History of the Holy Face Devotion

Dear Family of God,

I want to share with you all “The History of the Holy Face Devotion” and add this devotion to our weekly prayers, that is every Tuesday after the Daily Mass and Rosary.

In Tours, France during the 1840's a young Carmelite nun named, Sr. Mary of St Peter, received 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 was to make reparation for the blasphemies and outrages of "Revolutionary men" [the Communists] ...through whom God is allowing the world to be chastised for its unbelief, as well as for the blasphemies of atheists and freethinkers and others, plus, for blasphemy and the profanation of Sundays by Christians. Specifically, this devotion is the Divine tool given by God to defeat Communism, but it is also an instrument given to the individual devotee as a seemingly unfailing method of appealing to God in prayer...through adoration of His Holy Face and Name.

Our Lord gave Sister Mary a short but powerful prayer called' 'The Golden Arrow," by which a person can "shoot directly into the Heart of God" to heal the wounds inflicted on it by the malice of sinners. Of the 9 promises connected with this devotion, the first three are 1) "By My Holy Face you will work miracles;" 2) "By My Face you will obtain the conversion of many sinners;" and 3) "Nothing you ask in making this offering will be refused to you." This devotion brought St. Therese to her great sanctity. Anyone who is searching for a spiritual method for fighting atheism, socialism, materialism and paganism and its programs and/or who is searching for a virtually infallible method of prayer will be delighted with The Golden Arrow devotions.

The Golden Arrow Prayer

Psalm 67:2 "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered: and let them that hate Him flee from before His Face."

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.

After receiving this prayer, Sister Mary of St. Peter was given a vision in which she saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus delightfully wounded by this "Golden Arrow" as torrents of graces streamed from It for the conversion of sinners.

Devotion of Reparation universally practiced in the Church some years ago after the Brief of Pope Leo XIII canonically established the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face in 1885. Unfortunately, however, it was neglected and forgotten in the years immediately prior to the First World War in 1914. And since Mankind did not stop offending God, Second World War came. And now, when we live daily on the verge of a Third World War, shall we at last embrace this reparation demanded by Our Lord? The "revolutionary men," designated by Our Lord Himself as Communists have so engulfed the world in turmoil that humanity faces destruction. This was the consensus of opinion from unimpeachable sources, including Pope Pius XII.

Addressing Himself mystically to the pious Carmelite nun, Our Lord told her that especially to His priests He promises He will defend them before His Father in Heaven and give them His kingdom if they, through words, prayers, or writings, defend His cause in this work of "reparation." Pastors, therefore, and priests who desire to answer this call should endeavor, to establish the Confraternity of the Holy Face in their parishes. (SOURCE: THE GOLDEN ARROW, The Revelations of Sr. Mary of St. Peter, Ed., Dorothy Scallon with Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat 1954.)

I read the book The Secret of the Holy Face by Fr. Lawrence Daniel Carney III. The Devotion destined to save society.” Blessed Pope Pius IX said: “Reparation is a work destined to save society.” According to Fr. Carney, “Reparation means to satisfy the justice of God for the sins committed against Him. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the chief way to make reparation. Second, the Divine Office, prayed mostly by Clerics and Religious. Then the Holy Rosary is the third method of reparation. A fourth is to be devoted to the Holy Face of Jesus. Jesus told us the secret of how making reparation to His Face will release us from the grips of the enemies. Our Lord told Sr. Mary of St. Peter, “My name is everywhere blasphemed! Even children blaspheme!” She commented, “He made me understand that this frightful sin more that any other grievously wounds Him. By blasphemy the sinner curses Him to His Face, attacks Him openly, annuls redemption, and pronounces his own condemnation.” (p.15).

May we heed the call of Jesus to make reparation by coming to Mass every Sunday and Holidays of Obligation, by praying the Holy Rosary daily and by our devotion to the Divine Mercy and the Holy Face of Jesus. In Leviticus 26:18 “Five of you will pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies will fall before you…”

May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph help us all to defeat our enemies.

Yours in Christ through Mary Immaculate,
Fr. Jess Ty