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.