Christ’s Hidden Wounds
Meditating on the Wounds of Christ has led me to desire to console His suffering Heart. The Five Wounds of Christ are the Wounds in each of His hands, His feet, and the Wound in His Side. As I have contemplated His physical wounds and prayed to unite my suffering with His, I have pondered His interior emotional and spiritual suffering as well.
So much of my suffering has been hidden even from those closest to me because it is the pain I feel deep within my heart. Christ suffers His own heartaches and He suffers our heart wounds too. His Most Sacred and Eucharistic Heart is heavy with sorrows and burning with the fire of unrequited Love. He aches to pour His Love into souls yet so many reject Him and close the doors of their hearts to His Love and Mercy.
I desire to console the aching Heart of my Divine Bridegroom by sitting with Him in His suffering, showing Him compassion, just as He has been compassionate to me. And I believe that by opening my aching heart more and more to His outpouring of Love, I may ease a little of His ache to love and be loved as He deserves.
The following reflections on Christ the Bridegroom’s Five Hidden Wounds have grown out of my personal prayer and reflection. I pray that pondering these hidden sufferings of our Lord’s Heart will lead you to desire to console Him and to be not afraid to open ever-wider the door of your heart to His Most Compassionate and Merciful Love.
Reflections on the 5 Hidden Wounds of Christ the Bridegroom
by Laura Ercolino
These five reflections can be prayed as a Rosary or by praying three Hail Marys after each reflection.
Mary, Mystical Rose of God, please enfold me in your heavenly mantle, shining with the stars, and pray with and for me. Gather my prayers in your Immaculate Heart, perfecting my gift of love before handing it to your precious Son and my Bridegroom, Jesus. Amen.
The First Hidden Wound: As Jesus entered into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna”, He had foreknowledge that in only a few days the crowd would be shouting, “Crucify Him!” Oh, my sweet Jesus, may I sing Hosanna in the Highest with my whole heart, soul and voice. May my Hosannas be true praise… consoling Your aching Heart and easing the sorrow caused by the hollow Hosannas of the crowd that day in Jerusalem.
The Second Hidden Wound: At the Last Supper as Jesus instituted the priesthood, He suffered heartache as He had foreknowledge of all the betrayals, infidelities, and abuses His priests throughout the ages would commit. What sorrow and disappointment must have filled His Heart as He thought of so many of His beloved spouses choosing to be unfaithful to their covenant with Him, the Bridegroom, and His Bride the Church. Oh, my sweet Jesus, I pray for Your priests and I offer my love and devotion as a small consolation for those who have betrayed Your gift of the priesthood with their infidelity.
The Third Hidden Wound: At the Last Supper as Jesus instituted The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the foreknowledge of how His gift of love would be rejected, blasphemed, desecrated and worst of all received with ingratitude and indifference filled His Sacred and Eucharistic Heart with intense suffering. Oh my sweet Jesus, I desire the grace necessary to see with the eyes of my heart Your True Presence in the Eucharist so that I may never receive You with ingratitude or indifference. May I never cause Your Most Sacred and Eucharistic Heart any sorrow.
The Fourth Hidden Wound: After being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was placed in a pit, His hands chained to the ground. He spent that long dark night in isolation, bearing the weight of the loneliness and fear of every soul. We never have to suffer our isolation and darkness alone for He has already suffered for us and with us. Oh my sweet Jesus, may my prayers console You in that night of darkness and loneliness. May I stay with You, Lord, in Your loneliness as You have stayed with me in mine.
The Fifth Hidden Wound: Jesus told Saint Faustina that at His scourging He suffered greater interior pain, greater heartache than the physical pain, for the sins of impurity. Not only did He suffer as reparation for those sins but He endured the pain, heartache, and sorrow of all victims of sins of impurity. Oh my sweet Jesus, guard the purity of my heart and mind and teach me true chastity so that I may console You in all Your sufferings during the scourging.
O Gentle Jesus, I offer You my love and prayers as a fragrant soothing balm to console Your Most Compassionate Heart which suffers unceasingly the fire of unrequited Love and the thorns of rejection and betrayal. May all souls fall in love with You, their true Bridegroom, so You may at last be loved as You deserve and Your sufferings come to an end. My Jesus, I love You. Amen.
Click here to download a pdf version of the 5 Hidden Wounds of Christ.
Copyright 2021, Laura Ercolino
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Dear Laura, your poignant meditation cut deeply into my soul this morning. The image of Jesus chained in a lonely dark pit and the imagery of the crown of thorns, each thorn stabbing his gentle head and face feels so real to me. It is a very lonely, almost sickening feeling to carry around such deep pains of wounds and hurts that you know you cannot share with another human being . But for Jesus, your reflection tells me I can go be with him in the pit, wipe a drop of blood out of his eye, pray and realize that HE KNOWS these deepest pains and HE comforts me as I try to comfort Him.