My husband and I were married on the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows thirty-three years ago. It was not, however, until our reversion in the faith eleven years into our marriage that this providential wedding date held a new significance – it was our Blessed Mother who not only brought us together for Sacramental Marriage, but she also did what she does best, which was to lead us back to her Son.
Upon moving to the countryside 18 years ago, we seized the opportunity – after a dear friend blessed us with the Stations of the Cross from the unfortunate closure of a parish – to erect a winding outdoor trail and naming the stations in honour of Our lady of Sorrows. In time, my favourite one grew to be #6 – “Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus”. I had pondered over the years why I felt such abiding joy when approaching this particular one. The simple reason I felt was that it addressed the deep yearning in my heart that I had read over and over in various Station of the Cross meditations such as in The Imitation of Christ: “O Jesus, imprint Your Image on my heart that I may be faithful to You all my life”. But, that was only a beginning.
In ensuing years, friends had gifted us with various images of the Face of our Lord including the Holy Shroud, and the “Ecce Homo” print by the prophetic Catholic Canadian author and painter Michael O’Brien. They are displayed in various places in our home, but the reasons why I was attracted to them, or the underlying significance of why they all ended up with us were “veiled” and put into our spiritual back pockets for the time being.
Most noticeably to me in the past three years, as the world has gone “completely bonkers” (Fr. Mark Goring CC), I have concretely felt like a helpless speck of dust. I cannot say that I actively prayed, “What more can I do for you Lord to atone for this madness?” but in praying the Holy Rosary daily for conversions, for an end to all diabolical infiltration in every aspect of society, including Holy Mother Church all the while enlisting the intercession of an army of our favourite saints whose twelve star General is Our Blessed Mother to do so, she read the undertones of both my & my husband’s hearts and started “unveiling” her plan.
In the very same way that through my husband, our Blessed Mother led me back to praying the holy Rosary of my youth, and to Consecration to Jesus through Mary at the cusp of our reversion (his research into Marian apparitions made it evident to him that both the Rosary & Consecration were imperative), again through him and his hungry research into everything Holy Face, a metaphorically piecing together happened from my spiritual back pocket. My love & contemplation for the sixth station of the Cross and the religious art work in our home were in actual fact pointers to the Holy Face Devotion! Next my husband stumbled upon videos by Fr. Lawrence Carney, an American priest who has now dedicated his entire priesthood to spreading this devotion worldwide through membership to the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face which uses the Veil of Veronica as the object of adoration/reparation to the Holy Face. In his humble conviction, Fr. Carney relays that 1) the Church is currently going through its Passion, which is evidenced by all the wounds that our Lord suffered to His Holy Face that miraculously were imprinted on the Veil of Veronica during His Passion, 2) that revolutionary men will be the Lord’s chosen means of chastising mankind for the profanation of our Lord’s first three commandments (based on the revelations of our Lord to Sr. Marie de St. Pierre in the 1840’s), and 3) that our Lord’s merciful blueprint to the far reaching onslaught of Communism worldwide is in making reparation to His Son’s Holy Face. Sold!
The series of events that have unfolded this year after giving our “fiat” to this devotion have been incredible blessings of generosity from our Lord. We happily enrolled in the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face in February of this year, followed quickly by a home enthronement. Celebrating our first ever feast day of the Holy Face on Shrove Tuesday by first praying a novena leading up to it, and then attending Holy Mass that day was an incredibly moving experience. We had the privilege of receiving the blessing from our parish pastor on the Solemnity of St. Joseph to begin a prayer group after Holy Mass every Tuesday evening at which we pray prayers of reparation to His Holy Face (this is truly a miracle as our husband and I are both introverts). Now, under the patronage of St. Joseph, our Lord is leading us to the possibility of being Holy Face missionaries for Him? I can only pray in thanksgiving to our Blessed Mother for patiently leading us to the “more” that my husband and I endeavour to do with God’s grace in the here and now for such a time as this. Ave Maria!
12 Nov 2023
