Within the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi is a precious relic: a small, crumpled piece of yellowed parchment with the writing of St. Francis, now displayed in a silver reliquary. It was written on Mount La Verna after St. Francis had received the stigmata. The first biographer of St. Francis, Bl. Thomas of Celano wrote that for a long time St. Francis’s friend, Brother Leo, had greatly desired to have some memorial from the words of Our Lord written by St. Francis:
“The Blessing of St. Francis” in reliquary.
St. Francis of Assisi
“One day Blessed Francis called him, saying, ‘Bring me paper and ink, for I wish to write the words of God and His praises which I have been meditating in my heart.’ What he asked for being straightway brought, he writes with his own hand the praises of God and the words which he [his companion] wished, and lastly a blessing of the brother, saying: ‘Take this sheet for thyself and until the day of thy death guard it carefully.’ All temptation was at once driven away; the letter is kept and worked wonders for the time to come.” Brother Leo kept it faithfully; folding it in four, he carried it in his pocket and guarded it jealously for a good forty-six years. The text in the middle, written in black, and marked with a large “Tau” cross is in Francis’s own handwriting, he writes the praises of God* and grants to Brother Leo the blessing from the Book of Numbers 6: 22-27 which later became known as “the Blessing of St. Francis.”
St. Francis of Assisi by Jose Beniliure y Gil
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in his homily for the World Day of Peace, 2013, spoke of this blessing from the Book of Numbers which was for the priests and the people of Israel. “The blessing repeats the three times Holy Name of God, a Name not to be spoken, and each time linked to two words indicating an action in favor of man. Peace is the summit of these six actions of God in our favor, His most sublime gift, in which He turns toward us the splendor of His Face.”
This is the great blessing that St. Francis desired to impart to his friend, Brother Leo:
“May the Lord bless and keep you; may He make His Face shine upon you and be merciful to you; may He turn His Countenance toward you and give you His Peace!” (Num. 6:22-27)
Amen!
*(St. Francis’s “Praises of God” are now now quite faded, but, this much can be still read: “Thou art holy, Lord God, who alone workest wonders. Thou art strong. Thou art great. Thou art most high. Thou art the Almighty King, Thou, holy Father, King of heaven and earth. Thou art the Lord God Triune and One; all good. Thou art good, all good, highest good, Lord God living and true. Thou art charity, love. Thou art wisdom. Thou art humility. Thou art patience. Thou art security. Thou art quietude. Thou art joy and gladness. Thou…”)
St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face is more commonly known for her way of “Spiritual Childhood” and devotion to The Child Jesus, however, her sister, Mother Agnes gave this testimony for St. Therese’ beatification:
“Devotion to the Holy Face was the Servant of God’s special attraction. As tender as was her devotion to the Child Jesus, it cannot be compared to her devotion to the Holy Face.”
St. Therese’ sister Celine (Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face), also wrote: “Devotion to the Holy Face was, for Therese, the crown and complement of her love for the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord. The Blessed Face was the mirror wherein she beheld the Heart and Soul of her Well-Beloved. Just as the picture of a loved one serves to bring the whole person before us, so in the Holy Face of Christ Therese beheld the entire Humanity of Jesus. We can say unequivocally that this devotion was the burning inspiration of the Saint’s life… Her devotion to the Holy Face transcended, or more accurately, embraced, all the other attractions of her spiritual life.”
St. Therese
Canticle to the Holy Face
Jesus, Your ineffable image Is the star which guides my steps. Ah, You know, Your sweet Face Is for me Heaven on earth. My love discovers the charms Of Your Face adorned with tears. I smile through my own tears When I contemplate Your sorrows.
Oh! To console You I want To live unknown on earth! Your beauty, which You know how to veil, Discloses for me all its mystery. I would like to fly away to You!
Your Face is my only homeland. It’s my Kingdom of love. It’s my cheerful meadow. Each day, my sweet sun. It’s the Lily of the Valley Whose mysterious perfume Consoles my exiled soul, Making it taste the peace of Heaven.
It’s my Rest, my Sweetness And my melodious Lyre Your Face, O my Sweet Savior, Is the Divine Bouquet of Myrrh I want to keep on my heart!
Your Face is my only wealth. I ask for nothing more. Hiding myself in it unceasingly, I will resemble You, Jesus Leave in me, the Divine Impress Of Your features filled with sweetness, And soon I’ll become holy. I shall draw hearts to You.
So that I may gather A beautiful golden harvest, Deign to set me aflame with Your Fire. With Your adorned mouth, Give me soon the Eternal Kiss! ~St. Therese
“Look at His adorable Face, His glazed and sunken eyes, His wounds. Look Jesus in the Face. There you will see how He loves us.”
The Holy Veil of Manoppello, believed to be the Face of the Risen Christ. (Photo: Paul Badde)
“Your Veiled Gaze is Our Heaven…”
Holy Face Veil of Manoppello, Italy (Photo: Paul Badde)
“O Adorable Face of Jesus! Our souls understand Your language of love; we want to dry Your gentle Face and to console You for the forgetfulness of the wicked. In their eyes You are still as one hidden; they look upon You as an object of contempt…
O Face more beautiful than the lilies and roses of springtime! You are not hidden from our eyes…The Tears that veil Your divine look seem to us like precious Diamonds which we want to collect to buy the souls of our brothers and sisters with their infinite value.
Veil of Manopello, Photo: (Paul Badde)
From Your Adorable Mouth we have heard Your loving complaint. Since we know that the thirst which consumes You is a thirst for Love, we would wish to have an infinite Love to quench Your thirst…Beloved Bridegroom of our souls, if we had the love of all hearts, all that love would be for You! Then, heedless of our exile on the banks of Babylon, we will sing for your Ears the sweetest melodies. Since You are the true, the only Homeland of our hearts, we will not sing our songs in an alien land.
Eyes of Manoppello, (photo: Paul Badde)
“The Living Face” of The Veil of Manoppello (Photo: Paul Badde)
O Beloved Face of Jesus! As we await the everlasting day when we will contemplate Your infinite Glory, our one desire is to charm Your Divine Eyes by hiding our faces too so that here on earth no one can recognize us…O Jesus! Your Veiled Gaze is our Heaven!” –St. Therese of the Holy Face and the Child Jesus
St. Therese reliquary covered with rose petals. Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello. Nov. 4, 2006 (Photo: Paul Badde)
“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.”
St. Michael–his name was taken from his battlecry “Quit Ut Deus?!”–in answer to the rebellion of Satan, who attempted to make himself equal to God–St. Michael cried out “Who is like God?!” as he defeated Satan and other rebellious angels casting out of heaven.
“Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. Although the dragon and his angels fought back, they were overpowered and lost their place in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent known as the devil or Satan, the seducer of the whole world, was driven out; he was hurled down to earth and his minions with him” (Rev. 12)
The center of this battle raging between Angels and demons — heaven and earth — is the Incarnate Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who is rejected, reviled and persecuted. The devil wants to obliterate the Face of God, not only in churches that have vandalized and desecrated, but most especially, in the souls of human beings. The battle lines have been drawn between the culture of life and the culture of death. The devil’s particular object of hatred is the woman and the unborn. Some can no longer recognize that a child in the womb is a human being. Many persons reject their God-given identity as male and female. Racial hatred is causing deeper and deeper division, and human trafficking increases as humanity is blinded to the Face of God in their neighbor made in His image and likeness.
“When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to a male child.” (Rev. 12:13)
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have salvation and power come, the reign of our God and the authority of his Anointed One. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who night and day accused then before our God. They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. So rejoice, you heavens, and you the dwell therein! But woe to you, earth and sea, for the devil has come down upon you! His fury knows no limits, for he knows his time is short” (Rev 12). This battle has been fought since the beginning of Creation; between Christ’s Angels and the fallen angels or demons, with humanity at the center of the struggle. St. Michael and the Holy Angels have been given the authority from God by the power of the Holy Name of Jesus to protect and defend God’s people against both human and diabolical enemies.
Prayer to St. Michael:
St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Holy Face surrounded by adoring Angels. (Photo: Mary Engler)
Devotion to the Face of Jesus is meant to repair mankind’s broken relationship with God, manifested in the world by the evil of blasphemy, sacrilege, and indifference. This work of reparation honoring His Holy Face and the Holy Name of Jesus–which is the concrete sign of God’s existence and our relationship with Him–has been given the protection and help of the Holy Angels. Sr. Marie St. Pierre was a French Discalced Carmelite nun to whom Our Lord gave revelations of the devotion to His Holy Face. She wrote on November 18, 1843…
Volto Santo in Sankt Michael (Photo: Paul Badde)
…“One day during prayer, our Lord warned me in advance about the fury of Satan against the holy devotion, but He also consoled me, saying: ‘I give you My Name to be your light in the darkness and your strength in battle. Satan will do all in his power to crush this Work at its roots. But I assure you that the Holy Name of God will triumph, and it will be the Holy Angels who will gain the victory in the conflict.”
“When Jesus is named, Satan is disarmed.” The victory will be won with devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.
Pope Leo XIV invites us to contemplate the Face of Jesus, keeping in mind that human persons are made in the image and likeness of God:
“ I invite everyone to contemplate, in the Face of the Son of God, the grandeur of humanity that shines a light on the era of AI. In Christ, we are called to cooperate in the work of creation, rather than be disinterested observers of technological processes that limit our freedom and responsibility. The dignity inscribed in each of us by the Holy Spirit can also be seen in our capacity to reflect critically, choose and love freely, and form authentic relationships. No computational system, however sospisticated, can create a heart that gives itself, or a conscience that discerns good from evil. Even when machines excel in efficiency, a human face that asks to be gazed upon remains the center of our history. This human face is the fullness toward which history is moving. It is the mystery of “recapitulation”: the certainty that the Father has decreed to bring all things, those in heaven and those on earth back to Christ, the one Head (cf. Eph 1:10). In this plan, nothing will be lost that is authentically human. Indeed, everything will be purified and reunited in the One, who gathers every fragment of life, every tear and every authentically human achievement, rescuing them from nothingness and delivering then, redeemed, to the Father.” ~ Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas #23
Prayer to Our Lady of the Angels, who in her humility, crushed the head of Satan:
Sublime Queen of Heaven, exalted Lady of the Angels, you have the power and commission given by God to crush the head of Satan. Therefore, we humbly beseech you to send to our aid your heavenly legions, so that, under your command and by your power, they may pursue the hellish spirits, fight them everywhere, ward off their impudent attacks, and fling them back into the abyss.
Who is like God? You holy angels and archangels, defend and protect us.
Good, kind mother, you remain always our love and our hope! Mother of God, send us the holy angels to defend us and keep the evil one far from us. Amen.
“Your face, O Lord, I seek” (Psalm 27:8) Relecting on the Face of Jesus in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennia Ineunte, Pope St. John Paul II writes: The ancient longing of the Psalmist could receive no fulfillment greater and more surprising than the contemplation of the face of Christ. God as truly blessed us in him and has made “his face to shine upon us” (Psalm 67:1). At the same time, God and man that he is, he reveals to us also the true face of man, “fully revealing man to man himself.” Pope St. John Paul II continues, “In order to “bring man back to the Father’s face, Jesus not only had to take on the face of man, [at the Incarnation] but he had to burden himself with the “face” of sin. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21)
JPII goes on to write, “we shall never exhaust the depths of this mystery.” “But her contemplation of Christ’s face cannot stop at the image of the Crucified One. He is the Risen One! Were this not so, our preaching would be in vain and our faith empty (cf. 1 Cor. 15:14) “The Resurrection was the Father’s response to Christ’s obedience. ” (Novo Millennia Ineunte)
The Devotion to the Holy Face is not meant to be solely a list of prayers to be recited, but is a means of encounter and relationship with Jesus Christ. Charity–Love of God and love of neighbor–are at the heart of this devotion to the Holy Face, which encompasses the whole spiritual life of a Christian and is intensely Eucharistic:
Benedict XVI has characterized devotion to The Holy Face as having three separate components: 1. Discipleship – an encounter with Jesus, to see Jesus in the Face of those in need. 2. The Passion of Jesus, and suffering expressed by images of the wounded Face of Jesus. 3. The Eucharist, “the great school in which we learn to see The Face of God”, which is woven between the other two. The eschatological element then builds on awakening to Christ by contemplating His Face hidden in The Eucharist.
“Our whole life should be directed toward encountering Him,” writes Benedict, “toward loving Him; and in it, a central place must be given to love of one’s neighbor, that love that in the light of The Crucified One, enables us to recognize the Face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, the suffering.” The pope goes on to explain the fruits of this contemplation: “From contemplation of the Face of God are born, joy, security, Peace.”
Pope St. John Paul II, in Veritatis Splendor, tells us that to win the battle for souls, we must first contemplate the Face of Christ ourselves in order to bring light into this darkened world that does not know God’s love:
“The light of God’s Face shines in all its beauty on the countenance of Jesus Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Cor. 1:15), “the reflection of God’s glory” (Web 1:3), “full of grace and truth” (Jn1:14). Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6). Consequently the decisive answer to every one of man’s questions is Jesus Christ himself, as the Second Vatican Council recalls: “In fact, it is only in the mystery of the Word Incarnate that light is shed on the mystery of man. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of the future man, namely, Christ the Lord. It is Christ, the last Adam, who fully discloses man to himself and unfolds his noble called by revealing the mystery of the Father and the Father’s love.” (Veritatis Splendor)
Contemplate with Mary the face of Christ in the Rosary!
Contemplation of the Face of Jesus in the Rosary, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, is another very important way, as Pope St. John Paul II writes in Rosarium Virginis Mariae: “to contemplate the face of Christ in union with, and at the school of, his Most Holy Mother. To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ...” “…to stand like your Virgin Mother, at the glorious Cross, and at the crosses of all people to bring consolation, hope, and comfort.”
Holy Face Veil of Manoppello, Italy (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN)
For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the Face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6)
Vera Icon, painted from the Holy Veil in the Vatican, which served as a model, by Meister von Sankt Lorenz, around 1415, nearly 100 years before the “Veronica” or “True Image/or Vera Icon” was said to have been stolen during the Sack of Rome. in 1527. (Photo: Paul Badde)
St. Veronica with the Sudarium C. 1480-1500
Was there actually a St. Veronica? It is an important question, and a very personal one to me and many others. According to tradition, “Veronica,” is the compassionate woman who wiped the Face of Jesus, who is commonly depicted in every Catholic church, at the Sixth Station of the Cross, yet her name does not appear in the Gospels, and the legends did not appear until the Middle Ages.
Pope St. John Paul II pondered this very question many years before dedicating the Millennium to the Holy Face of Jesus. The fruit of his prayerful contemplation unveils a profound truth for every Christian as he answers another question; What does it mean to be “a Veronica?”
The Sixth Station on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem
Veronica’s Veil, Flemish 15th Century–painted with the characteristic folds that are also found only on the Holy Veil of Manoppello.
“St. Veronica”
The Catholic Church tells us that a veil bearing a miraculous image of the Face of Jesus has existed since the earliest centuries, recorded in history and in art, such as the Camulia, or the Mandylion. Explanations for the existence of such a veil were all different (see “Four Stories, One Face“). About the time this miraculous veil first appeared in Rome, the name “Veronica” referred to the veil itself, and not a person–“Veronica” meaning “vera” or true, and “icon” meaning image, or even more precisely, “to be present.” Those who gazed upon the veil bearing the true Face of Jesus stood in God’s presence. They were turned toward His Face. The Veil became the greatest relic that Pilgrims traveled to see in the Vatican.
King of Edessa receiving the miraculous veil from St. Jude, and was healed of leprosy.
“Veronica” holding a sheer veil bearing the living Face of Christ on a sheer veil with distinctive folds.
Legends sprang up much later, in the Middle Ages, about a woman named “Veronica,” who was sometimes associated with the woman “Berenice” or “Bernice,” the bleeding woman who touches the hem of Jesus’s garment in the Gospel. There is a version, written in 1191 by Robert de Boron, that tells of a woman named “Veronica” wiping sweat from the Face of Jesus. The stories are many and varied, but the legend that most people are familiar with today is traced to a version by Roger d’Argenteuil in the 1300s, which tells of a woman “Veronica,” associated with the sixth station of the Cross–the compassionate woman, wiping the Face of Jesus on the way to Calvary with a cloth, upon which He leaves an image of His Face.
“These pious traditions cannot be documented, but there is no reason why the belief that such an act of compassion did occur should not find expression in the veneration paid to one called Veronica.” —The Catholic Encyclopedia
What did the Veil look like? A “living, changing, face” on a sheer veil, with distinctive folds, that could be viewed from either side; the eyes are open and glance to one side or the other; a lock of hair graces the center of the forehead; a sparse beard, wavy hair, as well as signs of bruising and trauma to the face are seen…. which despite the obvious suffering, remains peaceful and serene.
The Holy Veil of Manoppello- photo: Paul Badde/EWTN
Pope St. John Paul II expressed the answer to this profound question addressing the origin of the name of Veronica most beautifully in his poem, “The Name:”
The Name
In the crowd walking towards the place
[of the Agony]–
did you open up a gap at some point or were you
[opening it] from the beginning?
Veronica’s Veil by Hans Memling
And since when? You tell me, Veronica.
Your name was born in the very instant
in which your heart
became an effigy: the effigy of truth.
Your name was born from what you gazed upon.
–Karol Wojtyla
Miraculous Holy Face Veil Photo: Paul Badde (see “Manoppello Image” tab)
Since the detailed historical facts about the veil itself cannot be verified with absolute certainty in this life, the more important and answerable question is, “What does it mean to be a Veronica–a “true image?”
“Your name was born from what you gazed upon.”
When a soul performs an “act of compassion,” Jesus leaves His image on the “veil” of the soul. In other words, while contemplating the Face of Jesus in an image, in the Word of God in the Scriptures, in a person made in the image and likeness of God, or above all, in the Eucharist, the soul places itself in the Presence of God. When we are turned completely toward the Face of God, through a daily face-to-face encounter in prayer–by the power of the Holy Spirit–God gradually transforms the soul into the “True Image” of His Son, Jesus Christ. As Pope St. John Paul II says, our hearts must become an “effigy of truth,” a “true icon.” Then our name too will be born from what we gaze upon. It will be “Veronica.”
The Deepest Truth About St. Veronica
St. Veronica statue by Francesco Mochi, 1629
Within the center of St. Peter’s Basilica are four massive niches. In each niche there are four titanic statues of saints, standing 10 meters high: St. Andrew, the first disciple called by Christ, St. Longinus, the soldier who pierced Jesus’s side with his lance, St. Helena, who discovered the True Cross. The fourth statue depicts “St. Veronica,” an unknown woman, not mentioned in the Bible, yet immortalized in every Catholic church at the Sixth Station of the Cross, for her act of compassion to Jesus who left the image of His Face on her veil. (The relic that is now in the Veronica Pilar is quite different in description than what was previously recorded–a mystery yet to be solved. More may be read on the subject here: The Church, Testing of Relics, and the Holy Face)
Pope St. John Paul II wrote this beautiful meditation on St. Veronica in 2000, the same year in which he dedicated the millennium to the Face of Christ:
Sixth Station, St. Theresa Church, Ashburn, Virginia
“Veronica does not appear in the Gospels. Her name is not mentioned, even though the names of other women who accompanied Jesus do appear. It is possible, therefore, that the name refers more to what the woman did. In fact, according to tradition, on the road to Calvary a woman pushed her way through the soldiers escorting Jesus and with a veil wiped the sweat and blood from the Lord’s face. That face remained imprinted on the veil, a faithful reflection, a “true icon”. This would be the reason for the name Veronica. If this is so, the name which evokes the memory of what this woman did carries with it the deepest truth about her.
One day, Jesus drew the criticism of onlookers when he defended a sinful woman who had poured perfumed oil on his feet and dried them with her hair. To those who objected, he replied: “Why do you trouble this woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me . . . In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for burial” (Mt 26:10, 12). These words could likewise be applied to Veronica. Thus we see the profound eloquence of this event.
The Redeemer of the world presents Veronica with an authentic image of his face. The veil upon which the face of Christ remains imprinted becomes a message for us.
In a certain sense it says: This is how every act of goodness, every gesture of true love toward’s one’s neighbor, strengthens the likeness of the Redeemer of the world in the one who acts that way. Acts of love do not pass away. Every act of goodness, of understanding, of service leaves on people’s hearts an indelible imprint and makes us ever more like the One who “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). This is what shapes our identity and gives us our true name.” –Pope St. John Paul II
This is the deep meaning and call to every Christian revealed in the presence of the unknown woman we call “St. Veronica”– each act of charity, every act of compassion will leave the imprint of the Face of Jesus in our souls, transforming us into His own Image.
Pope Benedict XVI looks at the ‘Veronica’s Veil’ during a visit to the Holy Veil monastery in Manoppello, central Italy, September 1, 2006.
Pope Benedict wrote, “To rejoice in the splendor of His Face means penetrating the mystery of His Name made known to us in Jesus, understanding something of His interior life and of His will, so that we can live according to His plan for humanity. Jesus lets us know the hidden Face of The Father through His human Face; by the gift of The Holy Spirit poured into our hearts.” This, the Pope says, is the foundation of our Peace, which nothing can take from us.
Benedict XVI has characterized devotion to The Holy Face as having three separate components: 1. Discipleship – an encounter with Jesus, to see Jesus in the Face of those in need. 2. The Passion of Jesus, and suffering expressed by images of the wounded Face of Jesus. 3. The Eucharist, “the great school in which we learn to see The Face of God”, which is woven between the other two. The eschatological element then builds on awakening to Christ by contemplating His Face hidden in The Eucharist.
“Our whole life should be directed toward encountering Him,” writes Benedict, “toward loving Him; and in it, a central place must be given to love of one’s neighbor, that love that in the light of The Crucified One, enables us to recognize the Face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, the suffering.” The pope goes on to explain the fruits of this contemplation: “From contemplation of the Face of God are born, joy, security, PEACE.”
“The most illustrious thing the Church has is that which she hides most.” ~Bossuet
Detail, St. Joseph with the Child, by Alonso Miguel de Tovar
His countless virtues made him worthy to be the foster father of the Son of God. He was the first man to see the human Face of God; the first man to hear the cry of the Word of God. Yet for centuries the most just and humble St. Joseph was fairly hidden in the Church. Not a word is spoken by St. Joseph in the Gospels. But as Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “His is a silence permeated by contemplation of the mystery of God, in an attitude of total availability to His divine wishes.”
Josephs’s Dream by Rembrandt c.1645
It was St. Teresa of Avila who recognized St. Joseph as the model of contemplative prayer. She wrote: “Would that I could persuade all men to have devotion to this glorious Saint; for I know by long experience what blessings he can obtain for us from God.”Because St. Joseph was silent, he was attuned to hear the voice of God, although it was in darkness and obscurity. “Those who practice prayer,” says St. Teresa, “should have a tremendous devotion to him always.”
“Joseph, the honest man, seeks God. Joseph, the selfless man, finds God. Joseph, the hidden man, delights in God’s presence.” –Second Panegyric on St. Joseph by Bossuet
Holy Family with bird, c. 1650, by Murillo
St. Joseph, through continuous prayer, sought God’s Will in each present moment. St. Teresa writes that he is the master of the interior life. “In human life Joseph was Jesus’ master in their daily contact, full of refined affection, glad to deny himself in order to take better care of Jesus. Isn’t that reason enough for us to consider this just man, this holy patriarch, in whom the faith of the old covenant bears fruit, as master of interior life? Interior life is nothing but continual and direct conversation with Christ, so as to become one with Him. And Joseph can tell us many things about Jesus.” St. Joseph reveals those hidden graces in our daily lives; gifts from God that are available in each ordinary moment, as well as in trials and times of suffering. St. Joseph teaches us to live by faith as he did, before the presence of such a great mystery, by contemplating the human Face of God with the eyes of faith.
“In the wonder of the Incarnation your Eternal Word has brought to the eyes of faith a new and radiant vision of your glory. In him we see our God made visible, and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see.” (from the Christmas liturgy of the Mass).
The Veil of the Holy Face of Manoppello, (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN) Unique among other images of the Holy Face, in that it is an “achieropoeta” (as is the Shroud of Turin), not made by human hands. This “living image” of the Suffering and Risen Face of Jesus, bears traces of the Passion, and is believed to have been created at the moment of the Resurrection. It could be said that it is an “Icon of Easter”–the “Face of the Risen Christ” which we look forward to in Hope at the beginning of Lent.
“I wish that all the world could celebrate the Face of my Beloved. If I could at least honor Him for all those who honor Him not.” –Bl. Mother Maria Pierina De Micheli
Consecration to the Holy Face
O Lord Jesus, we believe most firmly in You. You are the Son Incarnate of the Blessed Virgin Mary. You are the Lord and Absolute Ruler of all creation. We acknowledge you, therefore, as the Universal Sovereign of all creatures. You are the Lord and Supreme Ruler of all mankind, and we, in acknowledging this Your dominion, consecrate ourselves to You now and forever. Loving Jesus, we place our family under the protection of Your Holy Face, and of Your Virgin Mother Mary most sorrowful. We promise to be faithful to You for the rest of our lives and to observe with fidelity Your Holy Commandments. We will never deny before men, You and Your Divine rights over us and all mankind. Grant us the grace to never sin again; nevertheless, should we fail, O Divine Saviour, have mercy on us and restore us to Your grace. Radiate Your Divine Countenance upon us and bless us now and forever. Embrace us at the hour of our death in Your Kingdom for all eternity, through the intercession of Your Blessed Mother, of all Your Saints who behold You in Heaven, and the just who glorify You on earth. O Jesus, be mindful of us forever and never forsake us; protect our family. O Mother of Sorrows, by the eternal glory which you enjoy in Heaven, through the merits of your bitter anguish in the Sacred Passion of your Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for us the grace that the Precious Blood shed by Jesus for the redemption of our souls, be not shed in vain. We love you, O Mary. Embrace us and bless us, O Mother. Protect us in life and in death. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
The Holy Face on the Shroud of Turin
“Christ’s response, ‘Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father, lead us into the heart of Christological faith.'” — Pope Benedict XVI
St. Pope John Paul II “In the Eucharist, the Face of Christ is turned towards us.”
“Thy Face is my only Homeland” by P. Ioannes Maria, O.S.B. (with permission)
The sources of devotion to the Most Holy Face of Jesus are found, first of all, in the Sacred Scriptures. One might say that the entire Bible, from beginning to end, glows with the light that shines from the Face of God. “Scripture,” writes Maurice Zundel, “is a person. Scripture is Jesus. Before or after His advent, it is full of Him.”1 The Greek word for person (πρόσωπο) also means face or countenance. Nothing, in fact, is more personal than a man’s face, for a man’s face reveals the movements of his heart. So often as the Church, in her liturgy, opens the Sacred Scriptures, she contemplates “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the Face of Christ Jesus.” Only in the light of the human Face of God”2 can believers chant, read, and hear the Scripture rightly, compelling Maurice Zundel to say: “Scripture can be understood only on our knees, as we feed upon it and become aware of an invisible current of air that moves all its leaves in an unconstrainable aspiration towards the glorious Countenance of Jesus Christ.”3
The features of a child’s face are formed very early in pregnancy, at about the same time as the heart begins to beat. The face and the heart are inseparable, even from the womb. Just as the Heart of Jesus was “formed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mother,” so too was His Face. We can, therefore, pray, Vultus Jesu, in sinu Virginis Matris a Spiritu Sancto formatus, miserere nobis. Face of Jesus, formed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mother, have mercy on us.” The human Face of God,” hidden in His Mother’s womb as in a tabernacle, sanctifies John, the son of Zachary and Elizabeth; eight days after his birth, his father addresses him, saying: “Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High: for thou shall go before the Face of the Lord to prepare his ways.”4
In Advent, the Divine Office makes us sing every evening at Vespers, Ostende faces tuam, et salvo erimus, Domine. “Show us Thy Face, O Lord, and we shall be saved.”5 And then, we open the First Vespers of Christmas, singing, Rex Pacific’s magnificatus set, jujus vultum desiderat universa terra. The King of Peace shines forth, whose Face all the world desires to see.”6 The first adorers of the “human Face of God” were His Virgin Mother and Saint Joseph. Then the shepherds “came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the manger.”7 What would the shepherds have desired to see more than the Face of the Saviour whose birth was announced to them by an angel? Wise men, coming from the East, were guided to the Infant King by a star, “and entering into the house, they found the Child with Mary His mother, and falling down, they adored Him.”8 What must have been their joy at beholding the Face of the Child!
“And when the time had come for purification according to the law of Moses, they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem, to present Him before the Lord there.”9 Simeon, “led by the Spirit into the temple,”10 took the Infant Jesus into his arms, and gazing at “the human Face of God,” said, “Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace; because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.11 An antiphon for the feast of Candlemas sings: “The ancient carried the Infant, but the Infant guided the steps of the ancient.”12 Simeon, the image of all that in us has grown old with waiting, carries Divine Mercy in his arms, but Divine Mercy, by the light that shines on his Face, guides the old man’s steps. Let anyone guided by Divine Mercy follow the example of Simeon by fixing his gaze on the Face of Christ.
Simeon, beholding the Face of God made visible, was “borne aloft to the love of things invisible.”13 Illumined by the Holy Face, the old priest recognised the new High Priest, “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.”14 In this, Simeon models the holiness of every priest who, taking the Host into his hands, raises it for the faithful to see. By looking at the “Eucharistic Face of Christ,”15 day after day, the priest, like Simeon, becomes capable of bearing witness to “things no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human heart conceived, the welcome God has prepared for those who love Him.”16
At the same time, there entered the Prophetess Anna the daughter of Phanuel, whose name means “Face of God.” Anna had made the temple her home. Abiding day and night in the temple, Anna served God with fasting and prayer. Drawn by the radiance of the Face of Christ and by a mysterious operation of the Holy Ghost, Anna emerged from the shadowy recesses of the temple to praise God and speak of the Child to all that patiently waited for the deliverance of Israel. Anna of the Face of God models the vocation of every consecrated woman.
When Jesus, at the age of twelve, remained in Jerusalem after the solemn feast of the Pasch, the greatest sorrow of His Mother and of St, Joseph was that, for three days, they lost sight of His Holy Face. There is, in the Office for the Feast of the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple,17 an antiphon that expresses the anguish of the Most Holy Virgin and Saint Joseph as they sought Jesus: Quasi illum, et non inveni: vocaviet non responded mini. “I sought Him, and found Him not: I called, and He did not answer me.”18 If the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple numbered among the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, rather than the Sorrowful, it is because the sight of the Holy Face filled His Mother and Saint Joseph with surpassing gladness.
Nearly two decades later Jesus “took Peter and John and James with Him, and went up into a mountain to pray.”19 And He was transfigured before them, and His Face shone like the sun.”20 Saint John beheld the same Face on the island of Patmos; “His Face,” he testifies, “was like the sun when it shines at its full strength.”21 Between these two manifestations of the Holy Face of Jesus shining like the sun, Saint John beheld the same adorable Face darkened and disfigured in the agony of Gethsemane and on Calvary, without “form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him, despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces.”22
In the glory of the Resurrection, the divine majesty of the Holy Face of Jesus remained mysteriously veiled. Mary Magdalene took Him for the gardener,23 and the disciples on the road to Emmaus, for a stranger,24 and when He showed Himself to the disciples at the sea of Tiberius, standing at daybreak on the shore, “the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.”25 It was only after Jesus said, “Cast to the right of the boat, and you will have a catch,” causing them to catch a prodigious shoal of fish, that “the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord.”26
The same adorable Face remains mysteriously veiled in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Deus absconditus,27 unrecognised by most and forsaken in the abandoned tabernacles of the world. Saint Gaetano Catanoso, canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, at the conclusion of the Year of the Eucharist, said, “If we wish to adore the real Face of Jesus…, we can find it in the divine Eucharist, where the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the Face of Our Lord is hidden under the white veil of the Host.”28
The Feast of the Ascension, the Sunday that follows it, and the Feasts of the Epiphany and Transfiguration have long been kept as days particularly suited to the contemplation and adoration of the Holy Face of Jesus. With the mystery of the Ascension, “the human Face of God” fills the heavenly sanctuary with a new brightness. God prays to God with a human voice. God having a human Face, intercedes with God on behalf of men.
Saint John Henry Newman remarked that there is a certain sadness about the Ascension of Our Lord, the last glimpse of His adorable Face. 29 At the same time, there is a joy in knowing that the Holy Face of Our High Priest, forever turned to His Father in the heavenly sanctuary, is no less turned towards us in the tabernacles of our churches, where, silent and hidden, He waits. “We see Him not,” says the new Doctor of the Church, “but we are to believe that we possess Him, that we have been brought under the virtue of His healing hand, of His life-giving breath, of the manna flowing from His lips, and of the blood issuing from His side.”30 We see Him not, but one who tarries close to the tabernacle will go away a changed man, for the Eucharistic Face of Jesus will have shone in the innermost places of his soul, purifying what is clean, warming what is cold, and healing what is sick.
The “modern” feast of the Holy Face, instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1958, at the request of Blessed Maria Pierina De Micheli31 and Venerable Abbot Idldebrando Gregori,32 synthesises all that the great Christological feasts of the liturgical year and the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary pass in review: the human Face of God in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, and in Egypt; on Mount Thabor, in Gethsemani, and on Calvary; on the road to Emmaus and, finally on the Mount of Olives. All these converge in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. The Holy Face of Jesus is in the Sacrament of His Love as it was in His life on earth: as it was in nearly every moment of His Passion; as it was in the agony of His death upon the Cross; and as it is now and for all eternity, in the glory of heaven. To contemplate and adore the Holy Face of Jesus, “hidden under the white veil of the Host,” is to enter into His own priestly work of reparation to the Father and reparation of the ravages of sin in souls.
Italy is stupendously rich in sanctuaries of the Holy Face of Jesus: the Veil of Manoppello, the Shroud of Turin, the Volto Santo of Lucca, that of Sansepolcro (Arezzo), the Mandylion of Genoa, and the Casa of Madre Flora De Santis at Capodimonte, among others. It is not, however, necessary to undertake pilgrimages far from home. It is enough to go, quietly and humbly, to the nearest tabernacle, and to remain there in adoration and reparation, repeating the Royal Prophet’s heartfelt plea: “Thy Face, O Lord, do I seek; hide not Thy Face from me.” One who prays in this way, adoring the Deus absconditus, will, at length, begin to say with Saint Therese: Ta Face set ma seule Patrie. “Thy Face is my only Homeland.”
Maurice Zundel, The Splendor of the Liturgy (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1939), 284. ↩︎
“The human Face of God that has burst into history to reveal the horizons of eternity. The silent Face of Jesus, suffering and risen, when loved and accepted, changes our hearts and lives.” Pope Benedict XVI, Prayer at Manoppello, 1 September 2006. ↩︎
Senex puerum portabat, Puer autem senem regebat: quem Virgo pepent, et post partum Virgo permansit: Ipsum quem genuit, adoravit. “The old man bore the Child, but the Child ruled the old man’s steps; even the Child Whom a Virgin bore, and remained a Virgin as before; and when that Virgin had brought Him the world, bowing low, she adored Him.” (Antiphon of the Magnificat at First Vespers. ↩︎
This is expressed in the Preface of the Nativity: Quia per incarnati Verbi mysterium nova mantis nostril oculus lux tuae claritatis infulsit: ut dum visibiliter Deum cognoscimus, per hunch in invisibilum amorem rapiamur. “Because by the mystery of the Word made flesh the light of Thy glory hath shone anew upon the eyes of our mind: that while we acknowledge Him to be God seen by men, we may be borne aloft to the love of things unseen.” ↩︎
The hidden God, following the word of the Prophet Isaias, who says, “Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the Saviour” (Isaias 45:15).↩︎
Homily of Pope Benedict XVI, Saint Peter’s Square, 23 October 2005. ↩︎
John Henry Newman, “Sermon 10: The Spiritual Presence of Christ in the Church,” in Parochial and Plain Sermons (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1918), 121. ↩︎
“Oh Savior Jesus, who did will that reparation should be as public and universal as had been the offense, penetrate us with the true spirit of reparation. Give us the grace to love Your Divine Face, to make it known and loved by the whole world, in order that it may be to us a source of light and means of salvation. Amen.” –Bl. Maria Pierina de Micheli, “Missionary of the Holy Face”
Christ as the Man of Sorrows; Quentin Metsys (Netherlandish, 1465 or 1466 – 1530); Belgium; 1520–1530
Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the World, by Thy Passion death and Ressurection, by Thy Holy Face and Holy Name Save us! Holy Mary, Intercede for your poor children around the world! Diptych with Christ as Salvator Mundi and Mary Praying by Quintin Metsys
Prayer to the Holy Trinity
The Man of Sorrows in the arms of the Virgin Mary, by Hans Memling
O Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, through the intercession of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with Jesus, united with His sorrows, love and total abandonment.
We now implore all the Angels and Saints to intercede for us as we pray this Holy Novena to the Most Holy Face of Jesus and for the glory of the most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Ninth Day
Psalm 51: 18-21
For in sacrifice you take no delight, burnt offering from me you would refuse, my sacrifice a
Altar of The Holy Face, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York
contrite spirit. A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn. In your goodness, show favor to Zion; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice, holocausts offered on your altar.
Sacred Face of our Lord and our God, what words can we say to express our gratitude? How can we speak of our joy? That you have deigned to hear us, that you have chosen to answer us in our hour of need. We say this because we know that our prayers will be granted. We know that you, in your loving kindness, listened to our pleading hearts, and will give, out of your fullness, the answer to our problems.
Mary our Mother, intercede for us, St. Joseph, pray for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition, …Pardon and mercy.
Prayer to the Holy Trinity
Sr. Lucia’s vision of The Trinity
Most Holy Trinity, Godhead indivisible, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, our first beginning and our last end. Since you have made us after your own image and likeness, grant that all the thoughts of our minds, all the words of our tongues, all the affections of our hearts and all our actions may be always conformed to your most Holy Will, so that that after having seen you here on earth in appearances and in a dark manner by the means of faith, we may come at last to contemplate you face to face, in the perfect possession of you forever in paradise. Amen.
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary’s, one (1) Glory Be.
Tomorrow will be the Feast of the Holy Feast and Act of Consecration
Our Lord told Sr. Marie St. Pierre 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.
Holy Face on the Shroud of Turin
Prayer to reproduce the Image of God in our souls
I salute You! I adore you and I love you, O adorable face of my beloved Jesus, as the noble stamp of the Divinity! Completely surrendering my soul to You, I most humbly beg You to stamp this seal upon us all, so the image of God may once more be reproduced in our souls. Amen.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 17th, will be The Feast of the Holy Face and The Act of Consecration to the Holy Face
“Living” Face of Jesus on the miraculous Veil of Manoppello. Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN
“All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image.”
“It is the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make His Face shine before the generations of the new millennium. Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated His FACE!” –St. Pope John Paul IIMay the Lord bless and keep you; may He make His Face shine upon and be merciful to you; may He turn His Countenance toward you and grant you His PEACE! (Num 6:22-27)
Padre Pio called the Holy Veil of Manoppello the “greatest relic of the Church” photo: Patricia Enk
Adorable Face of my Jesus, my only love, my light and my life, grant that I may see no one, except Thee, that I may love Thee alone, that I may live with Thee, of Thee, by Thee and for Thee. Amen
“Gaze at Jesus, our model. Let us copy Him; He is our example in all. Let us study Him in all the moments of His Life,, and let us not be content with an intellectual study, but with love that penetrates the divine teachings, and let us transform them into our very being.” –Bl. Mother Pierina de Micheli, “Missionary of the Holy Face”
Daily Preparatory Prayer
O Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, through the intercession of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with Jesus, united with His sorrows, love and total abandonment.
We now implore all the Angels and Saints to intercede for us as we pray this Holy Novena to the Most Holy Face of Jesus and for the glory of the most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Eighth Day
Psalm 51: 16-17
O rescue me, God my helper, and my tongue shall ring out your goodness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.
The Good Shepherd
Most merciful Face of Jesus, who in this vale of tears was so moved by our misfortunes to call yourself the healer of the sick, and the Good Shepherd of the souls gone astray, allow not satan to draw us away from you, but keep us always under your loving protection, together with all souls who endeavor to console you.
Mary our Mother, intercede for us, St. Joseph, pray for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition, …Pardon and mercy.
Prayer to St. Peter
O Jesus, the divine look of whose adorable Face wounded the heart of Peter with repentant sorrow and love, have mercy on us.
O glorious St. Peter, who in return for thy lively and generous faith, thy profound and sincere humility and thy burning love, was honored by Jesus Christ with singular privileges, and in particular, with the leadership of the other apostles and the primacy of the whole church, of which thou was made the foundation stone, do thou obtain for us the grace of a lively faith, that shall not fear to profess itself openly in its entirety and in all of its manifestations, even to the shedding of blood, if occasion should demand it, and to the sacrifice of life itself in preference to surrender. Obtain for us likewise a sincere loyalty to our Holy Mother the Church. Grant that we may ever remain most closely and sincerely united to The Holy Father, who is the heir of thy faith and of thy authority, the one true visible head of the Catholic Church. Grant moreover, that we may follow, in all humility and meekness, the Church’s teaching and counsels and may be obedient to all her precepts, in order to be able here on earth to enjoy a peace that is sure and undisturbed, and to attain one day in heaven to everlasting happiness. Amen.
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary’s, one (1) Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine. (3 times)
Sorrowful Mother of The Holy Face, Shirburn Chapel England
“This novena which Jesus desires transforms us to correspond with His love, and thus unites us to the Divine Victim, offering ourselves on all the altars of the world to be with Him–true souls of reparation, in union with the Immaculate Virgin–the first Reparatrix.” –Bl. Mother Maria Pierina de Micheli, “Missionary of the Holy Face”
Daily Preparatory Prayer
O Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, through the intercession of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with Jesus, united with His sorrows, love and total abandonment.
We now implore all the Angels and Saints to intercede for us as we pray this Holy Novena to the Most Holy Face of Jesus and for the glory of the most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Seventh Day
Psalm 51: 14-15
Give me again the joy of your help, with a spirit of fervor sustain me, that I may teach
ECCE HOMO! “Behold the Man!”
transgressors your ways and sinners may return to you.
Lord Jesus! After contemplating Thy features, disfigured by grief, after meditating upon Thy passion with compunction and love, how can our hearts fail to be inflamed with a holy hatred of sin, which even now outrages Thy Adorable Face! Lord suffer us not to be content with mere compassion, but give us grace so closely to follow Thee in this Calvary, so that the opprobrium destined for Thee may fall on us. O Jesus, that thus we may have a share, small though it may be, in expiation of sin. Amen.
Mary our Mother, intercede for us, St. Joseph, pray for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition, …Pardon and mercy.
“Lord, grant to your Church to stand like Your Virgin Mother, at the glorious Cross and all the crosses of all people to bring about consolation, hope and comfort.” — St. Pope John Paul II
Mater Dolorosa by Dieric Bouts, 1470-75
Prayer in Honor of Mary
Hail Mary, Daughter of God the Father! Hail Mary, Mother of God the Son! Hail Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit! Hail Mary, Temple of The Most Holy Trinity! Hail Mary, our mistress, our wealth, our mystic rose, Queen of our hearts, our Mother, our life, our sweetness and our dearest hope! We are all thine, and all we have is thine. O Virgin blessed above all things, may Thy soul be in us to magnify the Lord; may Thy spirit be in us to rejoice in God. Place Thyself, O faithful Virgin, as a seal upon our hearts, that in Thee and through Thee we may be found faithful to God. Grant, most gracious Virgin, that we may be numbered among those who Thou are pleased to love, to teach and to guide, to favor and to protect as Thy children. Grant that with the help of Thy love, we may despise all earthly consolation and cling to heavenly things, until through the Holy Spirit, Thy faithful spouse and through Thee, His faithful spouse, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, be formed within us for the glory of the Father. Amen. (St. Louis De Montfort)
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary’s, one (1) Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine. (3 times)
Pieta, with Holy Trinity and Blessed Mother, (Jean Malouel 1400-1410) Met Museum
