What Are the Five Wounds Devotion of Jesus?

Call it inspiration, but as I listen to that little voice inside, I wonder if maybe my Angel is asking me to share this devotion as I am placing myself inside the Five Wounds each night.

So, what are the Five Wounds of Jesus?

First, we know Jesus was nailed to the cross, meaning his hands - left and right - and his feet - left and right (probably over each other) were nailed to the cross. Then we have the wound on Jesus' side, which was inflicted by St. Longinus Spear, or 'Lance,' after Jesus' death. This was done because Jesus was already dead and 'no bones were to be broken' - to fulfill the prophecy of scripture.

So the soldier Longinus struck the side of Christ with the spear/lance, and blood and water flowed from his side. Just meditate on that for a minute. (Please see footnotes for additiona information

To read more about the lance you can go here: https://ucatholic.com/blog/the-holy-lance-a-lesser-known-relic-of-jesus-christ/
Where is the lance now? Interesting read: https://aleteia.org/2020/01/16/where-is-the-true-holy-lance-which-pierced-the-side-of-christ/

Below are excerpts from an article entitled History of Five Wounds Devotion:

The reason for this devotion was well expressed at a later period in the memorial of the Polish bishops to Clement XIII:

“Moreover, the Five Wounds of Christ are honored by a Mass and an Office, and on account of these wounds we venerate also the feet, hands and side of the most loving Redeemer, these parts of Our Lord’s most holy body being held more worthy of a special cult than the others, precisely because they suffered special pains for our salvation, and because they are decorated with these wounds as with an illustrious mark of love. Therefore, with living faith they cannot be looked upon without a special feeling of religion and devotion” (Nilles, “De rat. fest. SS. Cord. Jesu et Mariae”, I, 126).

“The Dominican Rosary also helped to promote devotion to the Sacred Wounds, for while the fifty small beads refer to Mary, the five large beads and the corresponding Pater Nosters are intended to honour the Five Wounds of Christ (Beissel, “Verehrung Marias”, I, 525). Again, in some places it was customary to ring a bell at noon on Fridays, to remind the faithful to recite five Paters and Aves in honour of the Holy Wounds. A corona, or rosary, of the Five Wounds was approved by the Holy See on 11 August, 1823, and again in 1851. It consists of five divisions, each composed of five Glories in honour of Christ’s Wounds and one Ave in commemoration of the Sorrowful Mother. The blessing of the beads is reserved to the Passionists.
FEAST DAY

“The earliest evidence of a feast in honour of the Wounds of Christ comes from the monastery of Fritzlar, Thuringia, where in the fourteenth century a feast was kept on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. .... The Feast of the Five Wounds, celebrated since the Middle Ages at Evora and elsewhere in Portugal on 6 February (at Lisbon on the Friday after Ash-Wednesday) is of historical interest. It commemorates the founding of the Portuguese kingdom in 1139, when, before the battle on the plains of Ourique, Christ appeared to Alfonso Henriquez, promising victory over the Moors and commanding him to insert into the coat of arms of the new kingdom the emblem of the Five Wounds (“Propr. Portugalliae” in Weiss, “Weltgeschichte”, III, 251). This feast is celebrated today in all Portuguese-speaking countries. The Proprium of Venice of 1766, which contains perhaps the earliest series of movable feasts in honour of Christ’s Passion, has the Feast of the Five Wounds on the second Sunday in March; it was granted in 1809 to Leghorn for the Friday after Ash-Wednesday, on which day it is still kept in many dioceses of Tuscany, and elsewhere (Mexico). Since 1831, when the feasts in honour of the Passion were adopted at Rome by the Passionists and the city, this feast was assigned to the Friday after the third Sunday in Lent. The Office is one of those bequeathed to us by the Middle Ages. As this feast is not celebrated in the entire Church the Office and Mass are placed in the appendix of the Breviary and the Missal."

I believe that the feast day for this in the Latin Tridentine calendar is the first Friday after Ash Wednesday. Since this has already passed, you may want to honor the Five Wounds on the second or third Sunday in March as another idea.

Prayer to Recite to Honor the Five Wounds

THE LITTLE CHAPLET OF THE FIVE WOUNDS OF JESUS CRUCIFIED
by St. Alphonsus Liguori

I. O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Thy left foot. I thank Thee for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Thy pain, and that of Thine afflicted Mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray Thee to grant me the pardon of my sins, of which I repent with all my heart, because they have offended Thine infinite goodness. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, etc.

By all the wounds which Thou didst bear
With so much love and so much pain,
Oh, let a sinner's prayer
Thy mercy, Lord, obtain!

II. O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Thy right foot. I thank Thee for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Thy pain, and that of Thine afflicted Mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray Thee to give me the strength not to fall into mortal sin for the future, but to persevere in Thy grace unto my death. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, etc.

By all the wounds which Thou didst bear
With so much love and so much pain,
Oh, let a sinner's prayer
Thy mercy, Lord, obtain!

III. O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Thy left hand. I thank Thee for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Thy pain, and that of Thine afflicted Mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray Thee to deliver me from Hell, which I have so often deserved, where I could never love Thee more. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, etc.

By all the wounds which Thou didst bear
With so much love and so much pain,
Oh, let a sinner's prayer
Thy mercy, Lord, obtain!

IV. O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Thy right hand. I thank Thee for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Thy pain, and that of Thy most afflicted Mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray Thee to give me the glory of Paradise, where I shall love Thee perfectly, and with all my strength. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, etc.

By all the wounds which Thou didst bear
With so much love and so much pain,
Oh, let a sinner's prayer
Thy mercy, Lord, obtain!

V. O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Thy side. I thank Thee for having willed, even after Thy death, to suffer this additional injury, without pain indeed, yet with consummate love. I compassionate Thine afflicted Mother, who alone felt all its pain. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray Thee to bestow upon me the gift of holy love for Thee, that so I may ever love Thee in this life, and in the other, face to face, for all eternity, in Paradise. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.