St. Joan of Arc Prayer Group
The St. Joan of Arc Prayer Group is an online prayer group of members and friends of the St. Joseph’s Missionaries of the Holy Face. It was in Tours, France (the place the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was founded) where St. Joan of Arc sent for the sword which she would carry into her glorious battles. This is why she is an important figure in the history of the Holy Face devotion. To honour her, we have appointed her our patron for our online prayer group.
Pictured above: Image of the Holy Face, St. Therese, and St. Joan of Arc.
Our prayer group is centered around the Rosary and the Holy Face Devotion, which, with Holy Mass and the Blessed Sacrament, are the principal and strongest spiritual weapons in this battle. And this is a battle. If you are coming into this group with the mentality that we are not in a war, then this is not the place for you.
The prayer intentions of the group are as follows:
- To rouse up Catholics to re-engage with their Catholic heritage and join with us in this Crusade to spread the Holy Face Devotion for the defeat of atheistic communism and tyranny.
- To answer our own particular personal intentions by drawing on the strength of the prayers of the Rosary and the Holy Face which are exponentially more powerful when prayed as a community.
- To confront and defeat the spiritual and physical tyranny being imposed on our countries and our Church, and to unite us in defense of human life, dignity, freedom, and conscience.
Our SJAC Prayer Group meets every Thursday to pray the devotions to the Holy Face and recite the Rosary @ 7PM EST.
Our prayer session is not meant to be a replacement for members’ weekly or monthly meetings which they attend in person, but rather only as a supplement or as an option if no personal prayer groups are currently available in their vicinity.
Click HERE to join with your browser or download the WEBEX app. (Password is Rosary.)
LITURGICAL PROGRAM
Invocation of St. Joan of Arc
Dear St. Joan, filled with compassion, for those who invoke you, filled with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of our troubles, we kneel at your feet and humbly beg you, to take our present needs under your special protection. <Request mentioned> Grant to recommend it to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus. Cease not to intercede for us, until our request is granted. Above all, obtain for us, the grace to one day meet God face to face, and with you and Mary, and all the angels and saints, praise Him through all eternity. O most powerful Saint Joan, do not let us lose our souls, but obtain for us the grace of winning our way to heaven, forever and ever. Amen.
Chaplet of the Holy Face
Make the Sign of the Cross and pray: Opening Prayers: “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord make haste to help me.” | “Glory Be”
On the large bead: “My Jesus Mercy,” followed by the “Glory Be”. Then pray on the six beads: “Arise, O Lord! and let Thy enemies be scattered, and let those that hate Thee flee from before Thy Face.”
- In honour of our Lord’s sense of TOUCH
- In honour of our Lord’s sense of HEARING
- In honour of our Lord’s sense of SIGHT
- In honour of our Lord’s sense of SMELL
- In honour of our Lord’s sense of TASTE
- In honour of our Lord’s last three years of Our Lord’s ministry and all the wounds on His Holy Face. (Arise, O lord ……. x3)
- Conclusion: “ O God, our Protector, look down upon us and cast Thine eyes upon the Face of Thy Christ.”
Additional Chaplet Prayers:
- Pray: “Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the other instruments of His Holy Passion, that Thou may put division in the camp of Thine enemies,” for as Thy beloved Son has said, “A kingdom divided against itself shall fall”. March 29, 1847, Golden Arrow, p. 203.
- Pray: “May the thrice Holy Name of God overthrow all their plans.” April 6, 1847, Golden Arrow, p. 207.
- Pray: “May the Name of the Living God split them up by disagreements.” April 6, 1847, Golden Arrow, p. 207.
- Pray: “May the terrible Name of the God of Eternity stamp out all their godlessness!” April 6, 1847, Golden Arrow, p. 207
- Pray: “Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but I want him to be converted and to live. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” April 6, 1847, Golden Arrow, p.207.
Golden Arrow
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 in the hells, 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.
HOLY ROSARY
Linen copy of the Holy Face from 1879, venerated in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Currently hosted at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Ottawa, Canada.
Litany of the Holy Face of Jesus
Response: Have mercy on us
I salute Thee, I adore Thee and I love Thee, O adorable Face of Jesus, my Beloved, noble Seal of the Divinity! Outraged anew by blasphemers. I offer Thee, through the heart of Thy blessed Mother, the worship of all the Angels and Saints, most humbly beseeching Thee to repair and renew in me and in all men Thine Image disfigured by sin.
O adorable Face which was adored, with profound respect, by Mary and Joseph when they saw Thee for the first time, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which ravished with joy, in the stable of Bethlehem, the Angels, the shepherds and the magi, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which transpierced with a dart of love in the Temple, the saintly old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which filled with admiration the Doctors of the Law when Thou appeared in the Temple at the age of twelve years, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which possesses beauty always ancient and always new, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which is the masterpiece of the Holy Ghost, in which the Eternal Father is well pleased, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which is the ineffable mirror of the divine perfections, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face of Jesus which was so mercifully bowed down on the Cross, on the day of Thy Passion, for the salvation of the world! Once more today in pity bend down towards us poor sinners. Cast upon us a glance of compassion and give us Thy peace.
O adorable Face which became brilliant like the sun and radiant with glory, on the Mountain of Tabor, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which wept and was troubled at the tomb of Lazarus, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which was rendered sad at the sight of Jerusalem, and shed tears on that ungrateful city, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which was bowed down to the ground in the Garden of Olives, and covered with confusion for our sins, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which was covered with the sweat of blood, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which was struck by a vile servant, covered with a veil of shame, and profaned by the sacrilegious hands of Thine enemies, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which by its divine glance, wounded the heart of St. Peter with a dart of sorrow and love, have mercy on us,
Be merciful to us, O my God! Do not reject our prayers, when in the midst of our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thine adorable Face.
O adorable Face which was washed and anointed by Mary and the holy women and covered with a shroud, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which was all resplendent with glory and beauty on the day of the Resurrection, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which is hidden in the Eucharist, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which will appear at the end of time in the clouds with great power and great majesty, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which will make sinners tremble, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which will fill the just with joy for all eternity, have mercy on us,
O adorable Face which merits all our reverence, our homage and our adoration, have mercy on us,
ALL:
O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!
O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!
O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!
An Act of Honourable Amends
(Should be read at last monthly meeting of each month)
To The Most Holy Face Of Our Lord Jesus Christ, In Reparation Of The Sin Of Blasphemy, Of The Profanation Of Sundays, And Of Other Impious Crimes Against God And The Church. To Be Recited Publicly’ At the Monthly Meetings of the Archconfraternity
Most holy and most adorable Face of the Saviour, humbly prostrate in Thy presence, we present ourselves before Thee, in order, by a solemn act of faith and of piety, to render Thee the homage of veneration, praise and love which is Thy due. We also desire to offer to Thee honorable amends and a public reparation for the sins, blasphemies and sacrileges of which the present generation has rendered itself culpable towards The Divine Majesty, and which, in regard to Thee, oh well beloved Face, renew the ignominies and The sufferings of Thy Passion.
It is with terror and profound affliction that we are witnesses of these monstrous crimes, which cannot fail to draw down upon society and upon our families, the malediction and the chastisements of divine justice. We see, in fact, all around us the law of the Lord and the authority of His Church despised and trodden under foot; His thrice holy Name denied or blasphemed, the Sunday which he has reserved for his worship, publicly profaned; his altars and his offices forsaken for criminal or frivolous pleasures. Impious sectarians attack all that is sacred and religious. But it is, above all, the Divinity of Christ, the Son of the living God; it is the Incarnate Word; it is the august Face and the Crucifix which They attack with the greatest fury; the spit and the blows of the Jews are renewed by the insults and the outrages which their hatred dares, in every possible manner, to inflict upon Thee, oh Face full of sweetness and of love.
Pardon, a thousand times pardon, for all these crimes! May we make amends for them by our humble supplications and the fervour of our homage! But, guilty and sinners as we are, what can we offer the Eternal Father in order to appease his just anger, if it be not Thyself, oh sorrowful Face, who has deigned to make Thyself our advocate and our victim? Supply what may be wanting in us by Thy satisfactions and Thy merits.
Heavenly Father, we entreat Thee, « Look on the Face of Thy Christ. » Behold the wounds which disfigure it, the tears which escape from its sunken eyes; the sweat with which it is bathed; the blood which flows in streams down its profaned and wounded cheeks. Behold also its invincible patience, its unalterable gentleness, its infinite tenderness and its merciful goodness towards sinners. This Holy Face is turned towards Thee, and, before exhaling its last sigh, lovingly inclined upon the Cross, it implores Thee in favour of those who curse and outrage it. Oh Father, listen to that suppliant cry, permit thyself to be touched; have pity on us and pardon us. Grant, moreover, that in presence of this divine Face, equally formidable and powerful, the enemies of Thy Name may take flight and disappear; that they may be converted and live!
Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved.
Amen! Amen!