Hide Us in the Hollows of Your Wounds

(Prayer offered on the Public Address system for the entire La Salle Academy educational community on Tuesday morning, 4 October 2016)

Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.

Those of you who have had me in class know that I change the traditional prayer of “Live Jesus in our hearts,” by inserting a line from the Anima Christi.  Instead, I close prayer, after, of course, a long litany of saints, with “Lord Jesus, hide us in the hollows of your wounds, and live in our hearts, forever.”  Hide us in the hollows of your wounds.  What an evocative phrase.  Our Creator, Our Savior, becomes human, only to be eternally wounded.  What are we to make of this?  Are we to focus on feeling shameful for the injuries we’ve caused Our Redeemer?  Or are we to take comfort and shelter in His wounds?

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I believe that we are called to gaze into the devastation of Christ’s wounds, and emerge changed, utterly.  I believe we are chosen to be a similar shelter to each other.  To see the tragedy, to experience it, to live in it, and to be born into its beauty.  When Thomas doubts that Jesus has risen, Our Lord does not convince him through a well-structured argument.  Rather, Thomas knows his Salvation through the wounds.

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When we, in our lives, are afflicted, are struggling, we need not suffer alone.  Let us welcome others into our hearts, and share in their pain, as they share in ours.  Let us stand with our sisters and brothers and assure them that they are not alone.  When we hear about a friend having a rough time in school, or at home, let us be a shelter for them.  When we hear about poverty on our streets, about violence on our campuses, about death throughout the world, let us not push it out, in fear of it.  Let us rather embrace those suffering, because together we can be a safe haven, and in time, we will find shelter in the wounds of Our Savior.  For in the words of Dorothy Day, “We cannot love God, unless we love each other.”

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Let us pray:

Soul of Christ, sanctify us
Body of Christ, save us
Blood of Christ, inebriate us
Water from Christ’s side, wash us
Passion of Christ, strengthen us
O good Jesus, hear us
Hide us in the hollows of your wounds
Suffer us not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend us
In the hour of our death call us,

And bid us come unto Thee
That we may praise Thee with Thy saints

and with Thy angels

Forever and ever

Amen

 

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us.

Lord Jesus, hide us in the hollows of your wounds, and live in our hearts, forever.

 

Sarah Allen–Religion Teacher