ABOUT THE STEWARD

Linda Grace is the founder and steward of the Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Society.

Her journey to the Catholic faith unfolded gradually through prayer, suffering, study, and what she understands to have been the quiet guidance of the Holy Spirit. Before entering the Catholic Church, her path included involvement in New Age spirituality and the occult, followed by Protestantism, before ultimately being led home to the Catholic faith through the gentle intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

From the beginning of this spiritual journey, there remained a deep interior awareness of the holiness of God and the reverence due to Him. Even within Protestantism, there was a continual longing for sacredness, worship, silence, prayer, and awe before the living God. Over time, there also grew a persistent awareness that something was missing, that Christianity was not merely intellectual belief, but a call to holiness, surrender, sacramental life, and deep communion with Christ.

This longing gradually became a search for what was ancient, holy, contemplative, and rooted in the fullness of Christian truth. Through prayer, study of the early Church, and growing awareness of Christian history and tradition, she came to recognise the Catholic Church as preserving the fullness of the faith handed down from the beginning. At the centre of this discovery was the Holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ truly present in His Church.

After entering the Catholic Church, this longing for reverence became deeply centred upon Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Through Eucharistic adoration, sacred liturgy, and contemplation before the altar, there emerged a profound love for the priesthood and a growing awareness of the sacred vocation entrusted to priests, who offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and bring Christ sacramentally to souls through the Holy Eucharist.

From this grew a deep burden for the sanctification of priests, prayer for holy vocations, and the renewal of reverence within the Church. There emerged an increasing conviction that the Church is renewed not through worldliness, but through returning to Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist through adoration, silence, prayer, holiness, reverence, and fidelity.

This awareness deepened further within ordinary parish life. At the time this apostolate began to emerge, the parish she attended did not have a permanent priest and often relied upon visiting clergy. While these priests faithfully served the community, the absence of a stable spiritual father revealed more deeply the growing need for holy priests, lasting spiritual guidance, Eucharistic reverence, and strong sacramental life within many communities today.

Alongside this came a growing awareness of the spiritual history surrounding the small country town where this mission would later begin to take shape. Once marked by a strong Catholic presence, the town had formerly been home to religious sisters who lived, prayed, worshipped, and served the community in faithful devotion to God. Over time, however, much of this visible religious life disappeared. The convent closed, generations passed, and the spiritual atmosphere of the town gradually changed. Yet traces of its earlier identity remained, a quiet town shaped by labour, suffering, sacrifice, vineyards, olives, and hidden faith.

Through prayer and contemplation, there gradually emerged a deep interior conviction that the Lord was calling hearts back to Himself, back to reverence, prayer, Eucharistic faith, and remembrance of His Presence. What began as a personal longing for reverence increasingly unfolded into a growing awareness of the need for renewal within parish life, families, and the wider Church.

This mission became closely united to Eucharistic adoration, prayer for priests and vocations, reparation, and deeper reverence toward Jesus Christ truly present in the Holy Eucharist. At the heart of this calling was the growing conviction that renewal in the Church would come through returning to the Eucharist and remaining close to Our Lady, who continually leads souls to her Son. Through prayer, adoration, reverence, holiness, and faithful devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, hearts are renewed, priests strengthened, vocations awakened, and souls drawn back to Christ.

Her first encounter with the Catholic Mass took place within the Novus Ordo, which she recognises and respects as a valid and faithful expression of the Church’s liturgy. At the same time, she experienced a strong longing for deeper silence, sacredness, contemplation, and reverence in worship. This eventually led her for a period of time to the Traditional Latin Mass, where she encountered a profound expression of the sacred mystery for which her soul had long searched.

Through this experience, she came to recognise more deeply the beauty of sacred tradition, the holiness of the Mass, and the importance of reverence before Jesus Christ truly present in the Holy Eucharist. She continues to remain spiritually connected to the Traditional Latin Mass community and maintains a relationship with a priest who continues to provide spiritual guidance and formation for both herself and her family.

Over time, however, the Lord gradually led her and her family back into ordinary parish life, where this mission would begin to take fuller shape. It was there that there emerged a growing awareness of the deep spiritual hunger present within many Catholic communities today, a hunger for reverence, Eucharistic faith, sacred silence, holy priests, adoration, and deeper awareness of Jesus Christ truly present within the Holy Eucharist.

Through prayer and discernment, there gradually emerged a quiet but persistent conviction that the Lord was not simply calling her to seek reverence for herself alone, but to enter more deeply into prayer for the renewal of the Church through Eucharistic adoration, reparation, prayer for priests, and devotion to Our Lady. What first appeared as a personal longing gradually unfolded into a deeper awareness that Christ desires to renew hearts, parishes, priests, and families through returning to Him in the Holy Eucharist.

The Call to the Holy Face

A particular aspect of Linda Grace’s spiritual life is her devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, which emerged in an unexpected and providential way. Prior to this, she had no familiarity with the Holy Face devotion itself beyond awareness of the Shroud of Turin.

The beginning of this devotion was marked by a vivid dream experienced early one Sunday morning before attending Mass. In the dream, three men dressed in black, appearing as clergy or altar servers, stood holding a large processional crucifix. Before the crucifix, the image of the Holy Face, resembling the Face associated with the Shroud of Turin, appeared suspended and radiant. The scene remained still and clear until waking.

Later that same morning, upon arriving at church, a framed image of the Holy Face identified as Veronica’s Veil was displayed in the foyer. Although unfamiliar with the image beforehand, it was immediately recognised as the Holy Face of Our Lord. During Mass, a forthcoming parish pilgrimage was announced, and shortly afterward it was discovered that the contact details connected to the pilgrimage explicitly included the words “Holy Face Devotion.” These events, all unfolding within the same morning, were received as a quiet but unmistakable invitation toward deeper devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

Over time, it became increasingly clear that this call to the Holy Face was not separate from the Eucharistic mission toward which the Holy Spirit had been leading all along, but deeply united to it. The Holy Face of Jesus is not merely an image of Christ’s suffering, but a call to loving reparation, reverence, contemplation, and deeper consolation of Our Lord — especially toward Jesus Christ truly present within the Holy Eucharist.

Through prayer and discernment, there emerged a growing awareness that irreverence, indifference, distraction, and forgetfulness toward the Holy Eucharist deeply wound the Heart of Christ. The Holy Face devotion therefore became inseparable from Eucharistic adoration and the call to console Jesus through silence, fidelity, prayer, reverence, and love before the Blessed Sacrament.

This Eucharistic connection became even more striking through the Holy Face medal itself, which bears the Holy Face of Jesus on one side and the Holy Eucharist upon the other, revealing the deep spiritual union between devotion to the Holy Face and Eucharistic adoration. In this, there emerged a growing awareness that the call to console the Holy Face of Jesus is inseparable from consoling Him truly present within the Blessed Sacrament through reverence, silence, adoration, fidelity, and love.

In this way, the devotion to the Holy Face now stands united with the mission of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Society — drawing souls toward deeper Eucharistic adoration, prayer for priests and holy vocations, reverence toward the Holy Eucharist, and loving reparation before Jesus Christ truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.