Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face was a constant source of joy to her Sisters in the Carmelite convent of Lisieux. At recreation, it was she who always made others laugh. But only very few, among them Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face (her blood sister Céline), knew that behind the joy and laughter there was a perpetual state of sadness. This state is called depression. It afflicts a person who feels that he is not loved.

Saint Thérèse once said to another Sister: “I used to force myself to smile in order that God, as though deceived by my countenance, should not suspect that I was suffering.” It was through her devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus how Saint Thérèse conquered her sadness and depression. She identified herself with the “man of sorrows,” unrecognized and alone, and with Saint Joan of Arc, suffering desolation in prison. Sister Geneviève wrote: “Devotion to the Holy Face was, for Thérèse, the crown and complement of her love for the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord. This Blessed Face was the mirror wherein she beheld the heart and the soul of her Well-Beloved. We can say unequivocally that this devotion was the burning inspiration of the Saint’s life.”

This book also gives the short history how Popes have approved the Holy Face devotion in the public worship of the Church, because some Traditional Catholics mistakenly believe, that this devotion, so dear to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, has been forbidden by the Church.

Father Vili Lehtoranta was born in Finland in 1978. He studied for priesthood in Most Holy Trinity Seminary and was ordained in 2011 by Bishop Daniel Dolan. Since 2012 he has served as a priest at St. Gertrude the Great Roman Catholic Church in West Chester, Ohio.