Dear Friends of the Stigmatines,
Every year – on the Friday following Divine Mercy Sunday (Second Sunday of Easter or traditionally, Low Sunday) – the Stigmatines celebrate what is called our “Titular Feastday” or “Title Day”. This year, our Feast is celebrated on Friday, April 8th. On this day, in a special way, we honor the Five Wounds of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In this celebration we recall the “Sorrowful” Wounds and give our Lord praise and gratitude for His Saving Passion – and we also celebrate the “Glorious” Wounds of Jesus – the Wounds he kept after His Resurrection – “trophies”, if you will, of His compassionate and merciful love.
This year, our Feast of the Sacred Stigmata is celebrated within the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Pope Francis has stated that “God always thinks mercifully” (Pope Francis, The Church of Mercy: A Vision For The Church, p. 73). Our Holy Father continues: “God came out of himself to come among us; he pitched his tent among us to bring us his mercy that saves and gives hope” (ibid.). This is yet another way of appreciating and understanding the commemoration and celebration of Jesus’ Five Precious Wounds. They evidence the magnitude of Christ’s salvific love for us. Just as Saint Thomas probed these Holy Wounds (John 20.27), so we are invited to give our attention to Christ – by adoring His Wounds – the holy marks of His great and saving love.
From Easter through Pentecost, we are invited by the Sacred Liturgy to contemplate God’s love on our behalf – in His Passion and Death, Resurrection, Ascension and Sending of the Holy Spirit. It is such a “Holy Time” for us to remember and celebrate the “wideness” of Jesus’ love. May this sacred time bring you many blessings!
Please be sure that you and your intentions will be remembered by the Stigmatine Fathers on the great Solemnity of the Sacred Stigmata on April 8th. We ask for your prayerful remembrance, too. May God continue to bless you in this reverent and beautiful Easter Season.
In the Sacred Stigmata of our Lord,
The Stigmatine Fathers
Holy Spouses Province