God's Holy Face

Part II

Lord, only you can put the happiness in our heart. Only you can give the joy and peace in our heart. ‘Many keep saying ‘who will put happiness before our eyes?’ Let the light of your face shine on us. Yahweh, to my heart you are a richer joy than all their corn and new wine’ (Ps. 4: 6-7). Lord, when we see your face I feel your outpouring grace on me.

Lord, I am a sinner, help me to reconcile with you to see your radiant Holy Face ‘You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; no sinner can be your guest. Boasters cannot stand their ground under you gaze.’(Ps. 5: 5) Yes Lord, your face is always hidden for the wicked. The boasters and hypocrites cannot approach you.

Lord, forgive us for our lack of wisdom and faith in knowing the truth. Lord do not forget us, and do not hide your Face from us. But against the wicked you turn your face away from them. ‘God forgets, he has turned away his face to avoid seeing the end’ (Ps. 10:11) Lord, you see everything that is hidden in our heart and mind.

Lord when you created Adam and while you formed his face, you made it in Jesus’ Your Son’s own image Gen.1: 26. Genesis 1:26 (NJB) ²⁶ God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’ You were never hardened Your Holy Face towards our wickedness, but you were always merciful to us sinners.

Lord, because of our sin you were sentenced for torturing and even death on the Cross. But none of us realised this in our generation. Lord, we all neglected your merciful eternal love. Lord, forgive us for all our rebellious actions towards you.    ‘Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken. Which of his contemporaries was concerned at his having been cut off from the land of the living, at his having been struck dead for his peoples’ rebellion?’ (Is. 53: 8.)

You never uttered a word to your persecutors; you never complaint and were kept quiet. This way you won the heart of Heavenly Father to give us inheritance of your Kingdom. Lord, only you can carry our sins. ‘Ill treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter –house, like as sheep dumb before its’ Shearer’, he never opened his mouth. (Is. 53:7)

You never done a sin either, but you were counted as a sinner for our sake. You never hide your face to anyone who seeks you. Lord let me see your face in my sorrows, in my persecutions, in the darkness, in all my weaknesses and in all my ways.  ‘Although, he had done no violence, had spoken no deceit. It was Yahweh’s good pleasure to crush him with pain; if he gives his life as a sin offering. He will see his offspring and prolong his life and through him Yahweh’s good pleasure will be done’. (Is. 53: 9-10)

MPI-CG

Continued............

God's Holy Face

Part I
A consecration to the Holy Face

Lord, Jesus I give thanks to you that you have made me know your Holy Face. It was on the Feast day of the Holy Trinity, after the Mass in Jebal Ali Church I came to the camp and I was just reading the passage from the Prayers of St. Therese of Lisieux (chapter 11 & 12) I was so touched by her love for Jesus Christ and her attitude towards His Holy Face, and it was contemplative. (Then I remembered the time when I came to Jesus I was just going through the word of God, and not understanding anything. Then I remember when Br. Joemon has given me Is. 53 to read and meditate. When I read this, it was so touched and my heart was filled with the image of Jesus’ blood stained face. St. Therese was so touched by this particular chapter of Isaiah 53 and ‘They were the foundation of all her piety’. In her own words “I too, have desired to be without beauty, alone in treading the wine press, unknown to everyone”, yes indeed! Like Mother Mary she never tried to be known to anyone.

I felt I would write a song in her honour and the Spirit of God was guiding me to write this.

St. Therese, St. Therese, of child Jesus

Oh Little Flower; of God’s own garden

Pray for us, pray for us, poor souls,

Pray for us, pray for us, poor sinners.

          You saw the Face of Jesus our Lord,

          In the light of His eternal glory,

          When we see Him face to face,

          Pray for us, to share His eternity…... (Pray for us.)

You wrote the prayers; in the heart of Jesus

Together we do the sacrifice, for the poor souls

An act of oblation we make for God,

To save the poor sinners, for Jesus…....(Pray for us.)

          You prayed to Jesus; wholeheartedly,

          In his Holy Heart you rest in peace.

          When you walk with Jesus hand in hand

          Tell my sorrows to Him graciously… (Pray for us.)

         

Oh my Little Flower! Together we can search the Face of our Lord and pray for the salvation of many souls. Lord your beauty was snatched away by our sins Is.53: 2.We betrayed you without any reason and we are not able to see your Face, because it is blood stained. ‘We averted our gaze, despised, for whom we have no regard’ Is. 53:3. Lord we never respect you and never consider you, as you are our creator and our only God. But you bear all our sins in a pleasant way; and with a smiling face you are looking to us. Lord, we have no regard about your suffering.

But we thought God was punished you for your guiltiness Is.53: 4-5.

‘Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing,

Ours the sorrows he was carrying,

While we thought of him as someone being punished

And struck with affliction by God;

Where as he was being wounded for our rebellions,

Crushed because of our guilt;

The punishment reconciling us fell on him,

And we have been healed by his bruises.’

(continued......)