WITHIN THY MOST SACRED WOUND RECEIVE THOU MY SOUL

When we offer the following prayer, we pray that we may love Our Lord's Sacred Heart, that we be given refuge in the Wound of Jesus's Heart and thus return Our Lord's love so that His love for us is not unrequited. 

Behold, O my most loving Jesus, to what an excess Thy boundless love has carried Thee! Of Thine own Flesh and Precious Blood Thou hast made ready for me a Divine Banquet in order to give me all Thyself. What was it that impelled Thee to this transport of love?  

Nothing else, surely, but Thy most loving Heart. O adorable Heart of my Jesus, burning furnace of Divine Love, within Thy most Sacred Wound receive Thou my soul, that in that school of charity I may learn to requite the love of that God who has given me such wondrous proofs of His love. Amen. 

If you have just prayed this prayer, you have asked that your soul be taken into Jesus's "Sacred Wound", which refers to the Wound given Our Lord's Heart, after Our Lord's death on the Cross, when a Roman soldier ran a spear through Jesus's side 'til the metal point broke into Jesus's Heart and caused blood and water to spurt out of the gaping laceration. We learn this from the Gospel of John, Chapter 19, Douay-Rheims Bible, "The soldiers therefore came; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water."

When the soldier lacerated Jesus's side, he intentionally thrust his spear so that it reached Jesus's Heart and tore at the outer Heart wall, which delivered the Heart Wound to Jesus that we ask our souls be given shelter in. The soldier had stabbed Jesus's ribs to find out if Jesus was truly dead; the blood and water that gushed out was confirmation that Jesus was a crucified cadaver. The side wound wherein Jesus's heart was ripped was His death certificate rendered on the skin covering His rib cage: the sign that His death for our sins was complete. In a prayer such as the above, we ask that we may love Him in return for the love He had for us when He gave His life, and the Heart Wound was the proof to the Roman authorities that He had expired for us. When we honor the proof of Our Lord's death, and ask for a place within the Wound we are giving our very selves to Our Lord, and returning His love by allowing Him to take within Himself the creatures He chose to die for.