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Devotion to the Shoulder Wound of Christ

In remembrance of the hidden suffering borne beneath the weight of the Cross.

A Pious Tradition

St. Bernard and the unknown wound

A long-standing Catholic tradition relates that St. Bernard of Clairvaux asked Our Lord which suffering of His Passion had been the most painful yet least remembered. Christ answered that, while carrying the Cross on the way to Calvary, He bore upon His shoulder a grievous wound more painful than the others and little honored by men.

The account directs the faithful toward a truth proclaimed plainly in the Gospels: Jesus accepted the Cross and carried it for us. This devotion lingers over the suffering hidden beneath its crushing weight and answers that love with gratitude, repentance, and trust in His mercy.

A note on the tradition: the encounter is received as a pious tradition associated with St. Bernard, not as an event established by Scripture or as a formally authenticated private revelation. The prayer may be offered as a meditation on Christ's Passion without making the tradition an article of faith.

Devotional image of Christ's wounded shoulder beneath the burden of the Cross
“And bearing His own cross, He went forth to that place which is called Calvary.” — John 19:17

Pause before the wound that went unseen. Recall the weight Christ freely carried, make an act of contrition, and pray slowly.

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.

Collected for the faithful of The Layman's Lantern