Prayer of St Therese of the Infant Jesus and the Holy Face
O Jesus, who in Thy bitter Passion
didst become "the most abject of men, a man of sorrows", I
venerate Thy Sacred Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness
of the Godhead; but now it has become for me as if it were the face of a
leper!
Nevertheless, under those disfigured
features, I recognize Thy infinite Love and I am consumed with the desire to
love Thee and make Thee loved by all men.
The tears which well up abundantly in
Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather
up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite
value.
O Jesus, whose adorable Face ravishes
my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy divine image and to set me
on fire with Thy Love, that I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation
of Thy glorious Face in Heaven.
Amen.
"The Shroud is an image of God's love as well as of human sin ... The imprint left by the tortured body of the Crucified One, which attests to the tremendous human capacity for causing pain and death to one's fellow man, stands as an icon of the suffering of the innocent in every age."
(John Paul II)
" ... a truly mysterious image, which no human artistry was capable of producing. In some inexplicable way, it appeared imprinted upon cloth and is believed to show the true face of Christ, the crucified and risen Lord."
(Pope Benedict XVI)
"How is it that the faithful, like you, pause before this icon of a man scourged and crucified? It is because the Man of the Shroud invites us to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth ... This disfigured face resembles all those faces of men and women marred by a life which does not respect their dignity, by war and violence which afflict the weakest… And yet, at the same time, the face in the Shroud conveys a great peace; this tortured body expresses a sovereign majesty."
(Pope Francis I)
