← Christos · Rex GloriaeReparation and adoration
The Holy Face of Jesus
Vultus Christi
The face marred in the Passion — wiped by Veronica in the received devotional tradition, veiled and beaten, yet sought in prayer: ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek’ (Psalm 27:8, NRSV-CE).
Shrove Tuesday · a traditional devotional observance
Tradition holds that a woman, Veronica, wiped the face of Christ on the way to Calvary and received its image on her veil. The devotion to the Holy Face grew at Tours in the 19th century through Sr. Marie de St-Pierre and the layman Ven. Léon Papin-Dupont, offered in reparation for blasphemy and the profanation of Sundays.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux took the name 'of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face,' contemplating the hidden, suffering face of God as the heart of her 'little way.'
Why the Face
- 1It is the human face of God, gazing on us with mercy.
- 2It bears the marks of our sins, and asks for reparation.
- 3It is a mirror of the soul of Christ — meek, humble, obedient.
- 4It draws the little and the hidden along St. Thérèse's way.
The Golden Arrow
May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable Name of Jesus be praised, adored, and loved, with grateful affection, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all creatures. Amen.
With the saints · East & West
“Too late did I love You, O Fairness, so ancient, and yet so new!”
For Augustine, conversion is the discovery that the Beauty he sought outside himself was already calling him into communion with God. Christ’s beauty draws us beyond possession into love.
“Christian, acknowledge your dignity”
Leo grounds Christian dignity in the Incarnation: the Son truly took our nature and calls us to a life worthy of the grace we have received, rather than a return to slavery to sin.