A Catholic who publicly and obstinately opposes the truth regarding faith and morals may not present himself or herself to receive Holy Communion and neither may the minister of Holy Communion give him or her the Sacrament.

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, April 7th, 2021

Five years ago, my aunt had to be put in a nursing home, and when we put her in the nursing home, my sister remembered, “where is that Jesus picture”, and Catherine always called it ‘that Jesus picture’. It was in an old ratty box, so it was falling apart. It was in terrible shape. We opened the box and took it out. The frame was all broken on the back. The image itself wasn’t even in the frame any longer, and we didn’t know what it was. We had never known. We knew my grandmother kept it around forever and that she got it from her mother and father, but nobody knew what it was. We knew it was important because it had a red wax seal on the front.

It is one of the Holy Face images from the original images that came about from the miracle of 1849 in St. Peter’s Basilica. At that time, the Pope had fled Rome because of a revolution that was threatening Catholic France and threatening Rome itself. And when he had he ordered Veronica’s Veil to be put on exposition for three days so that people could venerate and pray to save Rome, and on the third day the image on the veil began to glow and became lifelike, and the eyes were deep sunken and wore an expression of really great pain. And this stayed that way. The glow and the image stayed that way for three hours, and they rang the bells of the basilica so hundreds of people came to see what was happening.

Vicki Schreiner of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face

There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy — that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights of the holiness of God.

In this place we become particularly aware of this. From here, in fact, went out the Message of Divine Mercy that Christ himself chose to pass on to our generation through Blessed Faustina.

And it is a message that is clear and understandable for everyone. Anyone can come here, look at this image of the merciful Jesus, His Heart radiating grace, and hear in the depths of his own soul what Blessed Faustina heard: “Fear nothing. I am with you always” (Diary, 586).

And if this person responds with a sincere heart: “Jesus, I trust in you,” he will find comfort in all his anxieties and fears. In this “dialogue of abandonment,” there is established between man and Christ a special bond that sets love free. And “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 Jn 4:18).

Pope Saint John Paul II