Regina Catholics have sponsored a billboard of Jesus’s face, tapping into a worldwide movement almost 200 years old.. Pope FrancisPope Francis .The “Holy Face of Jesus” billboard appeared on the corner of Saskatchewan Drive and Ottawa Street on April 3 and will remain until April 21. The Western Standard asked some donors why they footed some of the $1302 bill and what the campaign is about.. “The goal of the billboard is to bring people to Jesus Christ. Scripture repeatedly urges us to seek the face of the Lord. At a basic level, people will be reminded of their need for Christ,” Carole Anne Landgraf said..“In addition to that, the Devotion to the Holy Face seeks to make reparations for our own sins and those of the whole world which offend God, of which there are many.”.In the Catholic tradition, devotions are popular prayers, rituals and pious practices used by individuals or groups to worship God or venerate Mary and the saints..According to holyfacedevotion.com, “The devotion of reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus … was first heard of through a Carmelite Nun named Sister Mary of St. Peter in France, 1844, who stated Our Lord revealed this devotion to her at Mount Carmel” in Israel. According to this revelation, Christ’s image was “to be spread throughout the world with the goal of making reparation for the sins which offend God.”.Sister Mary died four years later, but not before sharing the devotion with a friend named Leo Dupont. He continued the practice for decades, leading to miracles that the Catholic Church verified. In 1885, Pope Leo XIII authorized the Holy Face devotion worldwide..The photograph in the current billboard campaign is a 1978 image of the Shroud of Turin taken by Barrie Schwortz. Carbon dating in 1988 suggested the shroud dated from 1260-1390 AD, too young to be the burial cloth of Jesus as had long been believed..Other scientists have said the samples were from a repair section of the cloth and did not represent the main linen with the image. Landgraf finds their case compelling..“It’s incredible to consider that this could actually be the real burial cloth of our Lord,” said Landgraf..Theresa Hilbig, executive director of Visitation House under the Archdiocese of Regina, helped sponsor the display so non-churchgoers could see Jesus..“I work with homeless women, destitute women and women who generally live from one crisis to another, on a daily basis. Most women do not attend a church and a few women attend cultural events. Nearly all the women who come to the centre know who Jesus is. Most ask me if they can have a Rosary. They like to see the image of Jesus on the cross,” Hilbig said..“My hope and desire is to give these women and others in the neighbourhood an opportunity to look upon the face of Jesus. They all want something outside of their tattered lives to give them strength and hope. This billboard may do this. No words are needed, one only has to gaze on the face of love and know he did this for me. I am loved.”.Maria Pierina de Micheli, an Italian nun who died in 1945, developed the devotion further. She cast a medal with an image of the face in response to a revelation. Her prayer was, “O Blessed Face of my kind Savior, by the tender love and piercing sorrow of Our Lady as she beheld you in your cruel passion, grant us to share in this intense sorrow and love so as to fulfill the holy will of God to the utmost of our ability. Amen.”.Cathleen Devraj helped rally the final donations to bring the Regina billboard project over the finish line..“The mission of the Holy Face Project is to silently and powerfully increase awareness of Jesus’ presence in our world by establishing roadside billboards,” Devraj explained..“There are eight promises given with this devotion of reparation. This work is against blasphemy.”.The movement, which includes an annual feast day, gained a distinctly Canadian emphasis in 1976 through a man Devraj knows personally..“Here in Canada, the Holy Face Association was established in Montreal … by a monk after Jesus asked him to do this. I spoke to the monk last year when we were doing our first billboard project,” Devraj explained..“The devotion to the Holy Face helps fight the evils of globalist totalitarianism and can change the tide of history … These billboards are going up around the world. It is time to be bold.”
