Holy Face

The Holy Face of Jesus

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 THE CREATURES OF GOD, AND BY THE SACRED HEART OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR.

AMEN.

The Golden Arrow narrates the life and work of Sister Mary of Saint Peter, centering around her reparation for sins against God and the devotion to the Holy Face, revealed to her by Christ Himself. The following excerpt follows Christ’s revelation of the Golden Arrow prayer to Sister Mary.

Mary of Saint Peter was a Discalced Carmelite nun who lived in Tours, France. She is best known for starting the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus which is now one of the approved Catholic devotions and for the Golden Arrow Prayer.

The Discalced Carmelites have a significant connection to the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. This devotion, which focuses on the image of Christ’s face as an object of veneration and reparation, was given a particular impetus in the 19th century through the revelations received by a French Discalced Carmelite nun, Sister Marie of St. Peter of Tours. She was instrumental in promoting prayers and practices in honor of the Holy Face, emphasizing reparation for blasphemy.

Later, the renowned Discalced Carmelite, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, also cultivated a deep personal devotion to the Holy Face, even taking the title “Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.” Her writings and example further popularized this devotion within the Carmelite tradition and the wider Church, linking the order’s contemplative spirit with this particular form of Christocentric piety.

From a Carmelite perspective, the devotion to the Holy Face is a deeply contemplative, reparative, and transformative practice, inviting souls to an intimate encounter with the suffering and merciful love of Christ, and to participate in His redemptive work.

Veil of Veronica

“The Veil of Veronica is a veil upon which the adorable face was miraculously impressed without paint nor artificial colors, but by the power of the divine Son of God during His passion. After some two thousand years, it is quite darkened, so its features are difficult to make out. It is housed in the epistle side pillar of the papal altar along with the holy lance and wood of the true cross since 1606.

From tradition, we are informed that the holy woman known as Saint Veronica broke through the mob to console Jesus while He was carrying the cross, His holy altar of sacrifice, to console Him. “So full of deep sorrow into which He was then plunged by the weight of the sins of the world.” She took off her headdress of fine Egyptian linen and handed it to Jesus to wipe His face of sweat, mud, spittle, and blood. He gave it back to her with His august image impressed on it. His imprint detailed the marks of the fingers of the cruel men who gave the sacrilegious blows…

The remembrance of this has been attached to the sixth station of the cross since time immemorial… It is still preserved as one of the precious relics in memory of the great Redeemer. The Veil of Veronica represents the face of Jesus in His passion…

Jesus revealed to Sister Mary of St. Peter the commemoration of the wiping of the sacred face with the Veil of Veronica has such an effect: for those who apply themselves to the work of reparation would perform the same work as Veronica. When devotees of the Confraternities of the Holy Face make the prayers contained therein, it is as if they are each there breaking through the mob, consoling the face of Jesus.”

For more information on the Devotion:

https://www.martinians.org/history-of-the-veil

Additional prayers for the Holy Face:

Aspiration To The Eternal Father

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 for the profaners of the Holy Name and of the Holy Day. Amen.

Prayer To The Holy Face

I salute you, I adore you, and I love you, O 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.