"Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be --
and becoming that person."
St. Therese of Lisieux
I have only recently come to understand the magnitude of what a great saint and woman St. Therese of Lisieux was. Right away when I started reading her autobiography only a few months ago I was drawn to the simplicity of the way she lived. She lived with a child-like, not childish, love for Jesus, and I knew I wanted that to learn more about her life to have that same child-like love for Christ.
Francoise-Marie Therese Martin was born on January 2, 1873 at Alcon, Normandy, France. Her family was a pious middle-class French family. Now both her parents are "Blessed" and all four of her sisters who lived into adulthood all became nuns. She was the youngest of the nine children. Her mother died when Therese was only 4 years old and the family moved to Lisieux. Therese was cured from an illness at 8 years old when a statue of Mary smiled at her. She was confirmed at age 11. Just before her 14th birthday she received a vision of the Child Jesus and it was then that she immediately understood the great sacrifice that had been made for her and developed an unshakable faith. Because she was young she was denied to join the Carmelites. She made a pilgrimage to Rome and she met Pope Leo XIII whom she met and he actually knew of her desire to become a nun. She was then able to join the Carmelites at Lisieux at age 15 on April 9, 1888 and she took her final vow on September 8, 1890 at age 17. Age age 20 she become the novice mistress. Then at age 22 she was ordered by her prioress (her own sister Pauline) to being writing her memories, which then became her autobiography The Story of a Soul. Her "little way" was her path to God and holiness which was child0like love and trust in God. She lived a cloistered life and she died of tuberculosis at the young age of 24 on Thursday, September 30, 1897 at 7pm in Lisieux. Many miracles have been attributed to her and she was canonized on May 17, 1925 by Pope Pius XI. She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997.
She is the patron saint of AIDS patients, florists, missionaries, loss of parents, tuberculosis and others.
I thought it was wonderful that she was able to meet the pope--that is one of the things on my "dream list" too...to meet the pope, any pope in my lifetime!
A MORNING PRAYER WRITTEN BY ST. THERESE
O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love. O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity. Amen.
"Our Lord does not come down from Heaven every day to lie in a golden ciborium. He comes to find another heaven which is infinitely dearer to him - the heaven of our souls, created in His Image, the living temples of the Adorable Trinity."
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