Hail, Therese, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

St. Therese

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux (1873 AD - 1897 AD).  Although she is known as the "Little Flower," and is famous for her "Little Way" of holiness, St. Therese, like all saints, was not only  very forceful but quite fearless regarding matters relating to salvation.  This can be seen in the following episode from St. Therese's spiritual autobiography, "The Story of a Soul:"

The audience began after the Mass of thanksgiving which followed the Pope's Mass.

Leo XIII sat on a dais, dressed in a white cape and cassock.  Various prelates and high dignitaries stood near him.  It had been arranged that, one by one, each pilgrim advance and kneel before him, kiss first his foot and then his hand, and receive his blessings.   Then, at a touch from two of the Noble Guard, the pilgrim was to rise and move on to another room, thus giving way to another.

Not a word was uttered, but I was determined to speak.  Suddenly, though, Father Reverony who was standing on the right of His Holiness, told us in a loud voice that it was absolutely forbidden to speak to the Holy Father.   With a madly beating heart I gave a questioning glance at [Therese's sister] Celine.  "Speak!" she whispered.  A moment later I was kneeling before the Pope.  I kissed his slipper and he offered me his hand,  Then, looking at him with my eyes wet with tears, I said: "Most Holy Father I have a great favour to ask."  He leant forward until his face almost touched mine, as if his dark, searching eyes would pierce the depths of my soul.

"Most Holy Father," I said, "to mark your jubilee, allow me to enter Carmel at fifteen."

The vicar-General of Bayeux, with a look of astonished displeasure, at once said: "Most Holy Father, she's a child who wants to be a Carmelite, and the authorities are now looking into the matter."

"Very well, my child," His Holiness said, "do whatever they say."

Clasping my hands and resting them on his knee, I made a final effort.  "O most Holy Father, if you say yes, everybody will be only too willing."

He gazed at me steadily and said in a clear voice, stressing every syllable:  "Come, come . . . you will enter if God wills."

I was going to speak again, but the two Noble Guards urged me to rise.  Finally they had to take me by the arms and Father Reverony helped them to get me to my feet.  As I was being taken away, the Holy Father placed his fingers on my lips, then raised them to bless me.  He gazed after me as I left.


St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus

St. Therese of Lisieux with picture of Holy Face of Jesus

In 1958, Pope Pius XII decreed that the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday be kept as the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus.  With the reform of the liturgy, this feast generally passes unobserved except in places where the usus antiquior is popular.  St. Therese of Lisieux and Blessed Pope John Paul II, among many others, had an ardent devotion to the Holy Face.  The beloved monastery where we used to attend Novus Ordo Mass in Latin (until storm damage forced the chapel to be closed) is named for the Holy Face.  "A Reluctant Sinner" has much more on the Feast of the Holy Face here.

Wisdom from St. Therese of Lisieux, Part 3

                                 St. Therese, St. Patrick's Church, Trim, Co. Meath, Ireland

We celebrated the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux on October 7th.  The following is taken from St. Therese's journal, published under the title "The Story of a Soul."   This episode from St. Therese's youth will perhaps impress upon parents the importance of selecting their children's reading and entertainments with great care:

"When I read stories about the deeds of the great French heroines - especially of the Venerable Joan of Arc, I longed to imitate them and felt stirred by the same inspiration which moved them.  It was then that I received one of the greatest graces of my life, for, at that age, I didn't receive the spiritual enlightenment which now floods my soul.  I was made to understand that the glory I was to win would never be seen during my lifetime.  My glory would consist in becoming a great saint!  This desire might seem presumptuous, seeing how weak and imperfect I was and still am, even after eight years as a nun, yet I always feel the same fearless certainty that I shall become a great saint."



St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Wisdom from St. Therese of Lisieux (part 2)

We celebrated the feast of St. Therese on Oct. 7.  This is taken from her journal, published under the title "The Story of a Soul:"

This evening, after a barren period of meditation I read this: "Here is the Master I give you.  He will teach you all you need to do.  I want to make you read of the science of love in the book of life."  The science of love!  The words echo sweetly through my soul.  It is the only thing I want to know.  Like the spouse in the Canticle of Canticles, "having given up all the substance of my house for love,  I reckon it as nothing."  I long for no other treasure but love, for it alone can make us pleasing to God.


St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Wisdom from St. Therese of Lisieux

                                                                "St. Therese of Lisieux" by Inigo Hicks

On Oct. 4 we celebrated the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux.  The following is taken from St. Therese's journal, published under the title "The Story of a Soul :"

Love alone attracts me.  I no longer wish for either suffering or death and yet both are precious to me.  For a long time I've hailed them as messengers of joy.  I've already known suffering and I've thought I was approaching the eternal shore.  From my earliest days I have believed that the Little Flower would be plucked in the springtime of her life.  But today my only guide is self-abandonment.  I have no other compass. I no longer know how to ask passionately for anything except that the will of God shall be perfectly accomplished in my soul.  I can repeat these words of our Father, St. John of the Cross:  "I drank deep within the hidden cellar of my Beloved and, when I came forth again, I remembered nothing of the flock I used to look after.  My soul is content to serve Him with all its strength.  I've finished all other work except that of love.  In that is all my delight."

Or rather: "Love has so worked within me that it has transformed my soul into itself."


St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Hail, saintly "Little Flower" and Doctor of the Church

Saturday was the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux (1873 AD - 1897 AD).  St. Therese died of tuberculosis at the age of 24,  in the Carmelite convent she'd entered at the age of 15.  After such a short and hidden life, Therese might have been expected to pass quickly into obscurity.  However, the year after St. Therese's death her journal, which she'd kept in obedience to her superiors,  was published under the title "The Story of a Soul."  The work became hugely popular, and produced a great impact upon the Church and throughout the world.  St. Therese was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, named co-patron of the missions (with St. Francis Xavier) in 1927, co-patron of France (with St. Joan of Arc) in 1944, and Doctor of the Church (the youngest person ever so honored) by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

The list of St. Therese's devotees is very long and varied.  It includes not only Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who chose Therese as her namesake because "she did ordinary things with extraordinary love," but also Edith Piaf, who believed herself cured of blindness through the intercession of St. Therese after a pilgrimage to Lisieux.  Indeed, the basilica of St. Therese in Lisieux is second in popularity only to Lourdes as a place of pilgrimage in France.

St. Therese teaches that the accomplishment of great deeds is not necessary to achieve sanctity.  What is required instead is to follow her "little way" of great love.  St. Therese writes:

"Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love."

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.