A wealthy couple, in spite of all their riches, lived in constant discord and daily disputes. The married state was anything but a happy state for them; the wife especially often shed bitter tears.

One day, she happened to come across a manuscript book which was entitled: “Simple Remedies for the Household.” It was in her grandmother's handwriting. As she idly turned through the pages, her eyes fell upon a heading that instantly seized her attention. With eager curiosity, she read her grandmother's “household remedy against discontent.”

“Whenever you feel miserable or are out of temper, go to the picture of the 'Ecce Homo,' and place yourself at its feet. Contemplate it attentively for the space of three minutes, and recite three Our Fathers before you go away: this will restore peace and content to your mind. My confessor advised me to do this. I have tried the remedy for thirty years, and I have never found it to fail.”

The lady remembered that by a mere chance she had kept the picture in question, which had belonged to her grandmother; it was upstairs in their attic. She went up at once in search of it. Having found it, she dusted it carefully, and hung it on a nail in her room.

It wasn't long before she could test her grandmother's remedy. As soon as she found the next quarrel impending, the wife hurried to her room. There she knelt before the Ecce Homo – picturing Christ as He looked on Good Friday morning. Though only of His Face, the image portrayed Jesus, scourged and crowned with thorns, at the moment Pilate presented Him to the people – hence its title “Ecce Homo” - “Behold the Man”.

Though it was a struggle at first, slowly but surely, through gazing at the countenance of Our Lord, so sorrowful and yet so gentle, the wife learned to imitate His patient virtues. And as time went on, she became so much more meek and complaisant that her husband remarked upon the change.

“I have found an excellent teacher,” she said simply, with a smile.

He naturally inquired as to who this teacher was, and she told him everything quite frankly. Before long, her husband too had recourse to this same remedy. And whenever he foresaw that some household annoyance was in store for him, he took refuge in the Passion of Jesus. Thus in the course of time, peace and happiness prevailed in that family circle.