A Short History of the Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus
Veneration of the Holy Face of Jesus has its beginning during the very passion of Our Lord, making it one of the oldest devotions in the Christian tradition. This devotion originated with the sacred image of Our Lord that miraculously appeared on St. Veronica's Veil. Below is a short account of how this devotion has spread from ancient times to today.
TIMELINE OF THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS DEVOTION
33 AD: St. Veronica, as a sign of her love and compassion, offered Our Savior a veil to wipe the blood and sweat from his face as he carried his cross. In reward for her charity and compassion, Jesus left an impression of his Holy Face upon the veil. This meeting of Our Lord and St. Veronica is forever memorialized in the Stations of the Cross. The meeting of Jesus and St. Veronica along his walk to the place of his crucifixion is the 6th Station.
1st - 4th c. AD: According to tradition, St. Veronica later entrusted the veil to St. Clement, a disciple of St. Peter who became the third Bishop of Rome. For the next three centuries the Holy Veil was kept in the Roman catacombs during the early persecutions of the Church. Eventually the Veronica's Veil was placed in the Basilica of St. Peter and kept there until the present day.
1843: Our Lord, in visions to Sister Marie of St. Peter, requested that a devotion to His Holy Face be established, also known as the "Golden Arrow." The purpose of this devotion was to make amends for the wrongdoings in the world, as well as to request special intentions. Special prayers and promises were given to Sister Marie from Our Lord, who said:
“All who honor My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation thereby perform for Me the services of the pious Veronica.”
Prayers to the Holy Face of Jesus
Daily Prayer
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 profaners of the Holy Name of Jesus and of Sundays.
Prayer to Reprint the Image of God in our Soul
I salute You, I adore You and I love you, adorable Face of my beloved Jesus. With the noble Stamp of Your Divinity, I surrender my soul to you. I humbly beg you to stamp this seal upon me. Amen
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 creatures of God and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen
Offering of the Holy Face to the Eternal Father
Eternal Father, look with mercy on the Holy Face of your beloved Son Jesus, in whom You are well pleased. We offer You His Holy Face disguised, disfigured, and grief stricken, in reparation for our sins.
Because Your Divine Son, our Redeemer, has taken upon Himself all of our sins that we might be spared, we beg of you dearest Father to grant us mercy. Amen
Prayer for Our Family’s Needs
Eternal Father, since it has pleased our Divine Savior to reveal the power residing in His Holy Face, we thank You for this great treasure as a remedy for all of our needs.
Since our Divine Savior promised that by offering You, His Holy Face disfigured in His passion, we can obtain all the needs of our family. And nothing will be refused us, as we come before Your Throne. We offer to You, dearest father, this adorable countenance, disfigured with painful bruises and covered with shame and confusion. We beg You through the merits of the Holy Face to obtain, our most pressing needs.
Grant us pardon, Eternal Father, for the worst crimes of our age, which are atheism, blasphemy, abortion, euthanasia, child trafficking and total rebellion against your commandments.
Protect us from destruction by war and its consequences which loom through the malice of revolutionary men, who have risen up to stamp out religion from the face of the earth through false indoctrination, and who now stand ready to impose their wicked designs with militaristic force.
May this offering of the Holy Face of our Savior before Your throne of majesty obtain for us deliverance from these evils.
Lord, send us holy and enthusiastic Shepherds with a multitude of vocations to the Religious Life and an ardent and Holy Laity, that will spread the blessings of Your Church and confound Your enemies. Amen
Promises given to Sr. Marie of St Peter for the Devotion of Reparation:
1) All those who honor my face in a spirit of reparation will by doing so 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 My 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 Kings 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 splendour in Heaven.
8) I will defend them, I will preserve them and I assure them of Final Perseverance.
Prayer of St. Therese of the Child 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 the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears that thou hast shed so abundantly 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, to set me on fire with Thy Love, and to make me worthy to contemplate in Heaven Thy glorious Face. Amen.
