Hidden wounds...

   The inspiration for the title of this blog comes from a meditation by St. Bernard of Clairvaux which I was introduced to by a friend who I'll call the "spiritual godmother" of this blog. This meditation has focused a lot of the thoughts and prayers which have sustained me in the midst of my recent personal crisis.
   St. Bernard is said to have asked Jesus what his greatest unrecorded suffering and the wound that caused the most pain upon the cross. He received the reply, "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." A hidden wound... one that I have always overlooked. This wound, the wound of carrying his cross and bearing the weight of the world is rarely depicted in the figures of Jesus passion upon the cross or upon the resurrected body of our Lord.
   We all bear hidden wounds-- wounds that we hide from the world, and wounds that even, at times, we hide from ourselves. In asking the Lord to reveal his hidden wound, we are shown once again how deeply he loves us as his own beloved sons and daughters. We find yet again how precious the trail we follow when we take up his cross and follow him (cf Matt 16: 24-26). We find how his love is anticipated in our lives before we recognize even the need for his grace and mercy. We find the courage to find and expose our own hidden wounds to him for the healing that only he can give.
   The reply to Bernard continues: "Honor this wound with thy devotion and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit and in regard to all those who shall venerate this wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins and will no longer remember their mortal sins."   And so, my discussions here are intended to not only be an apostolic outlet and a mode of healing in my own life and ministry, but a way of venerating this most precious wound that caused our savior to suffer so. My readers are invited to stand with me at the foot of the cross and to look at how God reveals his love for us, even in what is hidden and yet to be discovered.
   And so, a prayer, often attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
O loving Jesus, meek Lamb of God, I, a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of your shoulder on which you beared your heavy cross, which so tore your flesh and laid bare your bones as to inflict on you an anguish greater than any other wound of your most blessed body. I adore you, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify you and give you thanks for this most sacred and painful wound, begging you by that exceeding pain and by the crushing burden of your 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 your Cross. Amen.