Transcription
What you see in my face, it's you. It's me. This is the effect of what we do in our lives. We can crucify him over and over and over, the things we say, the things we do, the way we behave. We increase the wounds of Jesus in his face. And if Jesus looks like that on the holy face, it's because of you, because of me. We don't realize the gravity of sin and we keep on doing the same things over and over and over without any remorse, without any forgiveness. Keep on going to confession, confessing the same things over again and again because there's no repentance in the heart. Don't muck around with Jesus. Thank you everyone and it's an honor to be here on a on a very important night. I'm Shabul R and uh and an honor to sit down with Father John Yako um to discuss this uh holy face of Jesus. And let's let's be honest, maybe when you first saw the holy face, you probably didn't think much. Oh yeah, that's nice. The holy face, of course, it's a nice little pious thing. Through a bit of research myself and looking into it. The holy face is something that's been sort of kept secret for a long time and it's sort of making a return now. And we're going to learn about the importance of this devotion, how it started. And we're preparing tonight for a bigger event later in in April next year, Father uh Lawrence Carney, who is an expert and the author of this book uh the secret of the holy face. And he says in here that it is a secret once we realize the power of this devotion. People will turn to God in in ways we've never before. And he says this is the devotion of this time. And it it is a powerful one. We're going to learn about and having Father John tonight to talk about a few things. And we're going to start tonight with a very powerful image he did he had of Jesus in Gethsemane. I want to start there and then we're going to talk a bit more about uh the devotion the books and later on invite your questions as well. So hope that sounds good and we we learn a bit and be inspired tonight because all of us we're all carrying some form of a cross. We're all suffering in our own way and we'll never forget. The only thing that helps us get through this suffering is to see that the most innocent person that's ever lived, Jesus Christ, suffered the most gruesome death that any human could ever live. The most humiliating death. And he didn't do it because he deserved it. He did it because we deserved it. He did it out of love. And the more we let this penetrate our hearts, it transforms us in a way that wow, that's how much God loves us. But I know if we just look with eyes of of the earth, the human f it's it's very difficult to go through this suffering. But with a supernatural outlook, it's the only way. With a supernatural outlook, we can see beyond this this suffering today. And we can see, wow, there are so much more to life in this eternity that that we are destined for heaven all of us. And it is through what Jesus did on the cross and his beautiful face and his love for us that allows us to get there with him. So I hope tonight we have an open mind, open heart and hope you'll be inspired by what you're going to hear tonight. So let's let's start with Father John. You yourself there's a couple of things I want to make sure we do you share straight away. You have seen the face of Jesus as I have and I'll share that a bit later but you have seen the face of Jesus. Can you share about the encounter you had especially the story about garden of Gethsemane?
>> Just a brief in introduction to that. I had corona and I was in St. Vincent's hospital for 40 days and 40 nights. I was in ICU for 10 days. Uh I had no oxygen in my body. I had lung collapse. I had trombosis potassium. My heart was completely damaged. The cardiologists, the doctors, the carers, the nurses uh said, "He's gone. He's dead." The doctor had issued a death certificate. My niece was there and she's in the funeral industry and she was organizing my funeral. That was 40 days. Then after the 40 days in um St. convinced that I had to go six weeks in restbite va maria and concord because I had no more muscles in my body because no movements and medication and sickness are just about living vegetables. So I was there for six weeks but while I was in the um the hospital for two weeks I spent it in the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus and one night it was um Friday and he was in the garden of Gethsemane and he had asked his apostles only once in the Bible Jesus asks his apostle a favor to pray for him one hour he's in the garden of Gethsemane. He goes out and he finds the apostles sleeping. So, uh we are there together Friday evening and um he was hugging me and I was hugging him and I said, "Jesus, are we here alone?" And he said, "Yes, unfortunately, I'm alone. Everybody's abandoned me." During the time I was in the hospital, I was given medication, endone, cortisone, painkillers, injections. Nothing would work. Pain was unbearable. And I was asking, pleading the Lord. I said, "Lord, please take me now. Take me now. Take me now." And people around the world, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy, Philippines were saying, "Not now. Not now. Not now." I said, "Go to hell. All of you, let me go." And if they're still praying, not now, not now, not now. I'm still here. Not now. I'm still here. And so, um, even just to get out of bed, I needed two people, three nurses, and I had to have a oxygen cylinder to go around. And so, then uh, even though I was in pain, I wanted to go. But I said to the Lord, if my pain and suffering can you be of any use, I offer up for the souls in purgatory. Then at the end of the two weeks in the garden of Gethsemane, uh Jesus revealed to me, he said, "Because of your pain and suffering, you have released five million souls from purgatory." That's the power of suffering. When we accept it, thank God for it, we can be very redemptive. Then we went two weeks in the desert. You remember during Holy Week, during 40 days, Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. And uh while I was there two weeks, at the end of the two weeks, I saw one billion lambs licking my hand. And then I asked Jesus, "What does this mean?" He said, "Those main lambs are people who are still living and because of your pain and suffering, they've come back to the faith. The power of prayer, the power of suffering. Never give up. Don't despair because God is using you for something great."
>> Wow. Um so that's a total of four weeks. You were there two weeks and two weeks or 40 days after >> St. Vincent's and six weeks in resp.
>> So wow. Um never get the power of that. That is you have been a witness yourself. You've gone through different levels of suffering in your whole life but in particular at that time. Many here tonight have gone through a lot of suffering in one way or another. And so just on this this very point, how we offer up our pain and suffering for others, can you just expand on what we can do tonight? Can we do the same? Like we're going through suffering. What should we do with the pain and suffering we're going through?
>> There's nobody here who's not going through pain. Those of you who are mothers, put your hands if you're mother. Even the men are putting their hands up. So, especially when you had your first child, what an experience that was. The discomforts, the pain, sleepless nights, allergy to food. And then when this child comes out, what does the first thing the child does?
>> Cries. Why does it cry? He's >> not hungry. He's been eating for 9 months.
>> Probably wants to go back inside. Stay more comfortable.
>> Why is he crying?
>> Because it's alive >> because he's in pain. Imagine when the little head comes out of your womb how pain it is. You say, "Hey." And the doctor saying, "Push, push, push." Yeah, I'm pushing but nothing is happening. And you're saying push. Doctor says push. You're pushing. And when that little creature comes out, you screaming because of pain. And the baby cries also. Why? Because the J child is in pain also. So pain. If Jesus had not suffered, we would not been able to have the passport to heaven. He pleaded his father in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, "Please Lord, father, take it away from me. I can't drink it." But if he did not accept that pain and suffering joyfully, happily, we would not be here today. So pain can be so redemptive. We normally get lost when we are pain. Why is God abandoned me? Why me? What have I done to deserve this? You've done nothing to deserve that. probably that is the most fruitful time of your life. There's nobody here who's not experienced pain from the youngest to the oldest. But if we know how to accept it and say, "Lord, uh by the way, I want to ask you a big favor. Some of you are carrying big burdens financially, spiritually, physically, morally. If it's too much for you to carry, just ask Jesus. Give it to Father John. I will carry for you."
>> Be careful what you ask for. So if you you can't if you can't can't bear the pain, just ask Jesus, give it to Father John. He's got nothing to do, so he can offer the pain for you. So when you're feeling desperate and out and just sort of discouraged, just say, Lord, please give it to Father John. He will take care of it. So never give up when you have pain. Never despair. Never say, "Well, God has punished me. He's not answering my prayers." If he's not answering your prayers, the one you're saying, he's using that prayer for somebody else who needs it more than you do.
>> Yeah. Amen. The suffering Jesus experienced, I mean, he could have he could have done it any other way. He paid for the sins, but he chose this way. It's his choice. We say God is love and he creates us out of love. And but with love comes freedom. Without freedom, you don't have love. He gives us this choice right at the beginning of time as we remember in the garden, Adam and Eve, they made their choice. And then the consequence, could God not have just forgiven us? Why did he have to come down and pay the price this way? Couldn't he way back in Genesis just say, "You've made a mistake. I forgive you." Why couldn't he do that back in chapter one?
>> Well, you should answer that question yourself because you know, he asked me the question, he knows the answer.
>> It's very, you know, it's very witty here. See, God gives us a choice. When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Gethsemane, not in the garden there, Eden, Jesus says to them, "Have fun. Enjoy yourselves. Do whatever you want. Uh, eat whatever you want. You are free. No pain, no shame." But he said, "Don't do that." What do they do? They did that and then what happens? They're embarrassed. They get a fig tree, a fig a fig leaf and they put in front of their private parts. Before there was no shame. Now they were ashamed. Why? And then what does he do? They hide because they're ashamed. And Jesus comes back in the garden and says, "Where are you? Where are you? Where have you been? Why did you disobey me?" Because of that, we have to suffer the consequences. Had they been faithful to God, had they not been disobedient to God, we would not have had any problems in the world.
>> Amen. This is a very important note and I I deliberately asked that because if people don't understand why Jesus came and why he went through suffering, we don't understand the purpose of our life. We are here because God has given us this opportunity to receive his love. But in order to love, we have to have freedom. And in order to have freedom, you have to have a choice. And if you don't have that choice, you're not free. And so God had to put it in our in our in our image and likeness. We we chose to we were created free to choose to love him because we chose wrongly. The consequence was infinite. And why is that? And and this is an important point what father was saying. The Adam and Eve could have done anything they wanted but it it was only one condition God gave them just one. Don't eat the fruit of that tree. That's it. outside of that do whatever you want but they still did that and the consequence and this is the mystery of the faith was infinite we've cut ourselves from God who is infinite you see punishment has justice demands punishment must fit the crime and so yes God could have said I forgive you but we still have a problem the problem is they've cut themselves from God who is infinite. You cannot measure that. We can measure when we sin against each other. If I call people names, I can make up for that. We have uh different crimes that different punishments that fit the crime. But as you go up in the hierarchy from a a citizen to a police officer to a prime minister to the king or the queen, you see how punishment gets worse and worse as you go up the hierarchy. What about God? You can't measure him. And so when we do make a choice against him, it's an infinite one. And this is how much God loves us. The Bible could have ended in chapter 2 or three. That could have been the end. And in his mercy and love, he says, "I don't want to leave my people alone. I'm going to have to fix this myself." and he comes down and becomes one of us. The mystery here is why did it take so long 4,000 years? Not because God was not ready. It was because we weren't ready. And if you start to read very closely Genesis, Exodus, the sin compounds, it gets worse and worse and worse. The moment we break from God is the moment we now turn our back on him. And all he wants is us to respond in love. That's it. But we don't. And we keep turning inward. And if you look closely, remember Cain kills Abel. Then all of that sin, chapter 5, leads up to the flood. And then Noah gets drunk. It just keeps getting worse and worse. Abraham sleeping with Hagar. You go. Jacob has 12 kids with four wives. You just keep going. It gets worse and worse and worse. It doesn't seem like good news at this point until you get to Jesus. And then he takes on all that pain and suffering and it begins in the garden of Gethsemane and is concluded not just on the cross but in the resurrection. But what's powerful, Father, about all this, all we have to do is say thank you and respond back in love. a little bit of appreciation. He chose to suffer this way. The most humiliating death, the most He was the most humble of all. Yet he had everything. And he is the model, the way, the truth, and the life. If we get it here on this with Jesus suffering, if we can understand this, we can conquer anything. We will be unbreakable because even death does not stop Jesus. He rose from the dead and death will not stop us because we know that death is just a transition. And we are destined for heaven. And all we have to do is turn back to God and say, "Thank you. I love you." and em embrace yes the suffering but then do what father just did tonight offer that back to him for others because we are all connected in one way or another the body of Christ so powerful now miracles are happening before our very eyes of us have have witnessed this father could you share one of the miracles you had a miracle that happened was it in the Philippines for memory do you mind sharing that and it links to the face.
>> Um before you answer your question, um we were born with the stain of original sin. We have venial sins. We have mortal sins. Whenever I as a human being commit a mortal sin, I'm paying I'm p I'm uh affecting you my sins my private even nobody knows what I do but whatever I do which is not pleasing to God I am also offending you because you are part of the mystical body of Christ when one member dies uh suffers, a whole body suffers. I just want to tell you a little story that happened this week. I was traveling on a bus from the city going home and I'm I normally sit on the chair where they physically handicapped and the mentally and I was in front of this lady and she had a baby and she was glued on a mobile and the child says mommy mommy talk to me mommy is cries please mommy talk to me and he says, "Shut up." The mother said, "Shut up." I went to her and I said, "That's your son. He's begging you to talk to him." And she says to me, "Mind your bloody business."
>> That is a reminder. Now, as a parent myself, um it's interesting when the children are little, they want your attention. They're begging for your attention. And life is short, right? Time goes quick. give them that attention. It's a lesson because when they become teenagers, what happens? They don't want your attention. We want their attention and they and and so we're chasing them. They don't want us. And so, it's important that we invest in those early years. Uh when they want our attention, that's a blessing. That's a gift. And time is so short that that will go like that. And I'm learning that the hard way right now. So, um, yeah, praise.
>> He's only got nine kids.
>> Only nine. But you know it's very important because why do I tell you a little story? Because God always wants us the little child's eagering for mama. So we're eagering for him. But if we eager for him, how much more he will eager for us?
>> Are you able to share that miracle now?
>> Yes.
>> All right.
>> You know I got dementia, right? And there's a gentleman here from the Philippines who witnessed that. Where are you?
>> I didn't really witness it.
>> Come here. Come here.
>> Come here. He's from the Philippines.
>> Oh, wow. Yes. Come on.
>> A lot of so many miracles.
>> Well, there was a there was a couple here from Australia called Lumen Stoner and Han Stoners. And together with them we initiated the um uh holy face of Jesus. So we went to the cardinal we said cardinal said okay we initiate you know the novena the devotion to the blessed sacred heart of Jesus Christ of Jesus. Oh he says we have so many chapels here and so many saints in the Philippines. He says oh another one said go ahead. So we built a chapel together with them. But it was interesting uh when we had um the inauguration, a woman came up and she had uh breast cancer, breast cancer. And we had the image of the holy face. And after the inauguration, the blessing, I put this image on the fa on the chest of the lady and to lo and behold the following day she felt that her hands had gone away.
>> You want to share? Do you you want to take the mic? Do you want to come over here? Uh now I just add that uh John Stony that father is referring he's actually he was an atheist before and uh he was Hitler's Hitler's intelligence officer during the war
>> and uh he was converted by Luming Stony through the Holy Face
>> as well.
>> And because of his conversion he took it upon himself to build a chapel. The cardinal did not have to spend a centavo or a penny for the chapel. They took everything. Every year they would come and celebrate the feast of the holy feast of Jesus in the Philippines.
>> Wow. You know, I did not expect the details there. There's a lot you just said that this that becomes real. Th this is how God works. He works through people, right? I remember there was a group in Sydney that did a fundraiser to help support the Philippines, Marinites and Mission and many others. Um, and and I remember the night very clearly. Now a lot of people don't know this part. I personally was I I've been running Peruia for about nine years up until that point and I was going to give up Peruia. Um at that time I had baby five on the way and I was going to say Lord I think we've done enough. I think I give it back to you made. And that night, so many people at this fundraiser for the Philippines came up to me and said, "Those CDs and talks changed my life. Don't stop. Keep going." And it wasn't like one or two. It was like 30 or 40. And it was like, "Okay, what? All right, Lord. You're sort of screaming at me now. We have to." And I said, "I need one more sign, Lord." Cuz he already gave me another sign. And so this was things come in threes.
>> Another child. Yeah. Yeah. Blessing me with three more. But u four more. Um, but it was I I sort of you shouldn't put God to the test, but but I did. And I just said, "Lord, if if if Scott Han agrees to come to Australia, I'll take that as a sign you want me to keep going with Peruia." Well, the next day I get a phone call and a gentleman says, "Scott Han told me to call you. How do we get him to Australia?" and like next day. So this is how God works, right? But through a crazy tragedy in the Philippines that that what does that do? It calls people on the other side over here to turn to love to do the charitable thing to try help people in need. You see how we need each other?
>> Those who are suffering is an opportunity for us to show love. And so if if no one was suffering, if no one needed any help, then how do we practice love? Like think about this. If everyone had everything they possibly need, zero suffering, there'll be no need to help people cuz they got everything. The fact that God allows people to suffer in very different ways gives us opportunities now to live in the image and likeness of God and participate in the love that only he can give. And we get to share in that love by loving others. Remember how Jesus said, "Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." He's reinforcing the ten commandments which the first three are about God and the next seven about your neighbor. And this is very important for us to live out. But we can only do it if we start with God. The holy faith devotion. A lot of people don't realize this. It's tied in to those first three commandments. When I did some investigating, so thanks to Bridget who uh called me on the spot here and I said, "Okay, I know a little bit about it, but I don't know the history of it." And we started to look into it. And I didn't even know Father John Yaka has a devotion, but there's so much to this what just on the face value. We're talking about the Veronica's veil. So this image is a is like a a photo if you think about there's the image of the of Jesus on the veil of Veronica. Remember when she wiped his face and then that started to circulate. It was blurry. It wasn't a clear image. Someone took a photo and then and then the image is what you see right here is now circulating. In 1843, our Lord appears to the saint St. Mary of G of um of sorry of St. Peter in France for 3 years and just says we need to make reparation for those sins against >> blasphemy which is the second commandment speaking don't take the Lord's name in vain against those that uh who don't uh respect the holy Sunday um which is the Lord's day and of course reparation for sin in general against God which is goes back to the first commandment. So the first three commandments are tied into this devotion and we can make reparation through our own suffering for other people. So if you have children who are far away from God, we can turn our own suffering into a powerful prayer for our children. If you have loved ones who have fallen away from God, we can turn our own pain and suffering into a prayer offering for those loved ones. If you have a spouse that's turned away from God, you can offer that pain that gives you back to God in in reparation for your spouse. You see what go on here? We get to participate in the love that Jesus did by our own suffering. And the mystery here is like St. Marie and other saints, they don't just avoid the suffering. They ask God to bring it on. A little bit like what Father John just did tonight. They want more. They like inviting it in. Not avoiding it, but inviting. This is a whole new level. Now, when we are calling on more suffering, that's a radical level of love right there. That goes from the natural to the supernatural. And now we're participating in Jesus. And so this devotion, it took 1,800 years. Remember Veronica's Val was sitting in Rome. It was in St. Peters. Actually, it doesn't go out often. You can see it today. Very rarely do they put on display. And it's one of three cloths that Jesus's face appears on. There's three. There's Veronica's veil. There's the shroud of Tin, which is the image I saw one day 26 years ago. And there's also the other face that covers his head when he was buried. That is over in Spain right now. So, we've got Shrouded Tarin in Italy. We've got Veronica's Val in Rome. And we've got the the the facial cloth um that's over in Spain. Then you add mix in all that the earliest of icons of Jesus, the earliest Christians who witnessed him and they we can trace them back in the first, second, third century and you look at the images there's one beautiful icon of someone holding up the face of Jesus on Veronica's veil and you can start to compare and that image is there. So when people say, "Have you seen God?" We now can say, "Yes." Yes, I have seen God. I've seen his face. If you think about this, the word face, father, in the Bible is appears 840 times. The face of God. And if you, we desire to see his face, and he appears, and he's done it over and over. And so there's so much more I can say in this devotion. like there is there are six requirements and we'll go through them maybe at the end but I want to make sure I go so it's sort of fresh in your mind how do we how do we take this on but when I analyze this doesn't take much at all it's like a minute a day just turning your prayer into an offering and a beautiful little prayer there's the um golden arrow prayer and then there's a chaplet there's a litany there's all these things which um you're encouraged to pray but it's beautiful we we focus on the senses of Jesus so if we want to do the loving thing don't just observe Jesus is suffering from a distance. Sometimes it's hard to, you know, the passion of Christ to even watch the movie. We turn our head away. We can't even watch. It's hard to watch, let alone enter into. But you're encouraged through this devotion to try experience that suffering Jesus did from his perspective. Not not externally, but internally. Go in and experience the suffering through his five senses. What did Jesus see? What did Jesus hear? All that mocking. And what did Jesus feel? Physical touch. What did he even taste? Probably the blood. All those. What did he smell? And in addition to the five senses in the garden of Gethsemane, what did he experience emotionally, mentally? That suffering was even worse. So there's so much we can do to participate and unite our suffering with Jesus and it's not wasted if we apply it to loved ones and those who have gone before us because they are calling out for our prayers and that's the best thing we can do.
>> Father, any um any tips on this?
>> Um I worked in the Philippines for 25 years, missionary work and looking after 10,000 prisoners, 500 drug addicts and um people who live on the dump site, recycling plastic bottles, cans, food, and we put up a daycare center for these children. Sometimes we don't understand um the meaning the the power of suffering. I remember I had a daycare center. We look after 200 children. We support them education. We provide them uniform, school supplies, medical food. And every morning I would stay there one hour and they would come and I would hug them and kiss them. If I did that in Australia, put me in jail. Every morning I would spend one hour just be there and just hug these kids. And they will say to me, "Father, I wish my mom and dad would do that to me.
>> I wish my mom and dad would do that to me. So we we live in a society where so much we're rushing like chicken without heads here there everywhere mobile computer internet these are the priorities now and we the more you s the more you worry the quicker you die
>> that brings me to the famous saying from St. Padraio
>> pray hope
>> pray hope and don't worry and now we have to speak about thanks for the reminder Steve Padraio he experienced stigmata now you met St. Padraio, I got the privilege of going to see his tomb just two weeks ago.
>> You saw him dead. I saw him alive.
>> Yeah, I saw him dead. He saw him alive. Well, I think he's more alive now than he was then. Would you agree?
>> So, yeah, he's more alive. Um, but yeah, I got to see his body mostly incorrupt. It's a phenomenal. It's like he's asleep, but then um he had stigmata for 50 years. So this is where God allows an individual to experience the passion in a real way in a physical and apparently you even mentioned is that the most painful pain wasn't the the the hands and the feet but the shoulder first can you touch on your experience again when you met St. Padraio but also why was can you expand on that like his pain and suffering why did God do that to St. Badraio and what's the impact he's had as a result?
>> Well, Badriia was um an extraordinary man with extraordinary gifts. Had the gift of prophecy, the gift of allocation, the gift of discernment, the gift of everything you possibly think of. Um but I think his um legacy, he wanted to be a suffering victim. for his spiritual children. No pain was too much for him. And he offered himself as a suffering victim. He says, "I offer myself any pain because I want all my spiritual children to be in heaven with me." So, and you'll be shocked. The greatest pain was inflicted by the Vatican. The Vatican was the one who ostracized Bad. He was silenced for two years.
>> He was padlock in his room
>> because the Vatican thought that he had inflicted the wounds in his hand post by himself when it was scientifically proven that was something extraordinary. So for two years he was padlocked in his room and then during the night the devil would come in and smash his chairs, ignite his bed and kick him out and but this pain that he had it's the same pain that Jesus had we don't know about. When Jesus carried the cross, the biggest pain for Jesus was the pain on his shoulders carrying the cross. And Pipio had that also and nobody knew about it. Only the recctor and the recctor wasn't allowed to talk say anything to anybody. So he had the wounds of Jesus feet, hands and side plus one on the side. But he never never doesn't matter how how many books you read about by the video, you'd never see one one second complain about his pain
>> and why 6 and a half million people from all over the world came to confession to him. Why five years since his death and people are still craving about him? I remember when Mother Teresa came to Australia, I was with her and twice and I was walking beside her and everywhere we went people would say she looks like a living saint. She looks like a living saint. I was walking beside her. Nobody ever said Father John looks like a living saint. How come they saw Jesus in her? They didn't see Jesus in me. Even if I put blood on my face, it doesn't make any difference.
>> Now, you were one of those who did go to confession to St. Padre. Um, but you did something uh you skipped the line. Can you tell us about this story where you skipped the line and he knew it?
>> Well, I would never go back to confession to bad. I was there for one day and I went to the sacrist and I said well is it possible for me to go to confession to bad and the sacrament said father there's 717 people before you said my god but that means I'm dead now and he said well what you can do is wait if somebody's name is called and then you can go in. So I wait about 2 three hours and then somebody's name was called and so said you want to go in I went in so I hadn't opened my mouth so as soon as I got in he says you are here abusively meaning I didn't follow the system because I went in without and he said you are here because you're going to enter the seminary and you're going to find it very difficult but you will persevere that was the Then I had a camera, a brand new camera, Yashika. One of those cameras that you had to push the film. That's going back 60 years ago. You were not even born by then. No. So 60 years ago, this camera, brand new, and I took photos of everything in the hospital, the church, the people around. Then as he's coming out of the lift, I took a photo of him and he pierced me with his eyes and saying, "Well, there's five signs around the church. I'll take photos in different languages." So I said, "If they say anything to me, I just say, I don't understand those languages." And then uh I take the photo, he looks at me as much to say, "Can't you read the so and then I go to the next film and the camera stops? Doesn't work anymore." So I took it to the photographer the following day. He said, "Well, you can throw it away because it's not going to work anymore." So I put in my bag when I went to Rome because I studied there in Rome. And uh I took it to photographer. He had a look at the camera. He said, "Well, there's nothing wrong with this camera. It's working perfectly."
>> Then he developed the photos. All the photos I took around the place, everything came out. The one I took of him didn't come out. Served me right. Amazing. Not meant to be, but you got to see him in the flesh.
>> Um why this devotion is now 2025. We're starting to see it. Um and and now there's thousands of confraternities around the world. But why this time? And if you think about it, remember all the different devotions we we have. You know, you've heard of the rosary, you've heard of divine mercy chaplet, you've heard of all the all the different St. Michael's chaplet. There's different different devotions we can have. And each of them is seen as St. Padre said as a weapon, right? A spiritual weapon. But there's this one weapon, this one on the holy face. That's one that when you unite your suffering with Jesus, especially uh in a way that makes up for reparation for all those sins against those first three commandments. And it's a very simple thing we can do every day. And again, when I looked at it, it's only one minute. And you make this prayer every day and offer up your your sufferings and your day, your life for him. It's something very simple we can do that will transform people's attitude to suffering. It will transform our attitude to other people and it will transform our relationship with God in a real way. We become we fall in a deeper relationship with God who became one of us in this beautiful image. And so what more is there to life when desire to see the face of God? We actually can see him now. However, we remind ourselves of that suffering and so the holy faith devotion to know more about the devotion the secret of the holy face father carnie wrote a book and salaw was at the back and and that's available to know more about the actual um golden arrow prayer there's a full uh book written here and on the revelations of St. Mary uh right there Marie and that's at the back if you wanted to know now myself and this is personal all of us in one way or another will see Jesus in a different way when I asked Jesus to show me a sign he appeared to me also in a vision and I saw this image I put it on the front cover of my book the shroud of trin and that's why the holy face is personal to me because he chose to appear to me not as the divine mercy or sacred heart or whatever else you see on the movies, but in this image because the very image I needed at that time because I had a bit of struggle with my friends trying to get me to prove crucifixion, resurrection of Jesus. And now through scientific discovery, we can trace the shroud of Trin back to the time of Jesus from Jerusalem during that time frame he died. And we can see a man was crucified and miraculously this image appears on this cloth and nobody can replicate it because miraculously the image is on the upper fiber of the cloth and they don't know how it got there except for some explosion of light. Isn't that fitting? And so it shows the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And it and we see that beautiful face. And so I invite you tonight and and just one more, you know, my my history with the Muslim uh friends who've who pushed me to to find my faith. Many Muslims today are coming back to the faith because of they seen the face of Jesus in dreams.
>> Jesus' face is appearing to them. But not just there. Many people have never ever prayed before, never even looked at God before, never thought about God before. this year more than any other year. This is why this devotion is powerful for now. People are discovering God for the first time in their lives and want and wanting that experience, this encounter with this Jesus. Who is he? Why is he here? What significance is he in my life? And so the Holy Face devotion is going to bring all this to the surface and we can all participate in it in a powerful way, a tangible way.