THE HOLY FACE DEVOTION
from the veil of Veronica preserved in the Basilica of St. Peter, in the Vatican.
from the veil of Veronica preserved in the Basilica of St. Peter, in the Vatican.
|
"By offering My Face to My Eternal Father, nothing will be refused, and the conversion of many sinners will be obtained." – Our Lord To Sr. Mary de Saint-Pierre – November 1846 |
|
This ancient and venerable Catholic
practice is rooted in the representation of the face of Christ said to
have been left on the towel or veil used by a holy woman thought to be
named, Veronica. An Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was established
in Tours, France, 1884; its members make reparation for the blasphemies
hurled at Christ. Since St. Therese's devotion to the Holy Face has
become known, this devotion has spread worldwide.
In addition, a devout and pious nun, Sr. Pierina, who died in 1945, was given many visions through Our Blessed Lady who appeared to her, as did Our Lord Jesus. They urged her to make reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in His Passion, such as to be slapped, spit upon and kissed by Judas, as well as now being dishonored in many ways in the Blessed Sacrament by neglect, sacrileges, and profanations. She was given a medal which on one side bore a replica of the Holy Shroud and the inscription: "Illumina, Domine, vultum tuum super nos." [O Lord, the light of Thy countenance shine upon us.] On the reverse side was a radiant host with the words: "Mane nobiscum, Domine." [Stay with us, O Lord.] After great difficulties, Sr. Pierina obtained permission to have the medal cast. Even the expenses for the casting were miraculously met when she found on her desk an envelope with the exact amount of the bill-----11,200 lire. The Evil Spirit showed his chagrin and
rage at the medals by flinging them down and burning the pictures of the
Sacred Face, and beating the nun savagely. In 1940, when the Second World War had
the world in turmoil, Italy saw a wide distribution of the medal:
soldiers, sailors and pilots were provided with the replica of the Holy
Face since the medal was already famous for its miracles and countless
spiritual and temporal favors. In Our Blessed Mother's own words, the
medal is a weapon for defense, a shield for courage, a token of love and
mercy in which her Divine Son wished to give the world in these troubled
days of lust and hatred for God and His Church. Devilish snares have
been set to rob the hearts of men of their faith while evil spreads the
world over. Genuine apostles are few. A Divine remedy to all these evils
will be the Adorable Face of her Son, Jesus. Whoever wears this medal and, if
possible, pays a visit to the Blessed Sacrament on Tuesday in a spirit
of reparation for the outrages received by the Holy Face of Our Blessed
Savior during His Passion and those bestowed on Him every day in the
Sacrament of His Divine Love, will be granted the gift of a strong Faith
and the grace to fly to its defense, conquering if need be, all exterior
and interior difficulties. Moreover, they are promised a happy death
with special assistance of Christ Himself. The very first medal of the Holy Face
was offered to our glorious Pontiff, Pius XII; then the whole world
became acquainted with this special object of holy favors and devotion.
No soldier taken as a prisoner of war, and who wore the medal was ever
executed. Our Blessed Lord requested that a special feast be instituted
to honor His Holy Face on Shrove Tuesday. Pope St. Pius XII obeyed and
had this day set aside to honor the Holy Face in 1958.
Promises of Our Lord Jesus Christ to
Sr. Mary in favor of those who honor and adore His Holy Face |
|
|
An act of Praise and Reparation dictated by
Our Lord to Sister Mary of Saint Peter. In Tours, France during the 1840's a young Carmelite nun named, Sr. Mary of St Peter, received a series of revelations from Our Lord about a powerful devotion He wished to be established worldwide-----the devotion to His Holy Face. The express purpose of this devotion was to make reparation for the blasphemies and outrages of "Revolutionary men" [the Communists]----- through whom God is allowing the world to be chastised for its unbelief-----as well as for the blasphemies of atheists and freethinkers and others, plus, for blasphemy and the profanation of Sundays by Christians. Specifically, this devotion is the Divine tool given by God to defeat Communism, but it is also an instrument given to the individual devotee as a seemingly unfailing method of appealing to God in prayer-----through adoration of His Holy Face and Name.
Our Lord gave Sister Mary a short but powerful prayer called' 'The Golden Arrow," by which a person can "shoot directly into the Heart of God" to heal the wounds inflicted on it by the malice of sinners. Of the 9 promises connected with this devotion, the first three are 1) "By My Holy Face you will work miracles;" 2) "By My Face you will obtain the conversion of many sinners;" and 3) "Nothing you ask in making this offering will be refused to you." This devotion brought St. Therese to her great sanctity. Anyone who is searching for a spiritual method for fighting atheism, socialism, materialism and paganism and its programs and/or who is searching for a virtually infallible method of prayer will be delighted with The Golden Arrow devotions. "Just as in an earthly kingdom money which is stamped with the picture of the sovereign or ruling executive of the country procures whatever one desires to purchase, so likewise in the Kingdom of Heaven, you shall obtain all that you desire by offering the coin of My precious Humanity which is My adorable Face." ------
Our Lord To Sr. Mary of St. Peter MAY the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen. After receiving this prayer, Sister Mary of St. Peter was given a vision in which she saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus delightfully wounded by this "Golden Arrow" as torrents of graces streamed from It for the conversion of sinners. The aim of this little presentation is to revive devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus as a means of Reparation to God for the crimes committed against His Divine Majesty. The question may be asked, was not this Devotion of Reparation universally practiced in the Church some years ago? The answer is, yes, it was widespread for many years after the Brief of Pope Leo XIII canonically established the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face in 1885. Unfortunately, however, it was neglected and forgotten in the years immediately prior to the First World War in 1914. Was it not perhaps due to our failure to continue this Reparation, as demanded by Our Divine Lord in His revelations to the holy Carmelite of Tours, that God allowed the "malice of wicked men" to precipitate us into two world conflicts, with all their indescribable horrors? And now, when we live daily on the verge of a Third World War, which threatens total destruction because of atomic weapons presently in the hands of our enemies, shall we at last embrace this reparation demanded by Our Lord? The "revolutionary men," designated by Our Lord Himself as Communists [a state of political mind and intent apart from a specific organization: "Communism is not dead" as has bee stated by the pundits among us, but is being revived in the new anti-God one world, one religion (pagan movement)], have so engulfed the world in turmoil that humanity faces destruction. This was the consensus of opinion from unimpeachable sources, including Pope Pius XII. These sources persists that a general world condition would explode at any moment. Addressing Himself mystically to the pious Carmelite nun, Our Lord told her that especially to His priests He promises He will defend them before His Father in Heaven and give them His kingdom if they, through words, prayers or writings, defend His cause in this work of "reparation." Pastors, therefore, and priests who desire to answer this call should endeavor, through regular procedure, to establish the Confraternity of the Holy Face in their parishes.
1. All those who honor My Face in a spirit of reparation will, by so doing, perform the office of the pious Veronica. According to the care they take in making reparation to My Face, disfigured by blasphemers, so will I take care of their souls which have been disfigured by sin. My Face is the seal of the Divinity, which has the virtue of reproducing in souls the image of God.
This prayer was dictated by our Lord Himself to Sister Mary of St. Peter. Opening His Heart to her, our Savior complained of blasphemy, saying that this frightful sin wounds His Divine Heart more grievously than all other sins, for it was like "a poisoned arrow." After that, our Savior dictated the prayer, which He called "The Golden Arrow," saying that those who would recite this prayer would pierce Him delightfully, and also heal those other wounds inflicted on Him by the malice of sinners. This prayer published above and on page two of the Golden Arrow segment of the Holy Face Devotion, is regarded as the very basis of the Work of Reparation. It is recommended for recitation on each of the thirty-three beads of the Holy Face Chaplet.
In this revelation our Lord imparts a most sublime instruction, showing the position of the Holy Face in relation to the Adorable Trinity Itself. REMEMBER, Oh, my soul, the holy instruction which your Divine Spouse imparted to you today concerning His adorable Face. Remember that this Divine Head represents the Eternal Father Who is unbegotten, that the mouth of this Holy Face represents the Divine Word, begotten of the Father, and that the two eyes of this adorable Face are the symbol of the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son, for these two eyes possess only one light, and one identical knowledge between them both, and they produce the one same love, which represents the Holy Ghost. Contemplate in His locks of hair the infinite number of the adorable perfections of the Blessed Trinity. Behold in this majestic Head that precious portion of the Humanity of the Savior which is the very Image of the Oneness of God. Now it is this adorable Savior's Face brimming with ineffable mysteries which blasphemers cover with disgrace, renewing the bitter sufferings of His Passion, each time they assail the Divinity, for the Holy Face is the very Image of God! In this exquisite communication, our Lord renders all His merits to Sister Mary of St. Peter, as He tells her to pay with them the debts incurred by the sins of the nation. He encourages her zeal by disclosing to her that the Work of Reparation will ultimately be established. OUR LORD continues to press me urgently to suffer for our country. He said to me:
I accepted our Lord's proposal and then it was that I beheld myself as though covered with all the sins of the nation and I begged God's forgiveness for these sins with the same shame as though I had committed these crimes myself. On another day when our Lord had insisted again that I make reparation for our whole country, I hesitated, hardly daring to believe that He could wish to make use of so common an instrument as myself for so great a task. He then said to me by way of comparison: As in the order of My Providence, in temporal affairs I give a particular ruler to a particular nation to be its sovereign, cannot I also, in the order of grace, assign a particular country to the care of a special individual in order that she should take charge of that country's spiritual welfare? That is the reason why I now assign this particular nation to your special care and I urge you to pray and to sacrifice yourself in its behalf." After that our Lord declared: "I again give you My Sacred Head so that you may offer it to My Father to appease His justice. Oh, if you but knew the power and the virtue that reside therein! And the reason why My Head possesses this power and virtue is because I have taken upon My Head all the sins of mankind so that My Members may be spared. Therefore, offer My Face to My Eternal Father for this is the means by which to appease Him." He then added: "I desire this Work of Reparation. Although the fruits which you bear have not yet ripened be assured that finally the time will come when the Work shall be established."
Placing no bounds to the efficacy of the Devotion to the Holy Face, our Savior informs Sister Mary of St. Peter that the treasure of His Face is of such tremendous value that through It ALL matters can be settled! HERE IS the substance of a new revelation which our Lord gave me relative to the Holy Face: "My daughter," He
said, "I take you today for my stewardess. I place My Holy Face in your
hands that you may offer it unceasingly to My Father for the salvation of
your country. Turn this Divine gift to good profit, for the treasure of My
Holy Face in itself possesses such tremendous value that through It all
the affairs of My household can readily be settled. Through this Holy Face
you will obtain the conversion of many sinners. Nothing that you ask in
virtue of the Holy Face will be refused you. Oh, if you only knew how
pleasing is the sight of My Face to My Father!" Shortly before she died she was asked about the to the Holy Face, to which she answered: "I have the greatest hopes. The plans of the wicked will be foiled! It was to accomplish this that the Work of Reparation to the Holy Face was revealed. Now that this is done my career is ended for it was for this Work that God had placed me on earth, as our Lord has made known to me. Oh how true it is that God has means of satisfying His justice which are unknown known to men." Once when she was asked to apply certain of her sufferings for a special intention, she replied: "I do not know whether I am free to do so because I am entirely consecrated as a victim to the cause of the Work of Reparation." She died in the odor of sanctity on July 8, 1848, in the thirty-third year of her life, less than four months after the interview she had held with the Secretary who told her that while she was allowed to apply herself to the Work of Reparation, she was never again to ask for the establishment of the Work in the diocese. At the time this seemed, indeed, a difficult order to fulfill for one who was by Divine Providence selected as an apostle to work for the propagation of the Cult of the Holy Face as her particular mission in life . . . After her death, Reparation through the Devotion to the Holy Face was chiefly kept up through the fervor of a wealthy retired lawyer of Tours, a devoted friend of the nun, Leo Dupont. Having procured a picture of the Holy Face, which was touched to the true relic of the veil of Veronica at the Vatican, this exemplary Christian hung it on a prominent wall of his drawing room before which he kept a lamp burning, as a token of veneration. So many extraordinary favors were granted to those who prayed before this picture that the residence of Mons. Dupont became a private place of pilgrimage. For the next thirty years, to the end of his life [he died in 1876], Leo Dupont kept the flame of Reparation alive in his home for the benefit of all who wished to intercede to God before it. Three months after his saintly death, his home was transformed into a public chapel. Soon afterwards the Work of Reparation was referred to the decision of the Supreme Pontiff, Leo XIII, who wholeheartedly approved the Devotion, through the formality of a Papal Brief. So was erected in perpetuity the Arch-confraternity of Reparation in the Oratory of Leo Dupont, in 1885, where until the present day priests still carry out the mission of Sr. Mary of St. Peter, to whom our Lord revealed a hundred years ago the real weapon that is destined to overthrow Communism. This weapon is Devotion to the Holy Face as a means of Reparation for the outrageous crimes of blasphemy, atheism, the crimes of modern freethinkers, and the profaners of the Lord's Day, which are the evils that more than any other cry to heaven for vengeance and that today bring us face to face with the threat of nuclear war and which consequence would admittedly be the destruction of all civilization as we know it. Eternal Father, turn away Your angry gaze from our guilty people whose face has become unsightly in Your eyes. Look instead upon the Face of Your Beloved Son, for this is the Face of Him in Whom You are well pleased. We now offer You this Holy Face, covered with shame and disfigured by bloody bruises in reparation for the crimes of our age in order to appease Your anger, justly provoked against us. Because Your divine Son, our Redeemer, has taken upon His Head all the sins of His members, that they might be spared, we now beg of You, Eternal Father, to grant us mercy. AMEN.
ETERNAL FATHER, we offer You the Holy Face of Jesus, covered with blood, sweat, dust and spittle, in reparation for the crimes of communists, blasphemers, and for the profaners of the Holy Name and of the Holy Day of Sunday. AMEN.
Our Lord told Sister Mary of St. Peter that the Image of His Holy Face is like a Divine Stamp which, if applied to souls, through prayer, has the power of imprinting anew within them the Image of God. I SALUTE THEE, I ADORE THEE, AND I LOVE THEE, OH ADORABLE FACE OF MY BELOVED JESUS, AS THE NOBLE STAMP OF DIVINITY! COMPLETELY SURRENDERING MY SOUL TO THEE, I MOST HUMBLY BEG THEE TO STAMP THIS SEAL UPON US ALL, SO THAT THE IMAGE OF GOD MAY ONCE MORE BE REPRODUCED BY ITS IMPRINT IN OUR SOULS. AMEN.
SOURCE:
After receiving this prayer, Sister Mary was given a vision in which she saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus delightfully wounded by the "Golden Arrow" as torrents of graces streamed from It for the conversion of sinners.
The Thirty-three
Petitions in Honor of the Sacred Humanity Chaplet or Crown of The Holy Face The purpose of the Chaplet or Crown of the Holy face is to honor the Five Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to ask God the Triumph of His Holy Church. This chaplet is composed of a cross and thirty-nine beads; of these, six are large beads and thirty-three are small. To this chaplet is attached the Medal of the Holy Face. On the Cross, which reminds us of the Mystery of Redemption, we begin the chaplet by praying: Incline unto my aid, O
God! O Lord, make haste to help me! The thirty-three small
beads represent the 33 years of Our Lord's EACH SIX BEADS ARE PRECEDED BY A LARGE BEAD, AFTER WHICH A GLORY BE IS SAID WHILE RECALLING THE SENSE WE ARE HONORING IN A PARTICULAR SECTION. THE OTHER THREE BEADS MARK OUR LORD'S PUBLIC LIFE AND HAVE FOR THEIR INTENTION TO HONOR ALL THE WOUNDS OF HIS ADORABLE FACE; THESE ARE ALSO PRECEDED BY A LARGE BEAD, AFTER WHICH A GLORY BE IS ALSO SAID FOR THE SAME INTENTION. ON EACH LARGE BEAD PRAY: My Jesus, mercy! ON THE SMALL BEADS: Arise, O Lord, and let
Thy enemies be scattered, and let them The Glory Be is recited
seven times in all, after the prayer of the large The chaplet is
concluded by praying on the Medal:
ROSARY IN HONOR OF THE SACRED
FACE Most Sacred
Face, we call on You until You hear our prayers. At the large beads we pray: Heavenly
Father, humbly and fervently we offer You the infinite merits At the small
beads, instead of the Hail Mary, we pray: FIRST DECADE O Sacred Face,
covered with wounds, SECOND DECADE O Sacred Face,
covered with blood, THIRD DECADE O Sacred Face,
shedding tears with infinite Love, FOURTH DECADE O Sacred Face,
despised and insulted, FIFTH DECADE O Sacred Face,
silently bearing the most bitter pain, Conclude: Let us adore
the Sacred Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Savior,
Prayer of St. Theresa of Jesus
[Lisieux] O Jesus, Who in Thy bitter Passion didst become "the most abject of men, a man of sorrows," I venerate Thy Sacred Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead; but now it has become for me as if it were the face of a leper! Nevertheless, under those disfigured features, I recognize Thy infinite Love and I am consumed with the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well abundantly in Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, Whose
adorable Face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy
Divine Image and to set me on fire with Thy Love, that I may be found
worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.
ETERNAL FATHER, since Thou hast given me for my inheritance the Adorable Face of Thy Divine Son, I offer that face to Thee and I beg Thee, in exchange for this coin of infinite value, to forget the ingratitude of souls dedicated to Thee and to pardon all poor sinners. PRAYER TO THE HOLY FACE by St. Therese of Lisieux
O adorable face of Jesus, sole beauty which ravisheth my heart, vouchsafe to impress on my soul Thy Divine Likeness, so it may not be possible for Thee to look at Thy Spouse without beholding Thyself. O my Beloved, for love of Thee I am content not to see here on earth the sweetness of Thy Glance, not to feel the ineffable Kiss of Thy Sacred Lips, but I beg of Thee to inflame me with Thy Love, so that it may consume me quickly, and that soon Teresa of the Holy Face may behold Thy glorious Countenance inHeaven. CANTICLE TO THE HOLY FACE
|
|
