The healing Jesus offers begins in the heart and reaches us, above all, through the sacraments of the Church. The prophet Isaiah announced the suffering Servant: “by his wounds we were healed” (Is 53:5). Saint Peter repeats these words as he looks at the cross of Christ (1 Pt 2:24). The wounded face we contemplate in the Holy Face is the face of the One who took our sorrows upon himself. Jesus still heals today, and he does so mainly through the sacraments. In Confession, he

The internet can draw you away from God or bring you closer. It all depends on who is in charge: you or the screen. Saint Paul wrote: whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and gracious — think about these things (Phil 4:8). That advice applies to everything that comes in through our eyes on our phones every day. Saint Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died in 2006 at the age of 15, liked video games and computers like any young person. But he used that talent to

The first couple of the Holy Family also faced doubts, changes and fear. They went through it all trusting in God, together. Joseph did not understand everything at once. On learning that Mary was with child, he thought of quietly sending her away so as not to expose her. But he listened to the angel and took Mary into his home (Mt 1:18-24). He chose to trust. Then came the journey to Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, the new beginning in Nazareth. And there was the day they

This year Brazil’s National Family Week presents the theme “It is a time of jubilation in our life” and the motto “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). The biblical reflection echoes the Jubilee of Hope, rekindling in families their vocation and mission to bear witness to grace and to the gift of loving. In this vocational month, the Christian family opens paths

Resentment imprisons the one who holds on to it. To forgive is to open the prison door — and to discover that the prisoner was you. Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother — perhaps seven times. Jesus answered: seventy times seven (Mt 18:21-22), that is, always. And in the Our Father we ask to be forgiven in the same measure as we forgive (Mt 6:12). Many people seeking healing carry old hurts: from parents, from spouses, from those who wounded them in c

The couple who pray together are not free from crises, but they have something to lean on when crises come. On their wedding night, Tobiah and Sarah got up to pray together before anything else (Tob 8:4-8). They asked for mercy and for the grace to grow old together. That is how they began their life as a couple. Jesus assures us that when two agree on earth about anything they ask, the Father in heaven will grant it (Mt 18:19). The first “two” in a family is the couple. Many

Before any rule or demand, faith begins with a look: Jesus looks at you with love. A rich young man ran up to Jesus and asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Before answering, the Gospel says that Jesus, looking at him, loved him (Mk 10:21). Christ’s first gesture was not a demand; it was a look of love. That is what the devotion to the Holy Face reminds us: the face of Jesus is not that of a distant judge. It is the face of someone who knows your struggles, your m

Having the Holy Face at home is a daily invitation to look at Jesus — and to let Him look at us. The psalmist prays: “Your face, Lord, do I seek! Do not hide your face from me” (Ps 27:8-9). The whole Christian life is this search for the face of God, who showed himself to us in the face of Jesus. According to the tradition of the devotion, Our Lord promised Sister Mary of Saint Peter to bless in a special way the families in whose homes His Face is venerated. It is not a char

A young Carmelite showed that holiness fits into the small things of everyday life, done with love. Thérèse entered Carmel at only 15 and died at 24, in 1897. She founded no works and made no great journeys. Even so, she was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. What she taught was a simple way: to trust God as a child trusts its father, and to turn each small gesture into an act of love. She chose to be called Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. She contemplated th

Every marriage has wounds. What saves love is not never making mistakes, but learning to ask for forgiveness and to forgive. Saint Paul gives couples advice worth its weight in gold: “do not let the sun set on your anger” (Eph 4:26). And he adds: forgive one another, as God has forgiven you in Christ (Eph 4:32). Pope Francis, in the exhortation Amoris Laetitia (no. 133), recalls three words that keep a home standing: please, thank you and sorry. They seem small, but they carr

Many prisons of the soul are named fear. The answer Jesus taught Saint Faustina fits in five words. Saint Faustina, one of the mystics of our spiritual family, received from Jesus the request to paint the image of Divine Mercy with the inscription “Jesus, I trust in You.” The phrase is simple, but it is a prayer of deliverance: whoever trusts hands control over to God. Jesus invites us: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). And

No prayer is ever lost. The Church has saints who were born of the tears of parents who did not give up. In the book of Job, we see a father who rose early to offer sacrifices for each of his children (Job 1:5). He did not control their lives, but he never stopped presenting them to God. Saint Monica prayed for years for the conversion of her son Augustine, who became a saint, a bishop and a Doctor of the Church. When the pain of seeing a child far from God grows heavy, remem

The family table can be the first altar of the home. One minute of prayer before meals changes the atmosphere of the house.