The Sacred Wound of Our Lord's Shoulder
Forensic Evaluation of the Carrying of the Cross
The soldiers tear the purple robe from Him, which has already stuck to
His Wounds. The blood starts to flow once more; He gives a great shudder. They replace
His own clothes, which become stained with red. The Cross is ready, they place
It on His Shoulders. By what Miracle of strength
does He remain standing beneath Its burden? It is not in fact, the whole
Cross, but only the great horizontal beam, which He must carry to
Golgotha, but still it weighs nearly 125 pounds. The vertical is already
planted on Calvary.
A view of the Dorsal (Back) area of the Holy Shroud, with Jesus' Head to the right of the screen and His feet to the left.
There are on the Shroud clear traces of Excoriation
on the back and the knees. The right knee seems to be more contused, and shows in the region of the
Patella a number of Excoriation
which vary in size and shape, and have jagged edges. A little above and on the outer side, there are Two
round wounds, about a centimeter in diameter. The left knee also shows various contused wounds, but they
are less evident and less numerous.
 It is specially in the above Dorsal Image of the Shroud that we find
marks of the carrying of the Cross. On the Right Shoulder, in the outer part of the
Sub-Scapular Region, there is a broad
Excoriation area, which is in the form of a rectangle of about 10 x 9 centimeters.
One can also see in the frontal image that this area extends forwards into the
Outer Clavicular Region with broad patches of Excoriation.
The area at the back seems to be made up of an accumulation of Excoriation.
They are superimposed on the numerous wounds of the Flagellation, which seem to be as if it were
bruised and widened by them, when compared with those along side them. It would appear that some weighty body, and one with a furrowed
surface and loosely fastened, must have lain on this shoulder and have bruised, reopened and widened the wounds of the
Scourging.
Jesus Painfully puts one foot before the other, and
He often falls. He falls to His knees which are
soon all raw. The soldiers who form the escort lift Him up, and are not too brutal about it, for they feel
He might easily Die on the way.
His Shoulders are covered with raw places, which open up again, and get larger and deeper with
each step He takes. He is worn out. On His
seamless coat there is a large patch of blood which gets even larger till it reaches right down His Back.
He falls again and this time at full length; the beam falls off Him;
will He be able to get up again? Luckily at this moment one Simon of Cyrene
passes by. The soldiers make him carry the Cross the rest of the way. There is
at last only the slope of Golgotha to be climbed, and they make their painful way to the top of the hill.
Jesus sinks to the ground and the Crucifixion begins.
Padre Pio & the Sacred Wound
of Our Lord's Shoulder
Padre Pio Icon
"A young Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) asked Padre Pio
which of his wounds caused the greatest suffering.
... The priest (Pope) expected Padre Pio to say it
was his chest wound, but instead the Padre replied,
"It is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about
and has never been cured or treated".
...Centuries earlier, Our Lord himself had revealed
to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in a vision, that His
Shoulder Wound from carrying the heavy wooden Cross
caused Him His greatest suffering, and that the
Cross tore into His Flesh right up to the shoulder
bone.
At one time, Padre Pio had confided to ...Brother
Modestino Fucci... that his greatest pains occurred
when he changed his undershirt. ... On February 4,
1971, [Brother] Modestino was assigned the task of
taking an inventory of all the items in the deceased
Padre’s cell in the friary... he discovered that one
of Padre Pio’s undershirts bore a circle of
bloodstains in the area of the right shoulder.
On that very evening of February 4, 1971, Brother
Modestino asked Padre Pio in prayer to enlighten him
about the meaning of the bloodstained undershirt.
... [Modestino awoke] at 1:00 AM with a terrible,
excruciating pain in his shoulder, as if he had been
sliced with a knife up to the shoulder bone. He felt
that he would die from the pain if it continued, but
it lasted only a short time. Then the room became
filled with the aroma of a heavenly perfume of
flowers – the Sign of Padre Pio’s spiritual presence
– and he heard a voice saying ..."This is what I had
to suffer!"
by Frank M. Rega
[Published in "The Voice of Padre Pio", March-April
2008, pp. 23-23]
The Prayer
"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
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