Heaven's Request For Reparation To The Holy Face of Jesus

Heaven’s Request For Reparation To The Holy Face of Jesus
by John Vennari

Reprinted from Catholic Family News

Part 1

On Nov. 24, 1843, Our Lord spoke the following words to the French Carmelite, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre.

“The earth is covered with crimes. The violation of the first three Commandments of God has irritated My Father. The Holy Name of God blasphemed, and the Holy Day of the Lord profaned, fills up the measure of iniquities. These sins have risen unto the Throne of God and provoked His wrath which will soon burst forth if His justice be not appeased. At no time have these crimes reached such a pitch.”

This is the first of a three-part presentation concerning the revelations of Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, a French Carmelite nun who lived from 1816 to 1848. [1] These revelations enjoy the full approval of the Catholic Church, and were given the highest recommendations by the renowned 19th Century Benedictine Dom Gueranger, author of the multi-volume work, The Liturgical Year.

Our Lord’s words to Sister Saint-Pierre appear to be more urgent today than when they were given over 150 years ago. They are part of a “tradition” of Heaven warning mankind of its outrages against God, the great need for reparation, and the threat of Divine Punishments from a God Who is “already too much offended.” These revelations to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre also form a foundation for our Lady’s 1917 visitations at Fatima. [2]

Father Janvier

I am fortunate to be able to base this presentation on primary source materials in the English language, the most important of which is The Life of Sister Saint-Pierre. This book, which was published only 36 years after the Carmelite’s death, was written by Father P. Janvier, a fervent promoter of the Work of Reparation. Its 1884 English translation bears the 1881 Imprimatur of Msgr. Colet, the Archbishop of Tours. [3]

From the start, Father Janvier relates that his account of her life is based on five primary French sources:

1) The Life of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre written by herself in obedience to her Superiors.

2) Her private letters concerning her interior state, and the object of her mission.

3) The Annals of the Carmel of Tours, where Sister Saint-Pierre lived.

4) Personal interviews that Father Janvier conducted with the nuns who knew Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, including her Mother Superior and closest confidantes.

5) A brief monograph of a “Life” of Sister Saint-Pierre that had been written anonymously and spread throughout France after her death, which had excited local interest in this Carmelite.

I have also drawn from the original 1885 English translation of Father Janvier’s book about Leon Dupont, also imprimatured, which was published only 9 years after M. Dupont’s death.

M. Dupont was closely connected with Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre’s convent. Known as the “Holy Man of Tours,” he was one of the most zealous promoters of Our Lord’s request for reparation and devotion to the Holy Face. He hung a large picture of the Holy Face in his parlor, before which burned a lamp with holy oil. This parlor, which became an Oratory with the bishop’s permission, received countless visitors. Through the devotion to the Holy Face, so many miracles were worked in the parlor of Leo Dupont that Blessed Pius IX called him “the greatest miracle worker in Church history.” [4]

Here, however, we will focus on Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, who from 1843 to 1848 received special communications from Heaven regarding the “Work of Reparation” for sins against blasphemy and the profanation of Sunday, as well as Heaven’s request for reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus.

The Holy Carmelite

Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre was born on October 4,1816, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and was Baptized François Perrine Elvery. She relates that when she was only a month old:

“My nurse had gone out an instant leaving me in the cradle. One of her little children took me up, and doubtless wishing to warm me carried me near the fire; but I fell out of the child’s arms into the fire, and my face has always retained the mark of that accident.” [5]

Though her pious parents raised her in the Faith and in the rudiments of Catholic teaching, she was not an Angelic child. Her own mother lamented that this little girl was so naughty, “She must have been exchanged in the nursery” because “no child of ours could be as bad as this little one is.”

“Passionate, stubborn and giddy” is how Sister Saint-Pierre later described her early childhood traits. Despite her failings, however, little Perrine possessed a good spirit, accepted the punishments her misdeeds warranted, eventually gained self-mastery, learned her devotions, and at an early age, developed an intense love of prayer.

Perrine was only twelve when her mother died. Not long after, she went to work as a seamstress. Nurturing her “gift of prayer,” as Father Janvier described it, she constantly made Spiritual Communions, even while occupied in her daily work. Her holiness and sense or recollection radiated to her co-workers who soon looked to her for spiritual advice and edification.

Believing herself called to a religious vocation, she placed herself in the hands of a spiritual director, who was a true gift from Heaven. This holy confessor declared that when he was dealing with someone who might have a vocation, it was “his principle to send to convents only such aspirants as had been sufficiently tested, and who, when they had once entered the cloister, would never return to the world.” [6] The priest guided her in preparation for her life as a religious, especially by teaching her how to conquer her passions.

Numerous obstacles delayed her entrance into religious life. For a time, it appeared that she would be steered into an Order of Hospital Sisters, which was not her first choice. Her great desire was to enter Carmel.

Yet Our Lord comforted her during this period of distress. After she received Holy Communion one day, in what may have been the first Divine Communication, Our Lord spoke to her interiorly:

“My daughter, I love you too much to abandon you any longer to your perplexities. You will not be a Hospital Sister. This is only a trial. You will be a Carmelite, and measures are already being taken for your reception.”

A powerful voice then repeated several times, “you will be a Carmelite.” [7]

Good Catholic girl that she was, she immediately wrote down these words to submit to her spiritual director. When she handed her confessor the folded paper, and before the priest knew the contents, he burst out with his own good news. He had just received a letter informing him that she had been accepted into the Carmelite monastery at Tours.

A Heritage of Fidelity

The Carmel of Tours, which had opened its doors to young Perrine, was blessed with a rich history. It was founded in 1608 by Sister Ann of St. Bartholomew, who became the first Superior of the house. A devoted friend of Saint Teresa of Avila, Sister Ann was even present at St. Teresa’s deathbed.

When the Carmelites arrived at Tours in 1608, they found the city “full of heretics” who were descendants of the Huguenots. The presence of the holy Carmelites, as usual, effected the conversion of a number of these unbelievers to the Catholic Faith.

The legacy of this Carmel was one of fidelity and courage in the face of some of the Church’s worst enemies. It not only remained steadfast to Catholic truth during the Jansenist heresy, it also survived the French Revolution, albeit with scars.

During the Revolution, the government pressured these nuns to take the new “Oath of Loyalty.” Not one of the nuns submitted. For this refusal, they were driven from the convent, and cast into a courtyard where they were exposed to foul weather of all sorts. A blind and sickly nun of 87 years died due to the mistreatment.

Yet whatever their surroundings, the persecuted nuns kept alive the Faith, the Rule, and the spirit of their Order. Perhaps it was during this period that they best understood Saint Teresa of Avila’s description of the Carmelite vocation: “My daughters, you are not here for rest and enjoyment, but to labor, to suffer and to save souls.” [8]

In 1822, with France opting toward a kinder and gentler atheism, the Carmelites were permitted to return to their Tours convent. Seventeen years later, young Perrine, who came to be Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, arrived at the house, was admitted to the Order, persevered joyfully through her novitiate, and made her final profession of vows in June 1841.

The Golden Arrow

Through her strong prayer life, great sense of recollection, and special lights she received from Heaven, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre was being prepared for a special work. And here we arrive at the dramatic revelations regarding the Work of Reparation.

On August 24, 1843, the Feast of King St. Louis IX, one of the Patrons of France, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre received a special communication from Our Lord:

“He opened His Heart to me, and gathering there the powers of my soul, He addressed me in these words: ‘My Name is everywhere blasphemed. Even children blaspheme.’ And He made me understand that this frightful sin, more than any other, grievously wounds His Divine Heart. By blasphemy, the sinner curses Him to His Face, attacks Him openly, annuls redemption, and pronounces his own condemnation and judgment. Blasphemy is a poisoned arrow ever wounding His Divine Heart. He told me that He wishes to give me a Golden Arrow wherewith to wound His Heart delightfully and heal these wounds inflicted by the sinners’ malice.” [9]

The prayer that Our Lord dictated has become familiar to many of us, the Golden Arrow:

“May the Most Holy, Most Sacred, Most Adorable, Most Mysterious and Unutterable Name of God be praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and in the hells, by all God’s creatures, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen. ” [10]

This is the prayer directly given by Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre as special reparation for blasphemy. Father Janvier, as will be later noted, explains that the sin of blasphemy actually manifests itself in a number of ways.

Commenting on this beautiful prayer, Sister Saint-Pierre said:

“Our Lord having given me this Golden Arrow said, ‘avail yourself of this, for I shall demand an account from you.’ At that moment, I beheld issuing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by this arrow a torrent of grace for the conversion of sinners . . .” [11]

Make it Known

At this point, we come to the part that was difficult for Sister Saint-Pierre. Of course, she had no problem praying the prayer. The difficulty in her life now, however, was that Our Lord had ordered her to make the prayer known and spread abroad. In other words, to get it printed and widely distributed so people could recite it.

For a cloistered nun, this is a daunting assignment. How will she comply with Our Lord’s requests without violating her Carmelite life? Her vow of obedience prevents her from embarking on the project on her own. Her vow of poverty makes it impossible for her to pay for the printing, or even to ask others to fund the project, without first receiving her Superior’s permission. Then there is the knotty little problem of a Carmelite printing tracts that contain prayers “dictated by Heaven.” She knew that neither she, nor any Catholic, could publish one word until Church authority had investigated all and granted approval.

Nonetheless, Our Lord had made His wishes known to her.

There was only one way to realize Our Lord’s requests and Sister Marie knew it. She would now be obliged to relate Our Lord’s words to her Reverend Mother, which was no easy task. It is commonly known that the last thing a Mother Superior wants is to have one of her nuns trot up to her saying, “Guess what my voices told me today.”

In some ways, it is every superior’s nightmare, because the Reverend Mother is now saddled with the duty to discern if the supposedly supernatural occurrences are from God, from self-delusion, or from the devil.

The superior’s first response was to forbid Sister Saint-Pierre to think about it any further, and to forbid Sister Marie to practice the devotion herself. This, in fact, is a good Carmelite reaction, coherent with the teachings of St. John of the Cross.

Sister Saint-Pierre promptly complied, even though this obedience caused her great suffering.

Religious have always been encouraged, though not commanded, to make known their interior struggles to their Superiors. That is why not long afterwards, we find Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre in her Superior’s room, on her knees, explaining the torment in her soul. She was torn by the desire to conform to the request of Our Lord, and to contrary commands of her Superior to whom she owed and observed religious obedience.

While this was happening, a leaflet fell from a book that the Mother Superior was reading when Sister Saint-Pierre entered her room.

Reverend Mother, who had never before noticed this pamphlet, retrieved it from the floor, and was stunned upon reading the headline:

“An Act of Reparation to the Most Holy Name of God” with the subheading:

” A Warning to the French People to Appease the Wrath of God irritated by Blasphemy”

Astounded, the Reverend Mother turned to Sister Marie and said affectionately:

“Sister, if I did not know you, I would take you for a sorceress.” [12] Because here was a leaflet advocating the same kind of Reparation that Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre had been insisting upon with such intensity.

The leaflet itself has an interesting history. It was published in 1819 in France by a priest named Father Soyer, who later became the Bishop of Lucon. Bishop Soyer was still alive, so Reverend Mother wrote to him inquiring more information about the pamphlet. The Bishop responded that he had published this warning at the request of a Carmelite nun in Poitiers named Sister Adelaide, a chosen soul to whom Our Lord had manifested Himself asking for prayers of reparation for blasphemy. [13] As it turns out, Mother Adelaide died on July 31, 1843, which was only 26 days before Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre received the first revelation of Our Lord about the Golden Arrow, wherein Our Lord asked for the same thing: special prayers of reparation for the sin of blasphemy.

It seems, then, that we had here a passing of the torch from one Carmelite to another regarding Our Lord’s repeated requests for a Work of Reparation for the sins of blasphemy. Because of this, and for a few other reasons, [14] Reverend Mother warmed to the possibility that Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre’s alleged communications from Heaven might be genuine.

The Superior consulted a few learned priests for guidance, and Sister Saint-Pierre was encouraged to communicate her revelations to her two confessors. The two confessors were interesting, in that neither one was well-disposed toward little nuns claiming to hear voices from Heaven. Yet both priests came to believe firmly in the genuineness of Sister Saint-Pierre’s revelations.

The first, Father Pierre Aleron, became so convinced, he was the first in the diocese to make an effort to establish the Work of Reparation in his parish. As will be later explained, it took about 35 years for the devotion to receive ecclesiastical approval, and Father Aleron was grieved at the delay.

The second confessor was a funny little character named Father Salmon, who was elderly, intensely scrupulous, practically deaf, and served on the Diocesan Tribunal. When reading Father Janvier’s description of him, one gets the impression that Father Salmon unintentionally terrorized the Tribunal because of his scrupulosity. “He had the tendency,” say Father Janvier respectfully “to see the influence of the demon everywhere, even in the most innocent of actions.”

Despite all his scruples even Father Salmon became convinced that these were truly Divine operations in the soul of Sister Saint Pierre, and would defend her cause when necessary.

“The Earth is Covered with Crimes”

At this point, we come to the quote with which I opened this presentation.

On Nov. 24, 1843, Our Lord spoke the following words to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre:

“Until now, I have shown you only in part the designs of My Heart. Today, I will reveal them to you in their fullness. The earth is covered with crimes. The violation of the first three Commandments of God has irritated My Father. The Holy Name of God blasphemed, and the Holy Day of the Lord profaned, fills up the measures of iniquities. These sins have risen unto the Throne of God and provoked His wrath which will soon burst forth if His justice be not appeased. At no time have these crimes reached such a pitch. I desire, and most ardently, that there be found to honor the name of My Father an Association properly approved and organized.” [16]

Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre continued, “Our Lord made me understand that He intended by this Work of Reparation to grant mercy to sinners.” [17]

Our Lord then accused France of being especially guilty of blasphemy, and threatened Divine punishment. Distressed, Sister Saint-Pierre asked, “Lord, permit me to ask, if this reparation Thou desires be made, will Thou spare France?” Our Lord answered:

“I will pardon her once more, but mark well,—–once! As the crimes of blasphemy extend over the whole kingdom, and as it is public, so also, must the Reparation be public and extended to all her cities; woe to those who will not make this Reparation!” [18]

Father Janvier, commenting on these words, gives a fuller explanation of the different kinds of blasphemy, including the fact that Freemasonry is blasphemy. He also speaks of the guilt of France—–the public guilt—–in promoting Masonic ideas.

These remarks by Father Janvier are squarely based on Our Lord’s Words to the Holy Carmelite. As will be later presented in this series, Our Lord mentioned specifically the “blasphemy of sectarians” and the enemies of the Church, as well as the “scourge of revolutionary men.” [19]

Father Janvier writes:

“To the coarse blasphemy of the unrefined is added the doctrinal blasphemy of the free-thinker [that is, Freemasonry -Ed.]. From the streets and public places it has crossed the threshold of the parlor,—–found its way into the schools, and even polluted the domestic hearth; it sits enthroned within the theaters and other public resorts; it proudly flaunts itself in orations, books, and pamphlets, as also, in the multitude of sheet and periodical literature, with which we are daily inundated . . . By the revolutionary spirit, of which, [France] has become in Europe the principal center, and most active furnace, by the practical atheism she professes in her government and laws, does she exercise, in regard to blasphemy, a kind of universal proselytism, not less baneful to individuals than to society.” [20]

Profanation of Sunday

Along with the necessity of making reparation for blasphemy, Our Lord told Sister Saint-Pierre about the need to appease the Divine Justice aroused by reason of the desecration of Sunday. The heart of the message can be summarized in Sister Saint-Pierre’s own words:

“. . . Our Lord commanded me to receive Holy Communion every Sunday for these three particular intentions:

1) In a spirit of atoning for all forbidden works done on Sunday, which as Holy Days are to be sanctified.

2) To appease Divine Justice which was on the very verge of striking on account of the profanation of Holy Days.

3) To implore the conversion of those sinners who desecrate Sundays, and to succeed in obtaining the cessation of forbidden Sunday labor.” [21]

Sister Marie then related Our Lord’s request for the establishment of a special Archconfraternity in reparation for blasphemy and profanation of work on Sunday. Our Lord Himself called this work “one of the most beautiful works under the sun.” [22] He insisted, however, that it was necessary to have a Papal Brief establishing this Archconfraternity of Reparation. Otherwise the work will have no foundation and no future.

The Second and Third Commandment

In light of Our Lord’s requests, it is not out of place to give a quick review of the do’s and don’ts regarding the Second and Third Commandments. This is a brief summary of what we find in pre-Vatican II catechisms. The Second Commandment is Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain. It commands reverence in speaking about God and holy things, and the keeping of oaths and vows. It forbids blasphemy, the irreverent use of God’s name, speaking disrespectfully about holy things, false oaths and the breaking of vows.

The Third Commandment is: Remember Thou Keep Holy the Sabbath Day.

It commands going to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. It forbids missing Mass through one’s own fault, unnecessary servile work; public buying and selling; court trials.

On this point alone we see one of the many reasons why Our Lord’s revelations to Sister Saint-Pierre are more urgent today than when they were given in the 1840s. As we enter the much-trumpeted “new springtime” of the Third Millennium, we witness a wholesale disregard for the sanctification of Sunday, most Catholics behaving no differently from their godless neighbors.

On Sundays, shopping malls team with patrons, K-Marts overflow with customers, shoppers pack supermarkets. How it must grieve Our Lord that the Lord’s Day is now just another day at the stores. The gravity of the offense against Our Lord for this disregard of the Third Commandment is summed up in His own words to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre. In 1847, Our Lord lamented, “The Jews crucified Me on Friday, but Christians crucify Me on Sunday.” [23]

Heaven’s requests for reparation for sins against these Commandments were not given to Sister Saint-Pierre alone. The Messages to this Holy Carmelite are linked to another dramatic event that took place simultaneously in a sleepy little village in the mountains of Southeast France.

La Salette

Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre was increasingly grieved that the Archbishop of Tours had seemed unwilling to render an opinion on the Revelations she was receiving from Our Lord. Yet she knew the importance of the Work of Reparation, and the dire punishment that would follow if Our Lord’s requests were not heeded.

In the depths of her distress, she turned to Our Lady.

“His Grace” she wrote, “was unwilling to come to a decision in favor of the Work of Reparation, his prudence preventing his taking the initiative in its establishment, and I could well see that my only hope and consolation herein lay in prayer, through the intercession of Mary, our powerful Advocate.” She continued:

“Daily I recited the Rosary to obtain the salvation of France and the establishment of the Reparation in all her cities; all my prayers and Holy Communions, all my desires, all my thoughts, were directed towards this Work, so dear to my heart. Had it been possible, I would have proclaimed it throughout the kingdom, by making known the woes which I knew were hanging over her. Ah! How I suffer at being sole depository of his weighty secret, which I am obliged to keep within the silence of the cloister.”

She then exclaimed a heartfelt plea to Our Lady:

“O Holy Virgin, appear to someone in the world, and reveal there the afflicted knowledge imparted to me concerning my native land!” [24]

We do not know the exact date that Sister Saint-Pierre uttered this prayer, but Father Janiver tells us that it was well before September 1846. Father Janvier also tells us that from March 23 to October 4, 1846, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre received no communications from Our Lord. There was silence. And it was during this period that on September 19, 1846, the Blessed Mother appeared to the shepherd children Maximim and Melanie in La Salette.

Our Lady’s Message of La Salette was a reaffirmation of Our Lord’s words to Sister Saint-Pierre. Of what did Our Lady warn? She warned of “the utter contempt [of man] for God’s Commandments;” especially, she said, “in the profanation of the Lord’s Day and the crime of blasphemy.” That is, for sins against the Second and Third Commandments.

She further warned:

“If My people do not return to God by penance, I shall be forced to let fall the Hand of My Son, it now presses so heavily that I can scarce hold it any longer.” Our Lady appeared at La Salette with the “crucifix upon Her heart, surrounded by the sharp instruments of the Passion, the cruel hammer, the sharp pincers.” [25]

Leon Dupont, the trustworthy “Holy Man of Tours,” was one of the few to whom the Mother Superior had confided the basic content of the messages from Our Lord to Sister Saint-Pierre. Thus, when M. Dupont learned that Our Lady in 1846, was calling for a reparation practically identical to that of Our Lord’s request to Sister Saint-Pierre, he believed in La Salette instantly. One revelation, as it were, reinforced and confirmed the other.

Likewise, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre immediately believed in La Salette. She saw it as an answer to the prayer she had uttered with such love and desperation: “O Holy Virgin, appear to someone in the world, and reveal there the afflicted knowledge imparted to me concerning my native land!”

There is, therefore, a profound connection between the message of La Salette and the revelations to the Carmelite of Tours. We will later learn that Our Lord makes special reference to Sister Saint-Pierre about the “instruments of My Passion;” the same instruments that Maximim and Melanie saw surrounding the Heart of Our Lady of La Salette.

Before we speak of this connection, however, we must concentrate on what has come to be the heart of Our Lord’s communications to Sister Saint-Pierre: the request for Reparation and Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

In the next installment, we will read that Our Lord is “seeking Veronicas to wipe and venerate My Holy Face which has but few adorers,” [26] and we will learn in greater detail of one of the most powerful devotions that Heaven has ever given to mankind. Our Lord Himself told Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, “By My Holy Face, you will work miracles.” [27]

Footnotes:

1. This three-part presentation is an edited, slightly enhanced transcript of the lecture “Heaven’s Request for Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus” by John Vennari.

2. This will be discussed in Part III of this series.

3. Thanks to my friends at the Centre of Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus, 181 Lake Street, St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada, L2R 5Y8. Readers may write to this address for more materials on Devotion to the Holy Face and the Work of Reparation.

4. Taken from the back cover of The Holy Man of Tours, Tan Books, 1990.

5. Abbe P. Janvier, The Life of Sister Saint-Pierre, hereafter referred to as LSSP, [John Murphy & Co, Baltimore, 1884],

p. 3.

6. LSSP, p. 18.

7. LSSP, p. 45.

8. Quoted in LSSP, p. 69.

9. LSSP, pp. 113-114.

10. A word of explanation seems necessary regarding the term “in the hells.” The original English translation of The Golden Arrow on page 114 of Fr. Janvier’s Life of Sister Saint-Pierre does not say “in the hells” but “in hell.” This is how Sister Saint-Pierre explains the use of this phrase. “As I felt a certain astonishment when Our Lord said to me, in the infernal regions [dans les enfers], He had the goodness to make me understand that His Justice was glorified there. I beg also that notice be taken that He did not say to me [dans I’enfer] in Hell, but [dans les enfers] in the infernal regions, which may include Purgatory, where He is loved and glorified by the suffering souls. For the word hell [enfer] is applicable not only to the abode of the damned; faith teaches us that the Savior after His death ‘descended into Hell’, meaning that place where the souls of the just awaited His coming . . . ” [LSSP, pp. 114-115]. Father Janvier then comments, “to these explanations may be added the authority of St. Paul who . . . uses the same expression in the same sense: ‘That at the Name of Jesus, every knee should bend of those which are in Heaven, on Earth and under the Earth’.” [Phillip. 2:10] The same page of LSSP [p. 115] contains a Translator’s Note concerning “in hell’ which reads: “This necessitates a little explanation to those unacquainted with French. As the Sister says, Our Lord used the plural expression, ‘dans les enfers, ‘ which literally translated would be ‘in the hells,’ or we might say ‘infernal regions;’ but the latter does not strike us as the exact expression applicable here, and the former, ‘the hells’ good usage does not sanction in English, so using the singular number ‘in hell’ we have given the Golden Arrow, as it generally appears in our language.” Catholic Family News, however, follows the English translation of the Centre for Reparation of the Holy Face of Jesus, which justifies using the term “in the hells” because it is the most literal translation of the French, even if the phrase appears somewhat unconventional in English.

11. LSSP, p. 116.

12. LSSP, p. 121.

13. LSSP, p. 122.

14. Around this time, the Mother Superior had become ill. Our Lord told Sister Saint-Pierre that if the Reverend Mother would permit the sisters to perform “a Novena of Reparation before the Blessed Sacrament in atonement for blasphemies uttered against the Holy Name of God,” He would shower special graces on the community and restore the Superior to health. The Reverend Mother agreed. The nuns of the convent, even while performing the Novena, knew nothing about Sister Saint-Pierre’s communications from Heaven. After the novena, the Reverend Mother was cured. See LSSP, pp. 126-128.

15. LSSP, pp. 144-145.

16. LSSP, p. 145.

17. LSSP, p. 145.

18. LSSP, p. 147.

19. LSSP, p. 263.

20. LSSP, p. 149. [Emphasis added]

21. For a more complete explanation from Catholic Moral Theology on our obligations regarding the Third Commandment, see “Dos and Don’ts for Sunday,” Catholic Family News, December 1999, Reprint #439. This article is not archived.

22. LSSP, p. 286.

23. LSSP, p. 377.

24. LSSP, pp. 253-245.

25. All the quotes and descriptions of Our Lady of La Salette related here are found in LSSP, pp. 254-255.

26. LSSP, p. 210.

27. M. Dupont and the Devotion to the Holy Face, Father P. Janvier, [Oratory of the Holy Face, Tours], p. 103.

Efficacious Prayers

THE OFFERING OF THE HOLY FACE

Composed by Sister Marie Saint-Pierre

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the adorable Face of Thy Beloved Son for the honor and glory of Thy Holy Name and for the salvation of all men.

One can make this offering of the Holy Face for any intention.

Our Lord said to Sister Saint-Pierre, “Nothing you ask in making this offering [of the Holy Face] will be refused to you.” (Nov. 22, 1846.)

THE GOLDEN ARROW

Given by Our Lord as a special reparation for the sin of blasphemy

May the Most Holy, Most Sacred, Most Adorable, Most Mysterious and Unutterable Name of God be praised blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth and in the hells, by all God’s creatures, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

Heaven’s Request for Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus

by John Vennari

Part 2

This is the second in a three-part series on the Revelations of Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, a French Carmelite nun of Tours who lived from 1816 to 1848.

Last month, we learned of Our Lord’s warning that, “The earth is covered with crimes, the violation—–of the first three Commandments of God has irritated My Father, the holy Name of God blasphemed, and the Holy Day of the Lord profaned fills up the measures of iniquity. These sins have risen unto the Throne of God and provoked His wrath if His justice be not appeased. At no time have these crimes reached such a pitch.” [28]

He told Sister Saint-Pierre of the need for mankind to atone for these sins, and dictated to her a special prayer of reparation for blasphemy, the Golden Arrow.

Our Lord explained to Sister Saint-Pierre the enormity of the sin of blasphemy. She writes, “It seems to me that I heard our Lord say, ‘You cannot comprehend the malice and abomination of this sin; were My Justice not restrained by My Mercy, it would instantly crush the guilty, and all creatures, even those that are inanimate, would avenge My outraged honor, but I have an Eternity in which to punish!’ After this, He made me understand the excellence of the Work of Reparation, how it surpasses the various other devotions, how agreeable it was to God, to the Angels and the Saints, and how salutary to the Church.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, “if you did but know the glory the soul acquires in saying only once in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy, Mirabile Nomen Dei: Admirable is the Name of God.” [29]

Our Lord also instructed her to make a Communion of Reparation every Sunday to atone for the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days, and requested that a special Archconfraternity be established for the Work of Reparation.

We also observed a “direct link between the Message of Our Lady of La Salette and the Revelations of Our Lord to Sister Saint-Pierre. Both warned of punishments for the sins of blasphemy and the profanation of Sunday.

We now arrive at the account of Our Lord’s request for Devotion to His Holy Face.

The Holy Face

On October 27, 1845, the Reparative Mystery of the Holy Face was suddenly revealed to Sister Saint- Pierre. She writes that she “felt herself carried in spirit to the road leading to Calvary.”

“There” she relates “Our Lord vividly portrayed before me the pious and charitable act of Veronica who, with her veil, had wiped His most Holy Face covered with spittle, dust, sweat and blood. The Divine Savior made me understand that, at present, the impious, by their blasphemies, renewed the outrages and indignities offered His Holy Face: all the blasphemies now hurled against the Divinity, Whom they cannot reach, falling back, like the spittle of the Jews upon the Face of Our Lord, Who offered Himself a Victim for sinners.

“He now told me that he wished me to imitate the zeal of the pious Veronica, who had so courageously braved the crowd of His enemies to reach Him, and that He presented her to me as my protectress and model; that we render Him the same services as this heroic Jewish woman when we promote the Reparation for Blasphemy, and that He regards those who do so with the same complacent eyes as He gazed upon her when on His road to Calvary.” [30]

Our Lord explained that His request was not for her alone. He wished as many souls as possible to take part in this Work of Reparation: Our Lord said:

“I seek Veronicas to wipe and honor My Divine Face which has few adorers.”

Sister Saint-Pierre explains, “He made me understand that all who would apply themselves to this Work of Reparation would thereby perform for Him the office of the pious Veronica.” [31] Our Lord also pledged, “By My Holy Face you will work miracles.” [32] “And He made known to me” continues the Holy Carmelite, “that He desired to see His Holy Face offered as the exterior object of adoration to all His children who would be associated in the Work of Reparation.”

Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre then explains the significance of the Holy Face, its relation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and how devotion to the Holy Face is a powerful means of reparation.

She writes:

“As I comprehended that as the Sacred Heart of Jesus was the sensible object offered to our adoration to represent His boundless love in the Sacrament of the Altar, likewise, in the Work of Reparation is Our Lord’s Face the sensible object offered to the adoration to the Associates to atone for the outrages of the blasphemers who attack the Divinity of which it is the figure, mirror and expression. In virtue of this adorable Face presented to the eternal Father, we can appease His wrath and obtain the conversion of the impious and the blasphemers.

“The correlation existing between the devotion of the Sacred Heart and that of the Holy Face could not be better ex- pressed. The Holy Face represents the Divinity outraged and insulted by blasphemers, even as the Sacred Heart represents the infinite love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

“Our Lord made me comprehend that the Church, His Spouse is His Mystical Body, and Religion [that is, the Catholic Religion, Ed.] is the Face of that Body. Then He showed me this Face, a butt to the enemies of His Holy Name, and I saw that blasphemers and sectarians renewed upon Our Lord’s Holy Face, all the opprobrium of His Passion . . . that all the blows Holy Church and Religion receive from sectarians were a renewal of the numerous buffets upon Our Lord’s Holy Face.” [33]

By this we understand that those who attack the Catholic religion, in any way, are actually scourging and beating upon Our Lord’s Holy Face. [34]

The Communists

As mentioned last month, the crimes in the present day which most outrage Our Lord, and war against His Church, proceed from the Secret Societies. Our Lord became even more specific regarding one group of them. In March, 1847, He identified the Communists, by name, as His enemies.

Sister Saint-Pierre writes:

“He has commanded me to make war on the Communists, telling me they are enemies of the Church and of her Christ.” [35] Our Lord then gave her a special spiritual means to fight them:

“I give you wherewith to combat them the weapons of My Passion—–My Cross of which they are the foes, and the other instruments of My tortures . . . The Weapons of my enemies scatter death, but Mine give life.”

Under the guidance and inspiration of Our Lord, Sister Saint-Pierre started to recite a special prayer for the defeat of Communists, and by extension, for the defeat of all “revolutionary men.”

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the instruments of His Holy Passion, that Thou mayest put division in the camp of Thy enemies, for as Thy Beloved Son hath said, ‘a kingdom divided against itself shall fall.’ ” [36]

We see here another link between the revelations of Our Lord to Sister Saint-Pierre and Our Lady of La Salette. In 1846, Our Lady appeared at La Salette with “crucifix upon Her heart, surrounded by the sharp instruments of the Passion, the cruel hammers, the sharp pincers.” [37]

Perhaps now we have the explanation of why She wore these instruments in Our Lord’s instructions to Sister Saint-Pierre. He told her to offer these same instruments, the instruments of the Passion, to the Father in order to “put division in the camp of His enemies,’ namely, Communists and revolutionary men.

Father Janvier relates that Our Lord further warned Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre about the evil designs of the Secret Societies and of their anti-Christian principles:

“Think now, My daughter, of the outrages inflicted on Me by this society of Communists; it is they who have dragged Me from My tabernacles, profaned My sanctuaries, and laid hands upon the anointed of the Lord.”

Our Lord then foretold that the Communists, and the Secret Societies, may cause great havoc, but in the end, they will not achieve total victory: “But their machinations are vain, their designs shall be foiled.” [38]

It is worth noting that Our Lord communicated this to Sister Saint-Pierre in 1847—–70 years before the Communist Revolution in Russia. Next month, we will examine how Our Lord’s warnings to Sister Saint-Pierre serve as a foundation for Our Lady’s Message at Fatima. For now, however , we will speak of her holy death, the veil of Veronica, and how her revelations finally received Church approval.

Her Death

During the week of December 2, 1847, the call from Our Lord became even more urgent. He said, “The Jews crucified Me on Friday, but Christians crucify Me on Sunday. Ask then, in My Name, for the establishment of the Work of Reparation in the Diocese of Tours.” [39]

Her request was relayed promptly to the Archbishop, who sent a secretary to interview her. The interview did not go well. Sister Saint-Pierre relayed her message directly and with respect. However, the bishop’s secretary closed the interview saying he was content she communicated to him the message she believed she must deliver. But he dashed her hopes with his final words, telling her to make no further requests to establish the Work of Reparation. [40]

She walked away from that meeting feeling both happy and dejected. She was happy in that she had relayed Our Lord’s Message. She was dejected because it looked as if the Archbishop was not going to comply.

Yet Our Lord consoled her. He made known to her that indeed, the Work of Reparation would grow stronger in the future. And here we come to one of the last public messages of Our Lord to Sister Saint-Pierre. In March 1848 she wrote:

“Our Lord told me that He wanted this Devotion to His Holy Face most zealously propagated.” And then, at the end of the same month, Our Lord said to this 32-year-old Carmelite who seemed in perfect health:

“You are nigh the goal of your earthly pilgrimage . . . the end of the combat approaches . . . you will soon behold My Face in Heaven.” [41]

Not long afterwards, Sister Saint-Pierre was struck suddenly with numerous health problems. She developed severe pulmonary tuberculosis and an ulcerated throat, which commentators interpret as a final means of reparation for blasphemers.

The doctor was called, who found her mortally ill. In her last agonies, which she utilized to intensify her devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and to His Holy Infancy, she said, “I am entirely consecrated as a victim to the cause of the Work of Reparation.”

After much suffering, accompanied by an abandonment to the Will of God that edified her entire community, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre died a most holy death on July 8, 1848. [42]

The Veil of Veronica

It seems opportune to now explain how the image of the Holy Face on the Veil of Veronica became the image of adoration linked to the Devotion to the Holy Face given to Sister Saint-Pierre.

In 1849, a year after the death of Sister Saint-Pierre, Blessed Pope Pius IX had ordered public prayers for the protection of the Papal States. Along with this, he ordered a three-day public exhibition of the holy relic, the Veil of Veronica. On the third day of that exposition, there was a public miracle of the veil.

Those who were present noticed a marked change in the veil. One commentary said, “Through another veil of silk which covers the true Relic of Veronica’s Veil, the Divine Face appeared distinctly, as if living, and was illuminated by a soft light; the features assumed a death-like hue, and the eyes deep, sunken, wore an expression of great pain.”

The priests ordered the bells rung to attract people to the prodigy. An apostolic notary was called who composed a document that testified to the truth of the miracle.

The same evening, copies of the miracle were made, touched to the veil and sent abroad. Two of these pictures were sent to Tours: one went to Sister Saint-Pierre’s Convent, the other went to Leon Dupont, the “Holy Man of Tours” who was intimately related with the Carmel at Tours and the Work of Reparation.

M. Dupont hung this picture in his parlor, which became an oratory. Here he promoted Devotion to the Holy Face and Reparation for blasphemy and profanation of Sundays. He promoted this work with prayers that had received Church approval, but that contained no mention of Sister Saint-Pierre’s revelations, which had not yet received ecclesiastical approbation.

Nonetheless, through this devotion and image of the Holy Face, Leon Dupont worked so many miracles, especially that of miraculous healings, that Blessed Pius IX called Dupont perhaps the greatest miracle worker in Church history. [43]

This then demonstrates the power of Devotion to the Holy Face.

Ecclesiastical Approval

After Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre’s death, all of her writings were sent to the Archbishop to be studied. It is said that for political reasons, the Archbishop of Tours, Msgr. Morlot, decided against granting the revelations his approbation. France at this time was convulsed by revolution. Father Janvier, commenting on the Archbishop’s decision, noted respectfully that Msgr. Morlot was a personality who tended to err on the side of caution.

Archbishop Morlot, however, had previously met Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre and he was impressed with her. He said that her writings were free from theological errors, he did not deny that the Sister had been given a Divine Mission, he qualified her as a most fervent religious, he personally professed a high esteem for her virtue and sanctity, he expressed his personal belief that these revelations give their appearance of coming from God.

Nevertheless, he forbade her writings to be known. But he ruled on her writings in such a way so as to leave the door open for another bishop—–one of his successors—–to re-open the case and perhaps grant a favorable decision.

Three decades and two Archbishops later, in 1875, Msgr. Charles Colet became Archbishop of Tours. In the first year of his Episcopacy, he broke the seals on the writings of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre in order to perform a thorough examination of them. He even sent these writings for examination to the eminent Benedictine Dom Gueranger at Solesmes Abbey [Dom Gueranger is the author of the classic multi-volume work The Liturgical Year].

Dom Gueranger and the Benedictines returned the documents with the highest recommendations. So, Archbishop Colet, who was not only well-disposed, but seemed anxious to see the Work of Reparation inaugurated, gave permission and urged that the life and revelations be published.

To his great joy, Leon Dupont, who died in 1876, saw this at the very end of his life.

Ten years later, on October 1, 1885, Pope Leo XIII promulgated a formal document entitled The Brief of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII.

Establishing the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face, which was established not only for France, but for the entire world. It still exists to this day. [44]

Immediately after Leo XIII granted his approbation, a Confraternity of the Holy Face was established at Tours.

And here’s an interesting note.

In 1885, a French father and his four daughters were among the first to join the Confraternity. The father’s name was Mr. Louis Martin. And one of his daughters was named Marie Theresa Martin, who came to be Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.

Thus, even before Saint Theresa entered the Carmelite convent, she was already a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Face. This probably explains why she chose the Holy Face of Jesus as part of her name, and also why she composed prayers in reparation to the Holy Face. It is said that the names of the Martin family can still be seen in the Confraternity entry-book.

Abbot Marmion

At this point, it seems propitious to reinforce the doctrinal foundations of a devotion such as this. And here there is no better teacher than the eminent Master of the Spiritual Life, Blessed Abbot Marmion [1858-1923].

Abbot Marmion explains that there are many blessings we receive as members of the Mystical Body of Christ. For example, when we are Baptized, we become an adopted child of God, heir of Heaven, Temple of the Holy Ghost, and we become of one family with the Church Militant on earth, the Church Suffering in Purgatory, and the Church Triumphant in Heaven.

But Abbot Marmion points out even more. When we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, he explains, we are truly part of His Body, and there are certain possessions of His that become ours.

The Fruits of the Redemption of Our Lord’s Passion and Death become ours.

The Life of Sanctifying Grace that Our Lord lived becomes ours.

The Seven Sacraments that Our Lord established become ours.

So too, by being members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Holy Mysteries that Our Lord lived while on earth become ours.

Abbot Marmion points out that these Mysteries are a source of inexhaustible grace for us when we honor and meditate upon them. Further, each Mystery of Our Lord carries with it special graces that are particular to that Mystery that we may benefit from.

For example, when we meditate on the Divine Infancy of Our Lord, we receive special graces that we do not receive when we meditate on Our Lord’s activities with Saint Joseph in the carpenter shop, and vice versa.

When we meditate on the Passion of Our Lord, we receive special graces that we do not receive when we meditate on His Sermon on the Mount.

Each one of Our Lord’s Mysteries caries with it special strengths and graces.

Abbot Marmion has written an entire book on this subject called Christ in His Mysteries, [45] which is a series of meditations on the Liturgical Year; wherein he emphasizes the truth that throughout the entire liturgical year—–season through season—–Sunday through Sunday—–there are different Mysteries of Our Lord presented to us for us to meditate upon and benefit from.

Each one of these mysteries carries with it a special strength and a special grace. So it is within this framework that we might consider Devotion to the Holy Face:

1) It is a devotion that Our Lord asked us to practice specifically.

2) We know there will be special graces and strengths that we receive from practicing this devotion that perhaps, we may not receive from practicing others.

The Nine Promises

Along with these considerations, there is an even more powerful reason to dedicate ourselves to the Holy Face. It is the glorious rewards promised by Our Lord for those who practice the Devotion. God knows that man is basically a “what-am-I-going- to-get-out-of-it?” creature. And He deals with us accordingly.

When He asked Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque for the establishment of Devotion to the Sacred Heart, he pledged Twelve Promises to those who would practice this devotion.

When Our Lady was encouraging people to pray the Rosary, She gave to Blessed Alan de la Roche Fifteen Promises to those who would recite the Rosary regularly.

Likewise, there are the Nine Promises from Our Lord to those who practice Devotion to the Holy Face. These promises were collated in the 1880s by the original propagators of the Devotion. The first two are promises given to Saint Gertrude and St. Mechtilde, and the remaining seven were given by Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre:

I) “They shall receive in themselves by the impression of My Humanity, a bright irradiation of My Divinity, and shall be so illuminated by It in their inmost souls, that by their likeness to My Face, they shall shine more than any others in eternal life.” [Saint Gertrude, Insinuations, Book IV, Ch. VII]

2) Saint Mechtilde asked Our Lord if those who celebrate the memory of His Holy Face should never be deprived of His amiable company. Our Lord replied, “Not one of them shall be separated from Me.” [Saint Mechtilde, Of Spiritual Grace, Book I, Ch. XIII]

3) “Our Lord has promised me [says Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre] that He will imprint His Divine likeness on the souls of those who honor His most Holy Countenance. [Jan 21, 1847] “This adorable Face is, as it were, the seal of the Divinity, which has the virtue of reproducing the likeness of God in the souls that are applied to it.” [Nov. 6, 1845]

4) “By My Holy Face you shall work miracles.” [Oct. 27, 1845]

5) “By My Holy Face you will obtain the conversion of many sinners. Nothing that you ask in making this offering will be refused to you. If you knew how pleasing the sight of My Face is to My Father!” [Nov. 22, 1846]

6) “As in an earthly kingdom you can procure all you wish with a coin marked with the prince’s effigy, so in the Kingdom of Heaven you may obtain all you desire with the precious coin of My holy Humanity, which is My adorable countenance.” [Oct. 29, 1845]

7) “All those who honor My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation will, by so doing, perform the office of the pious Veronica.”[Oct.27,1845]

8) “According to the care you take in making reparation to My Face disfigured by blasphemies, so will I take care of yours which has been disfigured by sin. I will reprint therein My image and render it as beautiful as it was on leaving the Baptismal font.” [Nov. 3,1845]

9) “Our Lord has promised me,” says Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, “that all those who defend His cause in this work of reparation, by words, by prayers, or in writing, He will defend before His Father; at their death He will purify their souls by effacing all the blots of sin and will restore to them their primitive beauty.” [March 12, 1846] [46]

Next month, we will examine how these revelations have a special application to our present period in Church history, especially taking note of Our Lord’s warning: “The Church is threatened by a fearful tempest. Pray! Pray!” [47]

Footnotes:

28. Given on Nov. 24, 1843. Taken from The Life of Sister Saint-Pierre [hereafter referred to as LSSP] by Father P. Janvier, [Murphy & Son, Imprimatur, 1881] p. 145. As mentioned last month, Father Janvier was one of the first promoters of the Work of Reparation and of the Revelations of Our Lord to Sister Saint-Pierre. This book, now out-of-print, is the most primary source available on the subject in English.

29. LSSP, pp. 179-180.

30. This is the first time Our Lord spoke to Sister Saint-Pierre about His Holy Face [LSSP, pp. 217-218]. Regarding Saint Veronica, Sister Saint-Pierre said “I saw that she was greatly beloved by our Lord, for He told me He wished her to be especially honored in our monastery , inviting me to ask Him graces through the merits of this her service, and promising He would grant them.” [p.218]

31. LSSP, p. 225.

32. Revelation of Oct. 27, 1845. See #4 of the Nine Promises.

33. LSSP, pp. 222-224.

34. In Part III of this series, we will discuss how this has special relevance to our present period of Church history.

35. LSSP, pp. 294-295.

36. LSSP, pp. 294-295.

37. LSSP, pp. 254-255. A prayer-pamphlet that contains this and other related prayers is available from Catholic Family News, 3 for $1.00.

38. LSSP, p. 295.

39. LSSP, p. 377.

40. A detailed account of the interview is found in LSSP, pp. 387-389.

41. LSSP, p. 394.

42. Sister Saint-Pierre’s Mother Prioress wrote a lengthy account of her last days that takes up an entire chapter in LSSP [Chapter XXIII, Her Last Illness and Death].

43. Taken from the back cover of The Holy Man of Tours, Tan Books, 1990.

44. Those interested in joining the Confraternity may write to: Center for Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus, 181 Lake Street, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2R 5Y8. The Center also distributes a full selection of prayers and materials on the Holy Face.

45. Christ in His Mysteries, [Herder, 1939] out of print.

46. The Nine Promises were first published in the book M. Dupont and the Devotion to the Holy Face, Father P. Janvier [Oratory of the Holy Face, Tours, 1885], p. 103.

47. LSSP, p. 379.

The Offering of the Holy Face

Composed by Sister Marie Saint Pierre

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the adorable Face of Thy Beloved Son for the honor and glory of Thy Holy Name and for the salvation of all men.

One can make this offering of the Holy Face for any intention. Our Lord told Sister Marie: “Nothing you ask in making this offering of the Holy Face will be refuse to you.” [Nov. 22, 1846]

THE GOLDEN ARROW

Given by Our Lord as a special reparation for the sin of blasphemy

Heaven’s Request For Reparation To The Holy Face of Jesus

Part 3

This is the final installment of the series on Our Lord’s Revelations to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, a French Carmelite nun from Tours who lived from 1816 to 1848. These revelations enjoy the full approval of the Catholic Church and were given the highest recommendations by the eminent Dom Prosper Gueranger, author of the classic multi-volume work The Liturgical Year.

We discussed:

• Our Lord’s warning of sins against the First Three Commandments, sins of which our age stands especially guilty, and deserving severe chastisement,

• The Golden Arrow: the special prayer dictated by Our Lord as a reparation for blasphemy,

• Our Lord’s request for reparation for sins against the Third Commandment, in which he also asked for the Communion of Reparation on Sundays for the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days,

• The revelations concerning devotion and reparation to His Holy Face, and that the Holy Face is the symbol of the Catholic religion,

• His request for the establishment of the ‘Work of Reparation” which He called “one of the most beautiful works under the sun,”

• The specific warning against the Communists as being “the enemies of the Church and of her Christ,” and prayers to defeat them,

• The establishment of the Arch-confraternity of the Holy Face by Pope Leo XIII in 1885, [48]

• The profound link between Our Lord’s Revelations to Sister Saint-Pierre and the Messages of Our Lady of La Salette,

• Heaven’s Nine Promises to those who practice Devotion to the Holy Face.

Crisis in the Church

Along with these considerations, I believe that Devotion to the Holy Face has a special importance for our time.

Primarily for this reason: Heaven has told us through Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre that the Holy Face of Jesus is a symbol of the Catholic Religion.

Yet the image of His Face that He gave us for our time is not one that is beautiful, healthy and ravishing, but a Face that is beaten, suffering and disfigured, which is the suffering image on the Veil of Veronica. [49]

How can we not see this as a veiled prophecy for the Church of our day? Because the crisis of Faith that has stricken the Church since the 1960s is one that has corrupted and disfigured the face of Catholicism.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been corrupted and disfigured, Theology has been corrupted and disfigured, Catholic religion instruction for adults and children has been disfigured, Seminarian formation is disfigured, Convents and religious life are disfigured, The interiors of our churches have been disfigured. In short, the Catholic religion, which is represented by the Holy Face of Christ, is now disfigured by the cruel lash of aggiornamento.

Along the same lines, there are further reasons to consider the revelations to Sister Saint-Pierre as a prophecy for today.

1) “The Church will be in eclipse”

As already mentioned in this series, there is a connection between Our Lord’s revelations to Sister Saint-Pierre and that of Our Lady of La Salette. Both warned of the need for reparation for sins against blasphemy and profanation of Sundays.

But Our Blessed Mother also foretold of a great crisis in the Church. Among other warnings, Our Lady of La Salette said, “The Church will be in eclipse.” [50]

This period of trial for the Church, predicted by Our Lady of La Salette, seems to have its reflection in the disfigured Face of Jesus, which is the symbol of the Catholic religion buffeted by her enemies.

Let us recall the words of Our Lord. He said:

Our emphasis up to this point has been Heaven’s warnings about violations of the Second and Third Commandments, which are the sins of blasphemy and the profanation of Sundays. Yet Our Lord, in the above quotation, is complaining of more. He mentions specifically “violations of the first three Commandments, which include the First Commandment: “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.”

What then constitutes a sin against the First Commandment?

The answer is found in The Catechism of the Council of Trent, The Catechism of Pope St. Pus X, and The Baltimore Catechism:

In summary, the First Commandment forbids idolatry, superstition, spiritism, tempting God, sacrilege, and sins against Faith.

The Catechism then asks “How does a Catholic sin against Faith?”

Answer: ” A Catholic sins against Faith by apostasy, heresy, indifferentism and by taking part in non- Catholic worship.” [52]

By taking part in non-Catholic worship!

This, indeed, is a powerful indictment against the present ecumenical practice that has swept through and disfigured the Church since the Council.

Thanks to ecumenism, we witness the unprecedented scandal of Catholic prelates, priests and laity praying in public with members of false religions, and even conducting this interdenominational worship [which is no worship at all] inside Protestant churches. We see our highest leaders in the Church dialoging with heresy, rather than combating it openly and courageously.

For the first time in our sacred history, in defiance of 2,000 years of Catholic Teaching, it is ecclesiastical policy to accept members of false religions as they are, rather than combat their errors and work to convert them to the one true Church of Christ. This is especially evident in a recent statement by Cardinal Walter Kasper, the current prefect of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Kasper said:

“. . . today we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense of a return, by which the others would ‘be converted’ and return to being ‘Catholics’. This was expressly abandoned at Vatican II.” [53]

This statement, which scorns the thrice defined dogma that “outside the Church there is no salvation,” actually reflects the true “Spirit of Vatican II.” Father [now Cardinal] Joseph Ratzinger, in his 1966 book Theological Reflections of Vatican II, said the same thing about the Council’s new orientation to non-Catholics. Ratzinger explains:

“The Catholic Church has no right to absorb the other Churches . . . [A] basic unity—–of Churches that remain Churches, yet become one Church—–must replace the idea of conversion, even though conversion retains its meaningfulness for those in conscience motivated to seek it.” [54]

This new orientation, that claims that non-Catholics need not convert because they are “in some mysterious way” [55] part of the Church of Christ, defies the Church’s perennial teaching on the necessity of non-Catholics to abandon their errors and return to the one true Church of Jesus Christ, as was summed up in Pius XII’s 1949 Instruction on the Ecumenical Movement:

“True reunion can only come about by the return of dissidents to the one true Church of Christ” [56] (the Catholic Church).

Further, this refusal to combat heresy, particularly the heresy of Protestantism, brings to mind the words of the renowned 19th Century writer, Father Frederick Faber, who said, “Where there is no hatred of heresy, there is no holiness.” [57]

This is one of the many reasons why the Church always forbade the type of ecumenical practice propagated since Vatican II, because it places the one true religion established by Our Lord on the same base level as man-made creeds.

In fact, 2,000 years of Catholic Teaching condemning ecumenism is summarized in Pope Pius XI’s 1928 encyclical, Mortalium Animos, which was a prophetic, wholesale condemnation of Vatican II’s ecumenism. It was here that Pius warned:

“. . . It is clear that the Apostolic See can by no means take part in these assemblies, or is it in any way lawful for Catholics to give to such [ecumenical] enterprise their encouragement and support. For if they did so, they would be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ.” [58]

Likewise, the Scriptural condemnation of religious affiliation with non-Catholics is masterfully demonstrated by Bishop George Hay, especially in his book The Sincere Christian, under the heading, “On Communicating in Religion with Those who are Separated from the Church of Christ.” [59]

Tragically, the “pan-Christianity” condemned by Pius XI, by all his predecessors, by Sacred Scripture, is now viewed by our highest Churchmen as a threshold of hope.

Thus, in the objective order, [60] ecumenism’s snuggling up to false religions constitutes a sin against the First Commandment, one of the Three Commandments that Our Lord said is especially violated in our time, and deserving of severe chastisement.

And we have seen the results of ecumenism. It disfigures and eclipses Catholicism, because it strives to accommodate Catholic truth with the errors of heretics. The New Mass, which was fabricated according to the principles of ecumenism, and which is praised by many Protestants as being acceptable to them, [61] is probably the most striking example of how ecumenism disfigures the true Catholic Faith. More examples will be given as we proceed.

2) The Blasphemy of Heretics

Our Lord complained to Sister Saint-Pierre about the sins against the Second Commandment, namely blasphemy.

If we consult the Catechism of the Council of Trent’s treatment of the Second Commandment, it teaches that those who support heresy, and “distort the Sacred Scriptures from their genuine and true meaning,” are guilty of sins against the Second Commandment. [62]

Thus, those who distort the meaning of Scripture, namely Protestants, are, in the objective order, guilty of this sin, because their perversion of Sacred Scripture is an irreverence to the Holy Word of God.

By contrast, in the name of ecumenism, Catholics are now encouraged to attend the lectures of Protestant ministers in Protestant churches, as they were in the diocese of the “conservative” Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz. [63]

Further, the 1993 Directory for the Application of the Principles and Norms of Ecumenism encourages unprecedented ecumenical camaraderie between Catholics and non-Catholics; a camaraderie always regarded by the Church as grave sins against Faith. The Directory:

• encourages common “spiritual exercises” and “retreats” between Catholics and Protestants [#114]

• allows non-Catholics to lecture in seminaries [#81]

• encourages diocesan bishops to lend their parish churches to non-Catholics for their prayer services [#137]

• promotes interdenominational prayer-services among Catholics and Protestants in each other’s churches [#112]

• encourages the joint publication of an interdenominational Bible between Catholics and Protestants [#185]

• discourages Catholics from attempting to convert non-Catholics [#’s 23, 79, 81,125]

• recommends the construction of a single church to be owned and used by both Catholics and non-Catholics [#138]

• further recommends that in these joint churches, the Blessed Sacrament be placed in a separate chapel or room so as not to offend non-believers. (#139) [64]

Our Church leaders have virtually abandoned the traditional teaching of the Catechism of the Council of Trent. They now send Catholics into the arms of Protestants who, in the objective order, blaspheme Our Lord by their perversion of His Word, Sacred Scripture.

In light of Our Lord’s requests to Sister Saint-Pierre to make reparation for sins against the Second Commandment, perhaps we can make a daily practice of reciting the Golden Arrow in reparation to Our Lord for Protestants’ irreverence towards Sacred Scripture, and for the deluded “Catholic ecumenists” who promote [and engage in] religious camaraderie with members of false religions.

3) The Communist Infiltration of the Church

There is a third reason why Our Lord’s Revelations to Sister Saint-Pierre seem to have a special application to our time. In 1847, Our Lord mentioned by name the Communists as “the enemies of the Church and of her Christ”. [65] He also said that He would punish the world not through the elements, but rather through “the malice of revolutionary men.” [66]

Over a hundred years later, we now live in a period when the malicious actions of these “revolutionary men” have a direct influence on the disfigurement of the Catholic religion, which is represented in the tortured Face of Christ.

Dr. Bella V. Dodd was a high-ranking Communist in the United States. She was Attorney General Designate of the Communist Party. Eventually, she returned to the Catholic Faith she had abandoned earlier in life. In the 1950s, however, after her conversion, she delivered numerous lectures about the successful Communist infiltration of religious institutions, and of the Catholic Church in particular.

She explained that in the 1930s and 40s, orders came from Communist headquarters to send radicals into the seminaries to subvert the Church from within. Communist agents started doing this all over the Western world. Bella Dodd said that she personally recruited over 1,000 young radicals to enter Catholic seminaries. And she was only one Communist. [67]

Another ex-Communist, Mr. Manning Johnson, gave similar testimony. In 1953, to the House Un-American activities Committee, he said:

“Once the tactic of infiltration of religious organizations was set by the Kremlin . . .The Communists discovered that the destruction of religion could proceed much faster through the infiltration of the Church by Communists operating within the Church itself.”

He then stated, “This policy of infiltrating seminaries was successful beyond even our Communist expectations.” [68]

It is probably no coincidence that at the same time Mr. Johnson gave this testimony, the French Dominicans had become so Communistic in their orientation that in 1953, the Order barely escaped dissolution by command of Pope Pius XII. [69]

Speaking of the infiltration of religious institutions in general, Manning Johnson explained,

“… the major plot to take over religious organizations was really hatched during that particular period [1935], and the fact that the Communists in headlines in the Daily Worker can boast of 2,300 Protestant Ministers supporting them is the result of this plot that began in the thirties when I was a member of the Communist party.” [70]

More testimony from Bella Dodd came from an eyewitness, an acquaintance of mine, now deceased who actually heard Bella Dodd speak in the early 1950s.

Bella Dodd said that the Communists, at that point [1950s], had their men in the highest places in the Catholic Church These men were working to bring about change so that the Church would no longer be effective against Communism. In the early 1950s, describing the changes that would take place in the future, Bella Dodd predicted “in 10 or 15 years, you will not recognize the Catholic Church.”

She explained that the tactic was to destroy not the institution of the Church, but rather the faith of the people, and even to use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the Faith through the promotion of a pseudo religion—–something that resembles Catholicism, but is not quite the real thing. [71]

Mrs. Dodd also claimed that the Communists were a driving force for the United Nations, [72] and that the Communists owned the World Council of Churches “lock, stock and barrel.” This is especially noteworthy, since the World Council of Churches was a pioneer in “dialogue” and ecumenism. The WCC boasts that it is “the most nearly comprehensive instrument in the ecumenical movement in the world today.” [73]

The time span indicated by Bella Dodd for the violent upheaval in the Church [“10 or 15 years” from the early 1950s] coincides precisely with the Vatican-Moscow Agreement. On the eve of Vatican II, our Church leaders promised that they would not condemn Communism, in exchange for Russian Orthodox observers to attend the Council. [74] This Agreement is still in force to this day and it also forms the basis for the Church’s Ostpolitik with Communist China. The result is what Bella Dodd predicted. The Catholic Church is no longer effective, or not nearly as effective, against Communism. [75]

Bella Dodd’s prediction also coincides with the violent wave that hit the Church in the 1960s, due to the progressivism and ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council, which continues to disfigure our religion to this hour. [76]

For these and other reasons, I think we may consider Our Lord’s revelations on Reparation to the Holy Face as a veiled prophecy of the present crisis of Faith. And practicing this devotion, I believe, is a special means of making reparation to Our Lord for the outrages He suffers in our time. It might, perhaps, even give us special graces to be faithful unto death to the traditional teaching and practice in the Church during this period of—–in the words of Sister Lucy—–“diabolic disorientation” of the upper hierarchy.

And even if this devotion does not give us these graces automatically, we can certainly ask for them in our prayers to the Holy Face. Our Lord has given us great hope in one of the Nine Promises: [77]

“Nothing that you ask in making this offering [of His Holy Face] will be refused to you.”

To cap off this section on the present crisis in the Church, there is one last quotation from Our Lord of special relevance.

On February 13, 1848, in one of the final messages given to Sister Saint-Pierre, Our Lord made the urgent plea:

“The Church is threatened by a fearful tempest, pray, pray!” [78]

The writers at the time interpreted this as a prediction of the suffering the Church underwent during the 19th Century revolutions in France and Italy. But in light of the above considerations, this prediction seems to apply even more to the ongoing crisis of Faith since the Second Vatican Council. Because indeed, the Church is now going through a “fearful tempest.” Even Pope Paul VI had to admit in 1972 that “the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God.” [79]

Tragically, everything in the Church has become even more disfigured since Paul VI uttered these terrifying words.

Fatima

For our final considerations, we will discuss how Sister Saint. Pierre served as a precursor and foundation to Our Lady’s visitations at Fatima.

For the sake of brevity, we limit our focus to three points.

First: Our Lord [to Sister Saint-Pierre] and Our Lady of Fatima both warned of the need for prayer and penance for the salvation of souls.

Our Lord showed Sister Saint-Pierre “the multitude of souls falling into Hell” and told her to “pray fervently” for their conversion. [80] He gave her the Golden Arrow prayer, pledging it as a “torrent of grace” for sinners. [81]

Likewise, Our Lady of Fatima showed the children the vision of Hell. She then said “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart.”

Thus, both the Work of Reparation and Devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart are a special means given by Heaven of salvation for sinners.

Second: Our Lord’s Revelations to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, and Our Lady’s Message at Fatima both warn of the dangers of Communism, though Our Lady never mentioned Communism by name.

In 1847, Our Lord warned of the Communists saying they are the “enemies of the Church and of her Christ,” and told Sister Saint-Pierre to offer the instruments of His Passion to defeat the Communists. [82]

Our Lord also told Sister Saint-Pierre that as a chastisement for the sins of mankind, “He would use not the elements, ‘but the malice of revolutionary men.’ ” [83] And “revolutionary men” is simply another name for Freemasonry, Communism, or those whom Father Denis Fahey called “The Forces of Organized Naturalism.”

Seventy years later, in 1917, Our Lady warned that if Her simple requests were not heeded, “Russia would spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church.” These “errors of Russia” are not simply Communism, but also the atheism, socialism, and religious indifference that are contained within Communism.

Thus, both Fatima and the Messages to Sister Saint-Pierre threaten as chastisement the scourge of “revolutionary men.”

Third: In the 1840s, Our Lord told Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre to make reparation for sins against the first three Commandments, especially for the sin of blasphemy.

And what do we find in the Message of Fatima?

We find Our Lord asking Sister Lucy for special reparation for sins of blasphemy. But this time it is not only blasphemy against the Holy Name of God, which is bad enough, but is specifically regarding the five blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Heaven then asked for the Five First Saturdays in reparation for these sins.

Our Lord explained to Sister Lucy on May 29, 1930:

“There are five types of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1) Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception,

2) Blasphemies against Her Perpetual Virginity,

3) Blasphemies against Her Divine Maternity, in refusing at the same time to recognize Her as the Mother of Men,

4) The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children indifference or scorn or even hatred of this Immaculate Mother,

5) The offenses of those who outrage Her directly in Her Holy Images.” [84]

And here’s a crucial point about these Five Blasphemies against Our Lady. We see that they come from not only atheistic or Godless men. Rather, these Five Blasphemies are, in a way, constitutive elements of all non-Catholic religions. It is the “doctrinal blasphemy” spoken of by Father Janvier. [85]

For example:

The Russian Orthodox do not believe in the Immaculate Conception.

Most Protestants refuse to believe in Our Lady’s Perpetual Virginity, nor do they recognize Her as Mother of Men. Most Protestants sow in the hearts of their children indifference to Our Lady, and teach them not to honor her images.

Of course, Mohammedans, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists laugh at the idea of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception, Her Perpetual Virginity, Her Divine Maternity, honoring Her Holy Images. None of these religions recognize Her as Mother of all men. And they sow this disbelief into the hearts of their children. These blasphemies against Our Lady flow from false religions.

And, as mentioned earlier, false religions are a sin against the First Commandment, which is one of the three Commandments that Our Lord has specifically mentioned to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre as deserving particular chastisement of our time.

This, of course, is another reason why ecumenical coziness between Catholics and false religions makes no sense. Especially since today’s practice of ecumenism “dialogues” with these false religions rather than trying to convert them to the one true Church of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation. It leaves members of these false creeds content in their doctrinal blasphemy against Our Lady.

The revelations to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre and at Fatima did not ask for inter-religious tea parties. Rather, Our Lord and Our Lady told us to get on our knees and make reparation for these sins against Faith, these sins against the First Commandment, and in, the light of Fatima, these sins of heresy that produce the five blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that were enunciated to Sister Lucy by Our Lord at Tuy on May 29, 1930.

A Powerful Prayer for the Church

It can be said, then, that the Church is now going through the “fearful tempest” predicted by Our Lord. And this “tempest” is the result of the “malice of revolutionary men,” Communists and Freemasons, [86] who infiltrated the Church to subvert it from within.

These “revolutionary men” also include Catholic prelates, priests and laity [well-meaning or not] who champion Conciliar novelties, such as ecumenism; novelties that have disfigured the Catholic religion, which is represented in the suffering Face of Christ, torn and bruised.

As Saint Vincent Lerins, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Robert Bellarmine, and other Saints teach, Catholics have a duty to resist novelties that distort the Faith and disfigure the Church, even if these novelties come from the highest Church authorities. [87] But without prayer and reparation, our resistance will be in vain. It is fitting then to close with special mention of the prayer given by Our Lord to Sister Saint-Pierre for the protection of the Church.

After Our Lord told Sister Saint-Pierre “The Church is threatened by a fearful tempest, pray, pray!” she relates:

“He taught me the prayer I must use to protect His Church by the virtue of the most Holy Name of God—–the one He Himself when leaving earth, offered His Eternal Father, for His Apostles and all the Church: ‘Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name, Whom Thou has given Me.’ This prayer is more efficacious than any I might compose myself.” [88]

The Work of Reparation, given to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, is a Work that should fill us with hope and gratitude. Our hope lies in the fact that the troubled times our Church now experiences have not come to us without a warning, nor without the promise of Heaven’s final victory. Our Lord foretold that Communists and Secret Societies, may cause great havoc, but in the end, they will not win. “But their machinations are vain,” Our Lord assured, “their designs shall be foiled!” [89]

The Work can also fill us with gratitude. Through it, Our Lord gave us effective supernatural weapons to fight the onslaught of evil within the Church and the world. They are also a powerful means for the conversion of sinners.

These prayers of reparation also remedy the sense of despair of many Catholics who feel powerless in the face of forces beyond their control. Through this Work, Catholics can actually do something in the supernatural order to help save souls, and contribute to the final victory of Our Lord and Our Lady. It was Blessed Pope Pius IX who said “Reparation is a Work destined to save society.” [90]

It is no wonder that Our Lord referred to this Work as “one of the most beautiful works under the sun.” With such a recommendation by the Son of God, why would any Catholic not partake in it?

The Work of Reparation

What then is the Work of Reparation that Our Lord spoke of to Sister Saint-Pierre?

In summary,

1) To make reparation for the sin of blasphemy and to adore the Holy Name of Jesus, especially by the daily recitation of the Golden Arrow.

2) To make reparation for the profanation of Sunday, and Holy Days of Obligation. As mentioned in this series, Our Lord asked Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre to make a Communion of Reparation every Sunday in reparation for these sins.

3) Never to blaspheme and to do all one can to prevent blasphemy and the Profanation of Sunday, so that Sunday is not just another work-day or day at the stores,

4) To practice a constant devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. [St. Therese of Lisieux was so devoted.]

Finally, I believe this devotion should go hand in hand with fulfilling requests of Our Lady of Fatima: the daily Rosary, Brown Scapular, daily duty, Five First Saturdays, and a fervent devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Devotion to the Holy Face

The Nine Promises

1) “They shall receive in themselves by the impression of My Humanity, a bright irradiation of My Divinity, and shall be so illuminated by It in their inmost souls, that by their likeness to My Face, they shall shine more than any others in eternal life.” (Saint Gertrude, Insinuations, Book iv, Ch. VII).

2) Saint Mechtilde asked Our Lord if those who celebrate the memory of His Holy Face should never be deprived of His amiable company. Our Lord replied, “Not one of them shall be separated from Me.” (Saint Mechtilde, Of Spiritual Grace, Book I, Ch. XIII).

3) “Our Lord has promised me [says Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre] that He will imprint His Divine likeness on the souls of those who honor His most Holy Countenance. [Jan. 21,1847] “This adorable Face is, as it were, the seal of the Divinity, which has the virtue of reproducing the likeness of God in the souls that are applied to it.” [Nov. 6, 1845].

4) “By My Holy Face you shall work miracles.” [Oct. 27, 1845]

6) “As in an earthly kingdom you can procure all you wish with a coin marked with the prince’s effigy, so in the kingdom of Heaven you may obtain all you desire with the precious coin of My holy Humanity, which is My adorable countenance.” [Oct. 29, 1845]

7) “All those who honor My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation will, by so doing, perform the office of the pious Veronica.” [Oct. 27, 1845]

The Golden Arrow

Given by Our Lord to pray in Reparation for Blasphemy

May the Most Holy, Most Sacred, Most Adorable, Most Mysterious and Unutterable Name of God be praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and in the hells, by all God’s creatures, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

A pamphlet containing The Golden Arrow, the prayer to defeat the communists, and the Nine Promises is available from Catholic Family News, 3 for $1.00 (postpaid).

The Little Gospel of Circumcision

This is a Sacramental given by Our Lord to Sister Saint-Pierre that honors the Holy Name of Jesus. Inside the little sachet is written: “When Jesus was named, was Satan disarmed.” Our Lord promised those who embraced this devotion special graces:

1] Preservation from lightning,

2] Grace to escape the snares and malice of the demon,

3] That He will preserve them from a sudden or unprovided death,

4] He will facilitate their progress in the paths of virtue and piety,

5] He will grant them final perseverance.

For a free Little Gospel of Circumcision, please send $1.00 [for postage and handling] to catholic Family News—–see address on the CFN Index page.

Footnotes:

48. Those interested in joining the Confraternity may write to the Center for Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus, 181 Lake Street, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2R 5Y8. The Center also distributes a full selection of prayers and materials on the Holy Face.

49. Sister Saint Pierre said, “I was enlightened interiorly to understand that the Church is the Face of the Mystical Body of Christ now covered with wounds by the impious.” Quoted from The Life of Sister Saint-Pierre [hereafter referred to as LSSP] by Father P. Janvier [John Murphy and Co., Baltimore, 1884, Imprimatur, Msgr. Colet, Tours], p. 393.

50. Quoted from Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Mountain of La Salette, published by Melanie, the Shepherdess of La Salette, with the 1879 Imprimatur of Bishop Zola. St. Raphael’s Publications, Quebec, p.19. This edition also contains Our Lady’s famous prophecy “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of Antichrist,” p. 18.

51. Emphasis added. Quote taken from LSSP, p.145. It is worth noting that Our Lord communicated this warning in the 1840s, what we would refer to as the “good old days.” As we enter the Third Millennium, everything in Church and State is far worse.

52. Quoted from Scriptural References for the Baltimore Catechism, by Rev. G. H. Guyot. Originally published [and imprimatured] in 1946. Republished by Roman Catholic Books, Harrison, NY. Catechism Question No. 205, p. 60.

53. Adisti, Feb. 26, 2001. English translation quoted from “Where Have They Hidden the Body?” by Christopher Ferrara, Remnant, June 30, 2001.

54. (Emphasis added) Theological Highlights of Vatican II, Joseph Ratzinger [Paulist Press, New York, 1966], p. 65-66. For a more complete discussion of Father Ratzinger’s book, see “Vatican II vs. the Unity Willed by Christ,” by J. Vennari, Catholic Family News, Dec., 2000. (not on line) [Reprint #537 , $1.75 post-paid].

55. The verbal ambiguity used by Vatican II to advance this false notion is found in Lumen Gentium 8 wherein it says “The Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church” rather than Pope Pius XII’s definition that the Church of Christ IS the Catholic Church [Mystici Corporis, Pope Pius XII]. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who has always been a progressivist, recently admitted that the word “subsists” was used at the Council in order to advance the [false] notion that the Church of Christ is actually bigger than the Catholic Church. Ratzinger said: “When the Council Fathers replaced the word ‘is’ with the word ‘subsists,’ they did so for very precise reason. The concept expressed by “is” (to be) is far broader than that expressed by “to subsist”. “To subsist’ is a very precise way of being, that is, to be as a subject, which exists in itself. Thus the Council Fathers meant to say that the being of the Church as such is a broader entity than the Roman Catholic Church, but within the latter it acquires, in an incomparable way, the character of a true and proper subject.”—–Interview in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine. [Sept. 22, 2000].

56. Instructio, [The Instruction from the Holy Office on the Ecumenical Movement, Dec. 20, 1949] entire English translation published in The Tablet [London] Mar. 4, 1950.

57. Faber, Father Frederick W. The Precious Blood, Chapter VI “The Devotion To The Precious Blood,” originally published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., publishers to the Holy See. Now published by Tan Books & Publishers, Rockford, IL, pp. 270-271. For full text, see also “Where There is No Hatred of Heresy, There is No Holiness”, CFN Reprint#395 ($1.75 post-paid).

58. Encyclical Mortalium Animos, “On Fostering True Christian Unity,” Pope Pius XI,Jan 6., 1928. Quoted from The Popes Against Modem Errors, 16 Papal Documents [Tan Books, 1999] p. 298.

59. Here is the first principle given by Bishop George Hay in his exposition that Sacred Scripture forbids communication between Catholics and non-Catholics: “The first is grounded upon the light in which all false religions are considered in the Holy Scripture; for there we are assured that they arise from false teachers, who are called seducers of the people, ravenous wolves, false prophets, who speak perverse things: that they are anti-Christs, and enemies of the cross of Christ; that, departing from the true faith of Christ, they give heed to the spirits of error; that their doctrines are the doctrines of devils’ speaking lies; that their ways are pernicious, their heresies damnable, and the like. In consequence of which, this general command of avoiding all communication with them in religion is given by the apostle: “Bear not the yoke together with unbelievers; for what participation hath justice with injustice? or what fellowship hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbelievers? or what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God.” [2 Cor. 6:14] Bishop Hay, The Sincere Christian, [James Duffy & Sons, Dublin—–Imprimatur by G.J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin] pp. 548-549. This section of Bishop Hay’s work is available from Catholic Family News, “Ecumenism Condemned by Sacred Scripture,” Reprint #292 [$1.75 post-paid].

60. Experience has taught me that it is necessary to define what I mean by the term “objective order.” It means that, objectively, these actions constitute a sin against God, even if the individual committing them acts in good faith, or from a mistaken conscience. In no way do I claim to judge the interior dispositions, or the subjective guilt, of the individual—–which is known to God alone. According to traditional Catholic Moral Theology, we may judge if a person’s moral actions conform to God’s Law, but we may never judge someone’s moral motives.

61. For example, Protestant Brother Roger Schultz of Taize said, “The new Eucharistic prayers have a structure corresponding to that of the Lutheran Mass.” M.G. Siegle, a professor of dogmatic theology in the Protestant faculty at Strasbourg wrote, “nothing in the renewed Mass need really trouble the Evangelical Protestant.” These Protestant testimonials, along with countless others, caused Catholic philosopher Romano Amerio to lament, “It must therefore be recognized that the reform has changed a Catholic Mass that was unacceptable to Protestants into a Catholic Mass that is acceptable to Protestants.” Romano Amerio, Iota Unum [Sarto House, 1996], p. 651- 652.

62. The Catechism teaches: “Scripture when it prohibits perjury, says: Thou shalt not profane the name of thy God, [Lev. 19:12]. Thereby forbidding all irreverence towards all other things to which, in accordance with this Commandment, reverence is due. Of this nature is the Word of God, the majesty of which has been revered not only by the pious, but also sometimes by the impious, as is narrated in Judges of Eglon, King of the Moabites [Judges 3:20]. But he who, to support heresy and the teaching of the wicked, distorts the Sacred Scriptures from their genuine and true meaning, is guilty of the greatest injustice to the Word of God; and against this crime we are warned by the words of the Prince of the Apostles: “There are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” [2 Pet. 3:16]. Quoted from The Catechism of the Council of Trent [translated by McHugh and Callan, Imprimatur, 1923. Republished by Tan Books, 1982] p. 393.

63. In his diocese of Lincoln, NE, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz permitted a Sermon a la carte program that encouraged Catholics to attend the lectures of Protestants in Methodist, Congregation Christian and Lutheran Churches. [From the parish bulletin of Saint Mary’s/Assumption Church, David City, NE, 1996 through 1998.] Documentation provided in “Bishop Bruskewitz’s Diocese Oozing with Pentecostalism, Ecumenism and Polka Masses”, John Vennari, Catholic Family News, Jan., 1999, [not on line].

64. See the Directory for the Application for the Principles and Norms of Ecumenism [1993] published by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. A concise treatment of this document is found in CFNs “The Ecumenical Church of the Third Millennium” (not on line) [Jan., 1998. Reprint #256, $1.75 post-paid].

65. LSSP, p. 294-295.

66. Revelation of Oct. 4, 1846. Quoted from The Golden Arrow, D. Scalan, [1954, republished by Tan Books, 1990] p. 177.

67. Testimony quoted by Father John O’Connor in the lecture “The Subversion of Our Church and Our Country.” Cassette availab!e for $8.00 post-paid from Oltyn Library Services, 2316 Delaware Ave., PMB 325, Buffalo, NY 14216

68. Ibid.

69. Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand, Satan at Work, Remnant Press.

70. Testimony of Manning Johnson, Investigation of Communist Activities in the New York City Area—–Part 7, Hearing Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, July 8, 1853, [Published by the Government Printing Office, Washington, 1953] p. 2214.

71. Testimony from B. J. Natale [d.1995] from Pine Hill, New Jersey. I have given this lecture on the Holy Face, including Bella Dodd’s testimony, in different parts of the country from the East to the West Coast. Practically every time, at least one person from the audience tells me that he or she had also personally heard Bella Dodd’s testimony inthe 1950sand verified many points of what Natale had said.

72. “When the Yalta Conference had ended, the Communists prepared to support the United Nations Charter which was to be adopted at the San Francisco conference to be held in May and June, 1945. For this I organized a corps of speakers and we took to the street corners and held open-air meetings in the millinery and clothing sections of New York where thousands of people congregate at the lunch hour. We spoke of the need for world unity and in support of the Yalta decisions.” Quote from Bella V. Dodd, School of Darkness, [P. J. Kenedy, New York, 1959], p. 179. Likewise, former top-Communist member, Joseph Z. Kornfeder revealed in 1955: “Its [the UN’s] internal setup, Communist designed, is a pattern for sociological conquest, a pattern aimed to serve the purpose of Communist penetration of the West. It is ingenious and deceptive.” Quoted from G. Edward Griffen, The Fearful Master: A Second Look at the United Nations [Appleton, WI: Western Islands, 1964], p. 75. For further testimony on the Communist roots of the United Nations, see Globa/ Tyranny, Step by Step by William Jasper [Western Islands, Appleton, WI, 1996] Chapter 4: “Reds.” A full discussion of the United Nations as being born of the “malice of revolutionary men” calls for a separate essay.

73. Quoted from WCC publication, “What in the World is the World Council of Churches?” 1978.

74. See “The Vatican-Moscow Agreement” by Jean Madiran, The Fatima Crusader, Issue #16, 1984, article available on the web at: http.//www.fatima.org/library/cr16pg05.htm

75. For example, during the Fourth Session of Vatican II, 450 bishops petitioned that the Council documents include a forceful condemnation of Communism. The petition was purposely [and illegally] held back by the commission’s secretary, Msgr. Achile Glorieux of Lille, France. As a result, the Council Fathers were prevented from seeing the petition, and the Council contains no condemnation of Communism. Msgr. Glorieux was never disciplined for this action, but was eventually appointed Apostolic Delegate to Cairo. The full story is found in The Rhine Flows into the Tiber, by Fr. Ralph Wiltgen, [1968, republished by Tan Books] p. 272-278. Likewise, Father Malachi Martin explains in his book The Jesuits, that the Vatican’s 1984 warning against Liberation Theology was purposely written in such a way so as to make no mention of Communism. This was because of the Vatican-Moscow Agreement, still in force, which prevents the Vatican from condemning Communism. See The Jesuits, (Simon & Schuster, 1987) Chapter 3.

76. To outline the connection of Freemasonry’s influence on Vatican II and the post-Conciliar crisis is beyond the scope of this article. I have done it in The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita [CFN, Feb., 1997 (not on line). Also published under the same name by Tan Books]. Suffice it here to quote the French Freemason Yves Marsaudon who said, “One can say that ecumenism is the legitimate son of Freemasonry.” Also, I am not claiming all those who practice ecumenism are deliberate enemies of the Church. In fact, Father Frederick Faber, in the mid-19th Century warned that in the future, those who would cause greatest harm to Christ and His Church, those who would do the work of Antichrist and “recrucify our Lord afresh” would not necessarily be evil men, but “good men being on the wrong side.” [Quoted in Father Fahey’s The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World, p. xiii]. It is probable that many in the Church who practice ecumenism are precisely that—–good [that is, well-intentioned] men who are on the wrong side. In justice, I must hold this view unless I have strong evidence to the contrary.

77. Nine Promises of Our Lord for those who practice Devotion of the Holy Face are published in the box above.

78. LSSP, p. 379.

79. Quoted from the inside front page of Fatima Priest, [Good Counsel Publications,1997].

80. LSSP, p. 269.

81. LSSP, p. 116.

82. “Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the instruments of His Holy Passion, that Thou mayest put division in the camp of Thy enemies, for as Thy Beloved Son hath said, ‘a kingdom divided against itself shall fall.’ ” Prayer is available on pamphlet mentioned in box above. See also Part II of this series.

83. Revelation of Oct. 4, 1846 [See footnote 66].

84. Quoted from The Fatima Crusader, Issue 49, p. 17.

85. See Part I of this series.

86. See footnote 76.

87. See “Resisting Wayward Prelates, According to the Saints,” Catholic Family News, Aug., 1999

[Reprint #259, $1.75].

88. LSSP, pp. 379-380.

89. LSSP, p. 295. 90) LSSP, p. 311.

90. LSSP, p 311.

Heaven’s Request For Reparation To The Holy Face of Jesus

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