Shoulder Wound of Christ: Saint Bernard

     

Prayer to the Wound on the Shoulder of Christand
Splinters from the Cross 

http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/holy-wounds3.htm

+  +  +  +  +

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
It is related in the annals of Clairvaux that St. Bernard asked Our Lord which was His greatest unrecorded suffering, and He 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.  Honour this Wound with thy devotion, and I will grant thee whatsoever thou does 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"
Prayer to the Shoulder Wound of Christ:

Most 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 The 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.³

(Imprimatur: +Thomas D. Beven, Bishop of Springfield.)

SPLINTERS FROM THE CROSS 

Little headaches, little heartaches 

Little griefs of every day, 

Little trials and vexations, 

How they throng around our way! 

One great Cross, immense and heavy, 

So it seems to our weak will, 

Might be borne with resignation, 

But these many small ones kill, 

Yet all life is formed of small things, 

Little leaves, make up the trees, 

Many tiny drops of water 

Blending, make the mighty seas. 

Let us not then by impatience 

Mar the beauty of the whole, 

But for love of Jesus bear all 

In the silence of our soul. 

Asking Him for grace sufficient 

To sustain us through each loss, 

And to treasure each small offering 

As a splinter from His Cross. 

http://home.earthlink.net/~mysticalrose/index.html