You can read more about the history of the forty hours devotion here.
Mater Dei will have a special adoration vigil to honor the Holy Face of Jesus at the feast of His Holy Face. Adoration will start at the completion of the 5:30 p.m. Mass on Sunday, February 11, and continue until the start of the 7:00 p.m. sung Mass on Tuesday, February 13.
What more appropriate way to prepare ourselves for the Season of Lent than to honor Our Lord through the devotion to His Holy Face, which He, Himself, has given to the world! As Sister Marie de St. Pierre tells us:
Man is invited to repair the outrages made to His God, and in a loving return He promises to restore His Image in our souls! Let us, therefore, wipe the august Face of the Savior, soiled with the spittle of blasphemers, and He will wipe our souls, soiled with the spittle of sin.
Please sign up for Eucharistic Adoration on the adoration sign-up calendar to help ensure that we have adequate attendance for Our Lord at all hours of the vigil. Here is a link to the sign-up calendar:
MaterDeiParish.com/HolyFaceAdoration
The schedule of parish activities beginning on the evening of February 11 is as follows:
SUNDAY 2/11
5:30 pm Mass
6:30 pm Start of Adoration
MONDAY 2/12
All day adoration
12:15 pm Mass & Confessions
6:00 pm Mass & Confessions
TUESDAY 2/13
All day adoration until 6:45pm
6:00 am Mass & Confessions
8:30 am Mass – CANCELED
8:30 am Confessions
12:15 pm Mass & Confessions
7:00 pm Sung Mass
The Golden Arrow prayer (through Sister Marie de St. Pierre):
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 in the hells by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Prayer to the Holy Face of Jesus from St. Thérèse of Lisieux:
O Jesus, who in Thy bitter passion didst become “the most abject of men, a man of sorrows,” I venerate thy Sacred 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. Nevertheless, under those disfigured features I recognize Thy infinite love, and I am consumed with the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well up abundantly in Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, whose adorable Face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy divine Image and to set me on fire with Thy love, that I may be found worthy to come the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in heaven.