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Paul Badde, Manoppello

Finding the Face of God on Christmas Day



If only Canada Free Press (CFP) could, it would give this troubled world the most precious Christmas gift of all:the Face of God.
Millions the world over will never give up on their search for the Face of God. They relentlessly go on searching every day, Christmas time or not. Through Google, CFP found the Face of God though historian/journalist/author Paul Badde’s spell-binding book ‘Face of God’ back in 2012--a discovery, once made, never forgotten. Unpainted by any human hand, the Face of God is an incredible little-known supernatural treasure kept at a tiny Capuchin Church, in Manoppello, Italy. Or as Badde himself describes it: “For 400 years the most important relic of Christendom, before which the Emperor of Byzantium knelt once a year, preserved between two panes of glass, has been on display in a tiny Capuchin church which is completely empty for many hours each day, in the town of Manoppello, in Italy’s Abruzzi region.” (Catholic Culture)
“It is the missing image of Jesus Christ, for which all of Western civilization senses the need. Today, finally, it must be regarded as rediscovered.” Yearning Christians have wondered down through the ages, what Jesus looked like. “What did Jesus look like?” Badde asked in his Inside the Vatican Photo Essay in October of 2004. ”A bit like Jim Caviezel in the film The Passion of The Christ? Or like the portraits of Christ by Durer and El Greco and other artists, which hang in the Vatican Museum?

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“But none of these artists ever saw Jesus. What did he really look like? “To these questions, there is an old, old answer: Jesus looked like the image of a man’s face preserved on a cloth kept in a little village not far from Rome--an image even the Pope has never seen. And this is a matter which can hardly be mentioned in the Vatican. “Up until the year 1600 A.D., the cloth, known as “Veronica’s veil”, was kept inside the old St. Peter’s Basilica built by the Emperor Constantine. Millions saw it there. “Since the early 1600s, however, this “true icon” (the literal meaning of “vera icona” which initially formed the name “Veronica”) has been seen by almost no one. “In the new St. Peter’s Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, a cloth said to be Veronica’s veil, has been kept locked up for centuries. And, “over the course of time, the image has become very faint”, Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, the archpriest of the basilica, told me in a letter on May, 31, 2004. But in fact, the image in the Vatican has not only grown faint, most probably it is also a fake. “It hasn’t only become virtually invisible to us: not a single photograph of the image exists.” For all who yearn for the Face of God, Badde gives this compelling description of the relic in Manoppello:
“The image fades away against light, it darkens in shadow, yet it endures through the centuries, unchanging. “It shows the bearded face of a man with Jewish side-curls at the temples (peyes), a man whose nose has been smashed like one of the hostages of today’s “jihadists” (“God’s warriors”)--or one of the detainees in the Abu Ghreib prison. “The right cheek is swollen, the beard partly ripped off. The forehead and lips have on them hints of pink, suggesting freshly healed wounds. “Inexplicable peace fills the gaze out of the wide open eyes. Amazement, astonishment, surprise. Gentle compassion. No despair, no pain, no wrath. “It is like the face of a man who has just awakened to a new morning. His mouth is half open. Even his teeth are visible. If one had to give a precise phrase to the vowel and word the lips are forming, it would be a soft “ah”.”
Many have heard about the Shroud of Turin, the cloth that is thought to have held the body of Jesus in the tomb, from which He resurrected on Easter Sunday. Fewer have heard about the smaller ‘sudarium’ ‘byssus’ (sea silk) cloth that covered His Face. To see this image in the quiet of a tiny Capuchin church with your own eyes, would mean making a trip to Manoppello, Italy. We cannot all travel to Italy, but CFP can transport you there with this beautiful 24-minute video, sent to us for all to see this Christmas Day, by the renowned ‘Face of God’ author/historian Paul Badde. The Face of God is yours forever. A Christ-blessed Merry Christmas to each and every one!


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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