of my Divine king, marked on the paving stones of Jerusalem. Who would dare complain after such a love of Jesus crucified!” (May 17, 1878) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_to_the_shoulder_wound_of_Jesus
Padre Pio’s Secret: His Shoulder Wound St. Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) Shortly after World War II was over, a young Polish priest who was studying in Rome, Fr. Karol Wojtyla, visited Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo. This encounter took place around 1947 or 1948. The young priest spent almost a week in San Giovanni Rotondo during his visit, and was able to attend Padre Pio’s Mass and make his confession to the saint (who died in 1968, and was canonized in 2002). Apparently, this was not just a casual encounter, and the two spoke together at length during Fr. Wojtyla’s stay. Their conversations gave rise to rumors in later years, after the Polish prelate had been elevated to the Papacy, that Padre Pio had told him he would become Pope. The story persists to the present day, even though on two or three occasions "Papa Wojtyla" denied it. Recently, new information about this visit has come to light, according to a new book in Italian published by Padre Pio’s Friary, Il Papa e Il Frate, written by Stefano Campanella. As reported in this book, the future Pope and future Saint had a very interesting conversation. During this exchange, Fr. Wojtyla asked Padre Pio which of his wounds caused the greatest suffering. The priest expected Padre Pio to say it was his chest wound, but instead the Padre replied, "It is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated." Centuries earlier, Our Lord himself had revealed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux in a vision, that his shoulder wound from carrying the heavy wooden cross caused him his greatest suffering, and that the cross tore into his flesh right up to the shoulder bone. At one time, Padre had confided to Brother Modestino Fucci that his greatest pains occurred when he changed his undershirt. (Brother Modestino is currently the doorkeeper at Padre Pio’s friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.) Modestino, like Fr. Wojtyla, thought Padre Pio was referring to pains from the chest wound. Then, on February 4, 1971 Modestino was assigned the task of taking an inventory of all the items in the deceased Padre’s cell in the friary, and also his belongings in the archives. That day he discovered that one of Padre Pio’s undershirts bore a circle of bloodstains in the area of the right shoulder. On that very evening, Brother Modestino asked Padre Pio in prayer to enlighten him about the meaning of the bloodstained undershirt. He asked Padre to give him a sign if he truly bore Christ’s shoulder wound. Then he went to sleep, awakening at 1:00 AM with a terrible, excruciating pain in his shoulder, as if he had been sliced with a knife up to the shoulder bone. He felt that he would die from the pain if it continued, but it lasted only a short time. Then the room became filled with the aroma of a heavenly perfume of flowers – the sign of Padre Pio’s spiritual presence – and he heard a voice saying "This is what I had to suffer!" What is the mystical and spiritual significance of the shoulder wound of St. Padre Pio? The book by journalist Saverio Gaeta, Sulla Soglia del Paradiso (2), reports that Padre Pio said this of his spiritual children: "When the Lord entrusts a soul to me, I place it on my shoulder and never let it go." From this statement, it can reasonably be inferred that the saint offered up the suffering and the extreme pain of his shoulder wound for his spiritual children. Frank M. Rega
