Monday, February 27, 2017

Shrove Tuesday and the Holy Face of Jesus devotion

Before Ash Wednesday are two days, Monday and Tuesday, called Shrovetide. As I mentioned under Housewives Corner that this is a time for spring cleaning but more important than cleaning our homes is a time for cleaning our souls.

The word shrove comes from the word shrive meaning, to confess. Now and during the time of Lent is a time for confession, a time to make our hearts and souls right with God. A time to even clean out those venial sins that can grow into something bigger.

Besides confession a little known tradition Catholics would do before Lent when cleaning their homes, would be to do their best to use up foods that they were not able to eat during Lent. Lent used to be a lot stricter than it is today, a lot stricter. 


Of course, the Tuesday before Lent is most well known as Mardi Gras. We all know about Mardi Gras, so I won't go into that here but a couple other names for this day are Fat Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday. Traditionally on this day, Catholics, in preparing for Lent would use up the butter, eggs and fats in their homes.  Having pancakes or waffles for meals were a great way to do that.

In some places in England they would have pancake races, sort of like races where one runs with an egg on a spoon but in this race women would run flipping pancakes. Not sure I could do that.

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Something more serious that is an important and  interesting part of Shrove Tuesday I just recently heard about is devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. 

In the 1800's Our Lord appeared to Carmelite nun, Sister Mary of Saint Peter. Our Lord revealed to her the devotion to His Holy Face, saying, Those who will contemplate the wounds on My Face here on earth shall contemplate it radiant in heaven.”  Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus is meant to make reparation for the sins of modern disbelievers and to combat Communism. Our Lady of Fatima has warned us that Communism would spread it's errors and it certainly seems like we are seeing a lot of evidence of this in our society today. 

The prayers dedicated to the Holy Face of Jesus are acts of reparation. Reparation for the outrages enacted upon Jesus and His Holy Church.

On April 17th, 1958, His Holiness Pope Pius XII approved the observance of the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus on Shrove Tuesday.  


There are many prayers dedicated to the Holy Face but one in particular that Our Lord revealed to Sister Mary of St. Peter is called the Golden Arrow prayer. It is a powerful prayer by which a person can "shoot directly into the Heart of God" to heal the wounds inflicted on it by the malice of sinners. She was given a vision in which she saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus wounded by this "Golden Arrow" and streams of graces flowed from It for the conversion of sinners.





"May the Most Holy, Most Sacred, Most Adorable, Most Incomprehensible and Ineffable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in Heaven on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the alter. Amen.


Links with more information:

http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/golden-arrow.htm

http://fisheaters.com/customsseptuagesima2.html

https://carmeloftheholyface.com/sr-mary-of-st-peter

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