"Whilst it is not miraculous that a piece of cloth should survive for two thousand years … it is nevertheless remarkable that this cloth … should still be available for us to see and to study. It is miraculous that it bears an image at all. It is miraculous that the image cannot be shown to have got there by any human means other than by instantaneous flash of … energy … It is miraculous that the image shows, in perfect anatomical detail … the figure of a man, frontal and dorsal. It is miraculous that the image coincides precisely with the recorded events which occurred to … Jesus Christ … It is miraculous that the image on the cloth is in fact a photographic negative, put thereon nineteen hundred years before photography was invented. It is miraculous that this [image] … also has the property of three-dimensionality, a technique for the interpretation of which has only been discovered in the last few years. It is miraculous that space-age technology has discovered information in the image that there are coins in the eye-sockets of the man … that there is very probably real blood on the cloth … Is not this cloth then Christ's last miracle? Did he not leave on the cloth a photographic negative of his bodily features waiting for the scientists of the twentieth century after his time to decode the data he left for us? Is not this data providing scientific proof of his existence and his powers? … Here is Christ working again in the twentieth century in a manner far more spectacular and gripping than the ways of mere churches and religions. ..." (Morgan, R., 1980, "Perpetual Miracle: Secrets of the Holy Shroud of Turin By an Eye Witness," Runciman Press: Manly NSW, Australia, pp.174-177. My emphasis).
Some Scriptures for Meditation:
- Psalm 16
- Psalm 18
- Psalm 22
- Psalm 23
- Psalm 27
- Psalm 31
- Psalm 34
- Psalm 45
- Psalm 46
- Psalm 56
- Psalm 62
- Psalm 84
- Isaiah 49, 50, 52:13-53:12
- Zechariah 12:10-13:1
- The Passion and Resurrection narratives:
- -Matthew 26-28
- -Mark 14-16
- -Luke 22-24
- -John 18-21, especially John 20:1-10, 27
- Romans 8
- 1 Corinthians 13
- 2 Corinthians 3:4-4:6
- Galatians 6:12-17
- Ephesians 1-2
- Philippians 2:5-11
- Colossians 1:11-20
Meditation of Pope Benedict XVI, Turin, 2 May 2010
Devotion to the Holy Face
As children of God, the Holy Spirit stirs in our hearts a longing to see the face of God and fulfills our desire in the person of Christ. Because of the Incarnation and the image on the Shroud, devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus has a long history in the Church, and has taken a more structured form in modern times, through revelations to Sr. Mary of St. Peter. For more, click here.
Prayers of St Therese of Lisieux to the Holy Face of Jesus:
O Jesus, who, in Thy cruel Passion didst become the ‘reproach of men and the Man of Sorrows,’ I worship Thy divine Face. Once it shone with the beauty and sweetness of the Divinity; but now, for my sake, it is become as ‘the face of a leper.’
Yet, in that disfigured Countenance, I recognize Thy infinite love, and I am consumed with the desire of making Thee loved by all mankind. The tears that flowed so abundantly from Thy Eyes are to me as precious pearls that I delight to gather, that with their worth I may ransom the souls of poor sinners.
O Jesus, whose Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I may not see here below the sweetness of Thy glance, nor feel the ineffable tenderness of Thy kiss, I bow to Thy will—but I pray Thee to imprint in me Thy divine likeness, and I implore Thee so to inflame me with Thy love, that it may quickly consume me, and that I may soon reach the vision of Thy glorious Face in heaven. Amen.
Prayer for Sinners
Eternal Father, since Thou hast given me for my inheritance the Adorable Face of Thy Divine Son, I offer that Face to Thee, and I beg Thee, in exchange for this coin of infinite value, to forget the ingratitude of souls dedicated to Thee, and to pardon all poor sinners. Amen.
Act of Consecration to the Holy Face (for her novices)
O Adorable Face of Jesus! since Thou hast deigned to make special choice of our souls, in order to give Thyself to them, we come to consecrate these souls to Thee. We seem, O Jesus, to hear Thee say: “Open to me, my Sisters, my Spouses, for My Face is wet with the dew, and My Locks with the drops of the night.”
Our souls understand Thy language of love; we desire to wipe Thy sweet Face, and to console Thee for the contempt of the wicked. In their eyes Thou art still “as it were hidden…they esteem Thee an object of reproach.”
O Blessed Face, more lovely than the lilies and the roses of spring, Thou art not hidden from us. The tears which dim Thine Eyes are as precious pearls which we delight to gather, and through their infinite value, to purchase the souls of our brethren.
From Thy Adorable Lips we have heard Thy loving plaint: “I thirst.” Since we know that this thirst which consumes Thee is a thirst for love, to quench it we would wish to possess an infinite love. Dear Spouse of our souls, if we could love with the love of all hearts, that love would be Thine!… Give us, O Lord, this love! Then come to thy Spouses and satisfy Thy Thirst. And give to us souls, dear Lord!… We thirst for souls… above all for the souls of apostles and martyrs…that through them we may inflame all poor sinners with love of Thee.
O Adorable Face, we shall succeed in winning this grace from Thee! Unmindful of our exile, “by the rivers of Babylon” we sing in Thine Ears the sweetest of melodies. Since Thou art the true and only Home of our souls, our songs shall not be sung in a strange land.
O Beloved Face of Jesus, while we await the Eternal Day when we shall gaze upon Thy Infinite Glory, our only desire is to delight Thy Divine Eyes by keeping our faces hidden too, so that no one on earth may recognize us… Dear Jesus, Heaven for us is Thy Hidden Face. Amen.