Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Happy Feast Day of Saint Therese!

This October, I'm jumping into the joint theology of St. Theresa of Avila (my spiritual mentor), St. John of the Cross, and Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus. Here's a quote that I shared with my children today."(When I was a) little four-year-old person. I had a dream then which is deeply impressed on my memory. One night I dreamy that I was going out to walk by myself in the garden. I saw, near the arbor, two horrible little devils on a barrel which stood there. They were astonishingly lively in spite of the heavy chains they had on their feet. Suddenly they glared at me with their blazing eyes; then, looking much more frightened that I was, they jumped down from the barrel and ran to hide in the line room which was just opposite. When I saw they were such cowards, I wanted to find out what they were up to, so I went to the window. These wretched little impose were running about on the tables and didn't know what to do to escape my gaze. Every now and then they came and peeped uneasily out of the window, but when they saw I was still there, they began to run about again as if crazy by despair. Of course there was nothing extraordinary about that dream, yet I think God has let me remember it to prove to me that a soul in a state of grace need fear nothing from devils, for they are so cowardly that they flee from the gaze of a child." The Story of a Soul, pg 10.

St Teresa of the Child Jesus.





Patroness of Foreign Missions and of Aviators



- October 1st





St. Theresa, often called the Little Flower, was the youngest of the five daughters born to Louis and Zelie Martin. She was a very lively, lovable little girl, whose father called her his “little queen.” Yet she was quite sensitive and touchy, and in the story she wrote of her life, she tells how the Infant Jesus helped her overcome this defect.



It was Theresa’s great desire to enter the Carmelite convent where two of her sisters were already nuns. But since she was only fifteen, permission was not granted. Theresa felt sure that Jesus wanted her to spend her life loving Him alone, so she kept praying and asking to be admitted. She even dared to ask the Pope himself to grant her heart’s desire. And finally she was allowed to enter.



Although she was only fifteen, St. Theresa did not expect to be babied. “Obedience, prayer and sacrifice” were her program. She had a thirst to suffer for the love of God, and she had the spiritual courage of real heroine. “May Jesus make me a martyr of the heart or of the body-or even better, both!” she wrote, and she meant it. Whenever she suffered from the bitter cold in her plain cell or whenever she was humiliated, she would offer her pain to her beloved Jesus and hide it under a smile. She called herself Jesus’ little ball, and told Him to do with her whatever He pleased.



St. Theresa was very humble, and she called her great confidence in God her “little way” to sanctity. She always had a burning desire to become a saint and wanted to find a “short cut,” an “elevator” to take her quickly to sanctity. So she looked in the Holy Bible, and found the words, “Whoever is a little one, let him come to me.” When she lay dying, she could say: “I have never given the good God anything but love, and it is with love that He will repay. After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my Heaven doing good upon earth.”



St. Theresa taught us her LITTLE WAY. Yes, it is a small and yet a great thing to offer Jesus the flowers of our little sacrifices moment by moment.

Angels of God Come to Our Aid

“Angels are pure spirits.

They have a beginning, but not an end. Angels were created by God and they were created immortal.”

—Mike Aquilina, Angels of God