St Thérèse of Lisieux

Français : Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux. Italiano...

“For me, prayer is the heart’s impulse, a simple gaze toward heaven,” Saint Thérèse of Lisieux said. And let this be our guiding thought for today.

With the Church we pray,

O God, who ope your Kingdom to those who are humble and to little ones, lead us to follow trustingly in the little way of Saint Thérèse, so that through her intercession we may see your eternal glory revealed.

She tells us to keep on going, and to do things with love.

Have you read The Little Way?

Jesuit Father James Martin, talks on Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and importance for us today, material from his Who Cares About the Saints?, a DVD on saints (Loyola Productions, 2009).

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus

I saw and realized that love sets off the bounds of
all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time
and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.

(From the Autobiography.)

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

See that you do not despise one of these little ones…

God of tenderness and mercy,

Choosing weak, confounding strong,

Telling all of heaven’s secrets

To the child that for you longs;

We give thanks for boundless kindness

Shown to this, your little one,

Who, in midst of earthly darkness,

Sought the radiance of your Son.

For Thrérèse, your little flower,

We lift up our song today–

In her life and in her teachings

We are led the “little way,”

From self-seeking to self-knowledge,

That we all might serve in love.

Give us strength to thus surrender;

Shower graces from above.

From her hidden life in Carmel,

You have raised her as a light

In your Church for all your people,

Drawing us from sinful blight

Into fellowship with Jesus,

Image of the Father’s face:

Grant us mission spirit fervent,

Preaching you to ev’ry race.

Teach us by her great example

How to treasure sacrifice;

Show us that small acts of loving

Are true gifts, beyond all price.

As she did, so let us utter,

“Jesus, help me love you more!”

In our lack of might and power,

Let us praise you and adore.

God of mercy, love, and blessing,

Father, Son, and Spirit great,

To your name we give the glory

As your coming we await.

Working here to spread your Kingdom,

Lead us in your little way

Till Thèrése and all your faithful

Sing your name in endless day!

87 87 D; IN BABILONE, BEACH SPRING

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower and Doctor of the Church

From the First Steps on the Little Way of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a publication of the

Catholic Information Service:

God has raised up St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, to enable us to grasp and live the profound truth of divine Love with the same intensity as she lived it. Or to put it another way, the Church has proclaimed St. Thérèse a Doctor of the Church in order to help God’s people love the love that is mercy.

Therese was so convinced about how much we need to love the love that is mercy – instead of some twisted, inept infatuation with justice – that she made it the theme of a little Christmas play she wrote and performed for the community in 1894.

In the play, the Angel of Judgment approaches the infant Jesus in the manger and says this:

Have you forgotten, Jesus, O Beauty supreme, that the sinner must at last be punished? I will chastise the crime in judgment; I want to exterminate all the ungrateful. My sword is ready! Jesus, sweet victim! My sword is ready!! I am set to avenge you!!! (Theatre au Carmel, Paris: Cerf DDB, 1985, p. 108, author’s translation)

And the baby Jesus replies:

O beautiful angel! Put down your sword. It is not for you to judge the nature that I raise up and that I wish to redeem. The one who will judge the world is myself, the one named Jesus! The life-giving dew of my Blood will purify all my chosen ones. Don’t you know that faithful souls always give me consolation in the face of the blasphemies of the unfaithful by a simple look of love? (ibid.)

This little dramatic scene proved to be prophetic. In it we see prefigured the very model for Thérèse to be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. We hear a little child… speaking with the authoritative voice of God…correcting a destructive concept of divine justice…offering a new way to grasp God’s love…and transforming the world through a graced teaching on God’s mercy.