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Time of Mercy Blog

 

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Saint  Thérèse of the Child Jesus:

Love is Everything

A Saint is Someone Who is Mostly Interested in Love.

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The child of holy parents

Saint Thérèse was born on January 2, 1873 in Alencon (France) as the last of nine children of Marie-Azélie and Louis Martin (both beatified on October 19, 2008). Her father was a watch repairman and her mother was a lace maker. The parents were pious and suffered because four of their children had died earlier. When Thérèse turned 8, she began studying at the Convent’s School of the Benedictine Sisters. On May 13, 1883, she was healed of a serious disease through the intercession of the Mother of God. From then on, she wanted to do everything to save sinful people. She prayed earnestly for the murderer's conversion and lived to see his transformation before the sentence was carried out.

On April 9, 1888, Thérèse entered the Carmel of Lisieux. Her father, who was seriously ill at that time, attended the ceremony of the veil. On September 8, 1890, she made her religious vows. A year later, she discovered a "little way of spiritual childhood" which consisted in great love, even at the cost of equally great suffering. In 1893, she became a novice mistress. A year later, her superior, Sister Agnes, asked her to write down her childhood memories.

Three manuscripts were created which constitute the Saint's autobiography and were published after her death. On the night of Good Friday 1896, she had her first pulmonary bleeding. Close to death, she entrusted herself to Jesus, living with him her path of suffering, hope and love. She died on September 30, 1897. Exactly one hundred years later, she was proclaimed a Doctor of the Universal Church by John Paul II. On this occasion, the Pope from Poland issued the Apostolic Letter Divini amoris scientia (Rome, October 19, 1997). Pius XI beatified her in 1923 and canonized her two years later. In 1927, he announced her, alongside St.  Francis Xavier, the main patron of Catholic missions.

Saint with big dreams

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was distinguished by the fact that she had great dreams and desires! So much so that - as she wrote in her autobiography ("Diary of the soul") - "they began to become a martyrdom for me." Influenced by this experience, she began to look for understanding of herself, her desires and the meaning of her own existence: “I opened St. Paul's letters to find some answers. Coincidentally, my eyes fell on chapters 12 and 13 of 1 Corinthians. I read first that not all can be apostles, not all prophets, not all teachers, and that the Church is made up of different members (...). The answer was clear to me, but not so as to soothe my longings and pour peace in me. Without getting discouraged, I read on and found a sentence that cheered me up: 'And I will show you an even more perfect path’ (cf. Ps 16:11). The Apostle explains that even the greatest gifts are nothing without love, and that love is the best way that safely leads to God. Then I finally found peace. When I was reflecting on the mystical body of the Church, I did not find myself in any of the members described by Paul, or rather I wanted to find myself in all of them. Love has emerged as the essence of my vocation.

I realized that if the Church is a body composed of many members, then it is not lacking the most noble and necessary member; I understood that the Church has a Heart and that it burns with love, that only Love stimulates the members of the Church to action, and if by chance the Love failed, the Apostles would stop proclaiming the Gospel, the Martyrs would not shed their blood ... I understood that love encapsulates all vocations, that love is everything, it covers all times and all places ... in a word - it is eternal!"

Saint with love to those who do not yet love

The life of St. Thérèse assures us that the condition of a person's happiness is that he loves, and not that he is surrounded by happy people. The saint from Lisieux also assures us that the most happy is the person who needs extraordinary love for ordinary happiness. A saint is someone who is completely dependent on God's love, and therefore someone who loves man quite similar to the way Christ loved us when we were still sinners. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus reminds us of the essence of Christianity. Christianity is not even the wisest doctrine or even the most fascinating ideology, but the story of the most extraordinary love in the universe: God's love for man.

The Saint of Lisieux shows us the essence of holiness. She, who suffered so much, always remembered that her vocation was not suffering but love: “Then I cried out with the greatest joy: O Jesus, my Love, I have finally found my calling: love is my vocation. I have already found my own place in the Church. In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love. In this way, I will be everything and my desire will be realized. "

Saint Thérèse also reminds us that our love for God should be inextricably linked with love for man. It is impossible to love God without loving those whom He loves irrevocably, that is, people who appear on our way and who bear within themselves the dignity of God's children and a great hunger for love. The Saint of the Child Jesus especially loved those who distanced themselves from love and then suffered. The addicts in our time are among such people. There are more and more of them and they suffer more and more. Thérèse of the Infant Jesus assures us that everyone can be entrusted always to God: especially those whom we love most and those who suffer because they do not yet love and do not accept love.

He puts Himself as it were at our mercy

“Jesus wills that we give alms to Him as to one poor and needy. He puts Himself as it were at our mercy; He will take nothing but what we give Him from our heart, and the very least trifle is precious in His sight. He stretches forth His Hand, this sweet Savior, to receive of us a little love, so that in the radiant Day of Judgment He may be able to address to us those ineffable words: ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,  naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me’ (cf. Matthew 25:34-36).”  (XV Letter to Her Sister Celine)

Until Tomorrow

fr. george

George Bobowski