The face of Jesus

Taking a moment to step back, as it were, to examine the various interweavings of one's own life with the lives of others is an opportunity for great humility, wonder, and gratitude.  Of course, such reflection can rarely be attained purposely; rather, when such a recognition occurs it is most often a result of divine grace.  It was just such an experience that I had yesterday.

The Lord has brought many marvelous people into my life (or, if you like, brought me into theirs), he continues to do so, and he will likely enough continue to do so as the years go on.  As I sit back and think for a moment of the people whom I am privileged to know now and to have met in the past, I am filled with the certainty that I have not met these people - many of whom I am happy to count as dear friends and others whom I have only been around briefly but who have nonetheless taught me something important or brought comfort or laughter to me - by any merit or doing of my own.  It is, rather, simply by the workings of Providence.

One of the priests living with me here at the Casa Santa Maria and I were in the same seminary class together and it is good to be with him.  This friend happened to meet Paul Badde some months ago while visiting the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello (we visited the shrine on Saturday).  As he was leaving, he recognized Badde's face from his books and introduced himself.  Wednesday morning he invited me to join him for coffee with Badde (I had a hot chocolate instead since I cannot tolerate the taste of coffee; the Italians don't quite know what to do with me).

After a delightful conversation about the Holy Face, its discovery and importance, we exchanged contact information and Badde sent several excellent photographs to me; he has very kindly given me to permission to post them here and also obtained permission for me to post a few pictures courtesy of EWTN.

The image of the Holy Face is - together with the Shroud of Turin and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma of Saint Juan Diego - one of the images not made by the human hands.  No trace of any pigments are found on the fabric woven of mollusk silk, nor is it embroidered onto the fabric.  What is more, both the image and fabric are translucent and the image seems to change depending on the light shone upon it, as the following pictures show.

N.B.: You can click on the photographs to view enlarged versions, which I recommend.

In this first photograph you can see not only the image of the Holy Face, but also the reliquary in which it is housed:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

Here is a detail of the face; notice especially the details of the pupils and even of the teeth:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

With a change of light, other details can be more clearly seen, such as the bruise under the right eye:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

In this next picture, Badde examines the Holy Face in the light of the setting sun.  You can see how transparent both the fabric and the image are but looking Badde's left shoulder:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

Under this light, the creases on the fabric are clearly visible:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

These next three photographs show what the Holy Face looks like under different lights:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

PHOTO: Paul Badde

PHOTO: Paul Badde

Here again can be seen the transparency of the image:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

Here Alan Holdren takes a look at the Holy Face under the sunlight:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

As you can see from the above photographs, the Holy Face is a most remarkable image, one that I cannot simply get out of my mind.  I have seen the face of Jesus, I have seen the face of God.

If you come to Rome, you simply must plan to take a half a day and visit the shrine at Manoppello; I promise you will not regret it.