HOMILIES
2006   -   2005   -   2004   -   2003
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PRAYERS FOR 5 DECADE ROSARIES
CHAPLET OF THE HOLY FACE   -  10 MYSTERIES
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ON JOHN PAUL II
ENCYCLICAL - ECCLESIA de EUCHARISTIA
SEEING THE EUCHARISTIC FACE OF JESUS

TO CONTEMPLATE THE FACE OF CHRIST
 It is a sign of the times that the youngest bishop in the United States, and the first to be born in < are you ready? > the 1960s - should have chosen for his episcopal motto the phrase, Vultum Christi contemplari, 'To contemplate the Face of Christ.' Bishop Alex Sample, ordained for the diocese of Marquette, Michigan last January 25th chose a motto that echoes the repeated and insistent invitations of the Servant of God Pope John Paul II to contemplate the Face of Christ. This was his vision for the Church of the new millennium.  'Our gaze,' he said, 'is more than ever firmly set on the face of the Lord' (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 16).
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 A MESSAGE OF HOPE
 Bishop Sample¹s motto is a message of hope. The time has Come for a wounded Church and a disheartened priesthood to turn away from the self-absorption that leads to despondency and to contemplate the Face of Christ, radiant with healing mercy and resplendent with joy.  Mother Marie des Douleurs wrote in 1934: 'We have need of relief and we find it in the contemplation of the beloved Face.'  The mystery of the Face of Christ is placed like a seal on the Church of the new millennium.  Contemplation of the Face of Christ is the healing of past wounds and the promise of future mercies.
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THE COMPASSIONATE GAZE OF CHRIST
 It is another sign of the times that the Holy Father¹s Lenten Message for 2006 should focus on 'the gaze of Christ.' Here we discern a wonderful continuity with the teaching of Pope John Paul II on the Face of the Lord. Pope Benedict XVI presents this Lent as 'a time of pilgrimage towards Him who is the fount of mercy.' 'The compassionate gaze of Christ,' he says, 'continues to fall upon individuals and peoples' (Message for Lent
2006).
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REVEALS OUR SINS AND HEALS THEM
 We who pray with the psalmist, 'Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy face' (Ps 89:8), must also pray, 'Lift up the light of thy face upon us, O Lord!' (Ps 4:6).  The same divine gaze that reveals our sins heals them.  There is no brokenness that cannot be repaired, no sorrow that cannot be changed into joy, in the light of the Face of Christ.  'If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land' (2 Chr 7:14).
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DISCOVERING THE HEART OF GOD
 Lent is a pilgrimage like that of the Jews of old to theTemple in Jerusalem.  The Temple was the dwelling of the Name of God, the place where the thrice-holy God, the invisible God, revealed his Face to those who came on pilgrimage seeking it.  'I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time' (2 Chr 7:16).  One desire burned in the hearts of those going up to the Temple: the desire to gaze upon the face of God.  Whosoever gazes on the face of God discovers the heart of God. 'My soul is thirsting for God, the strong and living God.  When shall I enter and see the face of God' (Ps 41:2).
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CHRIST IS THE HUMAN FACE OF GOD
 Israel¹s burning desire to behold the Face of God is fulfilled in the Church¹s contemplation of the Holy Face of Christ. 'For it is the God who said, 

(Let light shine out of the darkness,) who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ' (2 Cor 4:6).

Christ is the human Face of God, 'the icon of the invisible God' (Col 1:15).  To Philip who asked for nothing less than to be shown the Father, Jesus replied, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father' (Jn 14:9).  The Face of Christ fulfills the yearning that Moses expressed when he said, 'I pray thee, show me thy glory' (Ex 34:18). The first antiphon of the First Vespers of Christmas sings of this mystery: the appearing of the human Face of God in earthly space and time. 'The King of Peace is magnified, he whose face all the earth desires to see.'
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ILLUMINATING SALVATION HISTORY
 Mother Marie des Douleurs was not engaging in pious Hyperbole when she wrote concerning devotion to the Holy Face: 'This devotion is so central, so vital for us that we should not be able to live without it.' And again, she writes: 'Nothing bespeaks the spirit of our Congregation more than this devotion to the Most Holy Face of Jesus.' The  foundress of the Benedictines of Jesus Crucified was interpreting for her daughters past, present, and to come, a current of light that illumines salvation history from beginning to end: the mystery of the invisible God revealed in the suffering and glorious Face of his Christ. In this seventy-fifth year of the Congregation¹s life, we do well to attend to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (cf. Rev 2:7), and focus anew on the Face of Christ.  If what Mother Marie des Douleurs wrote concerning the devotion to the Holy Face in the life of her Congregation is true, it follows that the spiritual renewal of the Congregation will flow necessarily from the contemplation of the Face of Christ.
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JACOB WRESTLES
Where do we contemplate the Face of Christ? Sacred Scripture and tradition present us with three instances of a transforming encounter with the Face of God.  The first is in the account of Jacob¹s mysterious nocturnal struggle with the Angel of the Lord. After Jacob had crossed the ford of the Jabbok, 'he was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day' (Gen 32:34).  After wrestling with his opponent until daybreak, Jacob asked him, 'Tell me, I pray, your name' (Gen 32:29). In the Bible name and face refer to one¹s personal identity, to the relational self, to the self that engages with another.  This is why Jacob calls the place Peniel, saying 'For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved' (Gen 32:30).
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STRUGGLED UNTIL DAYLIGHT
 Three elements of Jacob¹s experience tell us where we Encounter the Face of God in our lives.  Jacob was alone; it was night; and he struggled until daybreak. Only then did he realize that he was, all the while, close to the Face of God.  The Face of Christ draws near to us when we are alone.  The Face of Christ shines for us when it is night.  And when we are locked in the struggles of spiritual combat the Face of Christ envelops us in a gaze of tender pity and sustains us until 'the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts' (cf. 2 P 1:19).
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 VERONICA'S ENCOUNTER
The second instance that occurs to me is Veronica¹s Encounter with Jesus bearing his cross.  Veronica is emblematic of all who pray, 'Thy face, O Lord, do I seek; hide not thy face from me' (Ps 26: 8-9).  The Face of Jesus is brutalized and disfigured. Veronica, seeing him suffer, suffers with him.  Compassionate love draws her to his Holy Face.  She lifts a veil to his bleeding Face, and he imprints his image on her veil and on her heart.
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HE SHOWS HIS FACE
Veronica¹s experience, relived so often as we walk the way Of the Cross, tells us that Jesus turns his Face to those who follow him in suffering.  Jesus shows his Face to those who suffer with him and to those who would bring refreshment and relief to his suffering members.  He is ready at every moment to leave the impression of his Holy Face on those who draw near to him with a compassionate love.
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  The third instance is, to my mind, the most moving of all.
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PETER'S ENCOUNTER
It is Peter¹s encounter with the Face of Christ after his three-fold denial of him.'

While he was still speaking the cock crowed.  And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.  And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, 'Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.' And he went out and wept bitterly' (Lk 22:60-62).
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HE WEPT BITTERLY, A SINNER WHO MEETS HIS GAZE
 The mercy of Christ is such that after we have sinned, he Turns his Face toward us and looks at us.  Blessed the sinner who, seeing the suffering face of Christ, weeps bitter tears, for he shall be consoled. For the sinner who meets his gaze, there is no condemnation on the Face of Christ.  At no time are we more in need of the Holy Face than after we have fallen.  Shame, humiliation, and the devil conspire to keep us from raising our eyes to the Face of Love.  A single glance at the Face of Christ is sufficient to unleash upon us all the mercy of his Heart.  'You have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes²' (Ct 4:9), says the Bridegroom of the Canticle.
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 HIS EUCHARISTIC FACE
 The Face of Christ present in solitude, shining in our Darkest nights, and close in our every struggle is his Eucharistic Face.  The Face of Christ encountered along the way of cross and present in all who suffer is his Eucharistic Face.  The Face of Christ that caused Peter to weep after having denied his Master, the Face of Christ that seeks us out, even after our most shameful sins, is his Eucharistic Face. Come then to every celebration of Holy Mass as the Jews of old went up to the Temple.  Come with a burning desire to gaze upon the Face of God. Seek the suffering and glorious Face of Christ hidden beneath the sacramental veils.
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WE ARE CALLED 
TO READ THE SECRETS OF HIS HEART
 Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, you will become the living temple of the Face of God.  He who carries within himself the Face of God is never alone.  He who enshrines within himself the impression of the Holy Face need not fear the terrors of the night, the pain of loneliness, the outcome of the struggle, the weight of the cross, or the humiliation of having sinned.  He has only to fix his gaze on the Face of Christ and read there all the secrets of his Heart.

PRAYER OF REPARATION
  The last century saw, here and there, like so many points of light in the Church, men and women drawn by the Holy Spirit to the contemplation of the Face of Christ.  In many cases this attraction to the Face of Christ was characterized by the prayer of reparation.
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The spiritual impulse to make reparation emerged in the aftermath of the French Revolution and, in the twentieth century, became in some way a response to the horrors of two World Wars.  Violence, terrorism, and war continue to inspire a prayer of reparation that looks to the Face of Christ.  We are most affected by acts of violence that disfigure the human face. We heard Isaiah¹s prophecy of the Servant: 

'His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men. . . .  He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not'  (Is 52: 14; 53:3).
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THE FACE AND PERSON ARE SYNONOMOUS
 Face and Person are synonomous, not only by reason of the Greek etymology, but even more because there is nothing more personal, nothing more precious, nothing dearer than the face of a loved one. The psalmist¹s cry, 'I long to see your face' (Ps 26:8), is the cry of every lover to his beloved, the cry of child to parent, of parent to child, and of friend to friend.  The most poignant moment in the rites of death and burial comes when the face of the deceased is covered for the last time. We cherish photographs of those we love, but what is a photograph without a face?  The relationships that we call ³heart to heart² never tire of the  'face to face.'
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THE HOLOCAUST
A SIN AGAINST THE FACE OF CHRIST
The Holocaust that took place during the Second World War was, at the deepest level, an attempt to erase the dignity and uniqueness of each person, a sin against the Face of Christ, the Holy Face mirrored in millions of Jewish faces.  Every sin against the dignity of the human person is a sin against the Face of Christ.  Every act of violence, irreverence, or scorn directed against the human person is a sin against the Face of Christ.  The abortion that prevents a child¹s face from seeing another human face in the light of day is a sin against the Face of Christ. Torture and cruel ridicule are sins against the Face of Christ.  The hard, stony gaze that looks at a person without seeing him is a sin against the Face of Christ.  The eyes that judge, the look that condemns, is a sin against the Face of Christ. The refusal to see Christ in the faces of the sick, the stranger, and the immigrant is a sin against his Holy Face.
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WE ARE HEALED OF OUR SINS
 Reparation is the prayer that seeks to make whole what is fragmented by putting love where there is no love, by gazing with reverence upon what has been disdained, by allowing our eyes to rest on 'One from whom men hide their faces' (Is 53:3).  The extraordinary thing about the prayer of reparation is that it is healing not only for the one offended but for the offender as well.  If by sin we offend the Face of Christ, by reparation to the Holy Face we are healed of our sins.  'Thou has set our iniquities before thee,'  says the psalmist, ' our secret sins in the light of thy face'  (Ps 89:8).
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REPARATION IS THE VEIL LIFTED
 The prayer of reparation is most at home in the presence of The Blessed Sacrament.  The light that shines from the 'Eucharistic Face of Christ' heals us sinners, and heals those against whom we have sinned.  The love we bring to the Eucharistic Face of Christ reaches every human face. The prayer of reparation is the veil of Veronica lifted to the face of Christ in his Passion; it is the hand that seeks to wipe away every disfiguring stain of filth, of blood, and of tears.
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ENOUGH TO BELIEVE IN HIS LOVE
  In a letter to Mother Foundress, Mother Marie-Thérèse Bonnin remarked that nothing 'repaired' her soul like the contemplation of the Holy Face.  In 1940 she wrote, 'I have need of prayer in the same way one has need of recuperating physically.  Time passes quickly close to Him.  It is not that I feel anything, it is enough to know that I am held in his gaze, enough to believe in his love.'
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ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE HELD IN HIS GAZE
 Lent, the Year of the Eucharist, and today¹s Mass of the Holy Face invite us to a prayer of reparation and of adoration. 'Look to him and be radiant; let your faces not be abashed' (Ps 33:6).  The light that streams from the Face of Christ can make radiant every human face.  Allow yourself to be held in his gaze. Believe in his love.  Perseverance in the simple prayer of reparation means healing for ourselves and healing for the world.  (February 8, 2005
Monastery of the Glorious Cross, O.S.B. Branford, Connecticut

 A GRAND SPIRITUAL THEME
When the history of the pontificate of John Paul II is written by a generation to come, there is no doubt that his insistent and consistent focus on the Face of Christ will emerge as a grand spiritual theme, a recurrent motif, and, a spiritual gift to the Church.  Over the years, John Paul II¹s personal fascination with the Face of Christ has become a pastoral imperative. Already in 2001, he drew the eyes of the Church to the Face of Christ.  At the closing of the Holy Door on January 6th of that year he said: 'Christianity is born, and continually draws new life from this contemplation of the glory of God shining on the face of Christ.'

OF CENTRAL IMPORTANCE
  The reflections of Pope John Paul II on the Face of Christ find a unique complement in those of one who shared his Polish heritage, SuzanneWrotnowkska, Mother Foundress.  'All the Sisters,'  she wrote, 'will honour the Most Holy Face of Jesus with a special veneration. . . .  This devotion is not for us a devotion added on to others. . . . It is of such central importance and so vital for us that we cannot live without it.'  The accent is deeply personal and expressed with a youthful conviction. Linked to the mystery of the Face of Christ and, for John Paul II, inseparable from it, is growth in holiness:  'May the Lord grant that in the new millennium, the Church will grow ever more in holiness, that she may become in history a true epiphany of the merciful and glorious face of Christ the Lord.'

THE WHOLE OF CHRISTIAN LIFE
 In Novo Millennio Ineunte, the Holy Father developed his Teaching on the Face of Christ.  Clearly, for John Paul II, this is more than another devotion proposed to the piety of the faithful.  It is, rather, a way of presenting and living the whole of the Christian life, a way of responding to what the Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium presented forty years ago as 'the universal call to holiness.'  Karol Wojtyla was a bishop of the Second Vatican Council; as bishop of Rome, he has sought to deepen and develop the central intuitions and core teachings of that Council.  His call to contemplation of the Face of Christ is fully intelligible only within that context and in relation to the Council¹s universal call to holiness. Holiness is a simple adhesion to the designs and desires of the Heart of Christ on us, a  'yes'  to what the Heart of Christ has reserved for us, a 'yes' to what the Heart of Christ would give us at every moment.

DESIRES OF THE HEART 
OF JESUS ARE REVEALED ON HIS FACE
 The designs and desires of the Heart of Jesus are revealed on His Face.  One who loves Christ learns to read on his Face the secrets of his Heart. Only in the seventeenth century did the iconography of the Sacred Heart begin to depict the physical organ of Jesus¹ heart exposed, surrounded by thorns, and radiant with the flames of love.  The more ancient depictions of the Heart of Christ honoured its hiddenness, its mystery, by showing only the wound opened by the soldier¹s lance while leaving the Heart itself enclosed in the crucified or glorious flesh of Christ.  The open wound was in itself an invitation to press beyond it, to cross its threshold as onewould pass through a door, to make one¹s dwelling in the inner sanctuary of the Sacred Heart, but the Heart itself remained hidden.

 WE MUST DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF HIS HEART
The secrets of the Heart of Christ were, in the older Iconographic traditions, revealed on the Face of Christ. One discovered the ³mystery² of the Heart by contemplating the Face.  Mother Foundress says this clearly:  'We must discover on this Face the revelation of the secrets of his Heart,'  and in another place, 'All the zeal of the Heart of Jesus, all his works, and all his agony can be read on his Face.'  John Paul II¹s invitation to become contemplatives of the Face of Christ, is an opportunity to reclaim and retrieve another iconographic tradition of the Sacred Heart: that of the Face of Christ as the revelation of the secrets of his hidden Heart.

THE CALL TO HOLINESS
 In the light of the Holy Father¹s consistent and insistent focus on the 'Face of Christ'  we begin to understand that he is, in fact, proposing not a  devotion, but a way of responding to the call to holiness that is wonderfully adapted to every state of life, but essential to monastic life. Why did Mother Foundress so insist on the central importance of devotion to the Holy Face?  Why does she say that, 'nothing signifies more the spirit of our Congregation than this devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus'? Why does she call 'the Holy Face the center of our lives'?  Because, at the heart of every vocation she sees the mystery of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship best described in terms of an encounter 'face to face,' and of perseverance in seeking the Face that first sought us. 

'Of you my heart has spoken:  Seek his face.' It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face' (Ps 26:8-9).  'The Holy Face,' she says, 'is the face of the Word Incarnate. . . .  He has chosen us to live with our eyes fixed on him. . . . with all the boldness of love, with all that love dares, with the fidelity of love, we must discover on his Face the revelation of the secrets of his Heart.'

IT IS YOUR FACE, O LORD THAT I SEEK
There is in this focus on the Holy Face of Christ something that is distinctively Benedictine.  Saint Benedict would have the newcomer to the monastery tested to see if he 'sincerely seeks God' (RB LVIII:7).  The search for God begins and ends in the mystery of the Holy Face of Christ. Could this not be our Lenten program in this year 2004: to seek and contemplate the Face of Christ?  The Face of Christ hidden and revealed in the Scriptures, the Face of Christ hidden and revealed in the Eucharist, the Face of Christ hidden and revealed in one another; the face of Christ in anyone who suffers. If in every event and circumstance we say instinctively, and from the heart, 'It is your face, O Lord, that I seek' (Ps 26:8), we will find our own faces  < and our hearts >  transformed. (March 4, 2004 Monastery of the Glorious Cross, O.S.B. Branford, Connecticut)

JOHN PAUL II's INVITATION
         Astute observers of Pope John Paul II¹s persistent and Consistent emphasis on the Holy Face of Christ have remarked that it flows logically from his personalist philosophy.  The notions of person and face are intrinsically related.  When he was still Archbishop of Cracow, Karol Wojtyla wrote to his friend, Father de Lubac,

'I devote my very rare free moments to a work that is close to my heart and is devoted to the metaphysical sense and mystery of the person.  The evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person.' 

The Greek prosopon means person as well as face and countenance.  A personal relationship is always, at some level, an encounter face to face.  The Holy Father¹s repeated invitations to contemplate the Face of Christ are, in fact, invitations to know Christ in the most deeply personal way.  In the 'new civilization of love,' the restoration of the sacredness and dignity of the human person begins with the contemplation of the Face of Christ.
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WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT IT
The reflections of Pope John Paul II on the Face of Christ find a unique complement in those of his compatriot, Suzanna Wrotnowkska. In one of her earliest writings, Mother Foundress wrote, 

'All the Sisters will honour the Most Holy Face of Jesus with a special veneration. . . .  A true spouse of Jesus Crucified should have a profound, sincere, and efficacious devotion to the Holy Face.  This devotion is not for us a devotion added on to others. . . .  It is of such central importance and so vital for us that we cannot live without it.' 

Strong words flowing from the pen of a young woman.  The accent is deeply personal and experiential, expressed with utter conviction.
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CENTER OF OUR LIVES
Why did Mother Foundress so insist on the central importance of devotion to the Holy Face?  Why does she say that, 'nothing signifies more the spirit of our Congregation than this devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus'?  Why does she call 'the Holy Face the center of our lives'?  Because, at the heart of every vocation she sees the mystery of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship best described in terms of an encounter 'face to face,'  and of perseverance in seeking the Face that first sought us. 

'Of you my heart has spoken:  Seek his face.' It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face' (Ps 26:8-9).  '

The Holy Face,' she says, 'is the face of the Word Incarnate. . . . He has chosen us to live with our eyes fixed on him. . . .  with all the boldness of love, with all that love dares, with the fidelity of love, we must discover on his Face the revelation of the secrets of his Heart.' There is in this focus on the Holy Face of Christ something that is distinctively Benedictine.  Saint Benedict would have the newcomer to the monastery tested to see if he 'sincerely seeks God' (RB LVIII:7). The search for God begins and ends in the mystery of the Holy Face of Christ.
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MEDAL OF THE HOLY FACE
I had occasion, some years ago, to interrogate Sister Marie-Simone on the origins and sources of Mother Foundress¹ devotion to the Holy Face. It marked the Congregation from the very beginning.  The first Sisters received, as a sign of their consecration at Montmartre on April 11, 1930, a medal depicting the Holy Face.  The Directory on Devotion to the Holy Face is among the earliest writings of Mother Foundress.  Later on the daily prayer from Psalm 30 was placed in the customary: 'Hide me, O Lord, in the secret of your Face' (Ps 30: 21). The Litanies of the Holy Face were introduced < to be sung in procession to a hauntingly beautiful fourth mode melody composed for the Congregation by a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of La Source in Paris.  How comforting it was to pray the invocations of the Litanies at Sister Mary Dorothy¹s deathbed > 'Most Holy Face of Jesus,look upon her and have mercy.'
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INFLUENCE OF OTHERS
 Among the sources used by Mother Foundress are some that came To her through Carmel, particularly through the Carmel of Tours where, in the mid 1800s, Sister Mary of Saint Peter had done so much to spread devotion to the Face of Christ.  There was also the enormous influence of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.  There was Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity who described her life in Carmel as 'living always with my eyes in his eyes.' On close examination, the language of Mother Foundress¹ Directory on Devotion to the Holy Face is not without a certain resemblance to that of Elizabeth of the Trinity.
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THE FACE OF LIGHT
        Where is the uniqueness of Mother Foundress¹ approach to the Holy Face?  It is, I think, in her specifically liturgical focus, one that, while dwelling on the Face of Christ disfigured in his sorrowful Passion does not stop there, but presses on to the radiant glory of his Resurrection and Ascension. Mother Marie des Douleurs would, I think, rejoice to read the words of John Paul II: 

'The face of Christ is the face of light that tears open the obscure mystery of death: it is the proclamation and pledge of our glory, because it is the face of the Crucified and Risen One.  On it, the Church his Bride, contemplates her treasure and her joy'
(August 6, 2002).
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OTHER DATES OBSERVED
 In other monasteries, the day set aside for honouring the Holy Face of Jesus was either Shrove Tuesday, with an emphasis on reparation, or ‹as in the Carmel of Lisieux ‹ August 6th, the feast of the Transfiguration with its splendid introit, Tibi dixit, 'Of you, my heart has spoken: Œseek his face.'  In the Congregation another day was chosen to honour the Holy Face: the Sunday after the Ascension.  The motive for this choice was in the text of the introit Exaudi, Domine.

'Hearken, O Lord, to my voice, when I call upon you, alleluia.  You speak within my heart and say, 'Seek my face.' Your face, O Lord, I will seek; hide not your face from me, alleluia, alleluia' (Ps 26:7-9). 

The text is almost identical to that of August 6th, apart from the opening plea, 'Hearken to me,' and the cascade of alleluias that illuminate it with the paschal glory that shines in the face of the ascended Christ.  Mother Foundress writes that, '
'all the zeal of the Heart of Jesus, all his works, and all his agony can be read on His Face. We also see shining there the entire Resurrection and Ascension.' 

Her vision of the Holy Face is personal, paschal, and eschatological. Like that of JohnPaul II, it encompasses the whole mystery of Christ.
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 THE SPIRIT WHO ETCHES
 John Paul II writes that 'Christianity is born and continually draws new life from this contemplation of the glory of God shining on the face of Christ' (Epiphany 2001).  Clearly, the Spirit is speaking today to the churches, saying 'Seek his face.'  You, dear Sisters, are being challenged, in some way, to open again your little booklets of the Litanies of the Holy Face, to rediscover them in the light of the Scriptures, perhaps to reinvent them.  Read again with new eyes, with a fresh regard, the Directory on Devotion to the Holy Face.  You will find there a stimulating complement to the present teaching of the Holy Father. 

'In the human face of the Son of Mary we recognize the Word made flesh in the fullness of his divinity and humanity. The greatest artists < of East and West >  have striven to capture the mystery of that Face.  But it is the Spirit, the divine Œiconographer¹ who etches that Face in the hearts of all who contemplate him and love him.' 
(January 6, 2001).
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TURN YOUR GAZE UPON US AND HAVE MERCY
'The basic task of every Christian', says the Holy Father, 'is to be, first and foremost, one who contemplates the Face of Christ' (RVM, 9). Does this not go to the heart of the monastic vocation as well?  Could this not be our Lenten program in this year 2003: to contemplate the Face of Christ? It is the grace that I ask for each of us today. 'Most Holy Face of Jesus, turn your gaze upon us, and have mercy.' (March 4, 2003) Monastery of the Glorious Cross, O.S.B. Branford, Connecticut

Abbazia  Santa Croce in Gerusalemme
Piazza Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, 12
I­00185 Roma, ITALIA

For more information on the Holy Face, contact
D.  Mark Daniel Kirby, O.Cist.
 ocist@sbcglobal.net