The friends of St. Therese have been asked to pray for Oleksandra, a Ukrainian woman in Kiev who was badly injured in a serious car accident in Kiev.  She is still in hospital and will need five or six operations and several prostheses.  Please pray for her and for her daughter, Marie.   Thank you.

Little Tessa Sale entered into life on Saturday, February 7th.  Her funeral Mass is at eleven o'clock on Wednesday, February 11.  Please pray for her mother, father, sisters, and all her family.

Although Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin did not obtain Tessa's cure, I count on them to persuade God to work the miracle of consoling her family.  I can't help thinking of the letter Zelie's sister, Sister Marie-Dosithee, wrote her on February 23, 1870, after the death of her five-year-old Helene, the third child to die in three years:

"Sursum corda! Lift up your heart! Our angel is in Heaven, and without having undergone the trials of this world. Clothed in her white baptismal robe she has passed from the arms of her mother into those of our Lord. We would have liked to keep her with us; she was so promising, but who can foretell the future? Does she not possess true blessedness which she might have lost in the future? God is no less lovable when He takes away than when He gives to us.

Abandon them with me, if you please, to "the abysses of love and mercy of the Heart of Jesus."  Receive the gratitude of Tessa's family, and my gratitude, for accompanying them in your prayer.

Please join in asking Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin to intercede for the cure of Tessa Sale, a baby born in Seattle on January 26th.   She developed trouble breathing and was admitted to Seattle Children's Hospital.  On Friday, January 30th, the doctors said that they could not save her life.  On Monday, February 1, she was taken off the respirator.  At one o'clock today little Tessa was still alive.  Many people, especially monasteries of Discalced Carmelite nuns in the United States, are praying for her.  Please join us in making the prayer below  for her cure and for the canonization of Blessed Louis and Zelie.   Thank you.

God our Father
I thank you for giving us Blessed Louis Martin and Zélie Martin,
who, joined in the unity and faithfulness of marriage,
gave us testimony of an exemplary Christian life,
performing their daily duties according to the spirit of the Gospel.
Raising a large family, through trials, mourning, and tribulations,
they showed their trust in You and generously adhered to Your will.
Lord, let us know Your plans in relation to them,
and grant me the grace I am asking, the cure of baby Tessa Sale,
in the hope that the father and mother
of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face
may soon be included among the Saints of the Church,
as an example to the families of our time.

Amen.

A portion of the relics of Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin have been visiting Italy this month.  The urn containing these relics is now being venerated at the Vatican, and Pope Benedict will receive the relics during his weekly audience on Wednesday.  For details, please see the CNS story here.

To celebrate the end of the year in which Louis and Zelie Martin were beatified, and as a New Year's Eve prayer for all who visit thereseoflisieux.org I offer the letter St. Therese wrote to her sister Celine on New Year's Eve 1889.  The year 1889 had been most painful for the Martin family: on 12 February 1889, the date Therese later called "our great treasure," Louis had had to enter a psychiatric hospital at Caen, where he remained for more than three years.  In that context, the letter Therese, then sixteen, wrote to Celine is all the more inspiring:

J. M. J. T.

Jesus +                                                                                                                             December 31, 1889

My dear Celine,

You are the one getting my last "adieu" for this year! . . . In a few hours, it will have passed forever . . . it will be in eternity! . . .

Since my Celine is in her bed, it is up to me to go and wish her a Happy New Year. 

Do you remember times past? . . . The year which is just running out was good; yes, it was precious for heaven, and may the one that will follow resemble it! . . .

Celine, I'm not surprised at seeing you in bed after such a year; at the end of a day like that, there is reason to rest! . . . Do you understand? . . . Perhaps the year about to begin will be the last!!!!!! . . . Ah! let us profit, let us profit from the shortest moments; let us act like misers, and let us be jealous of the littlest things for the Beloved!  Our New Year's day is very sad this year . . . and it's with a heart filled with memories that I'm going to watch, waiting for midnight . . . . I remember everything . . . now we are orphans, but we can say with love, "Our Father, who art in heaven."  Yes, there still remains to us the only All of our souls! . . .

Another year has passed! . . . Celine, it is gone, gone, and it will never return, and just as this year has passed so also will our life pass and soon we shall say "It is gone."  Let us not waste our time, soon eternity will shine for us! . . . Celine, if you wish, let us convert souls; this year, we must form many priests who love Jesus and who handle Him with the same tenderness with which Mary handled Him in His cradle!

Your little Sister Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face

from Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Volume I, 1877-1890.  Washington, D.C: ICS Publications, 1982.  Letter 101, pp. 601-602.  Used with permission.