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Poetry from St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:00:39 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

October 1st: St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Heaven for Me!

written June 7th, 1896

To bear the exile of this valley of tears
I need the glance of my Divine Savior.
This glance full of love has revealed its charms to me.
It has made sense of the happiness of Heaven.
My Jesus smiles at me when I sigh to Him.
Then I no longer feel my trial of faith.
My God’s glance, His ravishing smile,
That is Heaven for me!

Heaven for me is to be able to draw down on souls
On the Church my mother and on all my sisters
Jesus’ graces and His Divine Flames
That can enkindle and rejoice hearts.
I can obtain everything when mysteriously
I speak heart to Heart with my Divine King.
That sweet prayer so near the Sanctuary,
That is Heaven for me!

Heaven for me is hidden in a little Host
Where Jesus, my Spouse, is veiled for love.
I go to that Divine Furnace to draw out life,
And there my Sweet Savior listens to me night and day.
“Oh! What a happy moment when in Your tenderness
You come, my Beloved, to transform me into Yourself.
That union of love, that ineffable intoxication,
That is Heaven for me!

Heaven for me is feeling within myself the resemblance
Of the God who created me with His Powerful Breath.
Heaven for me is remaining always in His Presence,
Calling Him my Father and being His child.
In His Divine arms, I don’t fear the storm.
Total abandonment is my only law.
Sleeping on His Heart, right next to His face,
That is Heaven for me!

I’ve found my Heaven in the Blessed Trinity
That dwells in my heart, my prisoner of love.
There, contemplating my God, I fearlessly tell Him
That I want to serve Him and love Him forever.
Heaven for me is smiling at this God Whom I adore
When He wants to hide to try my faith.
To suffer while waiting for Him to look at me again
That is Heaven for me!

Song of Gratitude to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

By St. Therese of Lisieux— July 16, 1894

From the first moments of my life,

You took me in your arms.

Ever since that day, dear Mother,

You’ve protected me here below.

To preserve my innocence,

You placed me in a soft nest.

You watched over my childhood

In the shade of a holy cloister.

Later, in the days of my youth,

I heard Jesus’ call!?

In your ineffable tenderness,

You showed Carmel to me.

“Come, my child, be generous,”

You sweetly said to me.

“Near me, you’ll be happy,

Come sacrifice yourself for your Savior.”

Close to you, 0 my loving Mother!

I’ve found rest for my heart.

I want nothing more on earth.

Jesus alone is all my happiness.

If sometimes I feel sadness

And fear coming to assail me,

Always supporting me in my weakness,

Mother, you deign to bless me.

Grant that I may be faithful

To my divine Spouse Jesus.

One day may his sweet voice call me

To flyaway among the elect.

Then, no more exile, no more suffering.

In Heaven I’ll keep repeating

The song of my gratitude,

Lovable Queen of Carmel!

My Song for Today

(written June 1, 1894)

My life is but an instant, a passing hour.
My life is but a day that escapes and flies away.
O my God! You know that to love you on earth
I only have today!…

Oh, I love you, Jesus! My soul yearns for you.
For just one day remain my sweet support.
Come reign in my heart, give me your smile
Just for today!

Lord, what does it matter if the future is gloomy?
To pray for tomorrow, oh no, I cannot!…
Keep my heart pure, cover me with your shadow
Just for today.

If I think about tomorrow, I fear my fickleness.
I feel sadness and worry rising up in my heart.
But I’m willing, my God, to accept trial and suffering
Just for today.

O Divine Pilot! whose hand guides me.
I’m soon to see you on the eternal shore.
Guide my little boat over the stormy waves in peace
Just for today.

Ah! Lord, let me hide in your Face.
There I’ll no longer hear the world’s vain noise.
Give me your love, keep me in your grace
Just for today.

Near your divine Heart, I forget all passing things.
I no longer dread the fears of the night.
Ah! Jesus, give me a place in your Heart
Just for today.

Deign to unite me to you, Holy and sacred Vine,
And my weak branch will give you its fruit,
And I’ll be able to offer you a cluster of golden grapes
Lord, from today on.

I’ve just this fleeting day to form
This cluster of love, whose seeds are souls.
Ah! give me, Jesus, the fire of an Apostle
Just for today.

O Immaculate Virgin! You ware my Sweet Star
Giving Jesus to me and uniting me to Him.
O Mother! Let me rest under your veil
Just for today.

My Holy Guardian Angel, cover me with your wing.
With your fire light the road that I’m taking.
Come direct my steps… help me, I call upon you
Just for today.

Lord, I want to see you without veils, without clouds,
But still exiled, far from you, I languish.
May your lovable face not be hidden from me
Just for today.

Soon I’ll fly away to speak your praises
When the day without sunset will dawn on my soul.
Then I’ll sing on the Angels’ lyre
The Eternal Today!…

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From a Retreat on St. Therese

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:00:32 +0000

AVE MARIA MEDITATIONS

TRUST IN COMPASSIONATE LOVE

Pere Liagre, CS.Sp. writing in his book “A Retreat with St. Therese” :

I propose to take two pages from her book. The more I meditate on these two pages, the more they seem to sum up the whole of Therese’s ascetic doctrine. The first passage, seems to me to be, in plain and simple language, the very expression of St. Paul’s “Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God … ” This is what she says: “I have always longed to become a Saint…but, alas, 1 have always found that when I compare myself to them, there is the same difference that we see in nature between the mountain peak lost in the clouds, and the tiny grain of sand trodden under the feet of the passers-, by. Far from being discouraged, 1 say to myself: God, would never put unrealizable desires into our heart.”

Let us pause here for a moment. The Saint’s reasoning is admirable. God, the Holy Ghost, never inspires the soul with desires that cannot be gratified; He only awakens desires in order to satisfy them and more completely than we can imagine or ask for.

The desires of the soul, therefore, come wholly from God! The word ‘desire’ is constantly on Therese’s lips, and this, by itself, says much. Her personal desires are classical; they pass all bounds, even all reason; they are immense, infinite. “I told myself; God cannot inspire unrealizable desires: therefore, in spite of my littleness, I can aspire to sanctity. I cannot make myself bigger. Therefore, I must be content to stay as I am with my innumerable imperfections. But I want to try and find a very direct little way to heaven – a short cut- a perfectly new little way.

Ours is a century of inventions; there is no need now to climb a staircase step by step; in rich men’s houses a lift is a very convenient substitute: I, too, want to discover a lift to carry me up to Jesus, for I am far too little to climb the steep stairway of perfection. ” How many souls say the same thing, and remain discouraged at the foot of the stairs!

“Then I began to search the Holy Scriptures for some indication of this lift which my soul desired: and I read these words, straight from the lips of Wisdom Himself: ‘Whosoever is a little one. let him come to Me! … ‘ Then God drew near, for I knew I had found what I was looking for. Wanting now to know what he would do to the little one, I went on with my search, and this is what I found: ‘As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you … I will carry you in my bosom, and I will caress you upon my knees.’ Oh, never did tenderer, sweeter words gladden my heart, The lift which is to carry to heaven is Thy arms, 0 Jesus! There is no need for me to grow bigger; on the contrary, I must stay little, and I must become so more and more.”

This is for me the whole of her sanctity, the whole of her spirituality. First, the desire to love God, to love Him perfectly; then humility: “Whosover is a little one” and lastly, confidence: “Let him come to me.” The soul surrenders itself; it steps into the lift; it is borne upwards, “led by the Spirit of God”.

Having tried to reduce Therese’s “Little Way” to its theological elements, I repeat that I think her whole doctrine is contained in this page. But, it may be asked, what about correcting faults and acquiring virtues? What of the human co-operation in the path of perfection? I am certain that, for Therese, all this was contained in a better way in the simple formula, self-surrender with humility and confidence. The soul must be sincere in this gift of self, yielding itself just as it is, with all its shortcomings and all its wretchedness to the all-powerful Compassionate Love in Whom it believes.

In whom it believes, I say, for here we see the sovereign importance of faith in the Love, in the Compassionate Love, of our Heavenly Father for our wretchedness. The soul is not, of course, dispensed from taking its part, from working and striving. But in doing so, it looks more to God than to itself; it puts its confidence in God and surrenders itself to God’s action rather than acts itself. “Led by the spirit of God” Throughout, the chief part, the first movement, the primary action is God’s. The soul acts and strives, but it is aware that, first and foremost, it is carried by God,.

Love, it knows itself loved. Hence its confidence, which is its strength. Its efforts, too are humble and calm without disturbance or impatience, without haste or anxiety and, more important than all, without discouragement.

Let us now turn to the second page I mentioned. This page, which treats directly of the soul’s striving, clarifies and completes the theology of the life in a wonderful way. Therese was then Novice Mistress. One of the novices was discouraged, at her failure to correct her imperfections. “You remind me,” said Therese, “of a tiny child beginning to stand upright, but unable as yet to walk. Longing to reach her mother at the top of the stairs, she keeps on lifting her little foot to mount the first step; a fruitless task. She falls over again and again, unable to make any progress Well! you must be that little child. By the practice of every virtue, keep on lifting your little foot to scale the stair of perfection, and do not imagine that you will be able to mount the first step! No, but God does not ask more than your goodwill. From the top of the stairs He is lovingly watching you. Soon,.won by your fruitless efforts,. He will Himself come down, and taking you in His arms and will bear you away forever to His kingdom-which you will never leave again.”

That is an exact description of our co-operation.in the work of our sanctification: that is what God wants: our goodwill, our desire to please Him, and our own poor little efforts. That is all we are capable of, little fruitless efforts. When God decides that we have shown enough goodwill, that is to say, when we go on humbly and patiently always t:rying to please Him, in spite of the uselessness of all we do, then He comes down and takes us in His arms and carries us : it is the lift again! But this time our part and God’s.

What peace, what calm there is in her way of describing the striving after perfection, the labor of acquiring the virtues! We feel that the soul is wholly turned to God, wholly rests in Him, even when it is acting and working, confiding in Him, even in its failures and imperfections. We feel that the soul is too busy with God to think of itself, so that, even when striving to make this or that progress, to gain this or that virtue, its aim is. more to make itself pleasing to God than to perfect itself, which is, in fact, a very different thing,.

To surrender oneself, to yield oneself without thought of self or preoccupation with self: renunciation. That is all! That is why holiness is not to be found in this or that practice. It consists in a disposition of the heart which yields us humble and little into God’s arms, conscious of our weakness and wholly and utterly confident in His fatherly goodness. But how few there are who know how to do this? We must be willing to remain little and weak always and there is the difficulty.

Let us love our littleness, love to feel our nothingness, then we shall be truly poor in spirit, and, however far away we are, Jesus will come and seek us. He will transform us into living flames of love. Everything, then, serves to unite the soul to God, which is the one thing necessary. Such is the state in which Therese invites souls, “little souls,” to establish themselves; that of a child of God who in all things lets himself be drawn, lifted, carried by the arms of Jesus, that is to say, by the Spirit of Love. It is the Gospel teaching. Let us become little children again!

“The arms of Jesus” -in theological terms this metaphor means the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Ghost with His Gifts, which are, as it were, the arms with which He lifts us up. “Lift” is a wonderfully apt description of the Holy Ghost. It is the modern equivalent of St. Paul’s: “Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God. ” In the matter of sanctity it is indeed the Holy Ghost who sets us in motion and lifts us up, who carries us and raises us to the perfection of love, to sanctity.

What is required from us? Humility and confidence: “Whosover is a little one, let him come to me!” Enlightened by the Holy Ghost, Therese perfectly understood these words of Wisdom. “To be wholly little,” that is to say, to know and love our helplessness, and for that reason “to go to him” that is to Infinite Love; this is how we enter the lift. And then He carries us up; He does it, not we ourselves. All we have to do is not to interfere, to yeild ourselves to His upward movement. He will lift us up above ourselves, above our wretchedness and our shortcomings, and little by little, will free us from ourselves, from our egoism! That is His work, His essential work. He will do this Divine work if, while desiring its realization in us, we rely in no way ourselves, but rather, fearlessly, unhesitatingly and . unreservedly on Him, on His gratuitous and all-powerful Love. The desire to love, humility, confidence; that is all.

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Video – FiNews #56 – First Birthday Gifts for Our Lady

apostolate — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:17:07 +0000

FI News #56 – Fra George Mary Pio of Our Lady of Fatima makes First Vows ( 06min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Here’s a video of our 4 newly professed friars who took their first vows on September 8th, 2009. All 4 will soon be in Italy to begin studying for the priesthood. The houses of philosophy and theology for the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate are in Italy, just outside of Rome. All FIs who study for the priesthood go to Italy, so when the Italian friars pick them up at the airport, our newly professed with be greeted with those familiar words: “Ave Maria! Parli l’italiano?”

Note: The optional price for viewing this video is one Rosary to Our Lady for these new friars, per request of the one who wrote this post. (St. Therese, pray for us!)

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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St. Therese of the Child Jesus: Love is Repaid by Love Alone

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:00:46 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

I WILL SPEND MY HEAVEN DOING GOOD ON EARTH!

LOVE IS REPAID BY LOVE ALONE…

…AND NOURISHED BY SACRIFICE.

My Heaven on Earth

To bear my exile now, within this world of tears,

The holy tender glance of Christ, my Lord, I need.

That glance, surcharged with love, consoles me through the years;

His loveliness displays foretaste of heaven indeed.

On me my Jesus smiles, when toward Him I aspire-

The trial of my faith then weighs no more on me.

That love-glance of my God, that smile of holy fire,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

‘Tis heaven to have the power, great grace from Christ to win

For Holy Mother Church, for all my Sisters dear,

For every soul on earth that He may enter in,

Enflame our sinful hearts, and grant us joy and cheer.

All things my love can gain when, heart to heart, I pray,

Alone with Jesus Christ in speechless ecstasy.

Beside His altar blest with Him I gladly stay,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

My heaven within the Host safe hid and peaceful, lies,

Where Jesus Christ abides, divinest, fairest Fair.

From that great fount of love doth endless life arise;

There, day and night, my Lord doth hearken to my prayer.

When, in Thy perfect love (O moment blest and bright!)

Thou comest, Spouse most pure, me to transform in Thee,

That union of our hearts, that rapture of delight,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

My heaven it is to feel in me some likeness blest

To Him Who made me and my soul hath reconciled;

My heaven it is always beneath His eye to rest.

To call Him Father dear, and be His loving child.

Safe shielded in His arms, no storm my soul can fear;

Complete abandonment my only law shall be.

To sleep upon His Heart, with His blest Face so near,

Oh, this is heaven for me!

My heaven is God alone, the Trinity Divine,

Who dwells within my heart, the Prisoner of my love.

There, contemplating Thee, I tell Thee Thou art mine;

Thee will I love and serve until we meet above.

My heaven it is to smile on Thee whom I adore,

E’en when, to try my faith, from me Thou hidest Thee;

Calmly on Thee to smile, until Thou smil’st once more,

Oh, this is heaven to me!

“After my death I will let fall a shower of roses”.

Born to a middle-class French family. Her father, Louis, was a watchmaker and her mother, who died of cancerr when Therese was 4, was a lace maker, and both have been declared Venerable by the Church. Cured from an illness at age eight when a statue of the Blessed Virgin smiled at her. She longed to enter into religious life and her prayers were answered when she entered Carmel at age 15; she had even petitioned the Pope to be able to do so! She took the name of Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.

She defined her path to God and holiness as “The Little Way,” which consisted of love and trust in God in all the little trials and sacrifices of life. At the direction of her spiritual director, and against her wishes, she dictated her famed autobiography Story of a Soul. She was heroic in her love and trust in God despite great aridity in prayer and an extremely painful illness which would claim her life at age 24. She died in 1897. Before long, miracles were attributed to her.

This young woman who did not leave the Carmel, merited such graces for souls that she was declared the patroness of the missions and she who knew only a few people on earth during her lifetime, is now known the world over. She was canonized in 1925 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997. She had promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth and she keeps her promise.

A Prayer to the Holy Face of Jesus:

O Jesus, Who in Thy cruel Passion didst become the “Reproach of men and the Man of Sorrows,” I worship Thy Divine Face. Once it shone with the beauty and sweetness of the Divinity: now for my sake it is become as the face of a leper. Yet in that disfigured Countenance I recognize Thy infinite Love, and I am consumed with the desire of loving Thee and of making Thee loved by all mankind. The tears that streamed in such abundance from Thy Eyes are to me as precious pearls which I delight to gather, that with their infinite worth I may ransom the souls of poor sinners.

O Jesus, Whose Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I may not behold here upon earth the sweetness of Thy Glance, nor feel the ineffable tenderness of Thy Kiss. I bow to Thy Will – but I pray Thee to imprint in me Thy Divine Likeness, and I implore Thee so to inflame me with Thy Love, that it may quickly consume me and I may soon reach the Vision of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.

Cured of a mysterious illness as a girl by “Our Lady of the Smile”,

St. Therese had a very tender and deep love for the Mother of God.

SONG OF GRATITUDE TO OUR LADY OF MT. CARMEL:

From the first moments of my life,

You took me in your arms.

Ever since that day, dear Mother,

You’ve protected me here below.

To preserve my innocence,

You placed me in a soft nest.

You watched over my childhood

In the shade of a holy cloister.

Later, in the days of my youth,

I heard Jesus’ call…

In your ineffable tenderness,

You showed Carmel to me.

“Come, my child, be generous,”

You sweetly said to me.

“Near me, you’ll be happy,

Come sacrifice yourself for your Savior.”

Close to you, 0 my loving Mother!

I’ve found rest for my heart.

I want nothing more on earth.

Jesus alone is all my happiness.

If sometimes I feel sadness

And fear coming to assail me,

Always suppor’ting me in my weakness,

Mother, you deign to bless me.

Grant that I may be faithful

To my divine Spouse Jesus.

One day may his sweet voice call me

To flyaway among the elect.

Then, no more exile, no more suffering.

In Heaven I’ll keep repeating

The song of my gratitude,

Lovable Queen of Carmel!

From “Why I Love You, 0 Mary!”:

Oh! I would like to sing: Mary, why I love you! Why your sweet name thrills my heart,

And why the thought of your supreme greatness Could not bring fear to my soul. If I gazed on you in your sublime glory, surpassing the splendor of all the blessed, I could not believe that I am your child. O Mary, before you I would lower my eyes!… If a child is to cherish his mother, she has to cry with him and share his sorrows. O my dearest Mother, on this foreign shore How many tears you shed to draw me to you in pondering your life in the holy Gospels. I dare look at you and come near you. It’s not difficult for me to believe I’m your child, For I see you human and suffering like me …

When an angel from Heaven bids you be The Mother of the God who is to reign for all eternity, I see you prefer, 0 Mary, (what a mystery!) the ineffable treasure of virginity. O Immaculate Virgin, I understand how your soul is dearer to the Lord than his heavenly dwelling. I understand how your soul, humble and sweet, can contain Jesus, the Ocean of Love!…Oh! I love you, Mary, saying you are the servant of the God whom you charm by your humility. This hidden virtue makes you all-powerful. It attracts the Holy Trinity into your heart…then the spirit of Love covered you with his shadow, the Son equal to the Father became incarnate in you. There will be a great many of his sinner brothers, Since he will be called Jesus, your first-born! …

IN THE HEART OF THE CHURCH, I SHALL BE LOVE!

” I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places…in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love…my vocation, at last I have found it…My vocation is love!”

ACT OF OBLATION OF ST. THÉRÈSE OF THE CHILD JESUS

OF THE HOLY FACE TO THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD

J.M.J.T.

Offering of myself as a Victim of Holocaust to God’s Merciful Love. 9th June 1895

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to love You and make You loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! To be Yourself my Sanctity!

Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Saviour and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with love.

I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints(in heaven and on earth), their acts of love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! The love and merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of His mortal life: “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you!” I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! That the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-pwerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.

I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.

I thank You, O my God! For all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.

After earth’s Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.

In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Lovee the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other throne, no other crown but You, my Beloved! Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a victim of holocause to Your Merciful Love, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!

May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.

I want O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!

Marie, Francoise, Thérèse of the Child Jesus

and the Holy Face, unworthy Carmelite religious.

This 9th day of June,

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity,

in the year of grace, 1895.

MIRACULOUS PRAYER TO THE LITTLE FLOWER

O LITTLE FLOWER OF JESUS, ever consoling troubled souls with heavenly graces, in your unfailing intercession I place my confident trust. From the heart of our divine Saviour, petition the blessings of which I stand in, greatest need, especially … (Here mention your intention.) Shower upon me your promised roses of virtue and grace, Dear St. Therese, so that swiftly advancing in sanctity and perfect love of neighbor, I may someday receive the crown of life eternal. Amen.

NOVENA ROSE PRAYER O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose 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.

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A Thursday Prayer in the Year of the Priest

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:03:18 +0000

One Minute Meditation

Prayer to the Eternal High Priest

O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep Your priests within the shelter of Your Most Sacred Heart, where none can touch them. Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips daily tinged with Your Precious Blood. Keep pure and unworldly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood. Let Your Holy Love surround and protect them from the world’s contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here, and their everlasting crown in the hereafter. Amen.

~ St. Therese of the Child Jesus

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St. Therese on Self-denial

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:00:55 +0000

Ave Maria Mediations

One more point, so that we may have a perfectly clear idea of Saint Therese’s self-denial. Generally speaking we have a too material, too external idea of self-denial; we almost always picture self-denial under the form of privation, as the sacrifice of something material, or again as some external mortification. And so we tire ourselves out looking for something to give up instead of denying ourselves always and in everything.

Self-denial is primarily and often solely something interior and spiritual; it is in no way synonymous with mortification, with privation. Even when there is no mortification, there ought always to be self-denial. Self-denial is simply the disposition of the soul to live for self in nothing, a sincere and constant disposition, a fixed determination to turn the soul from its natural tendency to make self the centre of its life, a fixed determination not to think of self, to put self on one side.

Saint Therese’s self-denial was often of this kind, wholly interior; the not doing something, the repressing of a natural eagerness, of a too vehement desire, of over-curiosity, of a feeling of antipathy, of feelings of complacency or gratification. Outwardly these little sacrifices were often imperceptible. Even when expressed by an exterior and material sacrifice, it was in the interior turning away from self, the interior turning to God, that they primarily consisted. The turning of the heart to God, and so, away from self: that is self-denial.

If this interior movement is sincere, the exterior and material detachment will correspond to it when the occasion arises, but the exterior part is far from being the whole, the essential part of it. The essential part is the glance of the heart turned, not to self, but to God.

We can now see why Therese’s care not to miss any opportunity of little sacrifices, did not result, with her, in preoccupation or anxiety, constraint or scrupulosity, no more than did her desire to please God her Father in all things. Joyfully she goes on her way borne up by her all-absorbing desire. The very sincerity, the integrity of her desire to please God, tells her when- in this or that- there would be a slight self-satisfaction, and that she can please God by sacrificing it to Him. She makes her little sacrifice and passes on. A moment later a fresh opportunity comes, and she makes another and she goes on, freely, in simplicity. She is sincere in her desire to do everything to please God. That is all.

Her little sacrifices-of which she misses no opportunity-are but the spontaneous fruit of her ever watchful desire to love. There is no anxiety, no uneasiness, no narrowness, no restless preoccupation with self, no constraint of the heart, on the contrary, the heart is enlarged, the soul expands, there is joy; the joy of giving which is one with the joy of loving.

Pere Liagre C.S.Sp.

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Feb 23 – Homily – Fr Dominic: The Little Things

apostolate — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:45:50 +0000

Homily #110223 ( 04min) Play – Fr. Dominic exhorts us to do little things for Our Lord with great love.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Peter Damian, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church – Third Class – Form: EF, In Medio Ecclesiae
Readings:
1st: 2ti 4:1-8
Gsp: mat 5:13-19

Audio (MP3)

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Why St. Peter fell…

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:00:49 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

Why St. Peter fell:

Look at little children: they never stop breaking things, tearing things, falling down, and they do this even while loving their parents very, very much. When I fall in this way, it makes me realize my nothingness more, and I say to myself: “What would I do, and what would I become, if I were to rely upon my own strength?”

I understand very well why Saint Peter fell. Poor Peter, he was relying upon himself instead of relying only upon God’s strength. I conclude from this experience that if I said to myself: “0 my God, you know very well I love you too much to dwell upon one single thought against the faith,” my temptations would become more violent and I would certainly succumb to them.

I’m very sure that if Saint Peter had said humbly to Jesus: “Give me the grace, I beg you, to follow you even to death,” he would have received it immediately.

I’m very certain that our Lord didn’t say any more to his Apostles through his instructions and his physical presence than he says to us through his good inspirations and his grace. He could have said to Saint Peter: “Ask me for the strength to accomplish what you want.” But no, he didn’t because he wanted to show him his weakness, and because, before ruling the Church that is filled with sinners, he had to experience for himself what man is able to do without God’s help.

Before Peter fell, our Lord had said to him: “And once you are converted, strengthen your brethren.” This means: convince them of the weakness of human strength through your own experience.

St. Therese of Lisieux

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Our Lady smiled on St. Therese

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:00:09 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

Thoughts of St. Therese on receiving Holy Communion: The mother’s treasure belongs to the child, and I am your child, Mother dear, your virtues, your love, are they not mine? So when the white Host descends into my heart, Jesus, your sweet lamb, thinks He’s resting in you!

Who among the saints most helped St. Thérèse to learn, and to live, the doctrine of the Little Way? First, as she tells us so often in the story of her soul, her first instructors were those saints whom God’s Providence gave her as parents, Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, and then, of course, she drew upon the wisdom of the saints of her own religious family, St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross.

But St. Thérèse’s first teacher, under God, was of course his Blessed Mother, the Mediatrix of All Graces and the Queen of Carmel. As the Little Flower explains in her last and greatest poem, Pourquoi je t’aime, ô Marie, “Why I love you, Mary,” the Blessed Virgin is the living embodiment of the doctrine her divine Son gave St. Thérèse to teach. The Little Way is Our Lady’s way.

The Smile that Heals: Our Lady in the Life of St Thérèse

St. Thérèse felt the motherly love of Our Lady throughout her life. On the Feast of Pentecost 1883, when she was ten years old and suffering from a mysterious and debilitating illness, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in all her loveliness:

I had never seen anything so beautiful. Her face exuded an inexpressible kindness and tenderness, but what pierced me to the depths of my soul was the Virgin’s ravishing smile. Then, all my pain vanished, and two great tears fell from my eyes, and flowed silently over my cheeks, but they were tears of unalloyed joy … Ah, I said to myself, the Blessed Virgin has smiled at me. How happy I am! … But I won’t tell anyone, because then my happiness would disappear.

Later, Thérèse began to doubt whether the Virgin really had smiled at her. That scruple departed in November 1887, in the church of Our Lady of Victories in Paris, just before her trip to Rome with her father. She recalled:

“I realized that she watched over me, that I was her child, and so I could not give her any name but Maman (“Mummy”), because that seemed so much more tender than ‘Mother.’ ”

Sr. Thérèse of the Holy Child Jesus and the Holy Face made her solemn profession at Lisieux Carmel on the feast of Our Lady’s birthday, 1890. She saw a wonderful appropriateness in that date.

What a lovely feast … for becoming the bride of Jesus! It was little Mary, only one day old, who presented her Little Flower to little Jesus … That day everything was little except the graces and the peace I received, except the serene joy I felt in the evening as I looked at the stars shining in the sky, and thought that soon beautiful heaven would open to my enraptured eyes, and I should be able to be one with my Bridegroom in eternal happiness.

St. Thérèse drew up a wedding invitation for her profession. It may seem quaint and fanciful, the sentimental outpouring of a young woman of the bourgeoisie of the Third Republic. Far from it: it expresses nothing but the truth of St. Thérèse’s own life, and of the Church’s faith concerning the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation and Redemption, the Divine Motherhood of Our Lady, Grace and Glory, the Communion of Saints, and the Consecrated Life of the Evangelical Counsels:

Monsieur Louis Martin, Proprietor and Master of the Lordships of Suffering and Humiliation, and Madame Martin, Princess and Matron of Honor in the Heavenly Court, invite you to the Marriage of their daughter, Thérèse, to Jesus, the Word of God, Second Person of the Adorable Trinity, who by the operation of the Holy Ghost was made Man and Son of Mary, the Queen of Heaven.

There is another message, of vast importance for the present time, in those few words. Notice how St. Thérèse describes her father: Proprietor and Master of the Lordships of Suffering and Humiliation. When she wrote those words, Louis Martin was plunged into humiliating mental and physical affliction. St. Thérèse saw this suffering as transfigured by the grace of the risen Christ into a noble apostolate, which her father, in his humble faith, was undertaking for God’s glory and the good of mankind. Her mother had died of cancer when Thérèse was very young, but now she shines, free from all pain and in perfect beauty, Princess and Matron of Honor in the Heavenly Court.

The Narrow Way Made Visible: Our Lady in the Doctrine of St Thérèse

The Little Way is Our Lady’s way, the way she follows, the way she is. By the working of the Holy Spirit, the Son came to us from the Father along the Little Way, as the child of Mary, and as children of Mary, along the Little Way, and by the working of the Holy Spirit, the incarnate Son now leads us to the Father. This is the great insight of St. Thérèse, Our Lady’s Little Flower. When our Lord in the Gospel says, “Unless you convert and become like a little child, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” he is calling us to have hearts like that child’s heart which most resembles his own, the immaculate heart of his Virgin Mother.

The Blessed Virgin followed her Son by the Little Way of Spiritual Childhood. Just five weeks before her death, St. Thérèse confessed to Mother Agnès that none of the sermons she had heard preached about Our Lady had touched her. These fervorini made the Holy Virgin grandiose rather than truly great, ascribing to her extravagant privileges beyond those determined by the Church’s dogmas. The Little Flower had a clear idea of what was needed: “For a sermon to please me and do me some good, I need to see [Our Lady’s] real life, not her supposed life; and I am sure that her real life must have been very simple.”

If we wanted proof of St. Thérèse’s fitness for appointment as a Doctor of the Church, we need look no further than her perception that, before anything else, Our Lady is Mother, God’s Mother and ours, and that her supernatural privileges, her freedom from all sin and her incomparable fullness of grace, do not make her remote from us, but, on the contrary, bring her closer than any other creature could ever be, whether on earth or in heaven. Sin and selfishness separate; grace and self-giving love unite. No creature has more grace, none is more on fire with true charity, than the Immaculate Virgin. Therefore, none is more intimately united to us poor sinners, in compassion and kindness, than is Mary. Here are the humble words in which St. Thérèse expounds these high mysteries:

Of course, the Blessed Virgin is Queen of Heaven and Earth, but she is more Mother than Queen, and we must not say that, because of her privileges, she eclipses the glory of all the saints, as the sun on its rising makes the stars disappear. Mon Dieu! How strange that would be! A Mother who made the glory of her children disappear!

The Mother of God shares her all with us. People such as ourselves, flawed and flecked by the sin of Adam, tending to pride and inclined to selfishness, like to boast of our privileges, and cling to what is most precious to us. But Mary, conceived without sin, magnifies the Lord for what He has done for her, and is immaculately generous to others with the graces and blessings she has received. God has given her the gift of making the most pure and perfect gift of herself. As Thérèse says in her last and greatest poem, Pourquoi je t’aime, ô Marie, “Why I love you, O Mary:”

The mother’s treasure belongs to the child, And I am your child, Mother dear, Your virtues, your love, are they not mine? So when the white Host descends into my heart, Jesus, your sweet lamb, thinks He’s resting in you!

In those last two lines, St Thérèse shows her familiarity with the doctrine of her compatriot, St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, who said that, when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we should ask the Blessed Virgin to lend us her heart to welcome him.

St. Thérèse likes to call Our Lady la petite Marie, little Mary, for two reasons. First, she is the purest embodiment of the little way of childlike trust in the merciful love of God, and secondly, she is faithful to her Son, lovingly serves him, in the little details and humble circumstances of daily life. At last, the Queen of Heaven, but first of all, the Handmaid of the Lord. Mary’s grandeur is her humility and accessibility, Thérèse continues:

You make me feel it’s not impossible To follow in your footsteps, O Queen of the Elect, The narrow way to heaven you have made visible By always practising the humblest virtues, Close to you, Mary, I like to stay small, I see the vanity of worldly grandeur … In Nazareth, Mother full of grace, I know You live in great poverty, wanting nothing more. No raptures, no miracles, no ecstasies Adorn your life, O Queen of the Elect! The number of little ones on earth is very great; They can raise their eyes to you without trembling. It is the common path, incomparable Mother, You are pleased to tread so you can guide them to Heaven.

For the last eighteen months of her life, St. Thérèse suffered, not only the physical agony of tuberculosis, but also the immeasurably greater, spiritual pain of a trial of faith, with relentless temptations to doubt. The theologians tell us that this experience was not a purging dark night of the soul: St. Thérèse had already passed through the purgative way, and was now in the unitive way, united to Christ our Lord in spiritual marriage. No, the purpose of St. Thérèse’s trial of faith was of another order: our blessed Lord wanted to bestow on his little bride the privilege of co-operating with him in the salvation of souls. He wanted her to hear the voices of the modern, anti-Christian world, to hear them and resist them, and by offering up, in loving union with Christ, the suffering of mind they caused her, to merit the grace of conversion for the unbelievers of her time and ours.

Now in the darkness of this last stage of her earthly journey, Thérèse walked confidently with her hand in Mary’s:

Mother, your sweet Child wants me to be an example Of the soul that seeks Him in the night of faith …

St. Thérèse is comforted not only by Our Lady’s motherly prayers from Heaven, but also by the example of Our Lady’s own trial of faith on Calvary, what Pope John Paul II called “perhaps the deepest kenosis of faith in human history.” As the Little Flower goes on to say:

It was the will of the King of Heaven that His Mother Should be plunged into the night, into anguish of heart; Mary, does that mean it is good to suffer on earth? Yes, suffering in loving is the purest good fortune! All that He has given me, Jesus can take back Tell Him never to bother about me … He may hide Himself, I am ready to wait for Him Without resting till the day my faith is no more …

from an article by Fr. John Saward

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The Cardinal and St. Therese

apostolate — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:43:11 +0000

Translated from the FI Italian site immacolata.com:

The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate since 1998 have had custody of a small church, in Lungotevere Vatican, a few steps from the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome, dedicated to the Virgin of the Annunciation and for this reason called “The Nunziatina”. The church is the oratory of the Venerable Apostolic Confraternity of St. Michael the Archangel and the Holy Spirit in Saxia, and the fact that it is located right at the end of the bridge Ponte Vittorio Emmanuele, lends itself as a place for a quick prayer for many people who live or work nearby. In October 2002, the brothers who staff the church, began to notice someone among the many visitors that come and go, who frequently came at 9.00 am. In particular, he would stop to pray with great devotion and meditation in front of the beautiful statue of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (pictured below), and then go away.

He apparently was a priest not very young, yet tall and stately. We were curious not only because of the punctuality with which he arrived, but also his attitude, both very devout and simple. To give you an idea, at the end of the prayer he used to do as many “old ladies” who are sometimes looked down upon in our country and touched the statue and kissed it. Our curiosity increased even more once the brothers noticed that the priest had a cassock with red buttons. A cardinal?! But who could it be?

One day, the brother who for security reasons, because he was the sacristan, had to stay in the church the whole morning, approached him and, quite simply, spoke to him. To Fra Anselmo M. Marcos, (the name of the brother) the person responded with equal simplicity proving to be Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who at that time was in Rome for ministry. The Cardinal and the friar became good friends, and several times the Cardinal wished to be accompanied by him in the various celebrations at which he had to officiate with other cardinals. Fra Anselmo Marcos is now a missionary in Nigeria and when he learned of the Conclave, he prayed so much to Our Lady of Fatima that his friend, whom he has never forgotten, might become Pope … and it was granted.

I wonder if Pope Francis still remembers that friar, after 10 years. And who knows if before entering the Conclave, he may have stopped by the church to pray before his St. Therese. In these 10 years the brothers who staff the church have changed and he might not have been recognized, but we think that Pope Francis has certainly passed by the church and has not forgotten the little friar who, especially now, continues to pray for him. Perhaps they want to come back again to pray there?

Ave Maria!

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