THE MIRACULOUS WOUND.

As a price for our sins Jesus Christ suffered greatly and in His suffering He had five wounds inflicted on His holy body. Most Catholics know this wounds but only a few are familiar with his shoulder wound.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux prayed and asked of Christ what was his greatest unknown suffering, and what wound suffered in His Passion was most painful. Christ replied to 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.”

Our Lord had to walk for three miles from Pilate courtyard to his crucification point. The cross dug through His shoulder ripping flesh from bone. After this conversation of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and our Lord, Christ Himself asked the faithful community keep a devotion to His shoulder wound and promised that those who do will receive God's grace. 

“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.”

Saint Bernard heeded Christ's call and composed a prayer in honor of His shoulder wound and he became the first not only to know about this holy wound but also to venerate it.

Saint Padre Pio also had a strong veneration to this holy wound and also suffered this same wound as a stigmata. When Father Wojtyła future Pope and saint visited him, he asked him of his most painful wound, Padre Pio replied;

“It is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated.”

Brother Modestino Fucci who used to think that Padre Pio greatest wound was his chest wound was assigned the task of inventorying all the items inside the cell of the late Padre Pio, he noticed his undershirts had blood stains on the right shoulder. That night, Brother Fucci prayed asking Padre Pio for a sign if he truly bore the shoulder wound of Christ. At 1 A.M., he awoke with an excruciating pain in his right shoulder and the room was filled with the aroma of flowers, the sign Padre Pio’s spiritual presence, and he heard a voice call out: “This is what I had to suffer!”

So even though the Bible makes no mention of this wound, the Saints tell us that Jesus suffered from it immensely.

The Shroud of Turin also shows the existence of this holy wound. Four university professors published an article in “Injury” magazine revealing that the crucified man that was wrapped in the Turin Shroud suffered a dislocation of the humerus, the paralysis of one arm, and a violent trauma to the neck and chest.

...The person whose figure is imprinted on the Shroud is believed to have collapsed under the weight of the cross, or “patibulum” as it is referred to in the study, the horizontal part of the cross. The Man of the Shroud the academics explain, fell “forwards” and suffered a “violent” knock” “while falling to the ground.” “Neck and shoulder muscle paralysis” was “caused by a heavy object hitting the back between the neck and shoulder and causing displacement of the head from the side opposite to the shoulder depression...

...At this point, it would have been impossible for the cross-bearer to go on holding it and this brings to mind the passage in the Gospel which describes how the soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to pick up Jesus’ cross. Not an act of compassion, therefore, but of necessity...

This is the beautiful prayer, one that I encourage you to pray and venerate.

PRAYER TO THE SHOULDER WOUND OF JESUS:

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.