“Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee.” (Song of Solomon 4:7)
“From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator,” “for the author of beauty created them.” (Wisdom 13: 3, 5)
The spiritual beauty of God is reflected most perfectly in the woman He created to be His Mother. No stain of sin would mar the beauty of His reflection in her soul. Never for one instant would she be under the power of the devil. “The Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.” (Dogma of the Immaculate Conception) Mary herself proclaims, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:47)
As the Immaculate Conception, Mary bears in herself the most perfect reflection of the face of God. Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “The Blessed Virgin saw shining upon her, as no other creature, the face of the Father, rich in grace and mercy.” What in Heaven and on earth could be more beautiful than the Mother of God? It is God who has willed that Mary be beautiful, not only fair in face, but in the fullness of grace. Yet, beauty has a purpose, and that is to draw us by the beauty of the graces God has given her towards the Beatific Vision–the Face of God. Mary has no greater desire than that we turn towards the Face of her Son, as she does, with eyes of love.
Strangely, there are some who see the Blessed Mother not as a gift from God who leads us to her Son, but as an obstacle. They want to separate the Mother from the Son, even resorting to violence of smashing statues and slashing paintings of her, mistakenly thinking that somehow this could be pleasing to God, but it is only pleasing to the devil. It is blasphemy. When we separate ourselves from Mary, we separate ourselves from Christ. In The Everlasting Man G.K. Chesterton tells a story from his childhood, many years before he became a Catholic, which left a deep impression on his soul:
“When I was a boy a more Puritan generation objected to a statue upon my parish church representing the Virgin and Child. After much controversy, they compromised by taking away the Child. One would think that this was even more corrupted with Mariolatry, unless the mother was counted less dangerous when deprived of a sort of weapon. But the practical difficulty is also a parable. You cannot chip away the statue of a mother from all round that of a newborn child. You cannot suspend the new-born child in mid-air; indeed you cannot really have a statue of a newborn child at all. Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a newborn child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother. You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother, you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother. If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, the other idea follows I as it is followed in history. We must either leave Christ out of Christmas, or Christmas out of Christ, or we must admit, if only as we admit it in an old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the haloes not to mingle and cross.”
Jesus alone is “the Way” that leads to the Father, but Mary is the most beautiful image and likeness of Christ, which will lead us to Him. Dostoevsky once said that “Beauty will save the world!” Mary has a spiritual beauty to share with the world that attracts and expresses what is beyond words, in the depths of her heart, the love of a mother for her Savior and Son.
“Our Lady, in whose face – more than any other creature – we can recognize the features of the Incarnate Word.” –Pope Benedict XVI Madonna and Child from the Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art
A Little Litany by G.K.Chesterton
When God turned back eternity and was young, Ancient of Days, grown little for your mirth (As under the low arch the land is bright) Peered through you, gate of heaven – and saw the earth.
Or shutting out his shining skies awhile Built you about him for a house of gold To see in pictured walls his storied world Return upon him as a tale is told.
Or found his mirror there; the only glass That would not break with that unbearable light Till in a corner of the high dark house God looked on God, as ghosts meet in the night.
Star of his morning; that unfallen star In the strange starry overturn of space When earth and sky changed places for an hour And heaven looked upwards in a human face.
Or young on your strong knees and lifted up Wisdom cried out, whose voice is in the street, And more than twilight of twiformed cherubim Made of his throne indeed a mercy-seat.
Or risen from play at your pale raiment’s hem God, grown adventurous from all time’s repose, Of your tall body climbed the ivory tower And kissed upon your mouth the mystic rose.
Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe “I am your merciful Mother.”
“Look Closely – Our Lady of Guadalupe – Not Made by Human Hands” click here.
Christ the king, seated on His throne. Illustration Godescalc Illuminated manuscript, commissioned by King Charlemagne in 781, may be the most important “missing link” in depictions of the Face of Christ from the Holy Sudarium. (Photo:Paul Badde)
The Solemnity of the Feast of Christ the King of the Universe comes at the end of the liturgical year, November 24th, 2024. The feast focuses on Jesus Christ coming in glory at the end of time. An important question for every Christian to ponder is: When Christ the King comes again will we recognize Him, and will he recognize us?
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the kind will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the kind will say to them in replay, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me. ‘And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Mt. 25:31-46)
Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus can be a helpful means to lead us to an encounter with Jesus in our life-long journey–enabling us to recognize Him–and He, to recognize us. This devotion is comprised of three elements–as characterized by Pope Benedict XVI: Discipleship, Images of the wounded Face of Christ , and the Eucharist.
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Pope Francis embracing a young man with special needs.)
Pope Benedict XVI writes, “The first element [of devotion to the Holy Face] is discipleship and the orientation of one’s life toward an encounter with Jesus in the face of those in need. In order to do this, believers first need to become better acquainted with Jesus through the Eucharist.
The second element is relating to the Passion of Jesus, and the suffering expressed by the images of the wounded Face of Jesus, relating this to the Eucharistic experience.
The third element, the Eucharist is woven between the other two. The eschatological element then builds on awakening to Christ by contemplating his face in the Eucharist.“
The Eucharistic Face of Jesus is central to the devotion of the Face of Christ! Clearly, the grace and strength flowing from worthy reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is vital to encountering Jesus in the faces of our brothers and sisters in need, as well as for the prayerful contemplation of Christ’s Face in images of His Passion. In Novo Millenio Ineunte, Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “And it is the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make His face shine also before the generations of the new millennium. Our witness, however would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves have not first contemplated his face.”
Contemplation of the Face of Jesus is the veil of devotion, with which we may ‘wipe His bruised and wounded Face, ‘woven’ together with “discipleship, and the Eucharist,” which can lead Christians to “the love of God and love of neighbor” that will enable us to see Christ’s Face when He comes again in glory on the final day.
“The invisible Face of Christ,the son of God, is manifest in His Body an Blood in the simplest and, at the same time, the most exalted way possible in this world.
The ecclesial community responds to people in every age who ask perplexed: “We wish to see Jesus” (Jn 12,21), by repeating what the Lord did for the disciples of Emmaus: He broke the bread. In the breaking of the bread, the eyes of those who seek Him with a sincere heart are opened. In the Eucharist, the intuition of the heart recognizes Jesus and His unmistakable love lived “to the end” (Jn 13,1). And in Him, in that gesture, it recognizes the Face of God!“— Pope St. John Paul II
Pope Benedict XVI in prayerful contemplation before the veil of the Holy Face of Manoppello during a visit to the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, central Italy, September 1, 2006. (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN)
***Important and exciting update on the Holy Veil of Manoppello:CNA Deutsch has reported a new discovery, in an article by Paul Badde, pertaining to “Il Volto Santo,” and the inexplicable presence of the Face of Jesus on the sheer veil, which has no traces of paint. An eminent German doctor, Gosbert Weth, has made non-invasive investigations on the relic, using a special nuclear medicine measuring device. The device measures alpha, beta, and gamma rays. Beta rays, which are invisible and energetic, are released during nuclear fission. It has been determined that the veil of Manoppello has such a high level of beta radiation that it fills the Basilica with it! It has also been observed that the veil gives off light in darkness. The upshot of this wonderful discovery is:The Veil of the Holy Face of Manoppello is a source of energy whose strength can be measured objectively.
I will post further details of Dr. Weth’s investigations very soon, but this is amazing news that should be shouted from the rooftops! Thanks be to God!
“O most awe-inspiring King, we bow before You and pray; May Your Reign, Your Kingdom, be recognized on earth.” (Host viewed through the miraculous Manoppello Veil the Holy Face, Photo: Paul Badde/ EWTN)
“Almighty ever-living God, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of the universe, grant, we pray, that the whole creation, set free from slavery, may render your majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim your praise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.”
— Prayer for Feast of Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
Novena to Christ the King
Almighty and merciful God, you break the power of evil and make all things new in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. May all in heaven and earth acclaim your glory and never cease to praise you.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Recite One Our Father, One Hail Mary, and One Glory Be per day followed by the Novena Prayer:
O Lord our God, You alone are the Most Holy King and Ruler of all nations. We pray to You, Lord, in the great expectation of receiving from You, O Divine King, mercy, peace, justice and all good things. Protect, O Lord our King, our families and the land of our birth. Guard us we pray Most Faithful One. Protect us from our enemies and from Your Just Judgment Forgive us, O Sovereign King, our sins against you. Jesus, You are a King of Mercy. We have deserved Your Just Judgment Have mercy on us, Lord, and forgive us. We trust in Your Great Mercy. O most awe-inspiring King, we bow before You and pray; May Your Reign, Your Kingdom, be recognized on earth.
When he placed the New Millennium under “the Radiant sign of the Face of Christ” Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “To contemplate the Face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the ‘program’ which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium…It is the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make His Face shine also before new generations of the new millennium. Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated His Face.” The Rosary is a traditional Christian prayer directed to the contemplation of Christ’s Face. “Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul,” says Pope St. John Paul II, “and runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ.”
Contemplation is a gift, a grace, from God. It is a communion in which God transforms a soul into His likeness. To put it more simply, as St. Teresa of Jesus says, contemplation is “a close sharing between friends…taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.” Contemplation is not something beyond our reach however–we have an incomparable model in Mary; the eyes of her heart were always turned toward His Face. To dispose our souls to receive this great gift of God we need only reach for a Rosary and pray it with humility, listening attentively in the Spirit together with Mary, in silent love–that veil of mystery–to the Father’s voice. When we contemplate the scenes or mysteries of the Rosary in union with Mary, the Rosary becomes an unceasing praise of God; a way to learn from her about her son, Jesus, to discover His secrets and understand His message for us.
To recite the Rosary, which can be called a compendium of the Gospel, Pope St. John Paul II says, “is to contemplate the Face of Christ in union with, and at the school of, His Most Holy Mother…Against the background of the words of the Ave Maria the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. They take shape in the complete series of the joyful, [luminous,] sorrowful and glorious mysteries, and they put us in living communion with Jesus through–we might say through the heart of his Mother…The Rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation…To look upon the Face of Christ, to recognize its mystery amid the daily events and sufferings of His human life, and then to grasp the divine splendor definitively revealed in the Risen Lord, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father; this is the task of every follower of Christ and therefore the task of each one of us. In contemplating Christ’s Face we become open to receiving the mystery of Trinitarian life, experiencing ever anew the love of the Father and delighting in the joy of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul’s words can then be applied to us ‘Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed into His likeness, from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.'” (Rosarium Virginus Mariae)
“The contemplation of Christ’s Face cannot stop at the image of the Crucified One. He is the Risen One!”~ Pope St. John Paul II
The entire month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary and October 7th is celebrated as the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The feast, originally named for Our Lady of Victory, commemorated the stunning victory, against all odds, obtained by Our Lady in the Battle of Lepanto through the prayer of the Rosary–which saved Christendom on October 7th, in 1571. By keeping our eyes fixed on the Face of Jesus as we pray the Rosary, together with Mary, through her maternal intercession, we too may obtain great victories through the heart of her Son Jesus, who obtained for all mankind the greatest victory over sin and death by His Resurrection.
“Through her, may we see Him. Made sweeter, not made dim. And her hand leaves His light, sifted to suit our sight.” ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins (Painting of the Blessed Mother and the Child Jesus by Margaret Farr)
Blasphemy against Our Lord now seems to have reached the inverted crescendo of debauchery reflecting the depths of hell in the opening ceremony of the French Olympic’s obscene mockery of the Last Supper of Christ. I cannot stomach repeating a description of the revolting display that was acted out in an anti-christian spirit that perhaps surpassed that of the French Revolution in it’s world-wide scope.
What does blasphemy has to do with the Face of God, and what should be the response of all Christians?
God has a Face and a Holy Name in Jesus Christ. When God became man at the Incarnation, He showed us His human face in Jesus. The Hebrew term “panim” means both to see the Face of God, or to be in His Holy Presence, as well as a term that describes relationship. Through the Face of Jesus we enter into relationship with God. 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. Blasphemy is rejecting the tender love God offers to mankind in His Son Jesus, and in effect, attacking and spitting in His Face.
Because of this relationship between God and man — reflected in the name of Jesus and His Holy Face — sins committed against Him cause pain and suffering to His Sacred Heart, and are reflected in the Face of Christ. The manifestation of our sins on His Countenance come about through blasphemy, atheism, disrespect of God in sacred things, the profanation of Sunday, hatred of God’s Church. All of which was demonstrated in the satanic display at the Olympic opening ceremony.
Our relationship with God as it should be is lovingly presented to mankind in the first three of the Ten Commandments that relate to God Himself:
I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.
THOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.
KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY.
According to Catholic Church teaching, the first commands: faith, hope, love and worship of God; reverence for holy things; prayer; and forbids: idolatry; superstition; spiritism; tempting God; sacrilege; and attendance at false worship. The second commands: reverence in speaking about God and holy things; the keeping of oaths and vows. It forbids: blasphemy; the irreverent use of God’s name; speaking disrespectfully of holy things; false oaths and the the breaking of vows. The third commands: going to church on Sundays and holy days of obligation. It forbids missing church through one’s own fault; unnecessary servile work on Sunday and holy days of obligation.
The sins, however, committed by those who do not know God, pale in comparison to the most horrible and destructive blasphemy which has been committed by those who should be closest to the Heart of Jesus, within the Church, who have betrayed Him. All these indignities suffered by Our Lord in His Face represent the most serious sins, because they are against God Himself.
Left: Photo of the Holy Face of Manoppello / On the Right: Judas betraying Jesus with a Kiss. Painting by Hans Holbein Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN
If you would like to console Jesus, uniting to Him in His suffering, our bishops have suggested attending Mass with reverence, as well as spending time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In addition, prayers of reparation may be found clicking the “Prayers” tab. The damage done by the sins of humanity to our precious relationship with God, which are reflected in the Face of Jesus Christ, are in need of repair. For this reason, devotion and reparation to the Holy Face and the Holy Name are fitting in order to make amends for what humanity has done to Him.
“For God so loved the world”
“Do you see how I suffer? Yet, very few understand me. Those who say they love me are very ungrateful! I have given my HEART as the sensible object of my great LOVE to men and I give my FACE as the sensible object of my sorrow for the sins of men.” –Words of Our Lord to Bl. Mother Maria Pierina de Micheli
The Veronica Veil
The Golden Arrow Prayer, is a prayer given by Our Lord to Sr. Marie St. Pierre, OCD, to be prayed in atonement for the sins of blasphemy against God’s name–As those sins are like a ‘poisoned dart’ continually wounding Our Lord’s Sacred Heart, Sr. Marie St. Pierre saw in a vision that this “Golden Arrow Prayer” had the power to wound His Heart delightfully:
“May the most holy, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God be forever 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.”
Be a “Veronica” by wiping the spittle from the Face of Our Lord, and He will restore His Image in your soul. Click here to learn “What does it mean to be a Veronica?”
“Jesus, has shown us the Face of God, One in substance and Triune in Persons; God is all and only Love, in a subsisting relationship that creates, redeems, and sanctifies all: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
~Pope Francis
A Discalced Carmelite nun who lived in the mid-1800’s, Sr. Marie St. Pierre, had many interior visions regarding the Holy Face of Jesus — including a sublime conception of the The Holy Trinity and the Holy Face — which she tried to express in these words she received from Our Lord:
Sr. Marie St, Pierre
“Remember, O my soul, the instruction which thy celestial Spouse has given thee today on His adorable Face! Remember that this Divine Head represents the Father who is from all eternity, that the mouth of this Holy Face is a figure of the Divine Word, engendered by the Father, and that the eyes of this mysterious Face represent the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son; for these eyes have but one and the same light, the same knowledge, producing the same love, which is the Holy Spirit. In his beautiful silken hair contemplate the infinitude of the adorable perfections of the Most Holy Trinity in this majestic head, the most precious portion of the Sacred Humanity of thy Saviour; contemplate the image of the unity of God. This, then, is the adorable and mysterious Face of the Saviour, which blasphemers have the temerity to cover with opprobrium: thus they renew the sufferings of His Passion, by attacking the Divinity of which it is the image.”
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Our Lord told Sr. Marie St. Pierre that she could comfort and console Him by her praises, such as in The Golden Arrow Prayer: “May the most holy, most sacred, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.
Holy Face Veil of Manoppello, Italy (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN)
“According to the diligence you will manifest in repairing my image disfigured by blasphemers, so will I have the same care in repairing your soul which has been disfigured by sin. I will imprint thereon my image, and I will render it as beautiful as when it came forth from the baptismal font… Oh! could you but behold the beauty of My Face!–But your eyes are yet too weak.” –Our Lord to Sr. Marie St. Pierre
St. Elizabeth of The Trinity
Another Discalced Carmelite Nun, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, also directs our gaze to the Face of the Son in order to contemplate the beauty of the Holy Trinity and and reflect God’s image:
“It is Your continual desire to associate Yourself with Your creatures…How can I better satisfy Your desire than by keeping myself simply and lovingly turned towards You, so that You can reflect Your own image in me, as the sun is reflected through pure crystal? …We will be glorified in the measure in which we will have been conformed to the image of His divine Son. So, let us contemplate this adored Image, let us remain unceasingly under its radiance so that it may imprint itself on us.” –Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, O.C.D.
O My God, Trinity Whom I Adore
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You, O my unchanging One, but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your Mystery. Give peace to my soul, make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling and Your resting place. May I never leave you there alone but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative action. O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I wish to be a bride for Your Heart; I wish to cover You with glory; I wish to love You…even unto death! But I feel my weakness, and I ask You to clothe me with Yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of Your Soul, to overwhelm me, to posses me, to substitute Yourself for me that my life may be but a radiance of Your life. Come to me as Adorer, as Restorer, as Savior, O Word Eternal, Word of my God. I want to spend my life listening to You, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from You. Then, through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light. O my beloved Star, so fascinate me that that I may not withdraw from your radiance. O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, come upon me, and create in my soul a kind of Incarnation of the Word; that I may be another humanity for Him, in which He can renew His whole Mystery. And You, O Father, bend lovingly over your poor little creature; cover her with your shadow, seeing in her only the Beloved in whom You are well pleased. O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I love myself, I surrender myself to You as Your prey. Bury Yourself in me that I may bury myself in You until I depart to contemplate in Your light the abyss of Your greatness. November 21, 1904 — St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
The relic Veil of the Holy Face (on left) carried in procession. (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Procession as it winds though the streets of Manoppello (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Little Angels accompany the Holy Veil of Manoppello (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Rose petals are dropped gently on the reliquary from above. (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
A centuries old tradition is continued each May in Manoppello, Italy…
There are three solemn feast days celebrated each year to honor of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy: the “Transfiguration” on August 6th, “Omnis Terra” in January, and the May memorial of the mysterious arrival of the “Veronica” to Manoppello in the early 1500’s.
Capuchin friars surrounding the Holy Face (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
The Capuchin Friar and Rector of the Basilica Shrine of “Il Volto Santo” Padre Antonio Gentili raises the Veil of the Holy Face to bless the people. (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
The Capuchin Friars minor have guarded the precious “Veronica” relic veil of the Face of Jesus since 1638, when “a devout and well-respected man” named Don Antonio Fabritiis donated the holy veil bearing the Face of Christ to the Capuchin monastery in the small, isolated mountain village of Manoppello. A document entitled Relazione Historica re-telling the local legend of the Veil was written by Capuchin Donato da Bomba and notarized in 1646 and then, certified by sixteen local witnesses. The story told of the arrival of the Veil in Manoppello, “in around 1506,”(the date was vague) in the hands of a mysterious stranger who was thought to have been a holy angel, who later, suddenly disappeared. (Aside from the “angel,” the main characters in the story have been historically verified.)
The recorded story told was this: “There lived in Manoppello the very famous Giacomo Antonio Leonelli, doctor in medicine…one day when he was out in the public square just outside of the door of the Mother church of the town of Manoppello, St. Nicholas Bari, in honest conversation with other peers, and while they were speaking a pilgrim arrived unknown by anyone, with a very venerable religious appearance, who having greeted this beautiful circle of citizens, he said, with many terms of manners, and of humility to Dr. Giacomo Antonio Leonelli that he had to speak with him about a secret thing which would be very pleasing, useful and profitable for him. And thus, taking him aside just inside the doorway of the church of St. Nicholas Bari, gave him a parcel, and without unfolding it told him that he ought to hold this devotion very dear, because God would do him many favors, so that in things both temporal and spiritual he would always prosper.” So the doctor took the parcel and turning towards the holy water fount carefully opened it, and “seeing the Most Sacred Face of Our Lord Christ…he burst into most tender tears…and thanking God for such a gift…turned to the unknown pilgrim to thank him…but he did not see him anymore.” When the good doctor, “shaken” and “filled with wonder,” went outside to his friends and asked where the man went, his friends replied that they never saw him exit the church. They searched high and low but never found the mysterious pilgrim, “hence all judged that the man in the form of a pilgrim to be a heavenly Angel, or else a Saint from Paradise.”
Photo taken of the Holy Veil during the night vigil by Alexandra Prandell.
— Relazione Historica
The Holy Veil remained the property of the Leonelli family for nearly a century, until a family member in need of money sold the Veil to Don Antonio Fabritiis, who in turn gave it to the Capuchins in 1638. The Holy Veil, called the “Il Volto Santo,” was kept in a dimly lit side chapel until the church was renovated in 1960, when it was decided that the Veil should be moved to a more prominent place behind the altar of the church of St. Michael, the Shrine of “Il Volto Santo,” which was elevated to the status of a Sanctuary Basilica by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.
According to the light, the image fades on the sheer veil. (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
The Face once again appears! (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
The veil is sheer enough to read through, and in light, can disappear, and yet miraculously appears on each side with subtle differences, such as the lock of hair at the forehead, and even greater differences in the eyes and the mouth. It is not humanly possible to reproduce the image with paint and retain its mysterious changeability as well as transparency. This image is known as an archeiropoieta–made not by human hand but by the Hand of God!
The Face of Christ on the Holy Veil of Manoppello (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Grazie mille!!! to Alexandra Prandell, who sent me so many marvelous photos from the festivities that it was very difficult to choose from them! To view more of Alexandra’s remarkable photos of the Holy Face Veil of Manoppello, Italy, please visit her Instagram account at this link: https://instagram.com/voltosantomanoppello?igshid=MmIzYWVlNDQ5Yg==
Holy Veil of Manoppello (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Veil of Manoppello, Photo: Alexandra Prandell
Crowds of pilgrims fill the Church as the relic of the Holy Face is brought in. (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Light streams through the veil from an open door. (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Veil of the Holy Face of Manoppello, (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
Blessed be God! Now and Forever! (Photo: Alexandra Prandell)
The life of a Christian should be the faithful reproduction of Jesus in their soul — this radiant transformation is the work of love of the Holy Spirit. “Those whom He had foreknown He has also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” (Rom 8:29) He who loves will resemble the thing loved…
Come Holy Spirit!
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5) “Because we are dead or at least wounded through sin, the first effect of the gift of love is the forgiveness of our sins. The communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14) in the Church restores to the baptized the divine likeness lost through sin.” (CCC 734) The Holy Spirit perfects the soul with the first fruits of eternal glory–so we may more closely resemble Jesus Christ. No one has embodied these virtues more perfectly than the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. She is the most perfect, pure, and faithful reflection of the Face of Christ.
In his classic work on the Holy Spirit, The Sanctifier, Archbishop Luis M. Martinez wrote of the the “mystical reproduction” that the Holy Spirit brings about in souls: “…because God gives a wonderful mark of unity to all His works…a most perfect unity shines forth from them because the are the fruit of wisdom. This divine contrast of unity and variety stamps the works of God with sublime and unutterable beauty.”
Jesus is reproduced in the soul of a Christian in the same way in which He was brought into the world–the way founded in love, caused by love, and which leads to love: “Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit…of the Virgin Mary. That is the way Jesus is always conceived.” That is the way He is reproduced in a Christian soul. Archbishop Martinez reminds us, too, that in order to resemble Christ, Our Lord, we must go through the pain and suffering of the Cross offered in love:
“He whom we love is a God nailed to a cross. Pain makes us resemble him. It is characteristic of love to have a tremendous desire to resemble the beloved. It is characteristic, too, for those who love to resemble each other.” But, as the soul is transformed, it is also filled with joy! Even as Mary suffered at the foot of the Cross she trusted, giving her “Fiat” as she had done at the Incarnation, with hope in the Resurrection; cooperating with God’s design. We, too, must be willing to cooperate with God’s design, as Mary did with docility to the Holy Spirit:
“After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This was something we could do only by sharing in the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul writes: ““But we all with unveiled faces, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His very image from glory to glory.” “(2 Cor 3:18)— St. Cyril of Alexandria
The Apostles, “with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus.” (Acts 1:14) Mary, as our mother, will also intercede for us, as she did at the first Pentecost to obtain the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and for of the Lord. The Holy Spirit then perfects the soul with the first fruits of eternal glory: charity, joy, peace kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity–so we may more closely resemble Jesus Christ.
The Holy Face of Manoppello- photo: Paul Badde/EWTN
Divine Guest of our souls (photo: Patricia Enk)
This is the work of the Holy Spirit of Love, who is the the light and fire of the Face of God: to sanctify our souls, shining upon us the radiance of His light, transforming us into the His own likeness. Holy Spirit wants to dwell in us and convert our bodies into His temple, as He did in the Virgin Mary to bring grace, mercy, and peace. “Love is not a passing visitor who pays us a call and then goes away. He establishes in us his permanent dwelling and lives in intimate union with our souls as their eternal Guest.” (The Sanctifier by Archbishop Martinez)
As Jesus promised on the last night of His mortal life: “And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to dwell with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you shall know Him because He will dwell with you and be in you.” (Jn 14: 16-17) So, let us remain, “with one accord in prayer,” with Mary as the Apostles did, for it is “through Mary the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the objects of God’s merciful love, into communion with Christ.” (CCC 725)
Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit
To Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Daughter of the Most High, Mother of God, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit — yet also Mary of Nazareth, Joseph’s wife, my mother– hear my prayer for grace, O Full of Grace. Pray your Spouse the Holy Spirit to come upon me — to shelter from all ill, to strengthen me to do what is right, to teach me all truth. Pray him come to me, and abide with me, and be within me a fountain springing up unto eternal life. May he sustain me in sorrow, sanctify me in life, and receive me at the hour of my death. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, pray for us.
“Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee” (Photo: Patricia Enk)
Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of Our Faith
Mother, help our faith! Open our ears to hear God’s word and to recognize his voice and call. Awaken in us a desire to follow in his footsteps, to go forth from our own land and to receive his promise. Help us to be touched by his love, that we may touch him in faith. Help us to entrust ourselves fully to him and to believe in his love, especially at times of trial, beneath the shadow of the cross, when our faith is called to mature. Sow in our faith the joy of the Risen One. Remind us that those who believe are never alone. Teach us to see all things with the eyes of Jesus, that he may be light for our path. And may this light of faith always increase in us, until the dawn of that undying day which is Christ himself, your Son, our Lord!
–Prayer at the conclusion of the Encyclical Lumen Fidei
God’s patience, forgiveness, and infinite mercy toward sinful mankind are incomprehensible, and yet may be seen in a small way in the images of Jesus’s Holy Face in His Passion.
This Holy Week, if possible, make the sacrifice of a little time spent in contemplating His Holy Face, and you will be richly rewarded by God; who desires to bestow many graces upon those who contemplate the suffering Face of Jesus. If we only ask, He will restore the image of His Son in our souls!
“Holy Face of Jesus, Sacred Countenance of God, how great is your patience with humankind, how infinite is your forgiveness. We are sinners, yet you love us. This gives us courage. For the glory of your Holy Face and of the Blessed Trinity, hear and answer our prayers.”
~ Excerpt from the Novena of the Holy Face
“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:3)
Hans Holbein der Altere. Munich, Germany
“I salute you! I adore you and I love you, Oh adorable face of my beloved Jesus, as the noble stamp of the Divinity! Completely surrendering my soul to you, I most humble beg you to stamp this seal upon us all, so the image of God may once more be reproduced by its imprint in our souls. Amen.”
To those who placed idols before the living and true God, the prophet Micah warned: “One day they will invoke the Lord, but He will not answer them, and on that day He will hide His Face from them because of the evil of their conduct.” (Micah 3:4)
St. Veronica with Sudarium 1420
However, those who who honor and glorify God; those who seek and contemplate the Face of Jesus Christ — they will be transformed into His Image — According to Pope St. John Paul II this is the meaning of the action of the woman known as “Veronica” . The “Veronica” or “Vera Icon” historically referred the the image itself, however, there is a deep message imparted to each Christian in the legend of 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.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
(2 Cor. 3:18)
There is a “Vera Icon” or “True Image” of the Face of Christ, which is kept in the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy. It is believed to be the sudarium cloth that covered Jesus head at his burial and found in the tomb after the Resurrection. All are invited to give honor and glory to God on January 28th, 2024, either in person, or via the internet, by joining in the celebration of “Omnis Terra” at the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face…
“Omnis terra adoret te, Deus, et psallat tibi!”
“The whole earth adores you, O God, and sing hymns to you” (Ps 65:4)
The first “Omnis Terra” procession of Pope Innocent III in 1208 carrying “the Veronica” Face of Christ (from “Liber Regulae Sancti Spiritus in Saxia” manuscript 1350)*
Omnis Terra, is the Latin for “All the Earth.”The revelation of Jesus’s glory is the cause for all the earth rejoicing, giving praise to His Name! Omnis Terra will be celebrated with a solemn Mass and a procession at the Sanctuary Basilica of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy. The live-feed will begin at 11:00am local time (Rome time) Archbishop Bruno Forte will be presiding. A blessing will be imparted with the reliquary of the Veil of the Holy Face during the celebration. (Link for Live-stream here)
Since ancient times processions have been a reminder that our Christian life is a constant movement toward God and our eternal home. A procession is a type of pilgrimage and expression of beauty and piety that flows from the liturgy. There is power in this beautiful procession that terrifies the infernal foe and makes all of hell tremble.Processing with the Face of Jesus brings his whole person before us, and for all the earth to adore and glorify Him — to proclaim to the unbelieving world that Jesus Christ is LORD!
The world is not only unbelieving but publicly blasphemes God to His Face, and it is for this reason that Our Lord must be honored publicly. Whether it is within the confines of a church or through the city streets, the procession is a public function of faith, hope, and love. It is an antidote to the poison disseminated by our culture which falsely asserts that religion is “private” and not something to be brought up in polite society or in the public square.
“Vera Icon” Holy Face of Manoppello (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN)
The “Living Face” becomes visible on the Holy Veil of Manoppello. Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN
The eyes following the onlooker — Holy Veil of Manoppello (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN)
Il Volto Santo – The Face of Love and Mercy (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN
“We process toward our heavenly home in the company of God. Procession is the function of faith, which burns in our hearts and beams in our faces, and makes our voices tremulous with emotion as our ‘Lauda Sion’ bids defiance to an unbelieving world.” ~Fr. Frederick W. Faber in his treatise on the Blessed Sacrament
Detail of Face of Jesus on the Holy Veil from the precious manuscript *”Liber Regulae Sancti Spiritus in Saxia”
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone holding the reliquary containing the Veil of the Holy Face of Manoppello on the occasion of Omnis Terra in 2019. Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN
“Do Whatever He Tells You, and You Will Spread the Face of His Love to the Whole World”
“The entrance chant for our Mass today – “All the earth will worship you, O God, and will sing to you, sing to your name” – happens to be the same entrance chant prescribed for last Sunday’s Mass, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, popularly referred to as “Omnis terra” Sunday, taken from the first words of the chant in Latin, as we just heard it at the beginning of Mass, “Omnis terra adoret te, Deus.” Every Mass has a prescribed entrance chant, usually a Scripture verse, very often from one of the Psalms, and the Mass gets its name from the first word or two of that chant (such as “Gaudete” Sunday and “Laetare” Sunday).
The Holy Face of Jesus
Why do I bring this up? It recalls a bit of Church history that underscores why Jesus came into the world. The story is told that in pre-Christian Rome the Emperor decided to have all Roman residents originally from other places take soil from their homeland and deposit it in a designated place close to the Vatican Hill, less than a quarter of a mile away. There he built a temple to honor the pagan Roman gods, as it contained soil from all the earth, “omnis terra.”
After Rome became Christian, the Pope built a church over that spot, which we know as the church of the Holy Spirit, and every year on that Sunday, “Omnis terra” Sunday, he would process from St. Peter’s Basilica to the church of the Holy Spirit with a veil bearing the face of Jesus. The veil in question was preserved from antiquity as one of the burial cloths that covered Jesus’ face, and was believed to be such an accurate representation of his face that it was called “the true icon of Rome,” in Latin, vera icona Romana: “vera icona,” whence the name, “Veronica.” This is how the story circulated later in the Middle Ages of a woman by that name who wiped our Lord’s face as he carried his Cross to Calvary.
There are many truly remarkable, even miraculous, features about this cloth that point to its authenticity, but that is a subject for another discourse. The point for us here today is that that procession instituted in the Middle Ages was to claim Jesus Christ as the one Savior of all the world, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the one, true God to whom all the earth owes worship and allegiance. This is the spiritual lesson of the ritual that developed around that veil.
The story of Veronica, though, also bears for us a spiritual message. As Pope St. John Paul II reflected in his meditation on the sixth Station of the Cross, every act of charity done in the name of Jesus Christ, with the spirit of his love, leaves the imprint of his image. This is how we translate the universality of the salvation Jesus won for us into language people can understand in our own time and place. The love of Christ is truly a universal language, understood everywhere and in every culture, leaving his image and thus changing both persons involved in that encounter of authentic Christian charity.”
Archbishop Ganswain holding the replica of the Holy Veil of Manoppello at Spirito Santo in Rome. 2016
History was also made on “Omnis Terra”(All the earth) Sunday in January of 2016, when bishops, priests, and pilgrims re-enacted the historic “Omnis Terra” Procession of Pope Innocent III (pictured above), carrying a reproduction of the precious image that many scholars identify with “the Veronica” or “true image” of the Face of Jesus. The pilgrim procession began at St. Peter’s in Rome and processed to Spirito Santo church and hospital, drawing attention especially to the Face of Christ in the sick and the poor.
On the occasion of the first “Omnis Terra” procession in 1208, Pope Innocent III wrote this beautiful prayer of devotion to the Veil of Holy Face of Jesus:
“O God, who has marked us with the light of Thy Face as your memorial, and at the request of Veronica, left us Thy Image imprinted on the sudarium; grant we pray, that by your passion and death, to adore, venerate and honor you, in mystery and as through a mirror on earth, so that we might be able to certainly see you, face to face, when you come as our judge.”
On “Omnis Terra” Sunday, January 15, 2017, history was made once again at the Basilica Sanctuary of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy, when a third solemn annual procession was introduced–in addition to the two solemn processions already observed in May (commemorating the arrival of the Holy Veil to Manoppello), and the solemn procession in August (on the Feast of the Transfiguration).
The addition of a third procession of the Holy Face at the Shrine of Manoppello is not only Trinitarian, it is a deeply significant and public witness of honor paid by the faithful to His Holy Face and thus also to the Holy Name of Jesus! May all of hell tremble at the sight of His Holy Face!
A Hymn composed by Pope Innocent III from the year 1216:
“Sancte Salve Facies”
Procession of Pope Innocent II in 1208 carrying “the Veronica” *Face of Christ (from “Liber Regulae Sancti Spiritus in Saxia” manuscript 1350)
Hail Holy Face of Our Redeemer on which shines the appearance of divine splendor impressed upon a little cloth of snowy radiance and given to Veronica as a standard of love.
Hail beauty of the ages, mirror of the saints, which the spirits of the heavens desire to see. Cleanse us from every stain of sin and guide us to the fellowship of the blessed.
Hail our glory amidst this hard life, so fragile and unstable, quickly passing away. Point us, O happy figure, to the heavenly homeland to see the Face that is Christ indeed.
Hail, O sudarium, noble encased jewel, both our solace and the memorial of Him who assumed a little mortal body–our true joy and ultimate good!
*The precious miniature manuscript “Liber Regulae Sancti Spiritus in Saxia,” was published around 1350 and is preserved in the State Archives in Rome. The illustration at the bottom of the first page of the Liber is one of the oldest illustrations of “the Veronica,” which depicts Pope Innocent III with “the Veronica” in his right hand and the Rule granted to the brothers of the hospital in his left. Prior to the Jubilee of 2000, the French medievalist Jacques Le Goff wrote, “Over the centuries Rome was enriched with notable relics. One in particular acquired an exceptional prestige: the sudarium of Christ known and revered by the name of “the Veronica.” The circumstances by which the image first came to Rome is a mystery but was mentioned for the first time under Pope John VII (705-707)
Hail Holy Face of Jesus, our Redeemer!
Update: The 2024 Novena of the Holy Face will be from Sunday, February 4th to February 12th. The Feast of the Holy Face for 2024 is Tuesday, February 13th. The Novena will be posted each day on the Home Page, which subscribers will receive by email. The Novena may also be found in the Menu above.
“The people living in darkness have seen a great light…” (Mt. 4:16).
As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see God are in God sharing his glory, and the glory gives them life. To see God is to share in life.”
~St. Ireneaus
Adoration of the Magi – Gentile da Fabiano 1423
Love desires to see God. So says St. Peter Chrysologus: “When God saw the world falling to ruin because of fear, He immediately acted to call it back to Himself with love…” By an invitation of grace, love and compassion God called Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Moses–and a “flame of love” was enkindled in their hearts, “it’s intoxication overflowed into men’s senses. Wounded by love, they longed to look upon God with their bodily eyes, yet how could our narrow human vision apprehend God, whom the whole world cannot contain?” St. Chrysologus writes, “It is intolerable for love not to see the object of it’s longing!” No matter what good the saints did to merit a reward, they could not see the Lord. “A love that desires to see God may not have reasonableness on it’s side, but it is evidence of filial love. It gave Moses the temerity to say: If I have found favor in your eyes, show me Your Face. It inspired the psalmist to make the same prayer: Show me Your Face. Even the pagans made their images for this purpose: they wanted to see what they mistakenly revered.” (from sermon of St. Peter Chrysologus)
Come, let us adore Him!
Infant Jesus wrapped in Byssus
“Visible before to God alone and not to the world, God made the Word visible so that the world could be saved by seeing Him. This mind that entered our world was made known as the Son of God.”
~ St. Hippolytus
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. (Mt. 5:8)
Adoration of the Shepherds – Gerard van Honthorst 1622
O that birth forever blessèd,
When the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bore the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face,
evermore and evermore!
Merry Christmas! May His Face shine upon you and your loved ones, today and always!
Kreuz als Krippe (Cross as a Crib), Oil on canvas, Unknown artist, 18th century (Photo: Paul Badde)
“In Thee God will manifest the splendor of His presence, for the whole world to see”
Illumina Domine Blog - Devotion to The Holy Face 