Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.
Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus goes back to 1844. It began through a Carmelite nun, Sister Mary of Saint Peter, at the Carmel of Tours in France, who reported that the Lord Jesus had revealed to her his wish for this devotion. He told her he wanted it to spread throughout the whole world, in reparation for the insults offered to him.
When a man named Leo Dupont, “the holy man of Tours”, heard about this devotion, he began to practise it in his home near the monastery. For more than thirty years, healings and graces were reported there one after another! The news spread, the devotion quickly became known throughout France, and it drew the attention of the Catholic Church.
In 1885, to spread this devotion, Pope Leo XIII encouraged it by erecting the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face and extended it to the whole world. Several popes have granted various indulgences to those who practise it, among them Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII.
Later, in the twentieth century, Blessed Maria Pierina De Micheli reported that the Lord Jesus appeared to her, his face covered with blood and full of sorrow, while she was complaining to him about her troubles, and said to her: “And I, what did I do?” She went on to report further apparitions in which he made known his wish for the devotion to be spread anew, and Maria Pierina became the apostle of the Holy Face.
“O adorable Face of Jesus, sole beauty that ravishes my heart, deign to imprint on me your divine likeness, so that you cannot look upon the soul of your little bride without seeing yourself. O my Beloved, for love of you I accept not to see here below the sweetness of your gaze, nor to feel the inexpressible kiss of your lips, but I beg you to set me on fire with your love, so that it may consume me quickly and soon bring me to appear before you.” (Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus)
“Eternal Father, we offer you the Face of our Lord Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through the hands of Mary, together with the offering of our souls, in reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world, especially the insults offered to the Most Blessed Sacrament. We offer it to you especially for priests, that they may walk in holiness and reflect your divine Face, so that the light of truth and love may shine forth, for the triumph of the Church and the spread of the Kingdom of God.
Amen.”
