Our Patron Saint
St. Therese of Lisieux
aka: St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower
Born on January 2, 1873, the youngest of nine children, Therese came from a devout and well-to-do family. At the age of four she suffered the loss of her mother - which affected her deeply. The following ten years were for her a period of extreme shyness and seriousness. During this time she grew inseparable from Pauline, her older sister. The bond between the two of them was so close that when Pauline left home to enter the Carmelite convent, Therese fell mysteriously ill. The family exhausted all means in an attempt to cure her illness.Then on May 13, 1883, while praying a nine-day novena before the family's statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Therese fell into a deep ecstasy. After a vision in which the Virgin smiled at her, little Therese was cured.
A profound conversion took place in the life of the saint on Christmas day, 1886. After returning from Midnight Mass, Therese overheard her father talk of "being glad that this was the last year of filling Therese's Christmas stockings." In a single moment, upon hearing these words, Therese experienced a sudden and complete transformation of the heart. All her shyness and seriousness washed away in an instant. She had received strength and peace of soul, which was to last the rest of her life.
With her conversion, at the age of fourteen, she felt ready to enter the Carmelite order. As the Rule of Carmel allowed only those twenty-one and older to enter, Therese would need a special dispensation. In November 1887 her family went on pilgrimage to Rome. While kneeling before Pope Leo XIII, Therese asked if she could enter Carmel at age fifteen. The Holy Father responded, "If it be God's will, you will enter." One year later, with permission from the local bishop, Therese entered the Carmelite convent.
Therese was known as a lively, stubborn, and obedient woman with a sense of humor and an appealing spirituality. Therese has become one of the most popular saints of the 20th century. She very much loved roses.
Throughout her life as a nun, she lived the faith of Christ in a most ordinary - yet extraordinary - way. On the eve of her profession, Therese declared, "I came to Carmel to save souls and to pray for priests." For seven years, she fulfilled all her duties with exceptional love. At the age of twenty-two, she declared her vocation to be that of "Love." Her spiritual childhood and simplicity became known as the "Little Way."
After suffering from tuberculosis for several years, at the age of 24, the saint gave up her soul on September 30, 1897. While she was dying, she said, "I do not regret having given myself to Love."
As she promised, St. Therese has been extremely active in heaven, "doing good upon earth." In the first twenty-eight years following her death, the Lisieux Carmelites sent out more than thirty million pictures and seventeen million relics in answer to people's requests from all over the world. St. Therese once confided to a sister that, after her death, she would send down a shower of roses. St. Therese has kept her promise, for it is well known that when a prayer is answered through her intercession, one will receive roses.
On July 17, 1897, as Therese was dying, she said, "I feel that my mission is just beginning, my work of making people love God as I love him." A century later, she has kept her promise and has since spread her "Little Way" to every continent of the world. Today she continues to fulfill her mission from heaven as millions of people are drawn to her way of life every year.
Therese of Lisieux was declared patron saint of the universal missions in 1927 (St. Francis Xavier is the other patron saint of the universal missions). Her autobiography, Story of a Soul, has been translated into sixty different languages and dialects. St. Therese was declared a Doctor of the Church in October 1997 - the third woman so honored with this title.
PRAYER TO ST. THERESE
O glorious St. Therese, whom almighty God has raised up to aid and inspire the human family, I implore your miraculous intercession. You are so powerful in obtaining every need of body and spirit from the heart of God. Holy Mother Church proclaims you "Prodigy of Miracles�the Greatest Saint of Modern Times." Now I fervently beseech you to answer my petition (mention here) and to carry out your promises of spending heaven doing good upon earth�of letting fall from heaven a shower of roses. Little Flower, give me your childlike faith, to see the face of God in the people and experiences of my life, and to love God with full confidence. St. Therese, my Carmelite sister, I will fulfill your plea "to be made known everywhere" and I will continue to lead others to Jesus through you.St. Teresa Links:
Pèlerinage Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux
St. Teresa of the Child Jesus (the Little Flower)
Therese
National Shrine of St. Therese
Saint Therese
St. Therese the Little Flower
St. Therese of Lisieux
 
|
SITE MAP:
Home
Altar Server Instructions
Bulletin
Calendar
Father John's Christmas Display
CYM
Parish History
Links
Liturgical Ministy Schedule
Map to St. Theresa's
Newsletter
Parish Organizations
Our Patron Saint
PRE (Parish Religious Education)
School
Scrapbook
Staff