Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer to the Holy Face

Three years ago I began this blog with the first post being the prayer of Pope Benedict XVI. Thanks be to God! May our eyes see what he sees and what his beloved predecessor John Paul II now sees in full: the blessed fruit of Mary's womb.

Lord Jesus,
As the first apostles,
Whom you asked: “What do you seek?”,
Accepted your invitation to: “Come and See”
Recognising you as the Son of God,
The Promised Messiah for the world’s redemption,
We too, your disciples in this difficult time
Want to follow you and be your friends,
Drawn by the brilliance of your face much desired yet hidden.



Show us, we pray you, your face ever new,
That mirror, mystery laden, of God’s infinite mercy.
Grant that we may contemplate it
With the eyes of our mind and our hearts:
The Son’s face, radiance of the Father’s glory
And the imprint of his Nature (cf. Hb 1,3),
The human face of God that has burst into history
To reveal the horizons of eternity.
The silent face of Jesus suffering and risen,
When loved and accepted changes the heart and life.
“Your face, Lord, do I seek,
Do not hide your face from me” (Ps.27,8ff).


How many times through the centuries and millenia has not resounded
The ardent invocation of the Psalmist among the faithful!
Lord, with faith, we too repeat the same invocation:
“Man of suffering, as one from whom others hide their faces” (Is.53,3),
Do not hide your face from us!
We want to draw from your eyes,
That look on us with tenderness and compassion.
The force of love and peace which shows us the way of life,
And the courage to follow you without fear or compromise,
So as to be witnesses of your Gospel,
With concrete signs of acceptance, love and forgiveness.

O Holy Face of Christ,
Light that enlightens the darkness of doubt and sadness,
Life that has defeated forever the force of evil and death,
O inscrutable gaze
That never ceases to watch over men and people,
Face concealed in the Eucharistic signs
And in the faces of those that live with us,
Make us God’s pilgrims in this world,
Longing for the Infinite and ready for the final encounter,
When we shall see you, Lord, “face to face”(1Cor.13,12),
And be able to contemplate you forever in heavenly Glory.

Mary, Mother of the Holy Face,
Help us have “hands innocent and a heart pure”,
Hands illumined by the truth of love
And hearts enraptured by divine beauty,
That transformed by the encounter with Christ,
We may gift ourselves to the poor and the suffering,
Whose faces reflect the hidden presence
Of your Son Jesus,
Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen!

Benedict XVI., pp,
Rome, September 1st 2007, written and sent to the Guardian of the Basilica of the Holy Face in Manoppello (Italy) in memory of his pilgrimage to the Sanctuary a year before, on September 1st, 2006

The Light that Shines in the Darkness

Psalm 80

Restore us, O God, let your face shine, that we may be saved...

Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved...

Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted...

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Psalm 27

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me! Thou hast said, "Seek ye my face". My heart says to thee, "Thy face, Lord, do I seek!" Hide not thy face from me.

"Throw open wide the doors to Christ!" Pope John Paul II

Latin Text for Votive Mass of the Holy Face

In answer to a request which I received from one of the readers of this blog, Father Carmine Cucinelli, O.F.M., Cap., the Rector of the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello, has generously supplied me with the Latin text for the Votive Mass of the Holy Face as it was celebrated at the Shrine in Manoppello prior to Vatican II. You will note that it is different from the Votive Mass which ordinarily is celebrated today at the Shrine of the Holy Face: there are different scripture readings, and of course this Latin text has the corresponding parts of the Mass proper that are different compared to the ordinary form of the Roman Rite. However, it seems that the Latin Oratio and Postcommunio prayer are fundamentally the same prayers as the Opening Prayer and Post-Communion Prayer of the Ordinary form of the rite. The text below contains the same text as the images posted above.
SANCTUARIUM “SACRI VULTUS” APUD MANUPPELLUM
MISSA VOTIVA
IN HONOREM “SACRI VULTUS”
(COLOR RUBEUS)

Antiphona ad lntroitum
Philipp. 2, 8-9
Humiliavit semetipsum Dominus Jesus Christus usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis: propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, ed donavit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen.
(T. P. Alleluia, Alleluia). Ps. 88, 2
Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo: in generationem et generationem. Y Gloria Patri...

Oratio

Domine Jesu Christe, cuius sacratissimus Vultus in passione absconditus sicut sol in sua virtute relucet; concede propitius; ut tuis passionibus communicantes in terris, in revelatione gloriae tuae gaudere valeamus in coelis. Qui vivis et regnas...

Lectio Zachariae Prophetae
Zach. 12, 10-11; 13, 6-7

Haec dicit Dominus: Effundam super domum David et super habitatores Jerusalem spiritum gratiae et precum: et aspicient ad me, quem confixerunt: et plangent eum planctu quasi super unigenitum, et dolebunt super eum, ut doleri solet in morte unigeniti. In die illa magnus erit planctus in Jerusalem, et dicetur:
Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum? Et dicit: His plagatus sum in domo eorum, qui diligebant me. Framea, suscitare super pastorem meum, et super virum cohaerentem mihi, dicit Dominus exercituum: percutite pastorem et dispergentur oves: ait Dominus omnipotens.

Graduale Ps. 68, 21-22.

Improperium expectavit cor meum et miseriam : et sustinui, qui simul mecum contristaretur, et non fuit: consolantem me quaesivi et non inveni.
Y ‘Dederunt in escam meam fel, et in siti mea potaverunt me aceto.

Tractus. Is. 53, 4-5.

Vere languores nostros ipse tulit et dolores nostros ipse portavit. Et nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum et percussum a Deo et humiliatum. Y Ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras, attritus est propter scelera nostra. V Disciplina pacis nostrae super eum: et livore eius sanati sumus.

In Missis votivis ante Septuagesimam vel post Pentecostes, omisso Tractus post Graduale dicitur:

Alleluia, Alleluia. Y Ave, Rex noster: tu solus nostros es miseratus errores: Patri obediens, ductus es ad crucifìgendum, ut agnus mansuetus ad occisionem. Alleluia.

Tempore autem paschali omittitur Graduale, et eius loco dicitur:

Alleluia, Alleluia. Y Ave, Rex noster: tu solus nostros es miseratus errores: Patri obediens, ductus es ad crucifigendum, ut agnus mansuetus ad occisionem. Alleluia. Y Tibi gloria, hosanna: tibi triumphus et victoria: tibi summae laudis et honoris corona. Alleluia.
† Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem.
Joann. 19, 28-35
In illo tempore: Sciens Jesus, quia omnia consummata sunt, ut consummaretur scriptura, dixit: Sitio. Vas ergo erat positum aceto plenum. Illi autem spongiam plenam aceto, hyssopo circumponentes, obtulerunt ori eius. Cum ergo accepisset Jesus acetum, dixit: Consummatum est. Et inclinato capite tradidit spiritum. Judaei ergo (quoniam parasceve erat), ut non remanerent in cruce corpora sabbato (erat enim magnus dies ille sabbati), rogaverunt Pilatum ut frangerentur eorum crura et tollerentur. Venerunt ergo milites: et primi quidem fregerunt crura et alterius, qui crucifixus est cum eo. Ad Jesum autem cum venissent, ut viderunt eum jam mortuum, non fregerunt eius crura, sed unus militum lancea latus eius aperuit, et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua. Et qui vidit, testimonium perhibuit: et verum est testimonium eius.

Offertorium.

Insurrexerunt in me viri iniqui: absque misericordia quaesierunt me interficere: et non pepercerunt in faciem meam spuere: lanceis suis vulneraverunt me, et concussa sunt omnia ossa mea. (T. P. Alleluia).

Secreta

Protector noster, aspice, Deus, et respice in Faciem Christi tui; qui tibi semetipsum pro nobis hostiam obtulit, et praesta: ut eamdem immaculatam hostiam offerentes, ipsi quoque in holocaustum tibi acceptum transeamus. Per eumdem Dominum...

Praefatio de Cruce.

Antiphona ad Communionem
Ps. 21, 17-18.

Foderunt manus meas et pedes meos: dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea. (T. P. Alleluia).

Postcommunio

F aciem tuam, quaesumus, Domine, super nos benignus illumina, ut tuas justificationes edocti, per haec sacrosancta mysteria blandientem mundum eludere et persequentem superare possimus. Qui vivis et regnas...

Petitioni hodierni Moderatoris Provinciae Aprutinae Ordinis Fratruum Minorum Capuccinorum circa facultatem celebrandi, in Sanctuario Sacri Vultus D. N. Jesu Christi apud «Manoppello», Missa votiva ad normam nn. 374-375 Codicis rubricarum, adhibito textu Missae propriae «Humiliavit... » concessae, die 15 Martii 1957, Congregationi Silvestrinae O. S.B.
Sacra Rituum Congregatio, utendo facultatibus sibi a Sanctissimo Domino nostro IOANNE PAPA XXIII tnbutis, benigne annuit pro gratia iuxta preces, idest celebrandi praedictam Missam, eodem in Sanctuario, uti votiva II classis singulis per annum diebus, sed solummodo a sacerdotibus peregrinis, aut quoties Missa ipsa dicitur in favorem peregrinantium:
dummodo non occurrat dies liturgicus I classis, vel festum Domini II classis: servatis rubricis.

† HENRICUS DANTE,
Archiep. Carpasien.
S.R.C. a secretis
Ex aedihus S.R.C. die 23 Februarii 1963.
Concordat cum originali approbato

On My List of Essential Reading for the Next Five Centuries At Least

The Face of God, the Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus on the Holy Face of Manoppello, by Paul Badde, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2010

Paul Badde, an extremely accomplished journalist, came upon a source which revealed Christ in a new way to this generation, although this source had been well known to generations past -- an image on both sides of a veil which reveals (and conceals) Christ marvelously yet paradoxically, enigmatically yet convincingly. This source is the "mother of all icons". It became Paul Badde's task to investigate and report on this source -- but he went further. He took on the difficult task of explaining and interpreting this source -- while remaining a working journalist for a secular newspaper with the exceptional responsibility of covering for a German audience Rome and the Vatican where resides a Pope from their homeland.

This source, known in times past as the image of the Veronica represented in the sixth station of the cross, portrays the image of Jesus for all time, was publicly displayed to huge crowds in Rome at least from the 11th to the 16th centuries, was the focus of Roman pilgrimages, the finale of Dante's Divine Comedy, portraying a foretaste of beatific vision.

Badde recounts his own discovery, paralleling the rediscovery by Christendom of its most important relic, building on the work of those before him and around him, including apostles, evangelists, saints, popes, rogues, Martin Luther, Franciscan friars, Jesuits, Trappistines as well as the wise and loving counsel of his "Beatrice and Virgil" - his wife Ellen. See if you can discount his astonishing conclusion that this source is the "face cloth" (sudarium) found by Peter and John in the not so empty tomb on Easter morning. Read his book in its first english language edition which is beautifully published by Ignatius Press with many fine color photos of the Holy Face of Jesus.

May the Holy Name of Jesus Pronounced by the Holy Mother of God Protect and Defend Us

May the peace of Christ announced by angels to shepherds in the fields and by a holy star to three wise kings enlighten peoples and nations in 2011. thanks be to God for the revelation of His face in a new way to english speaking peoples in 2010.