I was contemplating – why 39 beads? I think maybe it is because Jesus received 39 lashes as per the custom of the Roman Empire – that a person was to receive 40-1 lashes for the flagellation, as it was believed they would die if it was 40 or more. Some mystics and researchers believe Jesus received three times that amount. I am not disputing this claim by any means, just merely stating the Roman custom of flogging.
There are 33 small beads; 30 in honour of His hidden life, and 3 for His public life. There are 6 large beads, 5 are in honour of His senses. The sixth one is in honour of the wounds to His Holy Face.
When we take the 39 beads in total, we take all the weapons of torture (as Jesus revealed to Sister Marie of St. Pierre) when we pray and we are “hurling them at the enemies of Jesus,” the evil spirits.
St. Athanasius wrote that when the devil was asked what the most powerful verse from the Bible was, he replied that it was Psalm 67 which begins with “Arise O Lord, let Thy enemies be scattered, let those that hate Thee flee before Thy Face”. This phrase is also in Numbers 10:35, “And when the ark was lifted up, Moses said: Arise, O Lord, and let Thy enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Thee, flee from before Thy face.” In the Chaplet, we repeat this 33 times. Imagine the power it has. Wow! The Holy Face Chaplet is like a minor exorcism, because of this verse.
Fr. Lawrence Carney mentioned that the Chaplet was also for the Triumph of the Catholic Church. This is amazing because it brings us back to Numbers 10:35. “And when the ark was lifted up Moses said: Arise O Lord let Thy enemies be scattered, let those that hate Thee flee from before Thy Face”. The Ark contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the Manna from the desert and the staff of Aaron. When we lift up the Church, we lift up the Word of GOD and His Commandments; we lift up the Eucharist; we lift up the Magisterium.
The New Ark is also Mary the Mother of God. So when we lift up Mary we are calling on her to crush the enemy as scripture foretold “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt wait for her heel” (Genesis 3:15).
During Adoration one Saturday Morning, after praying the Chaplet, I was contemplating on the 5 senses component and wondering why? Then, it occurred to me that all of Jesus’ senses were beaten during His cruel Passion. I realized that by praying in honour of Jesus’ senses, we are pleading with God the Father to restore our senses to the Image and Likeness of His. We have done an exceeding good job at defiling all of our own senses. Our ears and eyes are always desiring eye capturing entertainment, buzzing with explosions, stimulations, and gratuitous violence. Our senses of smell and taste are lured to consume food and drink with greed and gluttony. Our sense of touch is desirous of all kinds of filth and vile sensual pleasures. Therefore, we need God to restore our senses back to Him so that we can delight with our eyes and ears in all of the heavenly and spiritual good things coming from Him; so that we would use our senses of taste and smell in moderation, only for what God intends; that we should desire only to be healed by God, and using our sense of touch to heal and comfort others rather than for personal pleasure.
Therefore, not only is this Chaplet a powerful prayer of reparation through the reverencing of His Holy Face, but it is also a plea to God for restoration of humanity to His Image and Likeness.
Note: Psalm 67 is in reference to the Douay-Rheims Bible. Other translations number it as Psalm 68.
originally composed in Mar,2023 and updated in Nov, 2023
Little pilgrim of the Holy Face