“Fasting is not a new invention, but a treasure received fem the Fathers.  All that is ancient is worthy of praise.  Respect the antiquity of fasting!  It is as old as man himself.”  (St. Basil, On Fasting I)

The Great Holy Fast, called also the Forty Days Fast, is one of the oldest and most sacred Christian practices.  The history of the Great Fast is long and rich in tradition, dating from Apostolic times.  The pre-paschal fast is called Great, not only because of its duration but also because of its significance in the life of the Church and of every Christian.

The Fathers of the Church have the greatest respect and the highest praises for the holy fast.  Regarding its antiquity, St. Basil (329-379) wrote:  “Allow me again to appeal to history and to recall that fasting is very old and that all the saints observed it as though it were an inheritance from parents, transmitted from father to son.   Thus did this treasure come down to us as an unbroken tradition.”  (On Fasting I)

Most Holy Face of Jesus
Click here for Website on the Feastday 

In Tours, France during the 1840’s a young Carmelite nun received a series of revelations from Our Lord about a powerful devotion He wished to be established worldwide—–the devotion to His Holy Face and Name.

THE “GOLDEN ARROW” PRAYER 

MAY the Most Holy, Most Sacred, Most Adorable, Most Incomprehensible and Unutterable 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 Altar. Amen.  

Short Novena in preparation for His Feast: 

– O Lord Jesus Christ, in presenting ourselves before Thy adorable Face, to ask of Thee the graces of which we stand in most need, we beseech Thee above all, to grant us that interior disposition of never refusing at any time what Thou requires of us by Thy holy commandments and divine inspirations. Amen.
– O Good Jesus, who has said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you,” grant us O Lord, that faith which obtains all, or supply in us what may be deficient. Grant us, by the pure effect of Thy charity, and for Thy eternal glory, the graces that we need and that we seek from Thy infinite mercy. Amen.
Be merciful to us, O my God, and reject not our prayers, when amid our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thy adorable Face. Amen.
– O Almighty and Eternal God, look upon the Face of Thy Son Jesus. We present It to Thee with confidence to implore Thy pardon. The All-Merciful Advocate opens His Lips to plead our cause. Hearken to His cries, behold His tears, O God, and through His infinite merits, hear Him when He intercedes for us poor miserable sinners. Amen.
– Adorable Face of Jesus, my only love, my light and my life, grant that I may know Thee, love Thee and serve Thee alone, that I may live with Thee, by Thee and for Thee. Amen.
– Eternal Father, I offer Thee the adorable Face of Thy Beloved Son for the honor and glory of Thy Name, for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of the dying. O Divine Jesus, through Thy Face and Name, save us. Our Hope is in the virtue of Thy Holy Name! Amen. 

Excerpt from Fourth Hour: From 8 to 9 PM

My weary Good (Jesus), I kiss Your Most Holy Head. I see it tired, exhausted, and all occupied in Your crafting of Love. Tell me, what do You do?

And You, “My child, in this Host I work from morning to evening, forming Chains of Love; and as souls come to Me, I bind them to My Heart. But do you know what they do to Me? Many wriggle free by force, shattering My Loving Chains; and since these Chains are linked to My Heart, I am tortured and become delirious. Then, in breaking My Chains, they render My crafting useless, looking for the chains of the creatures. And they do this even in My Presence, using Me in order to reach their own ends. This grieves Me so much as to make Me faint and rave.”

December 1907 – Vol. 8

As I was in my usual state, I found myself with the thought of when blessed Jesus met His blessed Mother on the way to Calvary; and while I was compassionating both one and the other, sweet Jesus told me: “My daughter, my Mother went out on the day of my Passion only to be able meet and relieve Her Son. In the same way, for a true loving soul, her intention in all of her actions is only that of encountering her beloved, and of relieving Him from the weight of His cross. And since human life is a continuous attitude of actions, both external and internal, the soul does nothing but meet her beloved continuously. And will she just meet Him? No, no; she will greet Him, she will embrace Him. She kisses Him, she consoles Him, she loves Him, be it even with a little word said in passing; and He will be satisfied and content. And since the action always contains a sacrifice, if the action is done to encounter the sacrifice contained in it, it will serve to relieve Me from the weight of my cross. What will be the happiness of this soul who, in her actions, is always in contact with Me? How my Love will grow ever more at each additional encounter she has by means of her acting with Me! But, how few are those who make use of it to find the shortest way in their actions to come to Me, cling to Me, and relieve Me from the many afflictions that creatures give Me!”

11/1/02 – Vol. 4

As I was in my usual state, I felt I was going outside of myself, and I found a child crying, and also several men; and one of them, more serious, took a most bitter drink and gave it to that crying child, who suffered so much in swallowing it, that his throat seemed to choke.

Not knowing who he was, out of compassion I took him in my arms, saying to him: ‘Yet, he is a serious man, and did this to you. Poor little one, come to me, for I want to dry your tears.’

And he said to me: “True seriousness is found in religion, and true religion consists in looking at one’s neighbor in God, and at God in one’s neighbor.” Then, drawing close to my ear, so much so, that his lips touched me and his voice resounded in my interior, he added: “The word ‘religion’ is a ridiculous word for the world, and it seems to be worth nothing. Yet, before Me every word that pertains to religion is a virtue of infinite value; so much so, that I made use of the word in order to propagate the faith in the whole universe, and one who exercises himself in this serves Me as mouth to manifest my Will to creatures.” As He was saying this, I understood very well that it was Jesus. On hearing His clear voice which I had not heard for so long I felt myself rise again from death to life. I was waiting for Him to finish speaking to tell Him of my extreme needs, but – no, as soon as I stopped hearing His voice, He disappeared, and I was left disconsolate and afflicted.

1/16/01 – Vol. 4

As I continued to see Him a little indignant with the world, I wanted to occupy myself with placating Him, but He distracted me by saying to me: “The charity most acceptable to Me is toward those who are closest to Me, and those who are closest to Me are the purging souls, because they are confirmed in my grace and there is no opposition between my Will and theirs. They live continuously in Me, they ardently love Me, and I am forced to see them suffer within Myself, impotent to give themselves the slightest relief on their own. Oh, how tortured my Heart is by the position of these souls, because they are not far away, but close to Me – not only close, but inside of Me! And how pleasing to my Heart one who interests himself with them. Suppose you had a mother or a sister who lived with you in a state of sorrow, incapable of helping themselves on their own, and then someone else, foreign, who lived outside of your house, also in a state of sorrows, but capable of helping himself by himself. Would you not be more pleased if someone occupied himself with relieving your mother or your sister, rather than the foreign one who can help himself on his own?” And I: ‘Certainly, O Lord!’

Then He added: “The second charity most acceptable to my Heart is for those who, though living on this earth, are almost like the purging souls – that is, they love Me, they always do my Will, they interest themselves with my things as if they were their own. Now, if these are oppressed, in need, in a state of sufferings, and someone occupies himself with relieving them and helping them, this is more pleasing to my Heart than if it were done to others.”

Then Jesus disappeared, and as I found myself inside myself, it seemed to me that those things did not go according to the truth. So, on coming back, my adorable Jesus made me understand that what He had told me was according to the truth. There was only something left to say about the members separated from Him, which are the sinners – that if one occupied himself with reuniting these members, this would be very acceptable to His Heart. The difference that exists is this: that if a sinner were oppressed, in the midst of a misfortune, and one occupied himself, not to convert him, but to relieve him and help him materially, the Lord would be more pleased if this were done for those who are in the order of grace. In fact, if these suffer, it is always a product, either of the love of God for them, or of their love for God; while if sinners suffer, the Lord sees in them the mark of guilt and of their obstinate will. This is how I seemed to understand; after all, I leave the judgment to those who have the right to judge me, whether this goes according to the truth or not.

 so please start preparing your clocks for the Hours of the Passion.

And praying that everyone has a most special and blessed Lenten season!

How these Hours of the Passion can be done taken from the preface for the Hours by Saint Annibale Maria di Francia

One method is that of meditating one Hour each day by reading it alone, or with one’s family, or with others.  In this way, in the round of 24 days, one would complete the 24 Hours.  A good clock never stops – life never stops…

A second method would be that of forming groups of various people – 4, 8, 12 or possibly 24 and more – each one committed seriously to doing one of the Hours, assigned for a period of time, before changing the Hour.  A good clock marks all the hours – it skips none of them…

A third method, then, is that of doing at least one hour per day, at the time of the day which coincides to that hour, but in any case, to reach such familiarity with the Hours of the Passion, and to assimilate them in such a way, as to be able to follow their content mentally during the whole day.  For this purpose it is very helpful to learn by heart the succession of the 24 Hours with the corresponding title, which is reported on the next page.

To “do” an Hour of the Passion means to read it attentively, meditating on it, contemplating it, making it one’s own life… It is not just remembering and compassionating the sufferings of Jesus as something that happened many centuries ago in a far away place; but rather, it is, first of all, to enter into the Divine Will, in which everything is present and in act, and to participate in the interior acts and sufferings of Our Lord, which are present and in act at this precise moment, so as to repeat His life within us, to grow in His likeness, and to pour upon everyone the infinite value, merits and effects of His Passion.

Jesus Himself explains this very important difference:  “To repeat my Passion in act in the creature, is different from one who only thinks of my pains and compassionates them.  The first is an act of my Life, which takes my place in order to repeat my pains, and I feel I am given back the effects and the value of a Divine Life; while in thinking of my pains and in compassionating Me, it is only the company of the creature that I feel.  But do you know in whom I can repeat my pains, in act, of my Passion?  In one who has my Will as center of life. (October 24, 1925  Vol. 18)

One can comprehend, then, how the Hours of the Passion are not just a reading, and not even a devotion, but a formation of life:  the interior life of Jesus.  In this way, day after day, we will feel more and more that Jesus is truly living in us – not just our life, but His very Divine Life.

The Promises of Jesus for Whoever Prays

The 24 Hours of the Passion

From the writings of Luisa Piccarreta

10th April, A.D. 1913

“Tell me, my Good Lord, what will You grant in return to those who will make the Hours of your Passion on which You had instructed me?”

And He:  “My daughter, I shall not regard these Hours as ‘your things,  but as things done by Me, and I shall grant to you my very own merits, as if I, Myself, were, in actuality, suffering my Passion.  I shall, thereby, make you obtain the effects of my Passion, according to the soul’s disposition.  This, I shall accomplish on earth:  Of Myself, I could not have offered you more; and in Heaven:  I shall place these souls at the front, shooting them with arrows of love and of happiness for the many hours they spent in making the Hours of my Passion.  And they shall shoot Me with arrows as well.  What a sweet enchantment for all the blessed this shall be!”

6th September, A.D. 1913

I was thinking about the Hours of the written Passion. how they have no indulgences; and therefore, whoever does them cannot gain any indulgences, as they can with so many other prayers enriched with so many indulgences.  While I was thinking of this, my always amiable Jesus, all mildness, said to me:

“My daughter, with indulgenced prayers, one can gain something.  Instead, the Hours of my Passion, which are my very own prayers, my reparations, and complete love, have truly issued from my Heart.  Have you, perhaps, forgotten how many times I united Myself with you, in order to make these Hours together, and how I changed scourges into graces for the entire earth?  Therefore, my enjoyment is so great, that instead of indulgences, I give you a handful of love which contains inestimable coins of infinite value.  Then, when things are [able to be] accomplished [by the soul] with pure love, my Love discovers for you the vent, for my Love desires that the creature give relief and vent to the Creator’s Love.”

October A.D. 1914

As I was writing the Hours of the Passion, I thought to myself: “How many sacrifices there are in writing these blessed Hours of his Passion, especially when having to write down certain interior acts that passed only between Jesus and myself! What will be the recompense that Jesus shall offer me for them? And Jesus, making me hear his sweet and tender voice, said to me:

“My daughter, as a recompense for having written the Hours of my Passion, for every word that you have written, I will give you a kiss, a soul.” 

And I: “My Love, this is for me. What will you give, instead, to those who shall make them?”

And He: “If they shall make them together with Me and with my own Will, for every word that they make, I shall give them a soul, because the greater or lesser efficacy of these Hours of my Passion is determined by the greater or lesser union they have with Me. And by making these Hours with my Will, the creature therein hides himself, whereby, my Will doing the acting, I am thus able to do all the good I want, even through the use of a single word. And I shall do this every time they make them.”

On another occasion, I was complaining to Jesus, that after so many sacrifices in writing these Hours of the Passion, there were so few souls who made them.

And He: “My daughter, do not complain. Even if there were but only one soul, you should be happy. Would I not have suffered my entire Passion for the sake of saving only one soul? The same applies to you; good must never be omitted simply because there are few who make use of it. All evil, however, is reserved for him who does not take advantage of so much good.  And so, just as my Passion applied to my Humanity the merit of saving all, which was what I desired and merited according to my desires, and not according to the desires of such creatures who would make poor use of It, therefore impeding my design of saving all,  so it should likewise be with you: According to the measure in which your will is assimilated to Mine in desiring to do good to all, in that measure will you be rewarded. All evil is reserved for those, who while being able to do good, do not do so.

These Hours are the most precious of all, for they are none other than the repetition of what I did in the course of my mortal Life and of what I continue to do in the Most Blessed Sacrament. When I hear these Hours of my Passion [recited], I hear my own voice and my own prayers. I see my Will in that soul who desires the good of all and who wants to make reparation for all, and I feel transported; whence, I take up my dwelling within her, so as to do within her that which she herself does. Oh, how I would love it if only one soul in every town were to make these Hours of my Passion! I would feel my own presence in each town, and my Justice, greatly disdained in these times, would be placated in part.”

Also, one day while I was making the Hour (4 PM) in which our Heavenly Mother gave Jesus over to be buried, I followed Her closely in order to keep Her company throughout Her bitter desolation, so as to offer Her my compassion. It was not my custom to always act in this way, but only sometimes. And so, as I was undecided as to whether or not I should continue to act in this manner, Blessed Jesus appeared in all of his Love, and as if beseeching me, He said:

“My daughter, I bid you not to leave Her; you shall accompany Her for my Love’s sake, in honor of my Mother. Know, that every time you accompany Her, my Mother feels as if She Herself were on earth in person, repeating Her life and experiencing the glory and love which She had offered Me while on earth. Wherefore, I,  feeling as if my Mother were on the earth again, experience Her Motherly tenderness, Her love, and all the glory that She gave Me. Therefore, I will consider you as a Mother.”

4th November, A.D. 1914

I was making the Hours of the Passion, and Jesus, taken up with great pleasure, said to me : “My daughter, if you knew the great pleasure I experience whereupon seeing you repeat, repeat again, and thus always repeat these Hours of my Passion, you would rejoice. It is true that my Saints have meditated upon my Passion and have understood how much I suffered, whence they burst into tears of compassion, to the point of experiencing themselves being consumed for love of my pains; but whereas, their meditations were not made in such an orderly and continually repeated way.

Therefore, I can say that you are the first to give Me the great and special pleasure of subacting within yourself, hour by hour, my Life and that which I suffered, wherein I experience Myself being so drawn, that hour by hour, I give to you my food, which food I, Myself, partake of, thereby doing together with you that which you do. Know, however, that I shall reward you abundantly for them [these Hours] with new light and new graces; and even after your death, every time these Hours of my Passion will be made by souls on this earth, I,  in Heaven,  will continue to embellish you with new light and new glory.”

November, A.D. 1914

While continuing the customary Hours of the Passion, my loving Jesus said to me:

“My daughter, the world is in the continual act of renewing my Passion, and since my Immensity envelops everything,  internally and externally with regard to the creature,  I am therefore compelled, in virtue of their association, to receive nails, thorns, scourges, contempt, spit, and all else that I suffered during my Passion, and yet more. Now, whenever the creature  makes the Hours of my Passion while associating himself with these souls, I feel the nails being removed, the thorns shattered, the wounds cauterized, and the spit removed. I feel the evils that others inflict upon Me transformed into good; and whereby, I  feeling that their association does Me no harm, but good.  lean on them all the more.”

Thereafter, when returning, Blessed Jesus began to speak of these Hours of his Passion. He said:

“My daughter, know, that in making these Hours, the soul takes my thoughts and makes them her own; she takes my reparations, my prayers, my desires, my affections, even my most intimate fibers, and makes them her own. And whereby, raising herself up between Heaven and earth, she performs my own office, and as co-redemptrix, says together with Me: ‘Ecce ego, mitte me’ [Here I am, Lord; send me out]. I want to make reparation to You for everyone, to respond to You for everyone, and to intercede for the good of everyone.”

13th October, A.D. 1916

I was making “The Hours of his Passion,  and Blessed Jesus said to me:

“My daughter, in the course of my mortal Life, thousands of Angels courted my Humanity and gathered together what I did: my words, steps, even breaths, pains, drops of my Blood, in a word, everything. They were Angels deputed to my care, to render Me honor, obedient to my every gesture; they descended and ascended to Heaven, as to present what I did to the Father.

Now, these Angels have a special office: As the soul recalls my Life, my Passion, my prayers, they place themselves round her, thus gathering together her words, her prayers, the compassion she shows Me, her tears, her offenses; whereby, uniting them to Mine, they carry them off to my Majesty, as to renew for Me the glory of my own Life. And the Angels enjoy it so much that they reverently stand in attention as to hear what the soul is saying, and they pray together with her. Therefore, with attention and respect, the soul ought to make these Hours, while remembering that the Angels hang upon her every word, as to repeat after her what she says!”….

March 16, A.D. 1917

“Moreover, do you not see that if I have not said anything to you in the morning, I am waiting for the night to say a word to you?  Furthermore, when they read the applications of the [Hours of] My Passion, I, being in you, overflow the brim of your soul and speak to you of the most intimate things, which up to now I have not manifested.  Then, since the soul must follow Me in this work of Mine, these applications [of the Hours] will be the mirror of My internal Life, and who will model herself on It will reproduce in herself My same Life.  Oh, how they reveal My Love’s thirst for souls in every fiber of My Heart, in every breath of Mine, [in every] thought, etc.!

“That is why I speak to you more than ever, but when I finish I hide Myself and you, not seeing Me, tell Me that I have changed.  Rather I tell you [that] when you do not want to repeat with your voice what I tell you in your interior, you impede My outlet of Love.”

May 16, A.D. 1917

Then I found myself outside of myself.  I found myself among many souls—it seemed as though they were the souls of Purgatory and the Saints—who named a person I knew who died not long ago, and they said to me:  “He feels as happy in seeing that there is no soul who enters into Purgatory who does not carry the imprint of the Hours of the Passion.  Further, helped and escorted by these Hours, he takes his position in a secure place.  Moreover, there is not a soul that flies into Paradise who is not accompanied by these Hours of the Passion.  These Hours rain continuous dew from Heaven onto the earth, into Purgatory, and even into Heaven.”

Upon hearing this I said to myself:  “Perhaps my beloved Jesus, in order to keep His word given—that for every word of The Hours of the Passion He would save a soul—(grants that) there be no soul saved who would not have made use of these Hours.”

Afterwards, I returned into myself, and, having found my sweet Jesus, I asked Him if this were true.

And He:  “These Hours are the order of the universe and put Heaven and earth into harmony, as well as keep Me from destroying the world.  I feel My Blood, My Wounds, My Love, and all that I did, put into circulation; and they flow upon all to save all.  Further, as souls do these Hours of the Passion, I feel My Blood, My Wounds, and My anxieties to save souls come to life, and I feel My Life repeated to Me.

“How can creatures obtain any good, if not by means of these Hours?  Why do you doubt it?  The thing is not yours, but Mine.  You have been the constrained and weak instrument.”

July 12, A.D. 1918

I was praying with a certain fear and anxiety for a dying soul, and my amiable Jesus, coming, said to me:  “My daughter, why are you afraid?  Do you not know that for every word on My Passion—for every thought, compassion, reparation, [and] memory of My pains—so many (ways like) electrical communications open themselves between Me and the soul, and therefore so many various beauties adorn the soul?  

She did the Hours of My Passion and I will receive her as a daughter of My Passion, dressed with My Blood and adorned with My wounds.  This flower has grown in your heart, and I bless it and receive it into Mine as a predilect flower.”

Then, while He said that, a flower went out from my heart and took flight toward Jesus.