Thank you and may God Bless You!
PRAISED BE
JESUS CHRIST,
NOW AND FOREVER!
St. Therese de Lisieux
Born Marie-Francoise Therese on the second of January, AD 1873, our Saint had a ordinary and happy childhood as the youngest daughter of Louis and Azelie-Marie Martin. Her mother died in AD 1877, and her father moved the five children from Alencon to Lisieux (Calvados), to be near their aunt Mme Guerin. Louis had a particular affection for Teresa, while her older sister Mary ran the household and the eldest Pauline was responsible for the religious upbringing of the children.
Pauline entered the Carmel at Lisieux when Teresa was nine, and Mary followed when Teresa was fourteen. Teresa was strongly drawn to the religious life, and the same year that Mary entered the Carmel the Saint underwent a profound conversion experience. Teresa petitioned her father to enter Carmel, and he approved. However, her age was used to decline her entry by the Superioress of Carmel. The next year the family made their way to Rome for the jubilee of Pope Leo XIII. When the Pope passed to the Saint, Teresa boldly broke 'protocol' and spoke to the Holy Father, asking to
be admitted to Carmel. He was impressed, but upheld the decision of the Superioress.
At the end of that year, the Bishop allowed her to enter Carmel, thence Teresa began her religious life in April of 1888. Sadly, their father had to be institutionalized after a pair of paralytic attacks the next year. However, Teresa had said that the three years of his 'martyrdom' before he passed were of tremendous spiritual fruits. She professed in September of AD 1890.
As praying for priests is one of the major duties of Carmelites, Teresa offered ceaseless prayer for priests in her duties, and especially prayed for the apostate ex-priest Hyacinth Loyson. She was physically slight, and this caused her to not be allowed to fast. In her autobiography, L'histoire de'une ame, Teresa writes in an engaging and deeply spiritual manner of spiritual beauty, clear and surprising turns of phrases on knowledge and the Faith, and her unconscious self-revelation.
Teresa was made assistant to the novice-mistress of Carmel, and was all but in fact mistress. After the death of her father, Celine, her other sister, joined the Order. Teresa was called to French Indochina, but in that year of 1894 on Maundy Thursday-Good Friday she suffered a hemorrhage at the mouth. For the next eighteen months the saint was bed-ridden suffering much in physical and spiritual trials. She could not for the last months of life receive Holy Communion due to illness, and finally gave up her ghost on September thirtieth, AD 1897.
Saint Teresa Lisieux is the Patroness of the Missions, and Patron of the works for Russia.
WTHOUT love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing…
... Story of a Soul, Ch. VIII
LOVE!
...that is what I ask... I know but one thing now - to love thee, O Jesus! Glorious deeds are not for me, I cannot preach the Gospel, shed my blood... what does it matter? My brothers toil instead of me, and I, the little child, I keep quite close to the royal throne, I love for those who fight.
... Story of a Soul, Ch. XI
I do not will
that creatures should possess a single atom of my love; I wish to give all to Jesus, since He makes me understand that He alone is perfect happiness. All shall be for Him, all! And even when I have nothing to offer Him I will give Him that nothing.
... VI Letter to her Sister Celine
How sweet is the way of Love!
True, one may fall, one may not be always faithful, but Love, knowing how to draw profit from all, very quickly consumes whatsoever may displease Jesus, leaving naught but humble and profound peace in the innermost soul.
... Story of a Soul, Chapter VIII
In times of aridity
when I am incapable of praying, of practicing virtue, I seek little opportunities, mere trifles,
to give pleasure to Jesus; for instance, a smile, a pleasant word when inclined to be silent and to show weariness. If I find no opportunities, I at least tell Him again and again that I love Him; that is not difficult and it keeps alive the fire in my heart. Even though this fire of love might seem to me extinct I would still throw little straws upon the embers and I am certain it would rekindle.
... XVI Letter to her Sister Celine
Sayings of St. Therese On the Love of Neighbor
THERE are moments when we are so wretched within,
that we must need hurry away from ourselves. The good God does not oblige us to remain at such times in our own company; indeed He often permits that it should be displeasing to us just that we may leave it. And I see no other means of going out of ourselves than by going to visit Jesus and Mary, that is hastening to deeds of charity.
... Counsels and Reminiscences
A novice remarked to Saint Therese:
"I do not like to see others suffer, especially saintly souls." She replied instantly: "Oh! I am not like you: to see saints suffer never moves me to pity! I know they have the strength to endure, and they thus give great glory to God: but those who are not holy, who know not how to profit by their sufferings, Oh! how I pity them; they do indeed arouse my compassion, and I would do all I could to comfort and help them.".
... Counsels and Reminiscences
Sayings of St. Therese On Humility
I TRIED MY BEST
to do good on a small scale, having no opportunity to do it on a large scale. As it was, all I could do was to take such opportunities of denying myself as came to me without the asking; that meant mortifying self-love, a much more valuable discipline than any kind of bodily discomfort ... I've always wished that I could be a saint. But whenever I compared myself to the Saints there was always this unfortunate difference - they were like great mountains, hiding their heads in the clouds, and I was only an insignificant grain of sand, trodden down by all who passed by. However, I wasn't going to be discouraged; I said to myself: "God wouldn't inspire us with ambitions that can't be realized. Obviously there's nothing great to be made of me, so it must be possible for me to aspire to sanctity in spite of my insignificance. I've got to take myself just as I am, with all my imperfections; but somehow I shall have to find out a little way, all of my own, which will be a direct short-cut to heaven. Can't I find an elevator which will take me up to Jesus, since I'm not big enough to climb the steep stairway of perfection?" So I looked in the Bible for some hint about the life I wanted, and I came across the passage where Eternal Wisdom says: "Whosoever is a little one let him come to Me." To that Wisdom I went; it seemed as if I was on the right track; what did God undertake to do for the child-like soul that responded to His invitation? I read on, and this is what I found: I will console you like a mother caressing her son; you shall be like children carried at the breast, fondled on a mother's lap. I could after all, be lifted up to heaven, in the arms of Jesus! And if that was to happen, there was no need for me to grow bigger, on the contrary, I must be as small as ever, smaller than ever.
... Story of a Soul
It appears to me that humility is the truth. I know not whether I am humble, but I know that I see the truth in all this
... Counsels and Reminiscences
Jesus made me understand that the true, the only glory is that which will last forever; that to attain to it we need not perform wonderful deeds, but rather, those hidden from the eyes of others and from self, so that the left hand knoweth not what the right hand doth. (Matt 6:3)
... Story of a Soul, Chapter IV
I am a very little soul who can offer only very little things to the good God; yet, it often happens that these little sacrifices which give such peace to the heart, escape me; but that does not discourage me, I bear with having a little less peace and I try to be more watchful another time
... Story of a Soul, Chapter X
Sayings of St. Therese On Prayer
Prayer is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple glance darted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of love in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy! In a word, it is something exalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and unites it to God. Sometimes when I find myself, spiritually, in dryness so great that I cannot produce a single good thought, I recite very slowly a Pater or an Ave Maria; these prayers alone console me; they suffice, they nourish my soul.
Sayings of St. Therese On Confidence
Since it has been given to me too, to understand that love of the Heart of Jesus, I own that it has chased all fear from mine! The remembrance of my faults humiliates me, and urges me never to depend upon my own strength which is nothing but weakness: still more does this remembrance speak to me of mercy and of love. When, with all filial confidence we cast our faults into the devouring furnace of love, how should they not be totally consumed?
... V Letter to her Missionary "Brothers"