Joining Saint Thérèse in the Work of Reparation Through Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus

Belinda Terro Mooney describes how Saint Thérèse of Lisieux lived in love, doing the Work of Reparation through Devotion to the Holy Face. 

Learn more about the Work of Reparation through the Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

Saint Thérèse’s introduction to this work of reparation  

Saint Thérèse heard of the messages Jesus gave to Sister Marie Pierre (Mary of St. Peter) as she entered the Discalced Carmelite convent in Lisieux, France. The prioress, Mother Genevieve, had put Sister Agnes of Jesus (Thérèse's sister Pauline), in charge of disseminating this Work of Reparation through Devotion to the Holy Face to the other nuns in the convent.   

Like so many times before, being the good mother that she was, Sister Agnes guided Saint Thérèse in becoming part of this work of reparation, giving her a picture of the Vera Effigies Face of Jesus and a copy of The Life of Sister Marie Pierre by Father Peter Janvier. (The Vera Effigies, thought to be the veil of Veronica, was venerated by Sister Marie Pierre and Venerable Leo DuPont. The Shroud of Turin had not come to prominence at that time.)

Sister Agnes explained the Work and told Thérèse that she was very similar to Sister Marie Pierre. It was before this picture of the Face of Jesus that Thérèse overcame the great temptation to doubt her vocation right before she was professed. So profound was this experience that, at her profession, she revised her name from Thérèse of the Child Jesus to Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.  

A similar mission 

Like Sister Agnes had predicted, Saint Thérèse read the information about Sister Marie Pierre and felt a real kinship for her. She learned that Sister Marie Pierre had been given a mission similar to Saint Margaret Mary with promises attached. Additionally, Sister Marie Pierre was given the Golden Arrow Prayer, which Jesus said wounds His heart with a golden arrow and brings down graces for those who are sinning against the first three Commandments.

Jesus instituted this Work of Reparation specifically to convert these people sinning against the first three Commandments, especially atheistic Communists. After doing this work for 28 years, I believe it would have greatly prevented the spread of Communism had enough people done it. The Golden Arrow prayer is as follows: May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible, and ineffable Name of God, be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored, and glorified, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by the most Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar. Amen. 

Thérèse, her sisters, and her father were members of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face which Pope Leo XI established. Members of the archconfraternity say the prayer, “O Lord show us Thy Face and we shall be saved,” and then pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.  

Saint Thérèse wrote that she could picture Jesus’ Face looking down on her. She had the spiritual understanding that she did everything in His sight. Thus, she strove to live every day before the Holy Face of Jesus in the most perfect degree of love she could, even to wanting to be love in the heart of the Church. She wrote about this in Story of a Soul and also composed a prayer. This work of reparation was so important to Saint Thérèse that at her beatification process, her sisters both testified that her love for the Holy Face of Jesus was even stronger than for the Child Jesus.  

I found a sister in Saint Thérèse at the age of 17 when I read Story of a Soul. What an immense honor to be a member of the same archconfraternity.  

Prayer to the Holy Face written by Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face 

O Jesus, who in Your cruel passion became the reproach of Men and the Man of Sorrows, I worship Your Divine Face. Once it shone with the beauty and sweetness of Divinity; now for my sake it has become like the Face of a leper. Yet in that disfigured Countenance I recognize Your infinite love, and I am consumed with the desire of loving You and of making You loved by all mankind. The tears that streamed forth in such abundance from Your eyes are to me as precious pearls which I delight to gather, that with their infinite worth I may ransom the souls of poor sinners.  

O Jesus, whose Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I pray You to imprint in me Your divine likeness, and I implore you to inflame me with Your love that it may quickly consume me, and I may soon reach the vision of Your glorious Face in Heaven. Amen. 

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Copyright 2024 Belinda Terro Mooney
Images: Holy Face image used with the kind permission of Mother Pia of the Carmelite Monastery of Philadelphia, all rights reserved; all others Canva