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.