Late 19th Century: St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face

About the picture she venerated -- a picture based on the image of
St. Veronica's Veil -- St. Therese said, "How well Our Lord did to

lower His eyes when He gave us His portrait! Since the eyes are the

mirror of the soul, if we had seen His soul, we would have died from joy."

In yet another sense, devotion to the Holy Face inspires us to know how to imitate Him best, teaches us how to "put on Christ." What did people see when they saw Our Blessed Lord? The Prophet Isaias tells us:

Isaias 52:14, 53:2-3

As many have been astonished at thee, so shall His Visage be inglorious among men, and His form among the sons of men... And He shall grow up as a tender plant before Him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness: and we have seen Him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and His look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed Him not.

It is this sense of the Holy Face devotion -- meditating on the despised, suffering Countenance that hid His Divinity from those who had no eyes to see -- that inspired the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux, "The Little Flower" whose religious name was "St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face." Contemplating His "hiddenness" and the Mystery of His having humbled Himself as He did by becoming a Child and by suffering for us is the source of St. Therese's "Little Way" -- her method of spiritual discipline that teaches us we don't need to be great in the world's terms in order to become a Saint. No matter where we are, no matter our talents or intellect, we can love. Hidden away herself, in her Norman convent, she wrote of the Prophet's words

These words of Isaias: "He was without splendor, without beauty, His Face was hidden, as it were, and His person was not acknowledged”; one finds in them the whole foundation of my devotion to the Holy Face, or to say it better, the foundation of all my piety. I also desire myself to be without splendor, without beauty, to tread alone the wine in the press, unknown by every creature.

And later:

Jesus set the book of nature before me and I saw that all the flowers He has created are lovely. The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. I realized that if every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness and there would be no wildflowers to make the meadows gay.

It is just the same in the world of souls -- which is the garden of Jesus. He has created the great saints who are like the lilies and the roses, but He has also created much lesser saints and they must be content to be the daisies or the violets which rejoice his eyes whenever He glances down. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being that which He wants us to be.

St. Therese did no one particular thing that one would point at and say, "See? Clearly she is a great Saint!" Her greatness was not in what she did so much as how she did it: with humility, with acceptance of suffering, and all for the love of Christ. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, telling a Sister a few months before her death that she would spend her Heaven doing good upon the earth, and that it will be like "a shower of roses." She left behind her autobiography ("Story of a Soul") and poetry and prayers, among which are her Canticle and Prayer to the Holy Face: 

 

Canticle to the Holy Face
12 August 1895 


Jesus, Your ineffable image
Is the star which guides my steps.
Ah, You know, Your sweet Face
Is for me Heaven on earth.
My love discovers the charms
Of Your Face adorned with tears.
I smile through my own tears
When I contemplate Your sorrows.

Oh! To console You I want
To live unknown on earth!
Your beauty, which You know how to veil,
Discloses for me all its mystery.
I would like to fly away to You!

Your Face is my only homeland.
It's my Kingdom of love.
It's my cheerful meadow.
Each day, my sweet sun.
It's the Lily of the Valley
Whose mysterious perfume
Consoles my exiled soul,
Making it taste the peace of Heaven.

It's my Rest, my Sweetness
And my melodious Lyre
Your Face, O my Sweet Savior,
Is the Divine Bouquet of Myrrh
I want to keep on my heart!

Your Face is my only wealth.
I ask for nothing more.
Hiding myself in it unceasingly,
I will resemble You, Jesus
Leave in me, the Divine Impress
Of Your features filled with sweetness,
And soon I'll become holy.
I shall draw hearts to You.

So that I may gather
A beautiful golden harvest,
Deign to set me aflame with Your Fire.
With Your adorned mouth,
Give me soon the Eternal Kiss!

 
St. Theres's Prayer to 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 ravished 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.