April 2021

April is the Month the Church Dedicates to the Holy Face

 

“And my people, upon whom my NAME is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek out MY FACE, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and will heal their land.”
(II Paralipomenon, vii. 14)

“I have given my body to the strikers, and my checks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me.”
(Isaias, l. 6)

“Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him, and others struck his face with the palms of their hands.”
(St. Matth, xxvi. 67)

 

Click here, to view a section dedicated to the Holy Face.

 

DEVOTION TO THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS
As revealed to Sr. Mary of St. Peter

(Click here, to download the book, The Life of Sister Mary St. Peter Carmelite of Tours, 1884)

“And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of prayers: and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced.”
(Zacharias, xii. 10)

Promises of Our Lord Jesus Christ to Sr. Mary of St. Peter, Discalced Carmelite Nun of Tours, France, in favor of those who honor His Holy Face:

1. “By My Holy Face you shall work miracles.”

2. “By My Face you will obtain the conversion of many sinners.”

3. “Nothing that you ask in making this offering will be refused to you.”

4. “If you knew how pleasing the sight of My Face is to My Father.”

5. “As in a kingdom you can procure all you wish for with a coin marked with the King's effigy, so in the Kingdom of Heaven you will obtain all you desire with the precious coin of My Holy Face.”

6. “Our Lord has promised me that He will imprint His divine likeness on the souls of those who honor His most holy Countenance.”

7. “All those who honor My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation will, by so doing, perform the office of the pious Veronica.”

8. “According to the care you take in making reparation to My Face, disfigured by blasphemies, so will I take care of yours, which has been disfigured by sin. I will reprint therin My image and render it as beautiful as it was on leaving the Baptismal font.”

9. “Our Lord promised me that all those who defend His cause in this work of reparation, by words, by prayers, or in writing, He will defend them before His Father; at their death He will purify their souls by effacing all the blots of sin and will restore to them their primitive beauty.”

 

“I will give you my Face and every time that you present it to my Father, my mouth will open to plead your cause.”
(Our Lord to Sr. Mary of St. Peter)

 

THE GOLDEN DAGGER

“…He told me that he would give me a golden dagger with which to wound him delightfully, and heal the poisonous wounds caused by sin.”
(Sr. Mary of St. Peter)

Below is an excerpt from Life of Sister Mary St. Peter Carmelite of Tours, pages 126 – 129.

At five o’clock, she commenced her evening prayer; placing herself in spirit at the foot of the cross, (according to her custom, as we have seen), she lovingly asked of Our Lord the cause of his wrath. Her Divine Master, wishing to try her, changed his usual manner, and said: “I have lent ear to your sighs, and have seen your desire to glorify me; yet, all this proceeds not from you, it is I who am the Author of all holy desires.”

The sister continues: “Then he unfolded his Heart to me, concentrating therein the powers of my soul, and addressed me thus: ‘My Name is everywhere blasphemed, even little children blaspheme it.’ And he made me understand how that dreadful sin pierced and wounded his Heart, aye, more than all other crimes. By blasphemy, the sinner outrages him to his face, attacks him openly, and pronounces upon himself his own judgment and condemnation. Blasphemy is an empoisoned dagger, wounding his Divine Heart continually; he told me that he would give me a golden dagger with which to wound him delightfully, and heal the poisonous wounds caused by sin.”

“The following is the prayer which Our Lord dictated to me, notwithstanding my unworthiness, for the reparation of blasphemy against his Holy Name: he offered it to me as a golden dagger, assuring me that every time I said it, I would wound his Heart most lovingly.”

THE GOLDEN DAGGER.
“May the most holy, the most sacred, the most adorable, the most unknown and the most inexpressible Name of God be adored, praised, blessed, loved and glorified, in heaven, on earth and in hell, by all creatures formed by his sacred hand, and by the loving Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Amen.”

The sister here suddenly interrupts her interesting narrative to explain an expression contained in this prayer.

“As I was not a little astonished when Our Lord said and in hell, he had the goodness to make me understand that his justice was there glorified. I beg to remark, that he did not only mean the place where the wicked are punished, but also purgatory, where he is loved and glorified by the suffering souls. The word hell is not merely applied to the place where the damned are confined, for our faith teaches us that the Saviour descended into hell or Limbo, where the souls of the just were detained until his Coming; and does not our holy mother the Church pray her divine Spouse to deliver the souls of her children from the gates of hell? A porta inferi erue, Domine, animas eorum.” (Office of the Dead.)

To these explanations may be added, that St. Paul, in one of his epistles, made use of the same expression in an analogical sense, saying: “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bend in heaven, on earth and in hell.”

She continues: “Our Lord, having given me this golden dagger, added: ‘Beware how you appreciate this favor, for I shall demand an account of it.’ At that moment, I seemed to behold flowing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded by this golden dagger, torrents of grace for the conversion of sinners, which sight gave me confidence to ask: My Lord, do you then hold me responsible for blasphemers?’”

 

MIRABILE NOMEN DEI

“Oh! would that we could understand the glory we could obtain by repeating these words: MIRABILE NOMEN DEI (Admirable is the Name of God) in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy!”
(Sr. Mary of St. Peter)

Below is an excerpt from Life of Sister Mary St. Peter Carmelite of Tours, pages 197 – 198.

The Divine Master lent a favorable ear to the humble prayers of his servant; he revealed to her the heinousness and enormity of the sin of blasphemy. “It seems as if Our Lord said to me: ‘You cannot comprehend the abomination of this sin: if my justice were not restrained by my mercy, the guilty would be destroyed in an instant; even inanimate beings would feel my vengeance, but I have an eternity in which to punish the wicked.”

“Then he made me understand the excellence of this Work of Reparation; how far it surpassed all others, and how pleasing it was to God, to the angels, the saints and to our holy mother the Church. Oh! would that we could understand the glory we could obtain by repeating these words: MIRABILE NOMEN DEI (Admirable is the Name of God) in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy!”

 

SUMMARY OF PRAYERS

Act of Reparation for Blasphemy (The Golden Dagger)

May the most holy, the most sacred, the most adorable, the most unknown and the most inexpressible Name of God be adored, praised, blessed, loved and glorified, in heaven, on earth and in hell, by all creatures formed by his sacred hand, and by the loving Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Amen.

Prayers

• Eternal Father, I offer Thee the adorable Face of Thy beloved Son for the honor and glory of Thy Holy Name, for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of dying souls.

• Eternal Father, I ask of Thee as many souls as was the number of the drops of Blood as Thy Divine Son shed in His Passion. (She was given a vision of Hell and the multitude of souls falling in, and was invited to pray for poor sinners. Dec. 21, 1846).

• Eternal Father, I offer Thee Our Savior, Jesus Christ for the expiation of my sins and for the needs of Holy Church.

• Our Lord told Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre on March 16, 1844, “Oh if you only knew what great merit you acquire by saying even once, ‘Admirable is the Name of God,’ in the spirit of reparation of blasphemy.” (say often)

• Be merciful to us, O my God and reject not our prayers, when amid our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thine adorable Face.

• Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Holy Face of Jesus, covered with Blood, Sweat, dust and spittle, in reparation for the crimes of communists, blasphemers and by the profaners of His Holy Name and of the Holy Day of Sunday.

Taken from: The Life of Sister Mary St. Peter Carmelite of Tours, 1884;
www.todayscatholicworld.com/ap06tcw.htm

 

Below listed are the feasts falling in April 2021:

April 1: Maundy Thursday.
                    [PART I: Until the Last Supper]
                    [PART II: After the Last Supper]

April 2: FIRST FRIDAY/Good Friday.
                    [Part I - The Morning].
                    [Part II - The Afternoon].
                    [Part III - The Evening].
                    [Part IV - Reproaches, Plaint, & Prayers].

April 3: FIRST SATURDAY/Holy Saturday (A day of Fasting & COMPLETE Abstinence).
                   [Part I - The descent into Limbo].
                   [Part II - The Mother most Desolate].

 

(THE PASCHALTIDE BEGINS)

April 4: EASTER SUNDAY, the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with an Octave, Double of the I Class.

April 5: Easter Monday, Double.

April 6: Easter Tuesday, Double.

April 7: Easter Wednesday, Double.

April 8: Easter Thursday, Double.

April 9: Easter Friday, Double.

April 10: Easter Saturday, Double.

 

April 11: Low Sunday, Double of the I Class.

April 12: Mass of the Season

April 13: St. Hermenegild Martyr, Simple.

April 14: St. Justin Martyr, Double; Commemoration of Saints Tiburtius, Valerian and Maximus, Martyrs.

April 15: Mass of the Season

April 16: Mass of the Season

April 17: Commemoration of St. Anicetus Pope and Martyr.

 

April 18: II Sunday after Easter, Double.

April 19: Mass of the Season

April 20: Mass of the Season

April 21: St. Anselm Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church, Double.

April 22: Ss. Soter and Caius Popes and Martyrs, Simple.

April 23: St. George Martyr, Simple.

April 24: St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen Martyr, Double.

 

April 25: III Sunday after Easter, Double; ROGATION DAY (The Greater Litanies); Commemoration of St. Mark Evangelist.

April 26: Ss. Cletus and Marcellinus Popes and Martyrs, Simple.

April 27: St. Peter Canisius Confessor and Doctor of the Church, Double.

April 28: St. Paul of the Cross Confessor, Double; Commemoration of St. Vitalis Martyr.

April 29: St. Peter of Verona Martyr, Double; St. Robert, Abbot of Molesme (Liturgical Calendar of France).

April 30: St. Catherine of Siena Virgin, Double.

 

“We have in this precious gift an infallible means of appeasing the wrath of God the Father, irritated against blasphemers; we shall beg him to cast a glance at the Face of his Divine Son, and the thunderbolts of justice will fall harmlessly from his hands. O God, our protector, look upon us and cast thine eyes on the Face of thy Christ!”
(The Life of Sister Mary St. Peter Carmelite of Tours, 1884, page 256)

“Turn not away thy face from me; decline not in thy wrath from thy servant.”
(Ps, xxvi. 9)

Admirable is the Name of God!