BEHOLD, NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME

A SERMON FOR QUADRAGESIMA SUNDAY

On April 27, 1910, Pope Saint Pius X approved the celebration of a new feastday in the Catholic Church.  He appointed this new feast to be celebrated on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins, and it was to be observed only as a local feast in the diocese of Cambrai in France.  It was the Feast of the Most Holy Face of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Today, as we take up the cross of our Lenten penances, it’s the perfect time to emulate the spirit of this great pope, St. Pius X, by introducing this devotion into our own lives.  For what better way could there be of making a good and holy Lent than by meditating on that holy Face, so badly disfigured with the Precious Blood of our Lord’s Passion.

The image we have of the Holy Face does not come to us from the brush of an artist.  It is not a painting or drawing, not an artist’s depiction of our Lord’s countenance.  It is the image that was left on the veil of St. Veronica after she wiped the blood and sweat from our Lord as he climbed the hill of Calvary with the Cross on his back.  This veil was carefully preserved in Rome where it is still venerated in St. Peter’s Basilica every year on Passion Sunday. 

When we look upon this image, we may believe that we are looking upon an almost photographic representation of the actual Face of our Lord.  In last Sunday’s Epistle, St. Paul told us that in this world we “see through a glass darkly, but then face to face”, “then” meaning when we reach our eternal reward in heaven and experience the beatific vision.  But when we gaze upon the image imprinted on Veronica’s Veil, we are given the unfathomable blessing of seeing our Lord “face to face” even in this world, a grace that is truly remarkable and a gift from our Divine Saviour that we should not neglect.

History itself provides us with another reason for cultivating this devotion to the Holy Face.   Between the years 1843-1847, Sister Mary of St. Peter, a Carmelite nun in Tours, France, experienced 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, he told her, was to make reparation for the numerous blasphemies and profanities taking place in the world, but also as a means through which we can all appeal to God for anything we wish. 

Before her death, Sr. Mary of St. Peter passed on the devotion to a lawyer named Leo Dupont. He obtained one of the Holy Face relics from the Vatican, and placed it on the mantle in his parlor, keeping a crystal oil lamp burning continuously in front of it as a sign of veneration. He began privately praying the Holy Face prayers (obtained from Sister Mary of St. Peter) with friends and acquaintances in front of the image. Soon afterward, miraculous healings began to occur with the friends and acquaintances who said the devotional prayers and anointed themselves with the oil from the lamp in front of the image. Due to the repeated miracles that happened from that point forward, Leo DuPont's parlor soon became a place of pilgrimage, and word quickly passed throughout France. These miracles continued for 30 years, even past the death of Leo Dupont, and were so numerous that Pope Pius IX declared Leo Dupont to be perhaps one of the greatest miracle workers in Church history!  The fact that so many first class miracles occurred through this devotion attests to the authenticity of the revelations from our Lord to Sister Mary of St. Peter.  After the death of Leo Dupont, his home became the Oratory of the Holy Face.

In these particularly difficult modern times, the Guild of St. Peter ad Vincula wishes to revive this devotion to the Holy Face by establishing the Society of Veronica’s Veil.  Our website at gspav.org provides several pages describing the history of the devotion as well as prayers that can be said while meditating on the Holy Face.  These prayers include the Litany of the Holy Face, the Chaplet of the Holy Face, and of course, the Golden Arrow Prayer dictated by our Lord to Sr. Mary of St. Peter.  For those who want more information, we also provide a link to our online bookstore where you can find the complete Handbook of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face and the beads for reciting the Chaplet.  The bulletin contains more information on where to find the relevant webpages.

When the holy woman Veronica used her veil to comfort the suffering Saviour in his Passion, she was rewarded by the imprinting of the image of his holy Face on her veil.  As we today make our devotions to this Holy Face, it should be with the same intention of comforting our Lord in his suffering, of making reparation for our own sins and those of the whole world.  As we take up our own cross at the beginning of Lent and prepare to follow our blessed Lord to Calvary, we can do no better than making the resolution to give honor to the Holy Face of Jesus as we earnestly pray for the manifold needs of our Church and our world, both apparently hurtling towards the abyss.  Let us reverently wipe that Holy Face with our own veil of prayer, penance and reparation, asking our blessed Lord to imprint his image upon our souls in return.