THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - NINTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, ardent love is as unrelenting as the grave.
Love's flames are fiery flames, the fiercest of all. (Song of Songs 8:6)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE PASSION OF LOVE
My Vocation is Love! I have no other means of proving my love except by strewing flowers, that is to say, letting no little sacrifice pass ... and in strewing my flowers I will sing. I will sing, even if my roses must be gathered from among thorns; and the longer and sharper the thorns, the sweeter shall be my song...”
The source and summit of Therese’s life, this is also her key to suffering: LOVE. Contemplating the God whose love emptied him from the crib to the Cross, Therese learned that the inescapable price of loving selflessly is a willingness to suffer pain. This is the secret of Therese’ outpouring of love and its apostolic fruitfulness: her love is crucified. In offering herself to Jesus, she gave herself up without any reserve to the trials and sufferings which marked her life as with a seal. "Love penetrated and possessed her" and suffering seized her as if she were its prey. The victim offered in holocaust had been accepted, "a better witness of abandonment and love." She wrote, "Under the winepress of suffering, I will prove my love to You."
Therese teaches that some, according to the will of God, suffer nothing more than the miseries that are integral to human life, while others are called to take on greater burdens, sharing more in Christ's salvific action. Whatever the portion of the Cross, she calls us to suffer joyously, patiently, humbly. Our salvation lies not in suffering but in the love with which we bear that suffering, uniting us to the Divine Heart whose outstretched arms transform suffering and death, the fruits of sin, into avenues of grace and life.
In response to her question if God delights in suffering, love answers: "No, our suffering never makes Him happy, but this suffering is necessary for us." Sin having made suffering necessary, God out of love wills it, since it is the means to bring man to love Him. Bitter remedy, but, given man's egoism, necessary remedy for the soul's health and happiness. "It costs God to make us drink at the fountain of tears," she wrote "but He knows that it is the only way to prepare us to know Him as He knows Himself and to share his life!”
To love God completely and love others out of selfless love for God: this is the fulfillment of the human heart.
With this in mind, Thérèse prays that God would raise a legion of souls who offer themselves as victims of holocaust to Jesus' merciful love, loving actively and making whatever comes an expression of that love. Victimhood is the ultimate destiny of her little way: Our littleness must be consumed by the infinite fire of divine charity. Like gold in a refiner's fire, once love is purified of its impurities, it becomes weak and malleable.
Her song, 'The Withered Rose,’ composed shortly before her death, articulate her own self-oblation, the passion of her self-squandering love: Like a rose that has just reached perfection, her petals are deliberately, lovingly, and tenderly shed under Jesus' feet as he takes his first steps on ‘our sad earth’, and as he treads his last to Calvary. This is her life's meaning — to be all for Jesus, for his easing, for his joy. This is Thérèse----Of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face--purified by the crucible of suffering, possessed by Love and has herself become love.
For Thee I die, for Thee, Jesus, Thou Fairest Fair! —
Joy beyond telling! —
Thus, fading, would I prove my love beyond compare,
All bliss excelling.
Beneath Thy feet, Thy way to smooth, through life’s long night,
My heart would lie;
And softening Thy hard path up Calvary’s awful height,
I thus would die.
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
ST. THERESE NOVENA - Eighth Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - EIGHTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.(1 Peter 1:6-7)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- SEAL OF HOLINESS, COMPASS TO ETERNITY
The consequence of sin, suffering has been sanctified by the Passion of Christ. God's plan became clear to Thérèse: to make the consequences of sin serve not only humanity's salvation, but also its perfection unto holiness. In the Crucified, the merciful love of God meets the misery of humanity, making suffering the ladder to sanctity and salvation. The events of Thérèse’s life allowed her to recognize this connection between suffering and God’s will: By suffering, love orients one to God. "When we are brought to misery we have no desire to gaze at ourselves, and we turn our gaze towards the One beloved." ”
Herein therefore lies the secret of holiness: United with the Crucified, suffering enables one to go out of oneself to be united with God. In other words, it becomes a means of love. Great love, great holiness, go hand in hand with great suffering. The more one focuses on Jesus, the more sympathetic that person becomes: "Love much and you will suffer much.” It is the greatness of love which matters, not the suffering itself. It is only because suffering and love are intertwined that Thérèse speaks of welcoming suffering. Therefore, she emphasizes that little acts of kindness or little slights ignored with great love gain infinite value in Jesus' hands. “Holiness does not consist in saying beautiful things, it does not even consist in thinking them, in feeling them! It consists in suffering and in suffering everything. Let us see life in the true light... It is a moment between two eternities...” It is because it detaches us from material things, reminding us of our destiny, that suffering becomes the prerequisite for salvation: “Trials help us detach ourselves from the earth; they make us look higher than this world. Here below nothing can satisfy us."
“"Sanctity does not consist in this or that practice; it consists in a disposition of heart which makes us humble and little in the arms of God, conscious of our weakness, and confident to the point of audacity in the goodness of our Father." (St. Thérèse)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
NOVENA - EIGHTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.(1 Peter 1:6-7)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- SEAL OF HOLINESS, COMPASS TO ETERNITY
The consequence of sin, suffering has been sanctified by the Passion of Christ. God's plan became clear to Thérèse: to make the consequences of sin serve not only humanity's salvation, but also its perfection unto holiness. In the Crucified, the merciful love of God meets the misery of humanity, making suffering the ladder to sanctity and salvation. The events of Thérèse’s life allowed her to recognize this connection between suffering and God’s will: By suffering, love orients one to God. "When we are brought to misery we have no desire to gaze at ourselves, and we turn our gaze towards the One beloved." ”
Herein therefore lies the secret of holiness: United with the Crucified, suffering enables one to go out of oneself to be united with God. In other words, it becomes a means of love. Great love, great holiness, go hand in hand with great suffering. The more one focuses on Jesus, the more sympathetic that person becomes: "Love much and you will suffer much.” It is the greatness of love which matters, not the suffering itself. It is only because suffering and love are intertwined that Thérèse speaks of welcoming suffering. Therefore, she emphasizes that little acts of kindness or little slights ignored with great love gain infinite value in Jesus' hands. “Holiness does not consist in saying beautiful things, it does not even consist in thinking them, in feeling them! It consists in suffering and in suffering everything. Let us see life in the true light... It is a moment between two eternities...” It is because it detaches us from material things, reminding us of our destiny, that suffering becomes the prerequisite for salvation: “Trials help us detach ourselves from the earth; they make us look higher than this world. Here below nothing can satisfy us."
“"Sanctity does not consist in this or that practice; it consists in a disposition of heart which makes us humble and little in the arms of God, conscious of our weakness, and confident to the point of audacity in the goodness of our Father." (St. Thérèse)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
A song to St. Michael
Michael, prince of all the angels,
While your legions fill the sky,
All victorious over Satan,
Lift your flaming sword on high;
Shout to all the seas and heavens:
Now the morning is begun;
Now is rescued from the dragon
She whose garment is the sun!
Mighty champion of the woman,
Mighty servant of her Lord,
Come with all your myriad warriors,
Come and save us with your sword;
Enemies of God surround us:
Share with us your burning love;
Let the incense of our worship
Rise before His throne above!
Gabriel, messenger to Mary,
Raphael, healer, friend and guide,
All you hosts of guardian angels
Ever standing by our side,
Virtues, Thrones and Dominations,
Raise on high your joyful hymn,
Principalities and Powers,
Cherubim and Seraphim!
M.Owen Lee, C.S.B. / William J. Marsh
While your legions fill the sky,
All victorious over Satan,
Lift your flaming sword on high;
Shout to all the seas and heavens:
Now the morning is begun;
Now is rescued from the dragon
She whose garment is the sun!
Mighty champion of the woman,
Mighty servant of her Lord,
Come with all your myriad warriors,
Come and save us with your sword;
Enemies of God surround us:
Share with us your burning love;
Let the incense of our worship
Rise before His throne above!
Gabriel, messenger to Mary,
Raphael, healer, friend and guide,
All you hosts of guardian angels
Ever standing by our side,
Virtues, Thrones and Dominations,
Raise on high your joyful hymn,
Principalities and Powers,
Cherubim and Seraphim!
M.Owen Lee, C.S.B. / William J. Marsh
ST. THERESE NOVENA - Seventh Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - SEVENTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "Even when we are weighed down with sufferings, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer." (2 Corinthians 1:6)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE ROOT OF COMPASSION
“I myself was consumed with a thirst for souls… not with the souls of priests, but with those of great sinners...” Love prompted Thérèse to make Jesus' concern for the salvation of individuals her own, being given the grace of identifying with those who had lost their sensibilities for God, in whom the tension between hope and despair was an all consuming battle, a fight to the death. “Jesus made me feel that there were really souls who have no faith, and who, through the abuse of grace, lost this precious treasure, the source of the only real and pure joys. He permitted my soul to be invaded by the thickest darkness, and that the thought of heaven…be no longer anything but the cause of struggle and torment.” In those final months, Thérèse battled the temptation of atheism, feeling the full import of that "dark tunnel.”
Absorbing in her heart the misery of sinners, she placed it with naked, daring faith before God’s merciful embrace, present even in the darkest hours, though one cannot ‘feel’ it. She knew that, without confidence in an ever-loving God, to keep going day after day, year after year, would be a life of folly difficult to endure. Totally abandoned to God with such childlike simplicity, she embodies that house built on rock unshaken though ‘the rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house.’ (Matt 5:25) This saint addresses all who sense futility in their lives, feeling hopeless, wasted, ineffectual and powerless. This is the essence of compassion. Cum-Passio-- To suffer with. Thérèse’s compassion, beyond empty sentiments and theatrical well-wishes, comes not from one unfamiliar with misery but from a comrade who endured the same arena of pain, and who, by the grace of the Crucified, emerged victorious.
I cannot conceive of a greater immensity of love than the one which it has pleased you[, Lord,] to give me freely, without any merit on my part… O Jesus, since this sweet flame consumes my heart, I run with joy in the way of Your New Commandment. It is no longer a question of loving one’s neighbor as oneself but of loving him as he – Jesus – has loved him, and will love him to the consummation of the ages. The more I am united to Him, the more also do I love all my sisters. " (St. Thérèse, Story of a Soul)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
NOVENA - SEVENTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "Even when we are weighed down with sufferings, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer." (2 Corinthians 1:6)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE ROOT OF COMPASSION
“I myself was consumed with a thirst for souls… not with the souls of priests, but with those of great sinners...” Love prompted Thérèse to make Jesus' concern for the salvation of individuals her own, being given the grace of identifying with those who had lost their sensibilities for God, in whom the tension between hope and despair was an all consuming battle, a fight to the death. “Jesus made me feel that there were really souls who have no faith, and who, through the abuse of grace, lost this precious treasure, the source of the only real and pure joys. He permitted my soul to be invaded by the thickest darkness, and that the thought of heaven…be no longer anything but the cause of struggle and torment.” In those final months, Thérèse battled the temptation of atheism, feeling the full import of that "dark tunnel.”
Absorbing in her heart the misery of sinners, she placed it with naked, daring faith before God’s merciful embrace, present even in the darkest hours, though one cannot ‘feel’ it. She knew that, without confidence in an ever-loving God, to keep going day after day, year after year, would be a life of folly difficult to endure. Totally abandoned to God with such childlike simplicity, she embodies that house built on rock unshaken though ‘the rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house.’ (Matt 5:25) This saint addresses all who sense futility in their lives, feeling hopeless, wasted, ineffectual and powerless. This is the essence of compassion. Cum-Passio-- To suffer with. Thérèse’s compassion, beyond empty sentiments and theatrical well-wishes, comes not from one unfamiliar with misery but from a comrade who endured the same arena of pain, and who, by the grace of the Crucified, emerged victorious.
I cannot conceive of a greater immensity of love than the one which it has pleased you[, Lord,] to give me freely, without any merit on my part… O Jesus, since this sweet flame consumes my heart, I run with joy in the way of Your New Commandment. It is no longer a question of loving one’s neighbor as oneself but of loving him as he – Jesus – has loved him, and will love him to the consummation of the ages. The more I am united to Him, the more also do I love all my sisters. " (St. Thérèse, Story of a Soul)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
ST. THERESE NOVENA - Sixth Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - SIXTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me." (1 Cor 12:9)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE GLORY OF WEAKNESS
Everything in Thérèse's life, particularly her limitations, became a context for relationship with God and thus integral to her 'Little Way': The years of struggle with her own fragility offered Thérèse a graced conclusion: in one’s weaknesses is God’s strength manifested: "It is enough to realize one's nothingness, and give oneself wholly, like a child, into the arms of the good God. …I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet'." Like a mere grain of sand on the beach of a loving God or the little ball that Jesus plays with as he likes, Thérèse’s littleness was made all-the-more acute during her illness. Finite and fragile, she became marvelously free from herself and marvelously free for God, her soul wide open to the invasions of divine love. “The weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more ready one is for the operations of this consuming and transforming love....”
In the Crucified, Thérèse’s weakness was absorbed in the strength of the Passion of Love. She suffered in union with Jesus, but not in any proud, superhuman manner. She accepts her moments of irritation, her tears and complaints as reflections of her smallness. She has no intention of storming heaven with her heroic credentials clutched tightly in her hand. On the contrary, her hope is to be borne up, with no merit on her part, on the eagle wings of Jesus. She glories in her “complete helplessness,” not for the pain it brings, but because it is a salvific word through which God sanctified her making her a participant in the redemptive work of Christ Crucified. Suffering is a word which spoke God's love to her and through which she speaks her love for God and for souls.
"And suppose God wishes to have you as feeble and powerless as a child? Do you think that would be less worthy in God's eyes? Consent to stumble, or even to fall at every step, to bear your cross feebly; love your weakness. Your soul will draw more profit from that than if, sustained by grace, you vigorously performed heroic deeds which would fill your soul with self-satisfaction and pride." (St. Thérèse)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
NOVENA - SIXTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me." (1 Cor 12:9)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE GLORY OF WEAKNESS
Everything in Thérèse's life, particularly her limitations, became a context for relationship with God and thus integral to her 'Little Way': The years of struggle with her own fragility offered Thérèse a graced conclusion: in one’s weaknesses is God’s strength manifested: "It is enough to realize one's nothingness, and give oneself wholly, like a child, into the arms of the good God. …I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet'." Like a mere grain of sand on the beach of a loving God or the little ball that Jesus plays with as he likes, Thérèse’s littleness was made all-the-more acute during her illness. Finite and fragile, she became marvelously free from herself and marvelously free for God, her soul wide open to the invasions of divine love. “The weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more ready one is for the operations of this consuming and transforming love....”
In the Crucified, Thérèse’s weakness was absorbed in the strength of the Passion of Love. She suffered in union with Jesus, but not in any proud, superhuman manner. She accepts her moments of irritation, her tears and complaints as reflections of her smallness. She has no intention of storming heaven with her heroic credentials clutched tightly in her hand. On the contrary, her hope is to be borne up, with no merit on her part, on the eagle wings of Jesus. She glories in her “complete helplessness,” not for the pain it brings, but because it is a salvific word through which God sanctified her making her a participant in the redemptive work of Christ Crucified. Suffering is a word which spoke God's love to her and through which she speaks her love for God and for souls.
"And suppose God wishes to have you as feeble and powerless as a child? Do you think that would be less worthy in God's eyes? Consent to stumble, or even to fall at every step, to bear your cross feebly; love your weakness. Your soul will draw more profit from that than if, sustained by grace, you vigorously performed heroic deeds which would fill your soul with self-satisfaction and pride." (St. Thérèse)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
ST. THERESE NOVENA - Fifth Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - FIFTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" (Mark 15:34-35)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE MYSTERY OF GOD'S ABSENCE
Eighteen months before dying from tuberculosis, suddenly there fell upon Thérèse a hitherto unimaginable suffering: the complete obscuration of her faith, what she called 'the night of nothingness.'
"[Jesus] allowed pitch-black darkness to sweep over my soul and let the thought of heaven, so sweet to me since infancy, destroy all my peace and torture me. This trial was not something lasting a few days or weeks. I suffered it for months and I am still waiting for it to end. I wish I could express what I feel, but it is impossible. One must have travelled through the same sunless tunnel to understand how dark it is…."
For the first time, Thérèse confronted in herself the possibility of stark unbelief, the essence of atheism: no heaven, no God — nothing; Everything that gave her life meaning and joy-- gone. Concealed beneath her childlike, charming ‘lightness’ lie her profound anguish, raw and exhausting, lacerating her within and without to an unbearable degree. "I was sorely tried, almost to sadness. So great was the darkness that I no longer knew if God loved me."
In her physical and spiritual despoliation, Thérèse recognized suffering's gift to faith: Total Freedom. She learned that Jesus' presence is not measured by her sense of it. The spiritual darkness and desolation during her illness was not a moment of failure. Without dependence on pleasant or unpleasant 'feelings' about God, she is to be led solely by faith and by love. Jesus remained her Beloved, Faithful and True, in the hour of pain as in the hour of pleasure. Stubbornly clinging to God's unfailing love, she reached faith's deepest core: Through the horrible darkness that echoed with mocking, blasphemous voices, Thérèse focused her entire being towards Jesus, full of trust and love, in a complete and daring abandonment.
"Nothing will frighten me…. If thick clouds hide the Sun and if it seems that nothing exists beyond the night of this life – well, then, that will be a moment of perfect joy, a moment to feel complete trust and stay very still, secure in the knowledge that my adorable Sun still shines behind the clouds." (St. Thérèse, Story of A Soul)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
NOVENA - FIFTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" (Mark 15:34-35)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE MYSTERY OF GOD'S ABSENCE
Eighteen months before dying from tuberculosis, suddenly there fell upon Thérèse a hitherto unimaginable suffering: the complete obscuration of her faith, what she called 'the night of nothingness.'
"[Jesus] allowed pitch-black darkness to sweep over my soul and let the thought of heaven, so sweet to me since infancy, destroy all my peace and torture me. This trial was not something lasting a few days or weeks. I suffered it for months and I am still waiting for it to end. I wish I could express what I feel, but it is impossible. One must have travelled through the same sunless tunnel to understand how dark it is…."
For the first time, Thérèse confronted in herself the possibility of stark unbelief, the essence of atheism: no heaven, no God — nothing; Everything that gave her life meaning and joy-- gone. Concealed beneath her childlike, charming ‘lightness’ lie her profound anguish, raw and exhausting, lacerating her within and without to an unbearable degree. "I was sorely tried, almost to sadness. So great was the darkness that I no longer knew if God loved me."
In her physical and spiritual despoliation, Thérèse recognized suffering's gift to faith: Total Freedom. She learned that Jesus' presence is not measured by her sense of it. The spiritual darkness and desolation during her illness was not a moment of failure. Without dependence on pleasant or unpleasant 'feelings' about God, she is to be led solely by faith and by love. Jesus remained her Beloved, Faithful and True, in the hour of pain as in the hour of pleasure. Stubbornly clinging to God's unfailing love, she reached faith's deepest core: Through the horrible darkness that echoed with mocking, blasphemous voices, Thérèse focused her entire being towards Jesus, full of trust and love, in a complete and daring abandonment.
"Nothing will frighten me…. If thick clouds hide the Sun and if it seems that nothing exists beyond the night of this life – well, then, that will be a moment of perfect joy, a moment to feel complete trust and stay very still, secure in the knowledge that my adorable Sun still shines behind the clouds." (St. Thérèse, Story of A Soul)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
St. THERESE NOVENA - Fourth Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - FOURTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "I find joy amid my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my own person whatever is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the salvation of His Body, the Church." (Col 1:24)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE PRICE OF SOULS
Caught up in the extravagant love of Jesus, Thérèse realized that this love sought to give itself totally to souls yet so many refuse it. One Sunday after Mass, seeing a picture of Jesus Crucified, she was "struck by the blood flowing from one of the divine hands. I felt a great pang of sorrow when thinking this blood was falling to the ground without anyone’s hastening to gather it up. I was resolved to remain in spirit at the foot of the Cross and to receive the divine dew."
At that moment, Jesus wounded her heart with the same love with which he gave up his life. Scarred with this love, Thérèse burned with an intense longing for the salvation of souls: "I understood I was then to pour it out upon souls. The cry of Jesus on the Cross sounded continually in my heart : 'I thirst!' These words ignited within me an unknown and very living fire. I wanted to give my beloved to drink and I felt myself consumed with a thirst for souls."
When Thérèse heard of Pranzini, a murderer caught after his last assault, she felt the urge to pray for his soul. Though he never went to Confession or received Absolution, Thérèse prayed that Our Lord give her a sign that he was saved. Before his execution, Pranzini asked for a Crucifix, three times kising the Sacred Wounds. Upon hearing this, Thérèse cried with joy at the thought that Jesus had saved yet another soul for Heaven. After this, she had the thirst to pray for more souls, learning that the salvation of others depends on our willingness to be so joined with Jesus-so taken over by him-that our sufferings serve his salvific purpose. "I would never have believed that it was possible to suffer to such an extent; I can only understand it through my intense desire to save souls."
Remember Thou that amorous complaint,
Escaping from Thy lips on Calvary's tree:
"I thirst!" Oh, how my heart like Thine doth faint.
Yes, yes! I share Thy burning thirst with Thee.
The more my heart burns bright with Thy great Heart's chaste fires,
The more I thirst for souls, to quench Thy Heart's desires.
(St. Thérèse)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
NOVENA - FOURTH DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "I find joy amid my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my own person whatever is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the salvation of His Body, the Church." (Col 1:24)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- THE PRICE OF SOULS
Caught up in the extravagant love of Jesus, Thérèse realized that this love sought to give itself totally to souls yet so many refuse it. One Sunday after Mass, seeing a picture of Jesus Crucified, she was "struck by the blood flowing from one of the divine hands. I felt a great pang of sorrow when thinking this blood was falling to the ground without anyone’s hastening to gather it up. I was resolved to remain in spirit at the foot of the Cross and to receive the divine dew."
At that moment, Jesus wounded her heart with the same love with which he gave up his life. Scarred with this love, Thérèse burned with an intense longing for the salvation of souls: "I understood I was then to pour it out upon souls. The cry of Jesus on the Cross sounded continually in my heart : 'I thirst!' These words ignited within me an unknown and very living fire. I wanted to give my beloved to drink and I felt myself consumed with a thirst for souls."
When Thérèse heard of Pranzini, a murderer caught after his last assault, she felt the urge to pray for his soul. Though he never went to Confession or received Absolution, Thérèse prayed that Our Lord give her a sign that he was saved. Before his execution, Pranzini asked for a Crucifix, three times kising the Sacred Wounds. Upon hearing this, Thérèse cried with joy at the thought that Jesus had saved yet another soul for Heaven. After this, she had the thirst to pray for more souls, learning that the salvation of others depends on our willingness to be so joined with Jesus-so taken over by him-that our sufferings serve his salvific purpose. "I would never have believed that it was possible to suffer to such an extent; I can only understand it through my intense desire to save souls."
Remember Thou that amorous complaint,
Escaping from Thy lips on Calvary's tree:
"I thirst!" Oh, how my heart like Thine doth faint.
Yes, yes! I share Thy burning thirst with Thee.
The more my heart burns bright with Thy great Heart's chaste fires,
The more I thirst for souls, to quench Thy Heart's desires.
(St. Thérèse)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
ST. THERESE NOVENA - Third Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - THIRD DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: ""If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- UNION WITH THE CRUCIFIED
In the Crucified, Thérèse encountered a burning furnace of love so stubbornly strong it sweetens even that which is most bitter. Here lies her secret: her Love is Crucified and suffering is his kiss. To follow him, to be united with him, is to shoulder, with selfless love, the Cross and the suffering it entails. Love for Jesus plunged Thérèse into mental, physical and spiritual desolation. Love drove her to become a "prisoner," as she calls it, within Carmel’s cold, brick walls, to volunteer to help a crotchety old sister make her way to the refectory and to silently put up with the inconveniences and annoyances of community life. Love allowed her to welcomed her father's humiliating illness and her own slow death all as a share in Christ's cross. Three months before her death, Thérèse stated, "suffering has become my heaven here below."
In offering herself to merciful Love, she gave herself up without any reserve to trial and suffering which marked her life as with a seal. Since "Love penetrated and possessed her," suffering seized her as if she were its prey. The victim offered in holocaust had been accepted. Love was to consume her body, by a most painful illness, and her soul, by a terrible trial: "A wall rose up to heaven and hid God from me". "O Mother, I did not believe that it was possible to suffer so much...” The magnitude of her suffering matched the intensity of her love. In the spiritual darkness and physical misery that marked her illness, she firmly believed that suffering united her to her Beloved.
Yet Thérèse had no interest in pain for its own sake. She rejected the deliberate infliction of pain through the wearing of ascetical devices, suspecting that it could become a source of pride. Pain was not her goal as there is more than that for Thérèse. Ultimately, suffering united her with Jesus Crucified whose love saves and sanctifies, inviting all who draw near to share in his work of redemption.
“Lead me, then, by the paths which He loves to travel. I shall be at the height of my joy, provided that He is pleased. Then Jesus took me by the hand, and made me enter an underground passage where it is neither hot nor cold, where I see nothing but a half-veiled light, the light which was diffused by the lowered eyes of my Fiancé's Face! My Fiancé says nothing to me, and I say nothing to Him except THAT I LOVE HIM MORE THAN MYSELF, and I feel at the bottom of my heart that it is true, for I AM MORE HIS THAN MY OWN! . (St. Thérèse, Letters)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
NOVENA - THIRD DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: ""If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)
Reflection: SUFFERING-- UNION WITH THE CRUCIFIED
In the Crucified, Thérèse encountered a burning furnace of love so stubbornly strong it sweetens even that which is most bitter. Here lies her secret: her Love is Crucified and suffering is his kiss. To follow him, to be united with him, is to shoulder, with selfless love, the Cross and the suffering it entails. Love for Jesus plunged Thérèse into mental, physical and spiritual desolation. Love drove her to become a "prisoner," as she calls it, within Carmel’s cold, brick walls, to volunteer to help a crotchety old sister make her way to the refectory and to silently put up with the inconveniences and annoyances of community life. Love allowed her to welcomed her father's humiliating illness and her own slow death all as a share in Christ's cross. Three months before her death, Thérèse stated, "suffering has become my heaven here below."
In offering herself to merciful Love, she gave herself up without any reserve to trial and suffering which marked her life as with a seal. Since "Love penetrated and possessed her," suffering seized her as if she were its prey. The victim offered in holocaust had been accepted. Love was to consume her body, by a most painful illness, and her soul, by a terrible trial: "A wall rose up to heaven and hid God from me". "O Mother, I did not believe that it was possible to suffer so much...” The magnitude of her suffering matched the intensity of her love. In the spiritual darkness and physical misery that marked her illness, she firmly believed that suffering united her to her Beloved.
Yet Thérèse had no interest in pain for its own sake. She rejected the deliberate infliction of pain through the wearing of ascetical devices, suspecting that it could become a source of pride. Pain was not her goal as there is more than that for Thérèse. Ultimately, suffering united her with Jesus Crucified whose love saves and sanctifies, inviting all who draw near to share in his work of redemption.
“Lead me, then, by the paths which He loves to travel. I shall be at the height of my joy, provided that He is pleased. Then Jesus took me by the hand, and made me enter an underground passage where it is neither hot nor cold, where I see nothing but a half-veiled light, the light which was diffused by the lowered eyes of my Fiancé's Face! My Fiancé says nothing to me, and I say nothing to Him except THAT I LOVE HIM MORE THAN MYSELF, and I feel at the bottom of my heart that it is true, for I AM MORE HIS THAN MY OWN! . (St. Thérèse, Letters)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
ST. THERESE NOVENA - Second Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
NOVENA - SECOND DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)
Reflection: SUFFERING--THE WAY OF JESUS
When she received the habit of Carmel, Thérèse chose the suffix: --"Of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face," a title which fully encapsulates her vision of God. For Thérèse, love has driven God to empty himself so that he can draw near to us and consequently draw us to himself.
Since God became a Child, how could anyone be afraid of him? This weakness, innocence and vulnerability of Christ's childhood culminates in his Passion where weakness, innocence, and vulnerability become His sacrifice of redemptive love. The Childhood of Jesus and His Holy Face encapsulate one singular mystery: Jesus empties himself as the Child of the Crib and the Victim of the Cross in order to draw souls into the very intimacy of the Trinity.
In Jesus, the mystery of suffering is thus caught up in the mystery of divine love. In his emptiness, Jesus meets us in the crucible of suffering where we are most vulnerable. Jesus goes to the heart of the human struggle and that is where we find Him. In our darkest and most painful moments--physically, mentally, spiritually--our God has been there and he walks with us. With the tenderness of a little Child and the compassion of a Man of Sorrows, he embraces us with his love, a love which ushers us and our own sorrows into the very heart of the Divine Trinity.
But when man, too, had trifled with God's grace,
Pity and comfort were to him displayed.
The Eternal Word, the Father's Equal Son,
Clothing Himself with poor humanity,
Back to His Father's heart the exiles won
By His profound humility.
(St. Thérèse, Poem in Honour of St. Joan of Arc)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
NOVENA - SECOND DAY
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)
Reflection: SUFFERING--THE WAY OF JESUS
When she received the habit of Carmel, Thérèse chose the suffix: --"Of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face," a title which fully encapsulates her vision of God. For Thérèse, love has driven God to empty himself so that he can draw near to us and consequently draw us to himself.
Since God became a Child, how could anyone be afraid of him? This weakness, innocence and vulnerability of Christ's childhood culminates in his Passion where weakness, innocence, and vulnerability become His sacrifice of redemptive love. The Childhood of Jesus and His Holy Face encapsulate one singular mystery: Jesus empties himself as the Child of the Crib and the Victim of the Cross in order to draw souls into the very intimacy of the Trinity.
In Jesus, the mystery of suffering is thus caught up in the mystery of divine love. In his emptiness, Jesus meets us in the crucible of suffering where we are most vulnerable. Jesus goes to the heart of the human struggle and that is where we find Him. In our darkest and most painful moments--physically, mentally, spiritually--our God has been there and he walks with us. With the tenderness of a little Child and the compassion of a Man of Sorrows, he embraces us with his love, a love which ushers us and our own sorrows into the very heart of the Divine Trinity.
But when man, too, had trifled with God's grace,
Pity and comfort were to him displayed.
The Eternal Word, the Father's Equal Son,
Clothing Himself with poor humanity,
Back to His Father's heart the exiles won
By His profound humility.
(St. Thérèse, Poem in Honour of St. Joan of Arc)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Thérèse, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to the mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering your promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Thérèse, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
ST. THERESE NOVENA - First Day
THE LITTLE FLOWER: LIGHT AMIDST A CULTURE OF DEATH
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "This is the Cup the Father has given me. Shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11)
Reflection: SUFFERING--GIFT OF GOD'S LOVE
Therese lived with the simplicity of a child, poor in spirit, full of unshakable confidence in the merciful love of God. She understood that in the fire of God's love, one is transformed. The heart is stretched to infinity, the impurities are burned away and one is emptied in order to be filled with God. Because of this transformation, suffering is inevitable: Once the complete surrender to merciful love has been made, "...love surrounds and penetrates me; at every moment this merciful love renews and purifies me, leaving no trace of sin in my heart."
Therese's faith in the goodness of God convinced her that we suffer because God loves us. Actually, she expresses this in a more intimate way by saying that it is Jesus' "gentle hand which strikes" us. He is the source of our pain. He may not enjoy making us uncomfortable, but he knows-Therese boldly proclaims-that only in this way can we enter His life. Nothing else can transform us. Jesus therefore smiles and sends more bitterness.
Without trust in God's love, the mystery of suffering would make no sense. This is Therese's 'little way,' the way of spiritual childhood. Though a child may not fully grasp her mother's ways, the child trusts, confident in her Mother's love. This way of spiritual childhood is open to all, especially those who are experiencing suffering and temptations that they cannot understand or remove.
"Oh! no, I will not fear his blows for, even in the most bitter sufferings, one always feels that it is his gentle hand that strikes" (St. Therese)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Therese, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering you promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Therese, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and to the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
Opening Prayer: O my God! I believe in You: strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in You: O secure them. I love You: teach me to love You daily more and more.
WORD: "This is the Cup the Father has given me. Shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11)
Reflection: SUFFERING--GIFT OF GOD'S LOVE
Therese lived with the simplicity of a child, poor in spirit, full of unshakable confidence in the merciful love of God. She understood that in the fire of God's love, one is transformed. The heart is stretched to infinity, the impurities are burned away and one is emptied in order to be filled with God. Because of this transformation, suffering is inevitable: Once the complete surrender to merciful love has been made, "...love surrounds and penetrates me; at every moment this merciful love renews and purifies me, leaving no trace of sin in my heart."
Therese's faith in the goodness of God convinced her that we suffer because God loves us. Actually, she expresses this in a more intimate way by saying that it is Jesus' "gentle hand which strikes" us. He is the source of our pain. He may not enjoy making us uncomfortable, but he knows-Therese boldly proclaims-that only in this way can we enter His life. Nothing else can transform us. Jesus therefore smiles and sends more bitterness.
Without trust in God's love, the mystery of suffering would make no sense. This is Therese's 'little way,' the way of spiritual childhood. Though a child may not fully grasp her mother's ways, the child trusts, confident in her Mother's love. This way of spiritual childhood is open to all, especially those who are experiencing suffering and temptations that they cannot understand or remove.
"Oh! no, I will not fear his blows for, even in the most bitter sufferings, one always feels that it is his gentle hand that strikes" (St. Therese)
DAILY PRAYER
O Lord, You have said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant us, we beg You, so to follow, in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the Virgin blessed Thérèse, that we may attain to an everlasting reward. Amen.
St. Therese, beloved friend, you promised to spend your heaven doing good upon earth. We come before you in our need. We believe that you listen to us and approach God for and with us. You are love in the heart of the Church. You are love in the heart of God. With childlike faith and selfless love, you were ushered in the circle of our Lord's passion, offering us His Holy Face as the key to mystery of suffering.
O Little Flower, remembering you promise "to do Good upon earth" and to shower down your "roses" on those who invoke you, obtain graces for these intentions which we place before you:
- For those who are sick and suffering, especially those with terminal illnesses
- For all who are burdened by physical and mental affliction, disease, and all forms of addiction
- For all who have lost faith in the Gospel of life, and especially for those whose old age or infirmity temps them to despair
- For all whom society has abandoned; for those who have no one to pray for them, for those who contemplate suicide
- For their families and all who care for them, nurses, doctors and health care workers
- For our political and religious leaders and all with positions of influence,
O St. Therese, our sister, obtain for us a strong faith and love to embrace the Risen Lord. May your intercession discourage the enemy and banish from our land the scourge of the Culture of Death. Anchored in prayer, fill us with apostolic zeal to become living witnesses to the Merciful Love of God and to the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. To the Child Jesus, whose Holy Face, radiant with the wounds of his blessed Passion, is our light and our salvation, be glory and honour in this dark night and in the everlasting day. Amen.
1 'Our Father,' 1 'Hail Mary,' 1 'Glory be' in reparation for sins against the gift of life.
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