Three days ago, The Face of Jesus premiered in theaters all over the country as a Fathom event. And now, the movie is being shown in an encore presentation on June 26, the day before the Feast of the Sacred Heart. I highly encourage you to order a ticket now and head to the theaters on the 26th to watch it.
Catholic News Agency interviewed the film’s producer and director to discuss the film, and described what the movie is about as follows:
Over the centuries, many people have asked: “What did Jesus look like?” A new documentary attempts to answer this question.
“The Face of Jesus” examines two acheiropoietic images of Christ — the Shroud of Turin and the Veil of Manoppello, both believed to be divinely created — as well as the Vilnius image of the Divine Mercy, one of the most extraordinary hand-painted depictions of Jesus.
Jaroslaw Redziak, the film’s producer and director, spoke to CNA about the inspiration behind the documentary and his hope that viewers, when they view these images, will come to see just how much Jesus loves them.
To discover what our Savior might have looked like, the film takes viewers back 2,000 years to Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem and then on to Rome and the small Italian village of Manoppello.
Completely separate and unrelated to this film, last evening I interviewed Fr. Lawrence Carney on our weekly Anchor Team program to discuss his book, The Secret of the Holy Face. You can watch that interview here, and if you’re not a member of the Anchor Team, it’s one of the best ways to support the Lepanto Institute with a monthly donation of $15. You can join the Anchor Team by clicking here.
What Fr. Carney said about the devotion to the Holy Face was astounding, and the timing of this film and our interview seem to be somewhat more than a coincidence.
The Holy Face devotion is an ancient one, beginning with the veneration of the veil of Veronica and the burial shroud of Our Lord. But the devotion gained particular attention and focus in the mid-1800s after Our Lord made a series of revelations to Sister Marie de St. Pierre, a Carmelite Nun in Tours, France. From 1843 to 1848, Our Lord explained to Sr. Marie that He sought reparation for sins against the first three commandments through this devotion. In November of 1943, He said to her:
“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.”
Toward the end of Our Lord’s revelations to Sr. Marie, in 1847, Our Lord mentioned the Communists by name, calling them “the enemies of the Church and of her Christ.” He told her:
“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.”
In this regard, He also revealed that He would punish the world through “the malice of revolutionary men” because of the widespread sins against the first three commandments – particularly the sin of blasphemy. However, He also promised that despite the devastation of both the faith and civilization that will arise from the work of revolutionists, “their machinations are vain, their designs shall be foiled!” In light of this, Sr. Marie composed a prayer under Our Lord’s direction aimed at defeating these enemies of Our Lord and His Mystical Bride:
“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.’”
Fr. Carney is convinced that the weapon for the defeat of the revolutionary enemies of Christ – Communists, Freemasons, and other related sects – is the devotion to the Holy Face. What’s more is that Fr. Carney sees a direct correlation between the Rosary and the Holy Face devotion as this devotion provides what he called a “force multiplier” of grace. And it was within the context of this discussion that I recalled to him several occasions where the Rosary was brought by many thousands of Catholics for the defeat of evil. I recalled the 1955 retreat of Communist forces from Austria due to the effort of one priest. From 1947 until 1955, Fr. Petrus conducted public Rosary processions and rallies on the 13th of each month, obtaining pledges from 70,000 Catholics to pray the Rosary each day. On May 13, 1955 – the thirty-eighth anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima – the Communists signed an unprecedented pledge to leave Austria without firing a single shot. I also brought up the 1964 Rosary rallies in Brazil, held by millions of women throughout the country, that save Brazil from a Communist dictatorship.
More after the jump …
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