Holy Face Novena: Day 1

Veronica's Veil

The Holy Face of Jesus from the image on Veronica's veil, said to be the cloth used  by Saint Veronica to wipe the face of Christ during His Passion. Our Lord specifically mentioned Veronica's act of compassion and reverence when he made ten promises to Sister Marie of Saint Peter.

Pope Pius IX

Said “This salutary reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus is a divine work, destined to save modern society.”

On April 17th, 1958, His Holiness Pope Pius XII approved the observance of a Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus on Shrove Tuesday (Tuesday before Ash Wednesday).  Contact us for the wording of the Holy Face Mass to be said upon the Feast.

“See how I suffer. Nevertheless, I am understood by so few. What gratitude on the part of those who say they love me. I have given My Heart as a sensible object of My great love for man and I give My Face as a sensible object of My Sorrow for the sins of man. I desire that it be honoured by a special feast on Tuesday in Quinquagesima (Shrove Tuesday – the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). The feast will be preceded by a novena in which the faithful make reparation with Me uniting themselves with my sorrow.”

(Our Lord to Mother Pierina 1938).

FIRST DAY

(Console Holy Face and recite Daily Preparatory Prayer).
Psalm 51,3-4.
Have mercy on me, O God in your goodness,
in your great tenderness wipe away my faults:
wash me clean of my guilt, purify me from my sin.
O most Holy Face of Jesus, look with tenderness on us
who are sinners. You are a merciful God, full of love and
compassion. Keep us pure of heart, so that we may see Thee
always. Mary, our Mother, intercede for us; Saint Joseph.
pray for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition(state your intentions)Pardon
and mercy.

Prayer to Our Almighty Father
Almighty Father, come into our hearts, and so fill us with
your love that forsaking all evil desires, we may embrace
you, our only good. Show us, O Lord our God, what you
are to us. Say to our souls, I am your salvation, speak so
that we may hear. Our hearts are before you; open our ears;
let us hasten after your voice. Hide not your Face from us,
we beseech you, O Lord. Open our hearts so that you may
enter in. Repair the ruined mansions, that you may dwell
therein. Hear us, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of your
only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
(St. Augustine)
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary’s, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)

The Golden Arrow

Sr. Marie of St. Peter and of the Holy Family OCD received the devotion to the Holy Face July 8 in the 1840s at the Tours Carmelite Monastery...for reparation...
                                
Order of Carmel Discalcecd Secular - Meditations from Carmel Podcast
Quotations from Sister Saint Pierre Carmelite of Tours

"He told me that He wished to give me a "Golden Arrow" wherewith to wound His Heart delightfully, and heal those wounds inflicted by sinner's malice."

"He has given it to me as a "Golden Arrow," assuring me that each time I would say it, I would open His Heart with a wound of love."

"At that moment it seemed to me I beheld issuing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by this "Arrow," torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners."

"Our Lord has promised me that He will imprint His divine likeness on the souls of those who honour his most holy Countenance."

"All those who honour My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation, will be so doing perform the office of the pious Veronica."

"According to the care you take in making reparation to My Face disfigured by blasphemies, so will I take care of yours which has been disfigured by sin. I will reprint therein My image and render it as beautiful as it was on leaving the Baptismal font."

"Our Lord has promised me, that all those who defend His cause in this work of reparation, by words, by prayers, or in writing. He will defend them before His Father; at their death He will purify their souls by effacing all the blots of sin and will restore to them their primitive beauty.
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Sister Marie of Saint Pierre (from the Carmel of Tours) and the Golden Arrow 

In Tours, France during the 1840's a young Carmelite nun, Sister Marie of Saint Pierre, received a series of revelations from Our Lord about a powerful devotion He wished to be established worldwide - the devotion to his Holy Face. The express purpose of this devotion was to make reparation for the blasphemies and outrages of 'Revolutionary men' (the Communists), as well as for the blasphemies of atheists and freethinkers and others, plus, for blasphemy and the profanation of Sundays by Christians.
This devotion is also an instrument given to the individual devotee as a seemingly unfailing method of appealing to God in prayer - through adoration of His Holy Face and Name.
The following prayer was dictated by our Lord Himself to Sister Marie of Saint Pierre. Opening His Heart to her, our Saviour complained of blasphemy, saying that this frightful sin wounds His Divine Heart more grievously than all other sins, for it was like a "poisoned arrow".
After that, our Saviour dictated the following prayer, which he called "The Golden Arrow", saying that those who would recite this prayer would pierce Him delightfully, and also heal those other wounds inflicted on Him by the malice of sinners. This prayer is regarded as the very basis of the Work of Reparation.

                                 The Golden Arrow Prayer

"May the most holy, most sacred,
most adorable, most mysterious
and unutterable Name of God
be always praised, blessed,
loved, adored and glorified,
in heaven, on earth and under the earth,
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

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Adorable Face of Thy Beloved Son for the honor and glory of Thy Holy Name, for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of dying souls."
-- Sister Saint-Pierre
"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 which well up abundantly in Thy sacred eyes 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 and to set me on fire with Thy Love, that I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven.  Amen."   ~St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face
Psalm 30:20-21 
"O how great is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee! Which Thou hast wrought for them that hope in Thee, in the sight of the sons of men. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy Face, from the disturbance of men. Thou shalt protect them in Thy tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues."

 
 Picture taken by tantumergo(A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics)-thanks for this picture.

Carmelite Monastery of Infant Jesus of Prague and St. Joseph-Dallas TX - where the Gardener meets you with 'clear water'....

This chapel is also a Shrine to the Holy Face.  To the side of the altar is the Holy Face Icon which reflects the Confraternity of the Holy Face.  It was in this chapel before the Holy Face on March 6, 2005 that I became a confraternity member.  The chapel is so beautiful now.  In my heart I still see the bare white walls and St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross flying from the walls above the altar--simpler times.  My greatest blessings were before that Holy Face.  I still see Mother Mary Regina (I know it was her.) kneeling behind the grate as my name and my mother's were added to the roll.  It was in 2006 that I received a double blessing from Fr. Louis...little did I know of its import.

I don’t think we can imagine how much good their lives of prayer, sacrifice, suffering, and love do for all of us.  
 Tantumergo: A Blog for Dallas Catholics

I so miss the 'turn' ,Mothers.

Mother Juanita: I would not have survived the brutal North Face high cold winds of the mountain without those afternoons with you in my memories.  There have been mostly tears here in this great exile.