Wednesday of Holy Week--The Holy Face

Today's first reading from Isaiah shows Christ's willingness to suffer for our sake.

I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
My face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.

The responsorial psalm goes further:

For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my mother’s sons,
because zeal for your house consumes me,
Rather they put gall in my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

The line "zeal for your house consumes me" has always touched me, especially in relation to being an "outcast to my mother's sons."  There will be times, especially now, when being a Christian will put you in direct opposition to those around you; when longing to be in the Presence of God in His house, will make you a laughing stock.  Remember that Jesus walked that road for us and before us. Our consolation *is* being in the Presence.

As always in the psalms, though, it ends praising God.

I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.

Hang onto this hope. God will be praised.

The Devotion to the Holy Face

In 1958, Pope Pius XII confirmed that the feast of the Holy Face would take place on Shrove Tuesday each year. The medal of the Holy Face is said to be powerful against demons and is available free of charge from the Holy Face Association.

Devotion to the Holy face has gone back at least to the second century. The Apocraphal Acts of Pilate says that Veronica was the biblical woman Jesus cured of the hemorrhage and that she testified on His behalf at His trial. Later, as he carried His cross to Gethsemane, Veronica was said to have tried to comfort Him by wiping His bruised and bloody face with her veil. At any rate, Scripture does speak of the women who were along the route to His crucifixion, mourning for Him, and of women who followed Him during His life, ministering to Our Lord and the Apostles.

Modern fascination with the Holy Face includes the Shroud of Turin. Whether one believes that the Shroud is authentic or not is beside the point. Devotion to the Holy Face is powerful and efficacious, especially during Lent.

In a vision in 1848, Sr. Mary of St. Peter tells us that the image of the Holy Face of Jesus is a stamp that imprints the image of the Divine on our souls.

Prayer to the Holy Face

' I salute You, I adore You and I love You,
adorable Face of my beloved Jesus,
as the noble stamp of the Divinity!
Completely surrendering my soul to You,
I most humbly beg You to stamp this seal upon us all,
so that the image of God may once more
be reproduced by its imprint in our souls.
Amen'