The Face Keeps Finding Us
And one more week to help with our first book!
Guest Post by: Randy Hude
Have you ever found yourself seemingly stalked by an image? Everywhere you go, there it is in view. We have been through this experience lately with the Holy Face of Jesus. It all began in the late Spring 2025. Adalee and I discussed our top 10 book ideas if we ever were to work together. It was difficult to discern which book to pursue as all of them seemed worthy. As it happened, I visited our parish’s confessional for a mid-day shriving and it just so happened that a visiting priest was present. In the layout of our parish, the visiting priest’s confessional is on the right side of the building which also has the St Joseph side altar and a large statue of triumphant St. Michael binding the devil. When I arrived I was around the 6th or so in line and so focused on final preparation for confessing as the line moved slowly forward. After my confession, I went into a nearby pew to pray my penance with closed eyes. When I finally lifted my head and opened my eyes I was met with a new work of art that our pastor had acquired, a wonderfully vibrant image of the Holy Face à la Veronica’s Veil painted on wood in a triptych placed on St Joseph’s altar. It wasn’t until I was there that it came into view and His Face hit me immediately — this was the topic for us to cover first.
So it has been ever since completing the first full draft of the book now entitled The Oil and the Asking: the Holy Face is everywhere! A local branch of the Archconfraternity to the Holy Face started up at a nearby parish. Online, I’ve seen the Holy Face devotion becoming more frequently cited. When talking with our local archbishop recently he shared that his episcopal motto is Vultum Christi Contemplari - “to contemplate the face of Christ.” There seemed to be a definite movement related to this devotion that we want to help introduce to more people via our book.
Last week we experienced the great generosity of our local Catholic radio station to have us over for an interview with their morning radio host. The trip was long because mid-day traffic in Portland is a thing but when we made it they wanted to give us a tour. Everything in the building starts with their private chapel just after you enter. I ducked in to quickly genuflect and say a brief hello to Jesus in the tabernacle but didn’t go in all the way since the deacon present was still being a dutiful tour guide. I didn’t want to be rude to him but didn’t want to ignore Our Lord’s presence either. Adalee, after a minute more, went likewise into the chapel but she went completely in front of the altar and called me in, tears in her eyes. “What?” I asked. “Did you not see?” she asked me. I went into the chapel more completely with her and there above the tabernacle was a print of the Holy Face image that had been touched to the veil of Veronica, making it a relic!
We continued our tour, and it really is a lovely, light-filled place, complete with Marian grotto. We were guided to the room where we would record our interview. As we were being seated what do we see there on the wall but another print of the same Holy Face image, this one not a relic, but the same print. He is everywhere! What a glorious thing!
The venerable Leo DuPont who figures somewhat large in our book had over 6000 miracles associated with the oil from his lamp that kept vigil with the Holy Face image in his parlor in Tours, France. Leo only liked to speak about God, not passing things like the news of the day, etc. When discussing God, he would always do so in his parlor before the Holy Face. He had a childlike faith and trust in our Lord to answer prayers. He would be worthy of a book of his own, for sure, but we wanted to point people to the books that others have already done and rather give a little illustration of the potency of the Image to bring sinners back from a faithless life.
The Founder’s Circle Finale
This month was our official launch of Ave Lamb Books and our month-long campaign to raise funds for the printing of The Oil and the Asking. We have been blessed to have several people support us in our endeavor, and we are so grateful to them! We finally have our Founder’s Circle Thank-You Page up and running, and we look forward to mailing out advance copies of the book (along with other goodies) to those people very soon. In all candidness, it does not look like we will meet our goal of 100 supporters, but we are not discouraged. We are committed to making this book a reality and fulfilling what we promised to our supporters. What is yet to be determined is how big of a financial hole in which we begin this project. So if you were thinking of joining the Founder’s Circle, you have one week of May left! We will open up regular pre-orders, without member benefits, without free shipping, on June 1st (release date TBD). And hopefully those orders will help to fill in the printing cost gap. Thankfully our illustrator and author have been working pro bono!
Thank you for reading this installment of A Brightly Hude Life. Please share it with your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and acquaintances (including that person/person(s) you know at church by face, but not by name, although you really ought to know by now).
Pax Christi!
About the Author
Randy is a native Tennessean who has had a few different “vocations” you might say over the decades. After giving up on a pursuit to become a professor of English literature post-M.A., Randy went back to school on a pre-med curriculum and became a pharmacist. A job opportunity brought him to the Pacific Northwest many years ago. Currently, he works for a small engineering and tool design company. He and his wife, Adalee, run Ave Lamb Books and have a Substack newsletter called “Hail Beautiful Lamb.” Randy always relishes reading to their son and looks forward to reading to their daughter once she is less wiggly.