10/02/2024
All are welcome to attend the Solemn Mass for the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus on Shrove Tuesday (Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) 13th February 2024 at 9:00AM and 7:00PM masses at St Margaret Mary’s Catholic Church, Merrylands, NSW.
Morning tea will be provided after the 9:00 AM Mass at the Pastoral Centre.
On April 17th, 1958, His Holiness Pope Pius XII approved the observance of a Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus on Shrove Tuesday (Tuesday before Ash Wednesday).
I wish that my Face, w/c reflects the intimate sorrow of my soul, & the suffering & love of my Heart be better honoured.
He who contemplates me consoles me.
In one of the messages which our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to Mother Pierina de Micheli (now Blessed) in 1939, our Lord said, I have given my heart as a sensible object of my great love for man and I give my Face as a sensible object of my sorrow for the sins of man, “I desire that My Face be honored by a special Feast on Quinquagesima Tuesday (Tuesday on the 5th week before Easter Sunday), a feast preceded by a Novena, in which all the faithful will make reparation to Me, thus uniting and participating in my grief.”
This year 2024, the FEAST OF THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS is on 13th February 2024. For future guidance, the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus is always on a Tuesday, but the date is movable as it is dependent on when the Ash Wednesday will fall. This year, the feast occurs on 13th February 2024 (Shrove Tuesday); thus, the nine-day Alpha Omega novena begins on Sunday, 4 February 2024.
Looking back on how this feast of the Holy Face of Jesus started, we go back in the early 20th century when Mo. Maria Pierina was inspired through visions of our Lord and our Blessed Mother to take up the work of spreading the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus in reparation for the many insults, irreverence, and violence He suffered.
The Holy Face image that was presented to her by our Lady was an image bearing the likeness on the Holy Shroud which at first was a scapular but was reproduced as a medal. On the side of the Holy Face image, it has an inscription, “Illumina, Domine, VultumTuum Super Nos.” (Psalm 66: “May, O Lord, the light of Thy countenance shine upon us”), and on the other side was the Sacred Host with the words, “Mane Nobiscum, Domine.” (“Stay with us, O Lord”). Although reproduced as medals, it carries the same promises and favors.
The first Holy Face Medal was offered to Pope Pius XII who accepted it and approved the devotion in 1958 and declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday).
