SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS
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SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS |
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VIRGIN, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
![[photograph of Saint Therese of Lisieux]](saintt02.jpg "photograph of Saint Therese of Lisieux")
( 1873 -1897 )
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, of Lisieux, is known as the “Little Flower”, simple and sweet. She is one of the most loved young saints. She was born in 1873 at Alencon, and lived at Lisieux, France, to a middle class family. Her mother died when Theresa was four years old. She had four older sisters, raised under the care of a pious father, and aunt. When she reached fifteen, she became a nun, following her sisters.
Nothing was extraordinary in her life except her illness of tuberculosis and depression, which she endured heroically. She offered to be a missionary in Vietnam, but she stayed in her convent, suffering silently. Under obedience she wrote her autobiography “ A Story of a Soul”. The Scriptures, the popular “Imitation of Christ” of Thomas a Kempis, and the writings of Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross enriched her spiritual life.
Her spiritual impact on her convent, many lives, and the church was unquestionable. Soon, a large number of miraculous cures, and favors believed to be due to her intercession, spread all over. The popularity of her short autobiography soon translated into most languages with the miracles attributed to her intercession. It was she who wrote, “After my death I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven in doing good upon earth”. “I am only a very little soul, who can only offer very little thing to our Lord”.
Listen to what she wrote when she knew that her cousin 'Jeanne' was married: "...the next time she was able to visit me, she told me all the countless things she did for her husband. I felt my heart thrill and thought: "No one shall say that a woman in the world does more for her husband who is merely mortal than I for my Beloved Jesus... Having seen the wedding invitations, I amused myself by making up the following invitation, which I read aloud to the novices. Something had struck me, and I wanted to bring it home to them: the glory of earthly unions cannot compare with the glory of being the Spouse of Jesus:
ALMIGHTY GOD
The Creator of Heaven & Earth, and Ruler of the World
and
The MOST GLORIOUS VIRGIN MARY
Queen of the Court of Heaven
Invite you to the Spiritual Marriage of their August Son
JESUS, KING OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS
with
Little Therese Martin
now Lady and Princess of the Kingdom of the Childhood and Passion of Jesus, given in dowry by her Divine Spouse, from whom she holds the titles of nobility: OF THE CHILD JESUS and OF THE HOLY FACE.
It was not possible to invite you to the Wedding Feast celebrated on Mount Carmel on September 8, 1890, only the Celestial Choir being admitted. You are nevertheless invited to the Bride's RECEPTION tomorrow, the Day of Eternity, when Jesus, the Son of God, will come in splendor on the clouds of Heaven to judge the Living and the Dead.
The hour being uncertain, please hold yourself in readiness and watch.""
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St. Therese, the “Little Flower”, through sickness and darkness, remained faithful. She died on September 30, 1897, as a martyr tortured by illness, at age twenty-four. She was canonized in 1925, then declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997.
INSPIRATIONALWORDS : “ We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs. And I am determined to find an elevator to carry me to Jesus, for I was too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. So I sought in Holy Scripture some idea of what this lift I wanted be, and I read, “ Whoever is a little one, let him come to me” ( Lk 8:16 ). I also wanted to know how God would deal with a ‘little’ one, so I searched and found:” You shall be carried in her arms (Jerusalem) and handled in her lap, as mother comforts her son.” ( Is 66:12-13).
“It is your arms, Jesus, which are the elevator to carry me to heaven. So there is no need for me to grow up. In fact: just the opposite: I must become less and less”. ( From the Story of a Soul )
From "The Story of a Life, St. Therese of Lisieux" by Guy Gaucher: Among 'Some Testimonies Selected from the Tens of Thousands' Page 219, these four testimonies are selected here:
"1 - The Coptic Monastery at Wadi El Natroon was founded by Matta El Maskeen nearly twenty- five years ago. Matta El Maskeen was an Egyptian, a pharmaceutical student belonging to the Coptic-Orthodox faith. In his youth he felt called to the religious life. He retired into the desert of Upper Egypt and began living as a hermit, after the example of St. Macarius, one of the Fathers of Coptic monasticism. St. Therese of Child Jesus' writing, which had been translated into Arabic in 1964, deeply moved Matta El Maskeen and became the rule of life for him and his monks. It is now being used as a basis for renewal at Wadi El Natroon. Information's carmelitaines (SIC, 1981)
2 - We wished to build a monastery, but you well know that it is impossible. The law categorically forbids it. Then we discovered 'Story of a Soul'. It has become our cloister. For everyone can follow the 'little way' of spiritual childhood, even when official religious institutions are not allowed, even when nothing religious is permitted. Russian Orthodox Christians (1977) Moscow.
3 - Jesus is very near me. He is drawing me more and more to himself, and I can only adore him in silence, desiring to die of love. I would wish, like little St. Therese of the Child Jesus, to renew with each beat of my heart that offering to become 'a sacrifice to his merciful love'. I am waiting in darkness, and in peace . . . I am waiting for love! In five hours, I will see Jesus! Jacques Fesch (30 September 1957) Written on the sixtieth anniversary of Therese death, the night before his execution. He was twenty-seven years old.
4 - Dear little Therese, I was seventeen when I read your autobiography. It struck me forcibly. You called it The Story of a Little White Spring Flower. To me the willpower, courage and decisiveness it showed made it seem more like the story of a piece of steel. Once you had chosen the path of complete dedication to God, nothing could stop you: not illness, nor opposition from outside, nor the mists of inner darkness. Albino Luciani (1973) afterwards Pope John Paul I "
TO KNOW MORE:
http://www.sttherese.com/
http://therese-de-lisieux.cef.fr/
http://www.theresemovie.com/
http://www.ewtn.com/therese/therese.htm
http://www.littleflower.org/
http://jesusmajoie.com/about_st_therese/
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/17721a.htm
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Page Written By H. G. H. ãCopyright 2001