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.

It is related in the annals of Clairvaux that St. Bernard asked Our Lord Jesus which was His greatest unrecorded suffering and Our Lord 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 regarding all those who shall venerate this Wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins and will no longer remember their mortal sins."

➕Imprimatur: Thomas Daniel Beaven, Bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina venerated the shoulder wound of Jesus and bore it himself as a stigmata.

Interestingly according to Stefano Campanella, author of "Il papa e il frate" (The Pope and the Friar), Karol Wojtyła (the future Pope John Paul II), while still a priest, visited Padre Pio and asked the question of which was his most painful wound – much like the manner Bernard did to Christ. Wojtyła expected that it was Pio's chest wound, but Pio replied: "It is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated".