The Carmel of Lisieux, at its Web site, http://www.carmeldelisieux.fr.,  is posting each week the story of the vocation of one of the nuns who lives there now.  I thank the Carmel for permission to translate this story into English and to post it.  It is the story of an extern sister:

A life at the service of the pilgrims of Therese

I come from a Catholic family; my father had three sisters who were nuns, so, when his daughter also wanted to enter an order, it did not make him cry!  Since I was very little I wanted to be a nun.  It is on account of little Thérèse that I entered here, and then I had an aunt who was an extern sister here, that is to say a Cramelite who does not live within the enclosure and who is responsible for the monastery’s relations with the world outside.  When I was very little I heard my aunt speaking of Thérèse .  That is how I received the vocation of being an extern sister.

I have had this vocation since I was eighteen months old!  In 1927 my parents took me to the speakroom to see Mother Agnès, the older sister of Thérèse.  When I saw the grilles, I was so afraid of them that I rolled on the floor!  Mother Agnès said to my parents:  “Don’t worry, she will come back to us; she will come back to us!”  And 22 years later, I came as an extern sister, for I want to be at the service of the pilgrims of little Thérèse.  To welcome them at the door, to accompany them at the big ceremonies, to pray in the chapel with them, it is my joy  to receive whole pilgrimages.  I entered the Carmel of Lisieux for little Thérèse, but, before all else, it is to love Jesus and to make him loved.

Thérèse

For me Thérèse is a big sister who has always accompanied me.  Since I was born: my delivery was very difficult and they feared losing me; my father entrusted me to Thérèse  and made a vow to her to give me her name if I survived.  She has always been everything for me.

My favorite saint:

Saint Joseph! I would like all the little boys to be called Joseph as I have a great devotion for him.

Sentence of the Bible:

"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you .  Remain in my love" (Jn 15: 9).  To remain in his love, to feel oneself loved by Jesus, to have the desire to love him also, that’s what brought me here.  To remain in his love, this is my vocation as a Carmelite.

My great desire, it is to die for love.  I often repeat the last verse of  Thérèse’s poem “Vivre d’Amour” (“To Live by Love”):

Dying of Love is what I hope for.

When I shall see my bonds broken,

My God will be my Great Reward.

I don’t desire to possess any other goods.

I want to be set on fire with his Love.

I want to see Him, to unite myself to Him forever.

That is my Heaven . . . . that is my destiny:

Living on Love!!! . . . . . .

On October 19 the world received two special graces through the Martin family.  On that date in 2008, Louis and Zelie Martin were declared "blessed" as a couple.  And on October 19, 1997, their daughter  Therese was proclaimed a doctor of the Church.  Please join me in thanking God for these graces.

It is hard to believe that, three years ago today, I was in France to celebrate the beatification.  I spent the day of the vigil with other pilgrims in Alencon, ending with a Pontifical Mass in the church in which Louis and Zelie were married.  For a short account of that deeply graced pilgrimage please read "Tracing the Lives of Zelie Guerin and Louis Martin," published in the Carmelite Review.

Now, only three years after the beatification, we have the joy of being able to distribute the letters of Louis and Zelie, A Call to a Deeper Love, in English!  The need for married saints is so great that I hope this book will make it possible for the English-speaking world to take Zelie and Louis to their hearts and to see how much they have to say to spouses, working couples, business owners, parents, caregivers, the bereaved, the dying, and all those engaged in the struggle to "serve God first." 

Read more about the beatification of Louis and Zelie. And read more about Therese as a Doctor of the Church.

It was on the feast of St. Teresa of Avila in 1886 that Marie Louise Martin, the oldest sister of St. Therese of Lisieux, entered the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux. 

Marie was a free spirit.  At first, she refused to consider the religious life, and also stated flatly that she would never marry.  As a young woman, she hated to take trouble with her dress.  She wrote that she detested the little white lace veils it was customary for young women to wear suspended from their hats.   "To put on a new dress was a genuine trial for me."  She said that she loathed the custom of wearing a medallion sewed to a ribbon around one's neck (seen in the photo at right).  She said  "I felt like a little parlor dog when I wore that velvet neckband."  After she received the Carmelite habit, she wrote "Every morning, it seemed, I put on a garment of liberty, and it was also a festive garment to me.  Even, as when I was a child, I could say 'I am quite free.'  To go to choir, the only toilette necessary was to let down one's sleeves.  My happiness was unbelievable!' 

Marie decided somewhat reluctantly to enter Carmel, acting at the  direction of Fr. Almire Pichon, her spiritual director.  She wrote later “The hour of sacrifice was about to strike.  I saw this hour approach without enthusiasm . . . While passing through the cloister to enter the choir, I cast a glance at the cloister courtyard.  It is indeed as I imagined, I thought.  How austere it is!  But after all, I did not come here to see cheerful things.  That was the extent of my enthusiasm! . . . Then with you, my Pauline of old, I was sent to make a tour of the garden.  I was still unimpressed.  The garden seemed so small to me after the immense enclosure of the Visitation at Mans [the Lisieux Carmel is one of the smallest Carmels in France], and, besides, everything seemed to me to be so poor.  I did not even think of the happiness of being with you.  I just wondered how I would succeed in spending my life within those four walls.

 Ah! Mother, I have found Jesus within these four walls and, in finding Him, I have found heaven!  Yes, it is here that I have passed the happiest years of my life.” 

Marie worked in the infirmary, the garden, and the kitchen during her life in Carmel.  She was deeply loved by all the sisters, and she helped take care of Mother Genevieve of St. Teresa, foundress of the Carmel, who called Marie "her ray of sunshine."  For these and other details, see "Marie, Sister of St. Therese," a short life written by her sister Pauline, Mother Agnes, translated by Roland Murphy. O. Carm. and Joachim Smet, O. Carm. and edited by Albert Dolan, O. Carm.  Carmelite Press, 1943.

Marie's life, like Therese's, was very hidden, but her visible part in the history of salvation is considerable, for it was she who asked her sister Pauline, Mother Agnes of Jesus, who was prioress, to instruct Therese to write the manuscript which became the first manuscript of "Story of a Soul" and she who asked Therese for a souvenir of her retreat.  That souvenir was Therese's beautiful manuscript "My vocation is love." 

 To reach more people who want to learn about St. Therese, the Web site "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway" has opened a page of the same name on Facebook.  Now that so many people spend much of their time online with Facebook, I want them to be able to be in touch with St. Therese there.  I will post status updates and links to the site and to other items of interest about Saint Therese there, as well as on this blog.  The Facebook page will deliver articles, videos, and photos about St. Therese and Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin to your news stream.  I hope it will attract new viewers to the Web site and will encourage conversation about the influence of the spirituality of St. Therese and of the Martin family in our lives.  Please visit us there!

EWTN offers the premiere of their new film about the historic visit of the relics of St. Therese to South Africa in 2010, the first time the relics traveled to the continent of Africa.  View it tonight (Saturday, October 1) at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  You may view it on TV or online (live only) at http://www.ewtn.com/tv/index.asp

Photo thanks to Archdiocesan News, Johannesburg
(http://sacns.scripturelink.net/2010/07/south-africa-st-thesese-relics-at.html)

The film is about 50 minutes long and is exceptionally well done.  I am glad I got up at 5:00 a.m. to see it.  It includes remarks by representatives of the Church in South Africa on St. Therese’s life and spirituality; a brief history of the Church in South Africa; footage of the reception of the reliquary all over South Africa; and personal reflections by Carmelites, Poor Clares, priests, and bishops on the influence of the visit of the reliquary and the significance of that powerful spiritual event for the people of South Africa.  It captures a unique moment in the recent history of the Theresian event.  I believe that reflecting on what Therese means to the people of South Africa is helping me to see more clearly what she means for me and for all of us. Watching it is a superb way to celebrate the feast of St. Therese and to be present to her mission today.

Please also note that at 10:00 p.m. tonight EWTN presents “Heart of the Matter, the Focus: The Relics of St. Therese of Lisieux Visit Great Britain.”   Various guests reflect on that phenomenon,  including “Mgr. Keith Barltrop, National Coordinator of the British tour of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux – an attraction that has had an even greater draw than Pope John Paul's visit to Ireland in 1979 – [who] talks of the many graces received during the tour.”