Holy Face devotion warms hearts

By Christina Galeone
CFP Correspondent

Until fairly recently, the Holy Face devotion had become somewhat obscure. Father Thiago DaSilva admitted that, originally, he wasn’t abundantly familiar with it.
When Father DaSilva was administrator for St. Denis Parish in Ashburnham, he met Maryann Lindgren and she told him about the devotion.  “I truly fell in love with the prayer, and I saw how powerful and impacting it could be in our lives, he said.”
Moved, Father DaSilva brought the prayer group to the parish for a time. Thanks to the awareness raised by Ms. Lindgren and Franca Martin, two Annunciation Parish parishioners, a devotion prayer group is now held each Sunday at Annunciation Parish in Gardner.
And the devotion that played a role in the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Padre Pio has been warming hearts and renewing minds in the Worcester Diocese.   
This iteration of the devotion, as reported on the website holyfacedevotion.org, began in the mid-19th century when Sister Marie de St. Pierre of the Holy Family, a French Carmelite nun, received revelations from Jesus. He asked her to establish the devotion, which offers God the Father the cherished, beautiful, wounded face of Christ on the road to Calvary to make reparation for the sins of blasphemy, atheism and the desecration of Sunday. The Carmelite nun wrote, “Man is invited to repair the outrages made to his God, and in a loving return, he promises to restore his image in our souls! Let us, therefore, wipe the august face of the savior, soiled with the spittle of blasphemers, and he will wipe our soul, soiled with the spittle of sin.”
Inspired by her personal devotion to the Holy Face for around 15 years, Ms. Lindgren – along with Mrs. Martin – started the prayer group at Annunciation Parish earlier this year. The group says prayers, including the Holy Face devotion chaplet and the litany of the Holy Face.      
“We’re in a spiritual war, and these prayers are so beautiful” Ms. Lindgren commented. “The only way we’re going to win this spiritual battle is to repair our relationship with God.”
The group also meditates on the Holy Face, which Ms. Lindgren said is “so full of merit.”
“You can have the most fabulous conversation with God when you meditate on his Holy Face,” she assured. She later noted, “When you’re looking at his Holy Face, you feel what’s happening in his heart. And you feel what’s happening in your heart.”
 Mrs. Martin is equally enchanted.
“It makes me feel at peace when I say the prayers,” she shared, noting that saying them in a group takes her to another level. “It just warms my heart that he gave us this prayer to bring to his Father for us.”
Another thing that warms her heart is the effect that a Holy Face of Jesus picture has had on her autistic 7-year-old great nephew. She said that he has such a strong connection to the picture that the first time he saw it, he stretched out his arm and touched the picture. Then, he put his hand over his heart. “He will not go to bed without kissing the Holy Face of Jesus,” Mrs. Martin said.   
Father DaSilva, who is currently with the Redemptorists in New Jersey, believes that one of the most indelible benefits that people receive from practicing the devotion is expressed by part of a prayer written by St. Therese de Lisieux. In the prayer, she wrote, “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.”   
“Having people attending to this beautiful devotion means that each one of them, contemplating the face of Christ crucified, will be united with all his sorrows, love and total abandonment,” Father DaSilva explained. He further noted, “We know that most people find it difficult to meditate on Jesus’ sufferings because they are more drawn to the joys of his life. However, it is essential that we know how to contemplate all the mysteries of Jesus’ life: the joyful, the luminous, the painful and the glorious, as we do in the daily prayer of the holy rosary.”
Father DaSilva also believes that the devotion can offer protection.
“According to many prophecies … many catastrophes are about to hit humanity, and with these words of our Father in heaven, let us seek the Holy Face of Christ and spread this devotion so that the wrath of God may decrease upon us,” he advised. “Therefore, let us not miss the graces that our Lord promises us through devotion to his Holy Face. The time is passing by. Let us run to meet the Lord as quickly as possible, and let us help other people to take shelter before his face so that they may be saved.”
And with tremendous enthusiasm, Ms. Lindgren and Mrs. Martin continue to do just that. In addition to running the prayer groups, they give presentations about the devotion’s history, its prayers and how it relates to the Fatima apparitions. Ultimately, they hope the devotion will be embraced by every church.
“It’s important to pray it,” Ms. Lindgren said. “It’s a wonderful weapon we have for spiritual warfare.”   
Catholics from any parish are invited to attend the Holy Face devotion prayer group meetings at Holy Rosary parish center on 142 Regan St., every Sunday at 11:30 a.m.  

– Churches that would like to invite Ms. Lindgren and Mrs. Martin to do a presentation about the Holy Face devotion can email them at ThePowerofOurLady@AOL.com.