I'm sorry I did not write last week, but a young friend died suddenly, and I was occupied in supporting his family.  In February 2007 my beautiful niece, Meghan, died suddenly in a car accident at the age of 20.  On October 18 I learned that her dear friend, Jarrod, had died suddenly on October 17 at age 22. 

     Thinking about the sudden and premature deaths of these two sensitive, accepting young people, I turned (as always) to Therese for consolation.  I found her letter to her seminarian-spiritual-brother, Maurice Belliere, of June 9, 1897:  "Dear little Brother, I would like to tell you many things that I understand now that I am at the door of eternity, but I am not dying, I am entering into Life, and all that I cannot say to you here below, I will make you understand from the heights of Heaven."¹   I am happy to think that Meghan and Jarrod, who had no opportunity to say or receive good-byes from their families and friends, are also in communion wth us in heaven and can make us understand everything left unsaid.

     On July 14, 1897 Therese wrote to her priest-brother, Adolphe Roulland:  "I really count on not remaining inactive in heaven.  My desire is to work still for the Church and for souls.  I am asking God for this and I am certain He will answer me.  Are not the angels continually occupied with us without ever ceasing to see the divine Face and to lose themselves in the Ocean of Love without shores?  Why would Jesus not allow me to imitate them?"²   What a consolation to think that these two young people, who had such great desires to be of service, will accomplish much more now than they ever would have on earth.

     And Therese's desire to help souls was not abstract, but tender, intimate, and personal.   On July 18 she wrote to Maurice Belliere, who had expressed his deep sorrow at her impending death:  "Yes, I am certain of it, after my entrance into life, my dear little Brother's sadness will be changed into a peaceful joy that no one will be able to take from him.  I feel it, we must go to heaven by the same way, that of suffering united to love . . . When I shall be in port, I shall teach you, dear little Brother of my soul, how you must sail the stormy sea of the world with the abandonment and the love of a child who knows his Father loves him and would be unable to leave him in the hour of danger.  Ah! how I would like to be able to make you understand the tenderness of the Heart of Jesus, what He expects from you."³ 

     Therese is the patron of those who suffer with AIDs, and she has strengthened and helped many young people who died early and those who mourn them.  Surely part of her mission is to help all who are called to accept and recover from the tragic deaths of young persons, whether from illness or other causes, by allowing us to see that those we love share in her "heaven doing good on earth."   In the face of the stark reaity of their premature deaths, Therese helps us trust that the beloved young who have have lost themselves in "the Ocean of Love without shores" will launch us "full sail upon the waves of confidence and love."  They have returned to the Source only to draw us there.

 ¹Letters of Saint Therese: General Correspondence, Volume Two, translated by John Clarke, O.C.D.  Copyright 1988 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, Inc., ICS Publications, p. 1128.

²Ibid., p. 1142.

³Ibid., p. 1152.

Therese celebrated her feast every year on October 15, the feast of St. Teresa of Avila ("Therese" being merely the French version of "Teresa").  On October 15, 1889 she wrote to her sister Celine to thank her for feast day gifts.  Therese was then a 16-year-old novice, already in Carmel for eighteen months.  Eight months before their father had been taken to the Bon Sauveur aslyum at Caen, where he would remain for two and a half years more.  An excerpt from Therese's letter:

"Celine . . . . Your letter pleased me very much; I felt how much our souls were made to understand each other, and to walk by the same way! . . . . Life, ah, it's true, for us it has no more attraction . . . but I am mistaken.  It's true that the attractions of this world have vanished for us, but this is only a smoke, and the reality remains for us.  Yes, life is a treasure . . . each moment is an eternity, an eternity of joy in heaven, an eternity of seeing God face to face, of being one with Him!  . . . There is only Jesus who is; all the rest is not . . . . Let us love Him, then, unto folly; let us save souls for Him."¹

"Only Jesus is; all the rest is not . . . ."  How these words echo Therese's courageous dedication to reality, she who would say at the end of her life,  "O my God . . . . Make me see things as they really are.  Let nothing cause me to be deceived."²

http://thereseoflisieux.org

¹"Letters of Saint Therese: General Correspondence," Volume One, translated by John Clarke, O.C.D.  Copyright 1982 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, Inc., ICS Publications.

²"St. Therese of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations,"  translated by John Clarke, O.C.D.  Copyright 1977 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, Inc., ICS Publications., p. 105, July 21, 1897

Thanks to the Baron de Moidrey and the electronic library at Lisieux, I discovered an album of photos of the town taken in 1872, the year before Therese's birth and five years before Louis Martin and his five daughters moved there.  At http://www.bmlisieux.com/galeries/lisieux01/lis01.htm you may see the appearance in 1872 of the Martins' parish church, St. Jacques; the Cathedral of St. Pierre, where they went to Sunday Mass; the old houses on the Grande-Rue; and the Public Gardens, which Therese crossed on her way home from the Guerins. The town, home to a Carmelite monastery founded thirty-four years earlier, looks very tranquil.  One would not guess that in 1925 Pius XI, receiving the pilgrims from Lisieux who had come to Rome for the canonization of the little girl born in Alencon and brought up in Lisieux, would say "A storm, a deluge of glory has descended on Lisieux." 

http://thereseoflisieux.org

October 4 - Therese's funeral day

Sister Therese of the Child Jesus died on Thursday evening, September 30, in the infirmary of the Lisieux Carmel. Her funeral took place in the chapel of the Carmel on Monday morning, October 4, at 9:00. Below please see, courtesy of Ana Cantoni, the clipping from the newspaper Le Normand of her death notice:

An approximate English translation:

Deaths

"It is with a keen feeling of sadness that we learned, Thursday evening, of the death at the monastery of Our Lady of Carmel of a young person who spent the most beautiful years of her youth in a life of prayer and sacrifice.  Miss Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin renounced the world at the age of fifteen.  Consecrating herself to God, she became Sister Therese of the Child Jesus.  She spent years of angelic life in the cloister, and the death which came to end them, by putting a stop to her long and cruel sufferings, has already given her, we have a sweet confidence, the immortal crown which was the object of her continual aspirations here below.

The funeral will be celebrated Monday morning at nine o'clock in the chapel of the Carmel.  Le Normand offers to the family of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus, to the Mother Prioress, and to all the religious of Carmel the homage of its respectful condolences."

After the funeral Mass the body of Sister Therese was taken to the Carmelite plot in the town cemetery, accompanied by a small group of mourners.  Her sister, Leonie Martin, was the chief mourner, for Uncle Isidore was too sick to attend.  The Carmelites were represented by an extern sister.  Leonie testified that the only remarkable thing about the ceremony was the great recollection of the crowd.  Who could have guessed that day that her real death notice, "Story of a Soul," would light up the world; that the tomb would soon be thronged with pilgrims; that, when her body was returned to Carmel in 1923, even before she was beatified, fifty thousand pilgrims would follow her; and that on the hill near the cemetery the basilica of St. Therese would be built? 

I begin this blog of St. Therese of Lisieux on the vigil of her feast in 2007 in thanksgiving for her presence in my life and her powerful influence in the world.  I hope this online journal will be a radiant center to reflect on the life and spirituality of St. Therese and how she can help us in our own spiritual formation.  I also want to introduce you to the Web site,"Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway," a window to the life, spirituality, writings, and mission of St. Therese.

To celebrate the feast, please watch the film St. Therese of the Child Jesus: An Echo of the Heart of God.  This splendid documentary visits Therese's birthplace at Alencon, home at Lisieux, and Carmelite monastery.  What pilgrims to Lisieux cannot see, you can: the buildings where Therese spent her last nine years; the choir where she prayed; her cell; the infirmary where she died.  The Carmelites of today gather for recreation in the "heated room" where Therese was asked to write her memoirs.  One of them shows us her cell, her writing-desk, her image of the Holy Face.  Expert color photography of the Theresian places as they are today blends with 19th-century photographs of Therese, her fellow Carmelites, and documents.  Bishop Guy Gaucher, Carmelite and expert on St. Therese, speaks of her life and her faith.  This 90-minute film, which includes long visits to the places  Therese knew and her Carmel, is a true virtual pilgrimage.  I recommend it iwthout reservation.