Happy feastday to my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter, Therese Marie! She is truly named for St Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day is today and what an amazing feast it is! She has been so huge in both of my daughters listening to the call to religious life! Maria was reading her amazing book, The Story of a Soul, as she was flying to Rome to study for the year in 2003 and as a result looked for a cloistered monastery for her to enter a year later! Obviously the love for her continued after she decided that she was not called to be there as she named her first daugther after this amazing young girl, who loved an amazing love doing small things with great love!
You will see her called many things on the end of ST Therese, but it is all the same person... a saint and Doctor of the Church although she only lived until she was 24!
"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul." These are the words of Theresa of the Child Jesus, a Carmelite nun called the "Little Flower," who lived a cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of Lisieux, France. [In French-speaking areas, she is known as Thérèse of Lisieux.] And her preference for hidden sacrifice did indeed convert souls. Few saints of God are more popular than this young nun. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, is read and loved throughout the world. Thérèse Martin entered the convent at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age of 24.
Life in a Carmelite convent is indeed uneventful and consists mainly of prayer and hard domestic work. But Thérèse possessed that holy insight that redeems the time, however dull that time may be. She saw in quiet suffering redemptive suffering, suffering that was indeed her apostolate. Thérèse said she came to the Carmel convent "to save souls and pray for priests." And shortly before she died, she wrote: "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth."
You will often see her holding roses and I found an interesting statue that I will share with you also... Her roses are a sign to us of her prayers coming down from heaven, which she promised she would do for all the needs of the world! Do not hesitate to pray for her intercession with our Lord! She is there at his side and probably falling at His feet in supplication for all of our needs day and night!
I WILL LET fall from heaven ... a shower of roses.
--From "Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
http://conservation.catholic.org/st__therese.htm I just came across this beautiful site with wonderful pictures of her and quotes of her amazing vision and joy and humility! I would love to share the whole thing here, but I would not do it justice at all here! So I would suggest that you take some time to go there and prayerfully and slowly digest all that she so beautifully shares with us! I knew that when I realized that today was her feastday that it would be so hard for me to hold myself back! How wonderful she is as a humble servant of our Lord... the pearls that she has left for us to take to heart, and the ways that she continues to answer our prayers!
I have shared with you... the joy that I have gotten from the small rose bush at the side entrance of church! How I feel that there are roses on it just as a sign for me to know that ST Therese is there at our sides in her beautiful loving and concerned way! I remember that little David Lanoue was coming by Csection on one of the Carmelite feast days and there was a rose on the bush that had not been there the day before!
Little "Gift" is what Ruth and Paul call their Davey - they were told no more children after
Ruth ruptured her uterus having Mary... But a prolife and Creighton Doctor told them that if they allow her uterus to heal for more than a year that she could with some watching have another by Csection and all went "wonderfully and her uterus looked strong and good" according to the OBGYN that delivered him! Praise God for this "gift" of the most wonderful kind!
Creighton and I am sure many prayers for ST Therese to intercede have been huge for the two children of Maria also! I can see her influence hugely in how Maria and Joe are raising their family, and it is a beautiful thing to behold! I can say that my sweet little Therese is a loving and sweet big sister, and such a deep and gentle soul for someone only about 2 1/2 years old! To see her holding her crucifix during mass on Sunday and kissing it... what more is there to say?
I have shared also of this young girl, Kelsey, who had just graduated high school last spring and after being controlled by a boyfriend... suddenly left home with only a note left on the table... They were devastated as she did not contact them or return any of their pleas for her to at least email or call! St Therese became a huge part of all this! Two of the Churches and priests that helped them along the journey were from Church of the Little Flower!
One day her mother found herself on her knees at Adoration and asking the Lord to give her a "sign." "A woman walked past me and stopped and handed me a holy card of ST Therese!" She spoke of how ever since then she knew that she had her in the spiritual army that she clung to... to help her through this hard and scarey time!
Well, the miracle did happen, but not in a way that they ever had thought that it would... they drove to where they thought she was and tried to see her... the mother stayed in The Church of the Little Flower praying for the intervention, and as the hours drew out... she started to realize with heavy heart that it was not going to bring their daughter back to them! Speaking to the priest later... he told them that he would try... 
About a week after they sadly returned without even gettting a glimpse of her... the got their first email from her... saying that the priest from the Church of the Little Flower had come to talk to them and through that she now contacted them! It was such a blessing for the family and for the wall to be lowered is such an answer to prayer! Thank you ST Therese!
There is so much in my heart and mind and soul today! I feel overwhelmed and like I don't know what to share or where to start! John just called and I reminded him that it was her feast day today, and he remembered that Maria had been strongly influenced and helped by her, but also that she was right there shoulder to shoulder with us in the battle of this last year also!
Comment:
Thérèse has much to teach our age of the image, the appearance, the "sell." We have become a dangerously self-conscious people, painfully aware of the need to be fulfilled, yet knowing we are not. Thérèse, like so many saints, sought to serve others, to do something outside herself, to forget herself in quiet acts of love. She is one of the great examples of the gospel paradox that we gain our life by losing it, and that the seed that falls to the ground must die in order to live (see John 12).Preoccupation with self separates modern men and women from God, from their fellow human beings and ultimately from themselves. We must relearn to forget ourselves, to contemplate a God who draws us out of ourselves and to serve others as the ultimate expression of selfhood. These are the insights of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and they are more valid today than ever. see - http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1155
Therese with her little 9 month old brother, David...
St Therese teaches us the "real wisdom of the child: trustful willingness to be led, taught, and raised to true maturity according to God's plan rather than her own." see http://www.magnificat.com/
Novena To ST. Therese
O Little Therese of the Child Jesus,
Please pick a rose for me
From the heavenly gardens
And send it to me
As a message of love.
O little flower of Jesus,
Ask God today to grant the favors
I now place with confidence
In your hands.
(Mention specific requests)
St. Therese,
help me to always believe,
As you did,
In God's great love for me,
So that I might imitate your
"Little Way" each day.
Amen
ST Therese... filled with endless love for your spouce, Jesus... teach us how to love like you with no thought of self, but only for Love itself... Jesus Christ! May we see Christ in those around us and cheerfully serve them!
Those in our lives that live the closest with us are the hardest to keep our face of compassion and caring towards them... your model of sitting next to the "bitter and difficult sister" when you had 4 of your own loving natural sisters in the monastery with you...that is truly a sacrifice of love and a lesson to us as we live our lives! You went out of your way to love those most difficult ones to love, and they in turn were touched and changed! WE ask for a heart like yours - humble! Amen and Halleluia!
"God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong." I Cor 1:27
Bless-bless, Barbhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO_YUOAA1HU&feature=related Here is that amazing song by Danielle Rose inspired by Blessed Theresa of Calcutta - St Therese of Lisseux! Listen and be filled with the Truth that will set you free!
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