Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus

---

Embracing the sufferings of Our Lord unites us most fully to His deepest love and greatest sorrows on the Cross. Jesus has asked many religious to make reparation for sinners throughout the ages, most recently St. Margaret Mary in the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and later in the 19th and 20th century, He asked Sister Sister Marie Pierre a Carmelite nun and Sister Maria Pierina de Michelle to honor His Holy Face. Jesus, who is the head of Holy Mother Church, requested reparation to appease the Father's divine justice, to request mercy for sinners, and to honor and console our outraged Lord for His bitter suffering and abandonment.

According to Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII, reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus is heaven's remedy for the sins and evils of our modern times; most especially for sins against the first 3 commandments:

Denial of God (atheism/communism)

Blasphemy

Profanation of Sundays and Holy Days.

Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus is based on the life and writings of Sr. Marie of St. Pierre. Jesus asked her to make reparation for the sins of mankind, telling her many would fall away from God and embrace sin and evil in modern times. 

In 1849, when Pope Pius IX placed the relic of Veronica's veil for public veneration in Rome, the Divine Face appeared distinctly, and illuminated, as if living. This led to Pope Leo XII giving this devotion the highest order and establishing it as an Arch-confraternity in 1885. 

The devotion greatly inspired St. Therese of Lisieux so much that she took the title, "Sr. Therese of the child Jesus and of the Holy Face." In 1958, Pope Pius XII declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus to be the day before Ash Wednesday and Pope Benedict XVI spoke of its miraculous power saying, " we must allow ourselves to be transformed by the radiance of His Face."

The Chaplet of Reparation contains prayers composed by Sister Marie of St. Pierre after Jesus asked her to battle in prayer against the "enemies of God", especially the communists (Marx's Communist Manifesto was not yet written in 1843). 

A regular rosary can be used pray the devotion, or the Holy Face Chaplet of 33 beads, consisting of 5 sets of 6 beads. The prayers make reparation for the sins of blasphemy against Our Lord's Holy Face through His five senses, with the last three beads honoring the three years of our Lord's public ministry on earth.