O beloved Jesus, Lamb of God, I, a poor sinner, salute and adore the sacred wound in your shoulder.
According to a tradition recorded in the annals of the Abbey of Clairvaux, Saint Bernard once asked the Lord Jesus which wound had caused him the most pain and had never been mentioned.
The Lord answered him: “It is the wound in my shoulder. When I carried the cross on the way of the Passion, the cross made a deep wound
that hurt me more than all my other wounds, and it has not been spoken of…” And Jesus asked the saint to honour this wound, promising graces through its merits to those devoted to it.
Saint Bernard saw this vision and promise as further proof of Jesus’ infinite mercy, and, absorbed in meditation, he poured out this prayer:
O beloved Jesus, Lamb of God, I, a poor sinner, salute and adore the sacred wound in your shoulder,
the shoulder that bore the heavy cross, which tore your flesh and laid bare your bones, causing you more pain than all the other wounds of your body.
O Jesus, who suffered so much, I glorify you, I praise you and I thank you for this sacred and painful wound,
begging you, through these most bitter sufferings and through your very heavy cross, to have mercy on me, a sinner,
to forgive my mortal and venial sins, and to lead me to heaven along the way of your cross. Amen.
