Devotion to the Five Wounds of Christ

The Five Wounds of Our Lord — the two of the hands, the two of the feet, and that of the side opened by the soldier’s lance — are the indelible marks of the Passion, preserved on the glorified Body of Christ after the Resurrection as the definitive sign of redemptive love: «Put thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side» (Jn 20:27). The devotion to the Five Wounds goes back to the first Christian centuries, was profoundly cultivated by St Bernard of Clairvaux († 1153) in the Sermon on the Canticle of Canticles, by St Bonaventure († 1274) in the Vitis Mystica (ch. III) and in the Devotion of the Five Our Fathers for the Five Wounds, and culminated in the 13th century with the impression of the stigmata of Christ on the hands, feet and side of St Francis of Assisi on Mount Alverno, on 14 September 1224. This devotion, indulgenced since Innocent VI (14th century), continues to live especially among Franciscans and in Padre Pio († 1968, stigmatised for 50 years). It is prayed on Fridays, especially in Lent.

Lord Jesus Christ, who by your redemptive Passion willed to preserve forever, in your glorious Body, the Five Wounds as eternal sign of the love which you have for the Father and for us: I adore you today, prostrate in spirit before your Crucifix.

(At each Wound, recite an Our Father and meditate for a moment:)

I — The Wound of the right hand. I adore you, Lord, in the wound opened by the nail which pierced your right hand. By this Wound, forgive me the sins which I committed with my right hand — the evil works, the written words which wounded, the false oaths. Our Father.

II — The Wound of the left hand. I adore you in the wound opened by the nail which pierced your left hand. By this Wound, forgive me the sins of omission — the good I ought to have done and did not do, the alms refused, the help denied. Our Father.

III — The Wound of the right foot. I adore you in the wound opened by the nails which fastened your right foot. By this Wound, forgive me the evil paths on which I led my feet — the places of sin, the dangerous company, the flights from the house of the Father. Our Father.

IV — The Wound of the left foot. I adore you in the wound opened by the nails which fastened your left foot. By this Wound, lead me from now on along the paths that lead to you — the church, the house of the poor, the bed of the sick. Our Father.

V — The Wound of the side. I adore you above all in the wound of your Sacred Side, opened by the soldier’s lance, from which gushed forth «blood and water» (Jn 19:34) — fountain of the sacraments of the Church, especially of Baptism (water) and of the Eucharist (blood). By this Wound, hide me — according to the Anima Christi: «intra tua vulnera absconde me» — hide me within your wounds. Our Father.

Blood and water that gushed from the Heart of Jesus as fountain of mercy for us, I trust in you (cf. devotion of Divine Mercy, already in To the Saints).

Amen.