St Thérèse of Lisieux's prayer to the Holy Face

 

O Jesus, who in Thy bitter Passion didst become “the reproach of men, the Man of Sorrows,” I worship Thy Divine Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead; but now it has become for me as if it were the face of a leper! Yet in that disfigured Face I recognize Thy infinite Love and I am consumed with the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears that thou hast shed so abundantly appear to me as precious pearls that I love to gather, that with their infinite worth I may ransom the souls of poor sinners. O Jesus, Whose adorable Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to imprint upon me Thy Divine Image, to set me on fire with Thy Love, that it may quickly consume me, and make me worthy to contemplate in Heaven Thy glorious Face. Amen.

When you prayed the above prayer you may have noted that 
St Thérèse petitions Our Lord to imprint His Face on her soul, whereby she is asking Him to keep the promise He gave Sr Mary of St Peter, which is that those devoted to His Holy Face will have His Divine likeness embellished on their souls. This wasn't by accident. St Thérèse was especially devoted to the Holy Face and she had a great love of Sr Mary of St Peter. Thérèse carried a lock of Sr Mary's hair on her person, and she carried a photo of her in her New Testament Bible. Sr Mary and St Thérèse were both French Carmelite nuns of the 1800s. While they shared the same century - they never met - Thérèse was born 25 years after Sr Mary went to God. But Thérèse took the revelations Our Lord gave Sr Mary to heart, so much so that in her prayer she includes a request for the promise to be honored in her soul. 

Rather than just imitate Sr Mary, St Thérèse made the devotion her own - her name she was given by her superiors was St Thérèse of the Child Jesus - but she added "of the Holy Face" to her name so that she is known forever as St Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She also had this beautiful inspiration, “How well Our Lord did lower His eyes when He gave us His portrait! Since the eyes are the mirror of the soul, if we had seen His soul, we would have died from joy. Oh how much good that Holy Face has done in my life!”  Thérèse's love for Christ's Face was such that she thought she would die of joy at the sight of His eyes because they would reflect His Soul.