To Be a Prayer Before Thy Mystery:
A Carmelite Before the Holy Face of Jesus

“In the Name of Thy own self, O my God, have mercy, I beseech Thee, on so many souls who are walking in the paths of perdition, succor Thy Church, put a stop to the numberless evils that afflict Christendom, and delay no longer to make Thy light shine in the midst of our darkness. Amen.”
— St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila)

Two lamps of love burn before a bronzed replica of Veronica’s Veil at the entrance to our Choir. Sentinels before the Face of Jesus, the oil consumed represents our lives of prayer expended drop by drop to light a darkened world. A request has been made to “lift the veil” to our devotion to the Holy Face, but where can one begin to tell the story of His Love? A story unique to each Nun here, to be sure, but one that has embraced our Community, indeed the Order of Carmel.

“Oh, to whom shall I address Myself if not to a Carmelite whose very vocation obliges her unceasingly to glorify My Name?”

Our Lord to Sr. Mary St. Peter of the Holy Family, a nun of the Carmel of Tours, France, in 1843

From its very beginnings, the Order of Carmel has been tied to the honor and glory of God, to the seeking of His Face – the “unum necessarium” (the one thing necessary). Undoubtedly, this is (or should be) the eternal goal of each soul, and Carmel’s vigilance echoes down the centuries the cry of its father and model, the fiery Prophet St. Elijah (Elias): “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts…in Whose Presence I stand,” i.e. before His Face I stand.

Taken up by Our Holy St. Teresa of Jesus in her reform of the Carmelite Order, she urged her daughters, “I am asking you only to look at Him.” This was uttered long before the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin (1898), the subject of Our Lord’s 1936 appeal to another religious, Bl. Maria Pierina: “I firmly wish that My Face reflecting the intimate pains of My soul, the suffering and love of My heart, be more honored! Whoever gazes upon Me already consoles Me.”

To be present to Him, to console Him and to win souls to His love, especially by praying for His priests – created by Him to be the intimate companions of His Eucharistic Face (In Sinu Jesu) – was the inspiration of Our Holy Mother St. Teresa that drew many of her daughters to Carmel and on to sanctity.

One of these was Sr. Mary St. Peter of the Holy Family, who entered the Carmel of Tours, France, in 1839. It was of this humble Carmelite Nun that Our Lord would request reparation for the sins committed against the majesty of the Triune God, especially those which violated the first three of the Ten Commandments: denial of His existence, blasphemy against His Holy Name and the profanation (the not keeping holy) of Sundays. Through several revelations He instructed his little messenger, ultimately giving her His Holy Face on the Veil of Veronica as the visible object of devotion for this Work of Reparation, and requesting that an Archconfraternity of the Holy Face be established in France. By this work of fervent souls, He told her, His justice would be appeased and His mercy granted to the guilty: “All those who honor My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation will, by so doing, perform the office of the pious Veronica.”

Reparation for blasphemy against the Holy Name of God

There are no coincidences with God. His first visit to Sr. Mary St. Peter came just as she was nearing the completion of a Novena to Our Holy Mother St. Teresa. It was August 26, 1843, the eve of the Feast of Our Holy Mother’s Transverberation, the transpiercing of the foundress’ heart by a Seraph’s dart of love. In His Divine Providence, Our Lord chose this day to dictate to Sr. Mary St. Peter the formula of the “Golden Arrow,” an Act of Praise for the reparation of blasphemy against His Holy Name. Sister reported seeing torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners streaming from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Who told her that He would be delightfully wounded by this “Golden Arrow.” In her autobiography, Our Holy Mother St. Teresa recorded that her heart had been delightfully wounded by the Angel’s arrow. St. Teresa burned with the desire to save souls and how she yearns to see her daughters also thus transpierced. How good of Our Lord to reveal to us that we could render love for love via the Golden Arrow Prayer! In our Monastery here in Alexandria, SD, we recite this prayer as a Community after Holy Mass, hoping thereby to delightfully wound Our Lord’s Heart on behalf of so many who do not know, who blaspheme or who even ignore His Holy Name.

Still, it was just the beginning of Our Lord’s revelations to the French Carmelite. He would return many times – even sending His Blessed Mother and St. Teresa herself to encourage Sr. Mary St. Peter in the Work of Reparation.

“Our Holy Mother St. Teresa appeared to me this morning. She has been appointed by God to combat the enemies of the Work of Reparation which the powers of darkness are trying to overthrow. She told me that this holy work would be the honor of Carmel for it was truly in conformity with the spirit of our holy vocation, whose sole object is the glory of God and the relief of the necessities of the Church; for this reason, she urged me to devote all my energies to this work, and to pray with untiring fervor. Then she recommended me to be scrupulously obedient, giving me to understand that Jesus would work miracles for the soul obedient to her superiors, that she herself had always submitted the lights and communications received from Heaven to the decision of obedience. She showed me with what fidelity I ought to acquit myself of all our religious observances, which are so agreeable to Our Lord that the fulfillment of them alone is sufficient to enrich the soul with merit. In fine, I understood that God gave to this work a most powerful protectress in the person of our holy Foundress, and to me a most powerful consoler in my afflictions. From this moment, I felt united in a most particular manner to Our Holy Mother, so remarkable for her zeal for the glory of the Most High. It is she who will succor me in my weakness, and help me to pursue my thorny path.”

Reparation for the Profanation of Sundays

Desecration, not observing the Sabbath rest, not keeping Sunday holy – refusing to set aside the day for God and to take leisure with and in Him, for going to Mass, spiritual reading, praying, learning more about the faith, spending time in visiting the Blessed Sacrament. Instead of being a day surrendered wholly to God, profane or worldly pursuits are indulged in, as well as servile work performed on Sunday. In Rome, just weeks before Jesus’ first visit to Sister, Pope Gregory XI had started a Confraternity to make reparation for blasphemy, but reparation for the profanation of Sunday was not a part of it. The Third Commandment clearly mandated that the Sabbath rest be observed and Our Lord asked Sr. Mary St. Peter to make reparation for all those who do not keep it. And the date of this visit? February 2, 1844 – Feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. The Child Jesus, strictly speaking, had no need or obligation of being presented in the Temple, nor His Mother purified, yet they obeyed the Mosaic Law on this point. And sinful mankind with regard to attending Church – entering the Temple – on Sundays? Our Lord says His delights are to be with the children of men. Do we delight to be with Him?

Here at our monastery, we strive to make our Sundays a day of rest with the Lord. In addition to a sung Mass in the morning, we have a holy hour with Benediction in the afternoon, both open to the public. God willing, once the Confraternity of the Holy Face is established here, special devotions to the Holy Face will be added to the holy hour on the fourth Sunday of the month. May our souls be pleasant to His eyes and so rejoice His Holy Face, that Our Lord will be able to say of each of us, “I looked for comforters and I found one!”

Holy Face as the Object of Devotion for the Work of Reparation

It was a hundred eighty years ago on October 11, 1845, that Our Lord gave to Sr. Mary St. Peter His Holy Face in the Veil of Veronica as the visible object of devotion for the Work of Reparation He had entrusted to her. The date was destined to become the feast of Mary’s Divine Maternity and how fitting – Our Lady as His Mother was the first to see and venerate His Holy Face! As Pope St. John Paul II says in Rosarium Virginis Mariae (2002): “The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness.” One of the many beautiful promises He made surrounding this devotion to His Holy Face was “This adorable Face is, as it were, the seal of the Divinity, which has the virtue of reproducing the likeness of God in the souls that are applied to It.”

In 1847, an Archconfraternity of Reparation was started in Langres, France, and, nearing her own death, Sr. Mary St. Peter rejoiced in it, thinking her work was done. Yet while its aim was reparation for blasphemies and profanation of Sunday, it lacked the divinely given object of devotion, the Holy Face. Aggregated to this Archconfraternity in Langres, a Confraternity of Reparation – with the addition of the Holy Face devotion – would be erected in Tours in 1876, but it was not an Archconfraternity in its own right as requested by Our Lord. The step towards this was the founding of the Confraternity of the Holy Face in Tours on October 25, 1884 which drew many to join, including St. Therese and her father and sisters in April of 1885, three years before her own entrance into Carmel. In the process towards her canonization, St. Therese’s sisters would testify that devotion to the Holy Face underlined all her other devotions – He was her Sun, her Light. “Jesus, You are the Star that leads me on; You know that Your dear Face is my Heaven here below.” (St. Therese) She would later add the Holy Face to her religious title and be known as Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, O.C.D.

In apostolical letters of December 9, 1884, and March 30, 1885, Pope Leo XIII had granted the Confraternity of the Holy Face in Tours many indulgences, plenary and partial. Other cities around the world started similar confraternities, but did not enjoy the same privileges. In honoring the sorrowful Face of Our Savior, their purpose was that of hindering, or at least repairing the inexpressible outrages which blasphemers, free thinkers and freemasons inflict on the majesty and sovereignty of God, on the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the authority of the Church. On September 1, 1885, five months after St. Therese had joined the Confraternity, a petition was sent to Pope Leo XIII by Reverend Abbé Javier, one of the Priests of the Holy Face in Tours, requesting that the Confraternity in Tours be raised to an Archconfraternity, so that by formally aggregating themselves with it, other confraternities could receive the same indulgences. This petition was recommended by the signature of Most Reverend Guillaume Meignan, Archbishop of Tours, along with that of Cardinals and bishops the world over. A month later, on October 1, 1885, Pope Leo XIII raised the Confraternity of the Holy Face in Tours to the status of an Archconfraternity “for the whole world and not just for France.” This unexpected, quick turn of events was announced with joy by Archbishop Meignan to his archdiocese on October 15, 1885, the feast of Our Holy Mother, St. Teresa of Jesus!

Whether praying it or making the Chaplets themselves for our monastery gift shop, the Chaplet of the Holy Face is also a favorite with the Sisters here. The Holy Face Chaplet has for its object the honoring of the five senses of Our Lord, which have their seat principally in the Holy Face, and of rendering homage to all the sufferings which He endured on His Face, through each one of these senses. Through it, one also entreats God for the triumph of His Church and the downfall of Her enemies. Powerful invocations, drawn from Scripture, make up the prayers of this beautiful Chaplet so pleasing to Our Lord.

Several images of Veronica’s Veil adorn the walls of our Monastery in addition to the bronze one mentioned at the start of this article. Yet we look forward to the building of our Chapel of the Holy Face of Jesus, consecrated to the glory of His Majesty, with His authenticated image offered there for the veneration of the faithful. With the permission of the Vatican, copies of the Holy Face made on linen or silk have been touched to Veronica’s Veil, the True Wood of the Cross, and the Lance that pierced Christ’s side. These are then stamped with a waxen seal and marked GRATIS, accompanied by certificates of authenticity verifying that the images had been touched to the blood of Christ through the three instruments of Our Lord’s Passion. In a relic class of their own, they are considered “Living Images of Jesus Christ.” Marked “True Effigies of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” they are called “Veronicas,” i.e. “true icons.” One of these will be enshrined in the new Chapel.

Meanwhile, we await the day when the Confraternity of the Holy Face is canonically erected in our Monastery by our Diocesan Bishop. The newly appointed Rector of the Archconfraternity in Tours contacted us on October 22, 2025, expressing his desire that the first Confraternity he helps establish be right here at our Carmel in Alexandria, SD!

“Lord, show us Your Face and we shall be saved.”
— Daily aspiration of the members of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face

In his apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (January 6, 2001 – 152 years after the Miracle in the Vatican, Epiphany of the Holy Face), St. John Paul II has a whole section dedicated to the Face of Christ, with a subdivision particularly given to the suffering Face of Jesus. While the devotion to the Holy Face such as we have shared here is not mentioned per se, His Holiness emphatically says “if we ask what is the core of the great legacy it [the celebration of Jubilee 2000] leaves us, I would not hesitate to describe it as the contemplation of the face of Christ.” And this contemplation is to be done with Mary, especially in the Rosary, the Pope explains in Rosarium Virginis Mariae (October 16, 2002): “No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary.” Continuing with Novo Millennio Ineunte: “…men and women of our own day — often perhaps unconsciously — ask believers not only to “speak” of Christ, but in a certain sense to “show” Him to them. And is it not the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make His face shine also before the generations of the new millennium? Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated His face…as we go back to our ordinary routine, storing in our hearts the treasures of this very special time, our gaze is more than ever firmly set on the face of the Lord.”

God will help her with His countenance. God dwells in her, she shall not be moved.
God chose her and set her apart. He makes her dwell in His tent.

(Brief Response at Sext – Common of Virgins, 1962 Breviary)

“This is the vocation of a daughter of St. Teresa, to have your daily life pierced by the presence of God, to receive this presence in peace and then bear witness to the peace of Jesus; To be lighted by God and so be a light for this world.” Homily for the Memorial of the Transverberation of St. Teresa of Jesus given by Deacon Br. Pier Giorgio of Christ the King, O.C.D., on the occasion of the clothing Mass of a Discalced Carmelite nun.

Lamps of love before His Holy Face…Though we are unseen, our cloister reminds others that there is a God and that there is another life which is eternal. By our lives as Carmelite Nuns, we witness to our brothers and sisters in a world that hungers for the peace it cannot give itself: Christ is our Peace. We cannot simply “grow accustomed to His Face,” that Face which will enthrall us for all eternity, a never-ending source of discoveries in the “deep caverns of His Love,” to echo Our Holy Father St. John of the Cross. Why not begin our Heaven now, as St. Therese did, and seriously embrace devotion to His Holy Face?

Let us glory in His Holy Name;
let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Reflect upon the Lord and His power,
Seek His Face evermore.
— Psalm 105 (104):3-4