Oh adorable Face, resplendent with glory and beauty on the day of the resurrection, have mercy on us.

Three days after his death, Jesus rises triumphant from the sepulcher, as he had announced. He appears to Mary, to the apostles, to Magdalen, and their eyes are not dazzled by the splendor of his adorable Face shining with glory and beauty. What is this mystery? Deign to teach it to us thyself, oh good Jesus.

1st POINT. — BEAUTY OF THE RISEN HOLY FACE

The resurrection is the hour of triumph, it is not as yet the hour of celestial glory. Jesus does not show us his bleeding wounds as on the day of his Passion, but he veils their rays, which might dazzle us. He keeps the trace of them as an undeniable proof that he has really suffered, that he did indeed die for us, as a testimony of his victory over hell, as a lesson of suffering and of love.

Permit me, oh divine Savior, to recognize thee above all by the wounds of thy Holy Face. At thy voice, Magdalen cast herself at thy feet crying out— Rabboni— “Master(1).” As for me, I prostrate myself before thy august Face, I count on thy forehead the scars inflicted by the cruel thorns, and upon thy cheeks, once so swollen, the mark of the blows and the iron gauntlet of the barbarous soldier. Thy lips are no longer swollen, but we can still see the traces of the blows given by the executioners.

Oh adorable wounds of the Fact of Jesus, I venerate and I love you. Thou desirest that I should gaze on thee my Savior, as did Magdalen I contemplate thee with delight. Thou teachest me what sin has cost thee, but thou also tellest me what are the happy fruits of expiation and the happiness of finding thee after having lost thee. Cast, oh Jesus, thine eyes illuminated by the glory of the Resurrection upon my soul, formerly disfigured by iniquity, but now, oh my God, raised spiritually by thy grace. When shall I be raised with thee to the splendor of the saints, and shine in a blessed eternity with the rays of a never fading glory.

2nd POINT.— THE RISEN HOLY FACE A SOURCE OF FAITH, OF HOPE AND OF CHARITY.

Jesus is risen, what a consolation! He is risen, and I have an evident and palpable proof of it: for the apostles have seen his Holy Face, Mary Magdalen has recognized him. His august mother has received his first visit. Who would not believe such ocular testimony? He is risen, it is therefore certain that he is really my Savior and my God.

His Gospel is divine; his Church is divine. Believing his word and listening to his teaching, I am sure to walk in the footsteps of my infallible chief in the path of salvation. Jesus Christ is risen, and therein also lies the foundation of my hope. “I know that my Redeemer liveth saith Job, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and I shall be clothed again in my skin, and it my flesh I shall see God. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; this my hope is laid up in my bosom(2).”

Yes, one day I shall see his Holy Face, even as the apostles and the holy women beheld it; I shall set it in a still more brilliant state; more dazzling and more glorious. I shall see my Redeemer face to face. “If Christ rose again, how do some among you say— There is no resurrection from the dead(3)?

But the risen Jesus, above all, excites in me love for him, for if it be through love for me that he is dead, it is also through love for me that he came forth out of the grave and showed himself during forty days. Who then would not go to him who has so greatly loved us? Who would renounce the happiness of contemplating him, whose adorable Face illumines heaven and is the delight of the elect?

Oh Jesus, I believe in thee, I hope in thee, and I love thee: and this faith, this hope, this love, it is by contemplating thy triumphant and risen Face, that I shall ever more increase them.

SPIRITUAL BOUQUET

Gavisi sunt discipuli, viso Domino.

The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. (John, xx, 20.

A REMEMBRANCE OF M. DUPONT.

The excellent widow of M. d’Avrainville addressed to us, on the 25th April 1884, the following lines—

“I believe it to be my duty to inform you of a miracle of which I was witness in the month of August I860, during the week or ten days which my husband and I spent with the servant of God. A workwoman, whose name and address are given in the certificate which M. d’Avrainville drew up in her presence and which was added to the already numerous testimonies of graces received, came to offer thanks to the Holy Face for the cure of a dreadful internal complaint which caused a fetid odor to exhale from her body, an odor which obliged her friends and acquaintances to keep aloof from her. One only of them remained faithful to her, and giving her a bottle containing oil from the lamp burning before the Holy Face, begged her to turn to the Face of Jesus, since her friends were turning away from her. A novena was commenced, and at the end of nine days, she began to be much better; her pains diminished, and the dreadful smell disappeared. She was so happy, that she promised the Holy Face to give thanks for her cure in its sanctuary, in the presence of M. Dupont, a thing she found herself unable to do until after the lapse of seven years, when she had saved enough money for the journey.

She was about to retire, when M. Dupont, who had noticed that she had her arm in a sling, asked her what it was she was suffering from; she answered that it was a panaris, which caused her great pain and which deprived her of sleep, but that she could easily bear the suffering out of gratitude for the wonderful cure the Holy Face had granted to her seven years before, and that she did not dare to ask for a second cure. ‘Madame, you have nothing to do with that, replied M. Dupont; if God wills to cure you, he is the master.’ M. d’Avrainville, on hearing these words, left M. Dupont’s drawing-room, rapidly mounted the stairs and entered the room where I was, telling me to come down at once, for M. Dupont seemed to foresee a miracle. Animated with this presentiment, we carefully examined the woman’s finger: it was very much swollen, and the last joint was full of matter.

“After a short prayer offered by M. Dupont and a first unction made upon the finger, we immediately perceived a change; after the second prayer and the second unction, the swelling had disappeared; lastly after the third prayer also offered before the Holy Face, M. Dupont, whilst making the third unction, slightly pressed the finger between his fingers, at the place where the panaris was, and at the same moment, all had disappeared, pain, swelling and matter. The finger and the nail had become healthy and of a good color, the nail perfectly adhering to the flesh. The woman, overcome with joy, said to me— “Madame, my finger is so entirely cured, that I beg you to permit me to give you several blows on the palm of your hand with it; I could even hurt you, if I tried.” She struck me in fact several times with this same finger which, five minutes before, had been so sad a sight to look at. I was so touched and impressed by this miraculous change that I was seized with a trembling of the jaw which affected my speech, but which happily lasted only three minutes. I had felt and invisibly touched the power of God, manifested in the hands of his faithful servant M. Louis Dupont.”

PRAYER OF M. DUPONT.

Lord Jesus, in presenting myself before thy adorable Face to beg of thee the graces we are in need of, we entreat of thee, above all things, to give us an interior disposition never to refuse thee anything which thou mayst daily ask of us, by means of thy holy commandments and thy divine inspirations. Amen.

(1) John, xx, 16.

(2) Job, xix, 25.

(3) I Cor., xv, 12.