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Isaias
53:3-5: "Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with infirmity: and His look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon
we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our
sorrows: and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by
God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised
for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by His bruises
we are healed."
John 20:27-28: "Then He saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see
My Hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into My side; and be not
faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and said to Him: My Lord, and
my God."
Because of His Wounds, because His Sacred, Precious Blood was spilt, you
have the opportunity to see the Face of God. That's Christianity in a nutshell,
something that every Christian knows, but too few truly ponder enough. Of
course, we Catholics have always meditated on Christ's Passion -- each Mass
is a re-presentation of His Sacrifice, and, in addition, the
Stations of the Cross is a standard Lenten devotion,
and the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary remind us of what He went through
for us. But we also have another devotion available to us, one that helps
us meditate more concretely on His sufferings: devotion to His Five Sacred
Wounds.
Private revelation to St. Bridget of Sweden indicated that all the wounds
Our Lord suffered added up to 5,480
1. She began to pray 15 prayers each
day in honor of each of these wounds, their total after a year being 5,475;
these "Fifteen Prayers of St. Bridget
of Sweden" are still prayed today. Likewise, in Southern Germany, it
became the practice to pray 15 Our Fathers a day in honor of Christ's wounds
so that by the end of a year, 5,475 Paters were prayed.
The five main wounds He suffered, though -- the wound in each Foot, the wound
in each Hand, and the wound in His side caused by St. Longinus's lance --
are symbolic of all the wounds, and special devotion to them arose very early
on. St. John the Divine is said to have appeared to Pope Boniface II (d.
A.D. 532) and revealed a special Mass -- the "Golden Mass" -- in honor of
Christ's Five Wounds, and it is the effect of these Five Wounds that are
most often produced in the bodies of the men and women who imitate Him best
-- the stigmatics. St. Francis being the first of these, his spiritual daughter,
St. Clare, developed a strong devotion to the Five Wounds, as did the Benedictine
St. Gertrude the Great, and others.
Honor is shown to these Sacred Wounds in many small ways, too -- from the
5 grains of incense inserted into the Paschal Candle,
to the custom of dedicating each Pater said in the body of the
Dominican Rosary to one of the Five Wounds. They
are symbolized in art by the Jerusalem Cross, 5 circles on a Cross, 5 roses,
and the 5-pointed star, and they are seen as symbolized by many things in
nature -- from the stamens of the Passion
Flower (above), the 5 seeds found in the almost perfect 5-pointed star
in a cross-sectioned apple, to the Sand
Dollar. And there are special prayers to honor them, too.
Prayer in Honor of the Five Wounds
Act of Contrition
As I kneel before Thee on the cross, most loving Saviour of my soul, my
conscience reproaches me with having nailed Thee to that cross with these
hands of mine, as often as I have fallen into mortal sin, wearying Thee with
my base ingratitude. My God, my chief and perfect good, worthy of all my
love, because Thou hast loaded me with blessings; I cannot now undo my misdeeds,
as I would most willingly; but I loathe them, grieving sincerely for having
offended Thee, Who art infinite goodness. And now, kneeling at Thy feet,
I try, at least, to compassionate Thee, to give Thee thanks, to ask Thee
pardon and contrition; wherefore with my heart and lips, I say:
To the Wound of the Left Foot
Holy wound of the left foot of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate Thee,
O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I thank Thee for
the love whereby Thou laboured to overtake me on the way to ruin, and didst
bleed amid the thorns and brambles of my sins. I offer to the Eternal Father
the pain and love of Thy most holy humanity, in atonement for my sins, all
of which I detest with sincere and bitter contrition.
Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Right Foot
Holy wound of the right foot of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate Thee,
O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I thank Thee for
that love which pierced Thee with such torture and shedding of blood, in
order to punish my wanderings and the guilty pleasures I have granted to
my unbridled passions. I offer the Eternal Father all the pain and love of
Thy most holy humanity, and I pray Thee for grace to weep over my sins with
hot tears, and to enable me to persevere in the good which I have begun,
without ever swerving again from my obedience to the divine commands.
Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Left Hand
Holy wound of the left hand of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate Thee,
O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I thank Thee for
having in Thy love spared me the scourges and eternal damnation which my
sins have merited. I offer to the Eternal Father the pain and love of They
most holy humanity: and I pray Thee to teach me how to turn to good account
my span of life, and bring forth in it worthy fruits of penance, and to disarm
the justice of God, which I have provoked.
Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Right Hand
Holy wound of the right hand of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate Thee,
O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I thank Thee for
Thy graces lavished on me with such love, in spite of all my most perverse
obstinacy. I offer to the Eternal Father all the pain and love of Thy most
holy humanity; and I pray Thee to change my heart and its affections, and
make me do all my actions in accordance with the will of God.
Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Sacred Side
Holy wound in the side of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate Thee, O
Jesus, for the cruel insult Thou didst suffer. I thank Thee, my Jesus, for
the love which suffered Thy side and Heart to be pierced, so that the last
drops of blood and water might issue forth, making my redemption to overflow.
I offer to the Eternal Father this outrage, and the love of Thy most holy
humanity, that my soul may enter once for all into that most loving Heart,
eager and ready to receive the greatest sinners, and never more depart.
Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
Chaplet of the Five Wounds
This chaplet, approved
by the Holy See on 11 August 1823 (coincidentally, the anniversary of St.
Clare's death), consists of five groups of five beads -- each group representing
one of the Five Wounds. The first group of beads honors the Wound on His
left foot; the second, the Wound on His right foot; the third, the Wound
on His left Hand; the fourth, the wound on His right Hand; and the fifth,
the Wound in His Side. Sometimes a medal will be attached depicting Our Lord's
Wounds on one side, and His Sorrowful Mother on the other.
While meditating on the appropriate Wound at each group, one Gloria is said
on each bead, and between the groups, an Ave is said in honor of Mary's sorrows.
The Blessing of the Beads used to count these prayers is reserved to the
Passionist Order.
Footnote:
1 Note that the number of wounds was so great
because the flagellum (picture at right) used by the Romans had from three
to twelve "tails," each tail embedded repeatedly with bone, iron, or glass
intended to rip flesh. With a 12-tail flagellum, 40 strokes would give one
480 wounds if each tail only caused one wound with each stroke. In
reality, though, each "tail" would cause many, many times more wounds per
stroke, depending on how much bone or iron, etc., was embedded in each strap.
In addition to the wounds caused by the scourge, there were the wounds caused
by each thorn in the the crown of thorns.
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