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.