I. The Holy Face and the Holy Name of Jesus.

A comparison as simple as it is just will enable us to see how the impious, by their blasphemies, attack the adorable Face of our Lord, and how faithful souls glorify it by the praises which they render to His Name and to His person.

Merit is in the persons, but the glory which accompanies them is in their name; it casts a lustre upon them when it is pronounced; the merit or demerit of a person is attached to his name.

The most holy Name of Jesus expresses the glorious victory which he has obtained over hell, and it embraces in it the infinite merits of His adorable person. The most holy Name of God expresses the Divinity and it embraces in it all the perfections of the Creator. Hence it follows that the blasphemers of these sacred Names attack God Himself.

Now, let us recall to mind those words of Jesus: I am in my Father, and my Father is in me. Jesus has rendered himself passable by the Incarnation; it is he who has suffered in his adorable Face the outrages inflicted upon the Name of God his Father by blasphemers.

There is something mysterious in the face of a man who is despised. Yes, I see that there is a particular link between his name and his face.

Look, He said, at a man distinguished by his name and through his merits in presence of his enemies; they do not indeed attack him with blows, but they overwhelm him with injuries; they affix derisive and bitter epithets to his name, instead of the titles which are his due. Then, observe what passes over the countenance of the man subjected to such insults; would you not say that all the outrageous words which issue from the mouth of his enemies fix themselves on his face, and cause him to suffer real torments? His brow is flushed and covered with shame and confusion; the opprobrium and ignominy he suffers are more cruel to bear than real torments in other parts of his body. Behold then herein a feeble portrait of the Face of our Lord outraged by the blasphemies of the impious.

Let us now represent to ourselves the same man in presence of his friends, who, having heard of the insults he has received, hasten to console him, to treat him in accordance with his dignity, and to do homage to the greatness of his name, by giving him all the exalted titles to which he has a right. Then you see that the man’s face reflects the pleasure these praises give him. Glory rests upon his brow, and, flowing down his face, renders it resplendent; joy shines in his eyes, there is a smile upon his lips; in a word, his faithful friends have healed the painful wounds inflicted on his face outraged by his enemies; the glory has exceeded the opprobrium. Behold then, what the friends of Jesus perform by the work of reparation; the glory which they give to his Name rests upon His august brow and rejoices His most Holy Face in a very special manner in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar.

II. The work of reparation by means of the Holy Face.

This work has, for its main object, the reparation of blasphemies, and the reparation of the holy day of Sunday, profaned by secular labour; in consequence, it embraces the reparation of the outrages inflicted upon God and the sanctification of his Name.

Ought the devotion to the Holy Face, to be united to this work? Yes, it is its riches and its most precious ornament, since our Lord has made a gift of His Holy Face to the work, in order to be the object of the devotion of the associates; they become all powerful with God through the offering which they ought to make to Him of this august and holy Face, the presence of which is so agreeable to Him that it infallibly appeases His anger and attracts His infinite mercy upon poor sinners. Yes, when the Eternal Father looks upon the Face of His well-beloved Son, which has been wounded by blows and covered with ignominy, the sight moves his bowels of compassion. Let us endeavour to profit by so precious a gift and let us entreat the divine Saviour to hide us in the secret of His Face during the evil days.

III. Why the Holy Face is the visible sign of reparation.

The august Face offered to our adorations is the ineffable mirror of the divine perfections; perfections which are contained and expressed in the most holy Name of God.

As the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the visible sign offered to our adorations in order to represent his immense love in the most sacred Sacrament of the altar, so in like manner, the adorable Face of our Lord is the sensible object offered to our adorations, in order to repair the outrages committed by blasphemers against the Majesty and the Sovereignty of God, of which this Holy Face is the figure, the mirror and the expression; by the virtue of this Holy Face offered to the Eternal Father, His anger will be appeased and the conversion of the impious and of blasphemers obtained. It is true to say that blasphemers and sectarians inflict anew on the Holy Face of our Lord the ignominies of His Passion.

The impious who utter evil words and blaspheme the holy Name of God, spit in the Face of the Saviour and cover it with mud, whilst all the blows which sectarians give the Church and to religion, are the renewal of the numberless blows inflicted on the Face of our Lord, and which cause the divine Face to sweat afresh, because impious men strive to annihilate the fruit of his labours. Veronicas are required in order to wipe and to honour this august Face, which has so few worshippers. All those who apply themselves to this work of reparation, perform thereby the office of the pious Israelite.

IV. Veronica and the good thief.

The Saviour taught the Sister that two persons had rendered him a signal service during his Passion; the first was Veronica, who glorified His holy humanity by wiping His adorable Face on the path to Calvary; the second was the good thief, who, from the cross as from a pulpit, preached in defence of His cause and confessed His divinity whilst it was being blasphemed by the other thief and by the Jews.

« Our Lord made me to understand, » she says, « that two persons were to be our models and protectors, one of whom was Veronica, the model of persons of her sex who are not charged with defending His cause in public by their voices, but on whom it is incumbent to wipe His Holy Face by their prayers, praises and adorations. The other person was the good thief, the special model of men and of the ministers of the Church who are called, in the work of reparation, publicly to defend the honour of God, and to proclaim His glory in the face of those who outrage it. Therefore, as a recompense the Saviour gave to Saint Veronica His adorable portrait, and bestowed on the good thief an immediate entrance into His heavenly Kingdom.

Our Lord promised the Sister not to show Himself less magnificent towards those who by their prayers, their adorations, or their writings, should boldly defend His cause before men, without being afraid of either their ill will or their powers.

V. Virtue of the Holy Face In relation to St. Peter

There are men upon earth who possess the art of restoring bodies, but there is only our Lord who can be called the restorer of souls after the image of God. This then is the grace which the divine Master promises to grant to all who shall set themselves to render to His adorable Face the honour and the adoration which it merits, with the intention of repairing by this homage the opprobrium it receives from blasphemers.

We see in the apostle Saint Peter an example of the virtue of the Holy Face. The apostle had by his sin effaced the image of God in his soul; but Jesus turned his Holy Face towards the faithless apostle, and he became penitent. Jesus looked on Peter, and Peter wept bitterly. The adorable Face is, as it were, the seal of the Divinity which has the power of re-impressing on souls to which it is applied the image of God.

VI. the Holy Face represents the adorable Trinity.

 Remember, oh my soul, the sublime lesson which thy heavenly Spouse has given Thee in His adorable Face. Remember that this divine head represents the Eternal Father who is not engendered; the mouth of this Holy Face represents the Word engendered by the Father, and the two eyes of this mysterious Face represent the reciprocal love of the Father and of the Son; for these divine eyes have both of them but one and the same light, one and the same knowledge, and produce but one and the same love, represented by the Holy Spirit. Contemplate in the hair the infinity of the adorable perfections of the most Holy Trinity; see in that majestic Head the precious portion of the holy humanity of the Saviour, the image of the unity of God.