The following article is by Mary Jane Zuzolo, author of the new book Unveiling the Sixth Station of the Cross: Reparation to the Holy Face, Mother of All Devotions, published by Sophia Institute Press.
Originating in Lucifer’s desire to be like God, the errors of modernism are not confined to the period of modernity. Though ‘merely’ borrowing from Satan’s hallmark sin, they do comprise, however, unprecedented blasphemy on the part of man. Pope Saint Pius X thus referred to modernism as “the synthesis of all heresies.” Spawning from rationalism and embracing naturalism, modernism attacks Scripture and the authority of the Church in its premise that doctrine not only evolves but should have subjectivity, rather than the immutable truth of God, as its basis. It attempts the destruction of the Faith from within, promoting an easy, feel-good religion in place of the absolute dogma of the Church.
Modernism’s blasphemy and tactics of infiltration are shared by the socio-economic systems of socialism and communism, which tout an authoritarian ideology openly hostile to orthodox values but also seek the subversion of tradition from within both Church and State. Marxist ideology is overtly anti-God by design, fundamentally blasphemous from the get-go. It strikes at the very image of God in man, corroding human dignity by destroying individual rights, undermining the nuclear family, and stamping out religion— most expressly, Catholicism. It is responsible for double the martyrs in the twentieth century than those in the previous nineteen combined. Marx’s ideology is the enemy of humanity—and Christianity, an adversary of the Almighty.
The intrinsic blasphemy of modernism transmits to moral relativism, which posits that there is no absolute truth, only individual ‘truths.’ (Yet in the fashion of Marxism’s dictatorial dogmatism, this ‘tolerance’ of different ‘truths’ ends by imposing its own—the “dictatorship of relativism.”) In his desire to create his own truth and morality, man ‘modernizes’ Satan’s primordial sin, embracing the same sin of blasphemy under the guise of ever new modernist philosophies to effectively join with the enemy again and again in declaring himself “like unto God.”
As explained in Unveiling the Sixth Station of the Cross: Reparation to the Holy Face, Mother of All Devotions, it is specifically these ‘updated’ sins of modernism for which man is called to atone in the Holy Face Devotion. The (approved) revelations to initiate the devotion were given to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre by Christ to make reparation for offenses against the Godhead, which are (at the same time) offenses against the “Face of the Church,” or her doctrine. Denial of the necessity that God and the Church play in morality equates to a disregard of objective sin. This rejection of the absolute truth of God, manifested in natural law, which allows man to deduce the universal, God-given values and rights of men, is warned about in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.” According to Christ, “iniquity has never reached such a degree.” God thus chooses to give man a special role to play in the salvation of his brethren.
Man’s offering to the Father of the suffering Face of the Son—His sacrificial merits and love—in reparation for modern offenses against the Majesty of God is described by Christ as “the greatest source of grace, second to the sacraments” and “the most beautiful work that has yet appeared on the face of the earth.” Man’s Redemption is by excellence, the noblest, most sublime demonstration of God’s love. Yet current, unparalleled blasphemy “renew the injuries to Christ’s Face,” making Reparation to the Holy Face, together allied with Christ’s Redemption, and offered in union with the Sacred Heart in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the most noble and necessary work of the times. God is demanding this effort to repair the most loathsome crimes of modern society, “deep rooted impiety and absolute incredulity,” while affording “the sole means of appeasing the Father[‘s wrath]” in mitigating the effects of these offenses.
Our Lord explained within the revelations how reparation to the Divinity of the Triune God, versus that pertaining to the Sacred Humanity of Christ, is the highest devotion, “far surpassing all others (though all are interrelated and essential). According to Christ, man cannot comprehend the abomination of blasphemy, which opposes the reverence and glory due to the Godhead. Christ compared Devotion to His Holy Face to “the miraculous wine served at the end of the wedding feast of Cana” (contrasted with the “common wine” of the other devotions) and explicitly emphasized the excellence of the Work, lamenting that if men but knew the glory acquired in saying only once in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy, “Admirable is the Name of God!”
Finally, Christ desired that the Blessed Virgin have the honor of giving this devotion to mankind, in that it is “fraught with so much necessity and glory for God,” giving her the title, “Our Lady of the Holy Name of God.” Mercy for sinners flowing from the Work of Reparation comes through the Mother of God as the “legatee” of all grace, spiritual Mother to mankind and partaker in Christ’s redemption.
Modernism as synthesis of all heresies meets its match in the Work of Reparation as mother of all devotions. The Holy Face Devotion, offered with the Sacred Heart in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, is allied to the Great Redemption, hewn for a time in which, according to Christ, iniquity has never been exceeded. Christ’s wounded, Holy Face, as exterior object of adoration in the reparation for crimes against the Majesty of God, is the greatest grace second to the sacraments and the sole means of appeasing the Father, specifically concerning His just wrath in the face of chastisement for these offenses. Christ unambiguously stated that Reparation to the Holy Face is the highest devotion as centered upon the divine Trinity. As the pinnacle devotion and given to mankind by Our Lady, through which graces flow for the conversion of sinners, the title “Mother of All Devotions” takes on dual significance. God is pleading with, warning, and demanding of man, to engage in the spiritual significance of the times: to ‘face-off’ with modernism in all its manifestations. For “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers.” Remarkably, God has thus given man no less than the very means to become a “terror to hell.”
Author Bio – Mary Jane Zuzolo
Mary Jane Zuzolo is a great-great-great niece of Sister Marie de Saint Pierre, the French Carmelite who received approved revelations from Christ to initiate the Holy Face Devotion. Graduating summa cum laude, with highest distinction in philosophy, and as “Outstanding Student of Philosophy” from the University of Illinois in 1991, she eventually opted for marriage and a large family in lieu of a doctorate in theology, though she maintains a lifelong love and study of orthodox Catholic history, theology, and spirituality. While introduced to the devotion by way of her blood relation to Sister Saint Pierre, faith and reason have afforded her feelings of urgency and passion in reintroducing it to the third millennium, for which she is convinced that it was ultimately intended. She contributed the foreword for Father Carney’s recently published The Secret of the Holy Face, was the keynote speaker for the first Conference on the Holy Face, spoke to the Michigan Carmelites of Saint Therese, has published articles in The Remnant and Latin Mass Magazine, and her work has been the topic on media outlets such as Sensus Fidelium, Spiritual Strength Catholic, Virgin Most Powerful Radio, Guadalupe Radio, and WSFI Catholic Radio. She maintains a website at www.holyfacedevotion.org.
