Prayers in Honor of the Holy Face of our Lord

The practice of honoring our Lord's Holy Face is not new.  During Jesus' life on earth, this devotion was seen through St. Joseph, the Blessed Mother, the Magi, and the Apostles.  We also recognize this devotion in St. Veronica's veil.  However, it was not until much later that a formal devotion began.  

In the 19th century Jesus expressed His wishes to Sister Mary of St. Peter, a Carmelite Nun in Tours, France, that a devotion to His Holy Face be established. Our Lord wanted this devotion in reparation for blasphemies against Him and His Holy Name, as well as for the profanation of Sunday. In August of 1843, Jesus dictated to her the well-known Golden Arrow Prayer, saying that those who would recite this prayer would pierce Him delightfully, and they also would heal those other wounds inflicted on Him by the malice of sinners. After receiving this prayer, Sister Mary of St. Peter was given a vision in which she saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus delightfully wounded by this "Golden Arrow" as torrents of graces streamed from It for the conversion of sinners. 

In 1885 Pope Leo XIII granted Ecclesiastical approval of the Devotion to the Holy Face and established an Archconfraternity for its honor.  It was of this Archconfraternity that St. Therese of Lisieux's entire family became members.  As a nun, St. Therese speaks of the image of the Holy Face, saying, “How well Our Lord did lower His eyes when He gave us His portrait! Since the eyes are the mirror of the soul, if we had seen His soul, we would have died from joy. Oh how much good that Holy Face has done in my life!”

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Years later during Lent of 1936, Jesus appeared to Blessed Maria Pierina De Micheli, a religious sister with the order of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception, and told her, "I wish that My Face, which reflects the intimate sorrow of My soul, and the suffering and love of My Heart, be better honoured. He who contemplates Me consoles Me." On the Tuesday following Passion Sunday, Jesus returned to her and said: "Each time My Face is contemplated I will pour My love into hearts, and through My Holy Face the salvation of many souls will be obtained."  In 1958  Pope Pius XII formally declared Shrove Tuesday, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, to be the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus.

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The celebration of the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus is a wonderful way to prepare ourselves for the season of Lent, which begins the next day.  Remembering this devotion throughout Lent, is a method to help us remain focused on our Lenten penances, striving for reparation for our sins and the sins of the world.  The following prayers are a few that can be used to honor our Lord in this devotion.  May we employ these prayers as means to love our Lord and to help us grow in holiness as He desires. 

The Golden Arrow Prayer

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen. 

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Prayer of St. Therese of Jesus to the Holy Face

O Jesus, Who in Thy bitter Passion didst become "the most abject of men, a man of sorrows," I venerate Thy Sacred Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead; but now it has become for me as if it were the face of a leper! Nevertheless, under those disfigured features, I recognize Thy infinite Love and I am consumed with with the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well abundantly in Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, Whose adorable Face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy Divine Image and to set me on fire with Thy Love, that I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen. 

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Holy Face Prayer for Sinners

Eternal Father, since Thou hast given me for my inheritance the Adorable Face of Thy Divine Son, I offer that face to Thee and I beg Thee, in exchange for this coin of infinite value, to forget the ingratitude of souls dedicated to Thee and to pardon all poor sinners.

--by St. Therese of Lisieux

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An Aspiration to the Eternal Father to be  Frequently Recited During the Day

Eternal Father, we offer You the Holy Face of Jesus, covered with blood, sweat, dust and spittle, in reparation for the crimes of communists, blasphemers, and for the profaners of the Holy Name and of the Holy Day. Amen. 

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Prayer to Reproduce the Image of God in our Souls

I salute Thee, I adore Thee, and I love Thee, Oh adorable Face of my Beloved Jesus, as the noble stamp of Divinity!  Completely surrendering my soul to Thee, I most humbly beg Thee to stamp this seal upon us all, so that the Image of God may once more be reproduced by Its imprint in our souls.  Amen.

God bless!

+JMJ+