Oh adorable Face, brilliant as the sun and shining with splendor on mount Tabor, have pity on us.

A touching mystery is proposed to us for our meditation to-day. Jesus withdraws three of his apostles to a high mountain, where he is transfigured in their presence. His face becomes dazzling as the sun and his raiment white as snow. At the same time Moses and Elias converse with him respecting the sufferings which he is to endure at Jerusalem. What a contrast, oh my God, and what a lesson for us!

1st POINT. — THE GLORY OF THE HOLY FACE TRANSFIGURED.

Jesus chose a place apart. God does not converse with us in the midst of the world; in order to hear him, the soul must be closed to the tumult of creatures and open to him alone. Jesus chose a high mountain, to make us understand that our heart ought to be raised above the things of this world, which we must tread under foot. It is there that he transfigures himself before a small number of his apostles. How was this miracle accomplished? In order to transfigure himself, Jesus had only to allow the features of his divinity to appear upon his human Face; he ceases to keep hidden the ray of glory which ravishes with joy the angels in heaven. The light of his Face, the whiteness of his raiment do not come from on high, they proceed from his adorable person.

On seeing this state of glory Peter, dazzled and beside himself exclaims— “Lord, it is good to be here. Let us make three tabernacles(1)” Happy Peter, happy disciples to have been permitted to see the beauty of the transfigured Face. Such is also, oh my soul, the happiness reserved for thee, not for some fugitive moments only upon earth, but for eternity in heaven, When the bonds of clay which hinder thy flight shall fall away, thou wilt be able to contemplate, in the bosom of inaccessible light and in all the splendor of its sweetness and of its majesty, the beauty of the Face of thy Savior. “My Redeemer liveth,” saith Job,” and in the last day, I shall rise out of the earth, and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God(2).”

2nd POINT. — THE SORROWS OF THE HOLY FACE.

But from what secret design in the midst of the glory with which it was pleased to environ itself did the Holy Face assume immediately an expression of sorrow? Jesus converses with Moses and Elias, the two greatest prophets of the ancient law, and he speaks of the excessive sufferings he is going to undergo at Jerusalem. The remembrance of his Passion cannot quit for a moment the mind of the Savior. He bears it with him in the midst of his joys, and his heart sighs incessantly after the baptism of blood by which he is to regenerate the world.

What a lesson, oh my God! Wherefore are joys so fleeting? Glory, alas! is only a flash of lightning in the midst of a dark sky, and suffering is the sad reality of Christian life upon earth. The law of reparation for sin weighs heavily on humanity, and if we would be glorified with Jesus, we must pass through the purifying crucible of penitence. The funereal veil of trial will not be lifted from our faces until the last day. Meantime we remain in the state of exiles and travelers, for Jesus will not permit us to fix our tent here below.

Let us then keep the eyes of our heart fixed on Jesus, our model, the author and finisher of our faith, who preferred to the enjoyments of life the humiliation of the cross. God is faithful, he will not permit us to he tempted above our strength. He will even proportion consolation to trial, his love will distil suffering for us, lest our heart should go astray and attach itself to present things. Therefore it is that, when God loves a soul, he takes it at first apart, raises it upon the mountain of contemplation, and allows it to perceive for an instant the beauty of his Face; and then he immediately recalls it from its delightful ecstasy to point out to it the road which still remains to be traversed before it arrives at the sojourn of joy and rest.

Teach us, oh my Savior, to allow ourselves to be led by thy grace, and to be inflamed by thy love, that we may have courage to contemplate thy Face in the excess of its humiliations and of its opprobrium, so that we may be worthy to see it again in its glorious transfiguration amidst the splendors of the eternal Tabor.

SPIRITUAL BOUQUET.

Facta est, dum oraret, species vultus ejus altera.

And he was transfigured before them. (Mathew, XVII, 2.)

THE HOLY FACE A STANDARD OF REPARATION’.

It was necessary to the work of reparation, which Our Lord had come to found, that it should have an exterior mark, a sensible sign, a standard round which it might rally during the great combat to which he invited so many generous defenders of his cause. This exterior mark, this rallying sign, this standard, he gave to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre by giving her his Holy Face— “Our Lord represented to me very vividly,” she said, “the pious office performed by Veronica, who with her veil wiped his most Holy Face, covered as it then was with spit and dust, with sweat and blood. The divine Savior made me understand that the wicked actually renew by their blasphemies the outrages committed against the Holy Face; all the blasphemies which they hurl against the Divinity without being able to touch it, fall like the spits of the Jews upon the Face of Our Lord who made himself the victim of sinners. Then he told me it was necessary to imitate the zeal of pious Veronica she who so courageously passed through the crowd of his enemies, and whom he gave to me to be my patroness and model. By applying ourselves to the reparation of blasphemies, we render him the same office as this heroic woman did, and he looks upon those who act thus with the same complaisant eyes, and as he looked upon her at the time of his Passion.

“I then understood that in like manner as the sacred Heart of Jesus is the sensible object offered to our adoration whereby to represent his immense love in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar, in the same way, in the association of reparation, the Face of Our Lord is the sensible object offered to the adoration of the associates, whereby to make amends for the outrages of blasphemers, who attack the Divinity of which it is the figure, the mirror and the expression. By the virtue of this adorable Face presented to the eternal Father, his anger may be appeased, and the conversion of the wicked and of blasphemers may be obtained.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ went on to say to me— ‘I seek Veronicas to wipe and honor my divine Face, which has so few worshippers.’ He then addressed to me these mysterious and consoling words— ‘I give you my Holy Face as a recompense for the services you have rendered to me; you have done very little, it is true, but your heart has conceived great desires. I therefore give you this Face in the presence of my Father, in the virtue of the Holy Spirit and in presence of the angels and saints; I make this gift to you through the hands of my holy Mother and of St Veronica, who will teach you how to venerate it.’ Our Lord also said to me— ‘You will perform wonders by means of this Holy Face. ’”

Two days afterwards, on the feast of the holy Apostles Simon and Jude, the divine Master continued to instruct me, his servant in the mysteries of the Holy Face. “In the same way,” he said, “as in a kingdom we can procure with a piece of money, marked with the effigy of the prince, all that we desire, so with the precious coin of my holy humanity, which is my adorable Face, you will obtain all that you desire in the kingdom of heaven.

INVOCATION OF SISTER SAINT-PIERRE.

Oh Savior Jesus, who hast said— “In proportion to the care you take to repair my portrait, disfigured by blasphemers, I will take care to repair yours, which has been disfigured by sin,” accomplish in us the effects of thy promise, and render our souls as beautiful and agreeable in thy eyes as they were when they issued from the baptismal fonts.

(1) Domine, bonum est nos hic esse. (Matth, XVII, 4.)

(2) Job, XIX, 25.