February is traditionally regarded as the month of special devotion to the passion of Christ because Lent usually begins in February. Among the first devotions of the early Christians is devotion to the passion of Christ. Indeed, the passion of Christ is a dominant theme in the New Testament. For example, Christ died for us; we are now justified by his blood. We have reason to rejoice in our trials, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also by Christ does our comfort abound. Christ is the author of our salvation by his passion; we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death; and to him who washed us from our sins in his own blood be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. (Rm. 5:9; I Pet. 3:18; II Cor. 1:5; Heb. 2:9-10; Rev. 1:6).

The suffering and the shedding of his precious blood for our redemption inspired the worship of Christ. The devotion to the passion of Christ assumed a new phase when

the faithful began to develop devotion to the five principal wounds of Jesus. He retains the stigmata of his five most sacred and principal wounds as perpetual evidence of his love and sufferings for us. Thus, when the doubting Thomas wanted evidence that what the other ten Apostles saw was not the ghost of Jesus, but Jesus in the flesh, Jesus appeared to the Eleven in the flesh and said to Thomas: “put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas then answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:27-29).

Souls who wish to be righteous and justified before God find nourishment in the sacred wounds of Jesus. Devotion to the holy wounds of Jesus also enables one to unite one’s sufferings to those of Jesus and to offer them to God.

The sacred wounds of our Lord deserve our special devotion because they are the marks of his love for us; the marks of the grievous sufferings he underwent for our salvation. For this reason, the contemplation of the sacred wounds and passion of our Lord elicits piety and devout worship of God. The sacred hands, feet, and side, on which are the five marks of his wounds, deserve a special devotion not only because they are the visible marks of his sufferings for us, but also because he also shed his precious blood, the price of our redemption, through them. Devotion to the passion of Christ is also a means of growing in Christian holiness. Saint Bonaventure states that the person who desires to advance from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, should meditate continually on the passion of Jesus. There is no practice more profitable for the entire sanctification of the soul than the frequent meditation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Devotion to the passion of Jesus includes such spiritual exercises as prayers and meditations in honor of his sufferings, his holy wounds, especially his five principal wounds, his precious blood, his holy face, his last seven words on the cross, and his sacred heart.

Let us pray. O Eternal Father, your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, died for love of me. I offer you all his sufferings, his agony and bloody sweat, his betrayal and arrest; all the reproaches and calumnies, all the scoffs and affronts, all the blows and buffets he endured for me; all his scourges, crowning with thorns, and the heavy cross that he bore for my sins and for those of the whole world. I offer you his crucifixion and death, together with his glorious resurrection and triumphant ascension. I adore you and give you thanks for all he has done and suffered for me; and for giving me, in the Blessed Sacrament, his pledge of my redemption, his body and blood which he offered to you for me. Amen.