Five Wounds: a profound traditional spirituality preserved in the Ordinariate.

You may have heard that Pope Francis has repeatedly drawn people's attention to the Five Wounds of Our Lord.

H/T The Catholic Register

VATICAN – Pope Francis seems to be fixated on the wounds of Christ. And he has suggested that other Catholics might want to be as well.

—by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

He has offered meditations on Jesus' pierced hands, feet and side throughout his pontificate, but since January, his references in impromptu speeches and homilies have been so frequent that it seems to be a major focus of his own prayer life.

In his homily at morning Mass March 20, he shared the advice of a spiritual director: "Look. Look at the wounds. Enter into the wounds. By those wounds we were healed. Do you feel bitter, feel sad, feel life just isn't going the right way and you're also ill? Look there. In silence."

Note the spiritual director's reference to Scripture: Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24.

Did you know that the Ordinariate has retained a particularly beautiful Mass (Divine Worship) dedicated to the Five Wounds of Jesus?

Click on Images to Enlarge

A devotion to Christ's wounds "may sound a bit medieval," the Pope told (a Feb 10th gathering of priests of the Stigmatine order). In fact, meditating on "the five sacred wounds" became popular in the 12th and 13th centuries, but it also enjoyed a resurgence in the 20th century with the growing attention to the Divine Mercy devotions of St. Faustina Kowalska. The Polish nun wrote in her diary that Jesus told her, "When it seems to you that your suffering exceeds your strength, contemplate my wounds."—ibid./Wooden

Perhaps it's time to get a little more "medieval"? As Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in 2007:

What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.—Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Bishops on the occasion of the publication of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum on the Use of the Roman Liturgy prior to the reform of 1970.

Fr. Hunwicke elaborates at the link following:

http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.ca/2014/03/mass-of-five-wounds-updated.html

Also, this:

https://sarumuse.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/the-mass-of-the-five-wounds/

For further reflection: Liturgical Love: The Sign of the Cross/Deacon Q

One of the most simple and recognizable gestures – let alone the most powerful – is the Sign of the Cross. Pregnant with meaning, it is the summary of the entire Christian faith.

In the Eastern Rite, the sign of the cross is made from the right shoulder to the left. In the 13th Century, Pope Innocent II explained the symbolism saying:

The sign of the cross is made with three fingers, because the signing is done together with the invocation of the Trinity. … This is how it is done: from above to below, and from the right to the left, because Christ descended from the heavens to the earth, and from the Jews (right) He passed to the Gentiles (left). Others, however, make the sign of the cross from the left to the right, because from misery (left) we must cross over to glory (right), just as Christ crossed over from death to life, and from Hades to Paradise.

In the Latin Rite, we make the sign in one of two ways. The first is with three fingers together to symbolize the Trinity, and the ring and pinky fingers retracted back to the palm to symbolize both the descent to earth from heaven by Jesus and His two natures. The second is with all five fingers extended together to remind us of the five wounds of the Christ.

The simple gesture reveals the sacrifice and redemption of Christ. It expresses the profound theology of the Holy Trinity and reminds us that we bear His name. The Sign of the Cross is the outward expression of the inward reality of our baptism.

A brief reflection by yours truly:

The five wounds in the flesh of Jesus open a place for us in the Body of Christ; our suffering opens in us a place for God. Suffering creates an opening for God to work in us, through us.