Devotion to the Holy Face has been promulgated down through the ages by popes and saints.  The woman known as Veronica (meaning "true image"), according to tradition, gave her veil to Pope St. Clement shortly before her martyrdom.  St. Ambrose wrote,  "There is no doubt that Peter received the grace of conversion from the Sacred Face because those on whom Jesus gazes are always saved."  St. Jerome wrote, "The Face of  Jesus will continue to save each time we have recourse to it: invoke his aid, 'Show us Thy Face and we shall be delivered.'"  Our Lord communicated to a Carmlelite nun of Tours, France, Sister Marie of St. Peter (1816-1848), the following promise:

"Rejoice, my daughter, because the hour approaches when the most beautiful work under the sun will be born."  Our Lord refers here to the work of reparation to the Holy Face which He revealed to her was the remedy to the then new scourge of communism.  He told her that this devotion to his Holy Face was destined to restore peace to the world.  Not until thirty years after her death was a papal brief written approving the devotion.  It was released on October 1st, the future feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux.  The autobiography of St. Marie of St. Peter is found in the book, The Golden Arrow. 

St. Therese of Lisieux took the name Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face.  She followed in the footsteps of her sister Carmelite in having this dual devotion.  In spreading the Holy Face devotion which will one day restore peace to the world, these two women became prophets for the new millennium. 

As secular humanism and the "New Age" religion  has spread across the globe, humanity has experienced the bloodiest century in history.  The belief in the perfectibility of man through politics and spiritual science has resulted in a strangely "faceless" world.  In politics, in the name of the "good of the many" a heartless utilitarianism now crushes the sanctity of individual life.  In spirituality, the belief in the self as god has created a narcissistic striving for individual pleasure and a flight from sacrifice and service.  These two movements are efforts to renounce the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for the gods of self-actualization.  His Holiness, John Paul II, in response to what he calls the resulting "culture of death", has called for a return to a respect for the individual and for a just and merciful world he calls a "civilization of love".

Why is this devotion so important today?  The wonders of the Holy Face are countless.  Untold miracles of healing were wrought in the years following Sr. Marie's death.  The Holy Scripture abounds with references to the power and virtue to be found in the Face of God.   Meditation upon Jesus' Face cannot but make our hearts open to His love and our minds open to the truth that He alone is Lord.  His gaze will restore a  world now characterized by spiritual blindness to the truth. 

Let Your Face shine on us, Lord, and we shall be saved!

To learn more about the Holy Face devotion, look to the Holy Face Association's web site detailed on our links page. We can restore our families and churches to Jesus Christ especially through Masses and Holy Hours offered to the Holy Face.