The Holy Face of Jesus
March 30, 2025
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, Forever ~
And the Sixth Station of the Cross is? Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. During Our Lord’s Passion, one of his disciples, a woman named Veronica, wiped Jesus’ bloodied, sweaty and muddy face on the road to Calvary. Miraculously His face was imprinted on the cloth. That cloth is called the Sudarium (Latin for “sweat cloth”). Over the centuries the Sudarium would make its way to Oviedo, Spain where it remains to this day. Just as the shroud that covered the body of Jesus is venerated (Shroud of Turin), so too is the Sudarium, and by extension, the Holy Face of Jesus.
Jesus appeared to a Carmelite nun in Tours, France, Sr. Marie of St. Peter from 1843-1848 giving her messages regarding devotion to His Holy Face. “The Blessed Savior said to me: ‘I seek Veronica’s to wipe and honor My Divine Face, which has few adorers.’” The purpose of the Holy Face Devotion is to offer reparation back to God for the blasphemies and the profanations of Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. According to Jesus, “These offenses wound His heart more than all others;” and “to renew the injuries to His face, which is the emblem of the Godhead itself.” Our Lord gave Sr. Marie these short but powerful prayers:
Lord let Your Face shine on us, and we shall be saved. Then an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.
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 in the hells, 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.
Prayer of Aspiration To The Eternal Father – 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.
Prayer To The Holy Face – 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 that the image of God may once more be reproduced by its imprint in our souls. Amen.
In 1846, Blessed Pope Pius IX fled into exile to Gaeta because of unrest in the papal states. The Pope asked the surrounding churches to pray, and to have Veronica’s Veil brought out from the Vatican and venerated for three days. On the third day a miracle happened. Because Veronica’s Veil had darkened over time, the image of the Holy Face had become unrecognizable due to its age, so a new white linen cloth was placed over the veil to protect the image. For three hours on the third day of venerating Veronica’s Veil, a light illuminated from the veil, projecting an image onto the new cloth, of a man in agony with His eyes sunken, and face bruised and beaten. The canons of the Vatican, as well as the Papal notary, were called and the bells rung to record this astounding event. Artists then took Vatican linen (silk) and drew the image that they saw. These images were then touched to the Veil of Veronica, the True Cross, and the Lance that pierced Jesus side, and then sent to emissaries and churches throughout Europe. Two of these images ended up in the hands of Venerable Leo Dupont, a well to do lawyer who had also devoted himself to God.
Venerable Leo Dupont gave one of these images away and the other he kept in his office in his house. Day and night, he kept a burning oil lamp next to the Holy Face Relic. One day a woman came to see him who was having eye trouble. Leo told her to rub some of the oil on her eyes and recite prayers to the Holy Face. She was instantly cured! Over 6,000 medically documented miracles were attributed to Venerable Leo Dupont and his Holy Face Relic, a staggering number of miracles for this one relic!
A much revered and loved saint, St Therese of Lisieux was a big proponent of the Holy Face devotion. In her official title she is known as “Saint Therese of Lisieux of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face”! She said, “Oh, I would wish to tell everybody to study and venerate an image of the Holy Face as He left it on Veronica’s Veil. When sorrow strikes, it will be the only consolation. No matter what our grief, surely it will never be as fearful as was His!” St. Therese, several of her sisters, and her father were some of the first people to join the Archconfraternity in the first year it started in 1885.
The Face of God is mentioned 840 times in the Bible and His Countenance 101 times. Looking upon God in heaven fills everyone there with indescribable ecstasy, so much so, that the ultimate experience any person can have is the Beatific Vision of God in heaven. When we meditate on the face of Jesus we enter into communion with God, heaven, and eternity in this life. The fruit of that communion in this life is faith, hope, love, peace and every other virtue and gift of God.
The Promises of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Favor of those who Honor His Holy Face
1. All those who honor My Face in a spirit of reparation will by so doing perform the office of the pious
Veronica. According to the care they take in making reparation to My Face, disfigured by blasphemers, so will I take care of their souls which have been disfigured by sin. My Face is the seal of the Divinity, which has the virtue of reproducing in souls the image of God.
2. Those who by words, prayers or writing defend My cause in this Work of Reparation, I will defend before My Father and will give them My Kingdom.
3. By offering My Face to the Eternal Father, nothing will be refused, and the conversion of many sinners will be obtained.
4. By My Holy Face, they will work wonders, appease the anger of God, and draw down mercy on sinners.
5. As in a kingdom they can procure all that is desired with a coin stamped with the King’s effigy, so in the Kingdom of Heaven, they will obtain all they desire with the precious coin of My Holy Face.
6. Those who on earth contemplate the wounds of My Face shall in Heaven behold it radiant with glory.
7. They will receive in their souls a bright and constant irradiation of My Divinity, that by their likeness to My Face they shall shine with particular splendor in Heaven.
8. I will defend them; I will preserve them, and I assure them of Final Perseverance.
Geralyn Ballo will be giving a talk at Holy Redeemer on the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face Devotion on April 2, at 9:15am and 7pm, in the parish center. Please come if you are at all interested. You can also find out much more about this devotion, please visit any one of these websites – https://holyfaceadoration.com/ or https://www.martinians.org/ or https://holyface.com/enter_eng.htm
May the Holy Face of Jesus Shine On You,
Father Thomas Nathe
