Pope John XXIII

A blessed feast of St. John XXIII!  

How intimate the connection  is between St. John XXIII and St. Therese, whose life and thinking in the 1890s anticipated so many of the graces of the Second Vatican Council, which was his gift to the Church.  (Of its genesis, he said "My soul was illumined with a great idea, which I received with indescribable trust."  Is trust not the virtue of St. Therese?).  

To celebrate, please treat yourself to:

"Holy Popes, friends of Therese, pray for us!" - an article by Father Olivier Ruffray, rector of the Shrine at Lisieux, which appeared in the May 2014 issue of "Therese of Lisieux," the Shrine's magazine.

"St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II, the friends of St. Therese of Lisieux," my brief article at the time of their canonization.

"What if Louis and Zelie Martin had known about Vatican II?", a conference presented by Mgr Jacques Habert, bishop of Seez (the diocese in which Louis and Zelie spent their married life) in 2012.  This reflection shows that the riches which would be articulated in Vatican II were prepared and lived in the Martin family even before the birth of St. Therese: 

The beatification of Louis and Zélie is therefore a prophetic gesture, for it shows that sanctity is accessible to and embraces ordinary people who are living the reality of marriage.  

 One thing is certain: that God is leading us, whatever the trials, whatever the darkness, we can get through the night.  For the lives of Louis and Zélie were not a tranquil stream.  Trials and troubles were at the heart of their experience, but also the simple, everyday joys through which the Lord led them on the road of perfection.  We receive this beatification, and, perhaps, tomorrow their canonization, as a sign for today, as a call to everyone in the contemporary world to promote their model of the family. 

 May St. John XXIII continue to open a window for us! 

In this film of the opening Mass of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, view Pope Francis incensing and praying before the "traveling reliquaries" of St. Therese of Lisieux and of her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, from 10:18 to 12:10.  Sunday, October 5, 2014.

Louis Martin visited Rome at least twice in his lifetime.  One hundred and twenty-nine years ago, when Therese was twelve, he made a pilgrimage through Europe with a priest friend, Father Charles Marie.  On September 27, 1885, he wrote from Rome to his oldest daughter, Marie:

We finally arrived in Rome at six-thirty in the morning.  For me. Saint Peter's is really the most beautiful thing in the world.  I prayed for you, whom I love so much.  It's so pleasant to pray here! . . .

During these visits to Saint Peter's, Louis, of course, prayed for his five daughters, including St. Therese, and remembered in prayer his wife, who had died eight years before: 

I place you all in the grace of God and pray for you every day in Saint Peter's.  The thought of your mother also follows me constantly.

[See A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885.  Staten Island, New York: Society of Saint Paul, 2011, pp. 363-364.].

           Two years later, in November 1887, he returned to Rome as part of a diocesan pilgrimage with Celine and Therese.  It was then, on November 20, 1887, that Therese asked Pope Leo XIII for permission to enter the Carmel.  Because she refused to leave the Pope's feet, she was carried out of the room by the Swiss Guards.  But on May 17, 1925, her relics were warmly welcomed at Saint Peter's for the ceremony of her canonization.  That night the outer facade of Saint Peter's was outlined with lamps for the first time since 1870.  

The relics of St. Therese returned to Saint Peter's Basilica on October 19, 1997, when St. John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church.  The relics of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin were exposed for veneration in Saint Peter's Basilica in January 2009, soon after their beatification, and Pope Benedict XV received their relics in his general audience on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. 

Pope Francis incenses the relics of St. Therese and of her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin at the beginning of the Mass to open the Synod of Bishops on the Family. St. Peter's Basilica, October 5, 2014. Photo credit: CTV

As a special gift for the feast of St.  Therese of Lisieux, the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux graciously authorized me to share with you this contemporary photograph of the crown of roses Therese wore in death.

Crown of roses worn by St. Therese in death

This crown is visible in the photograph of Therese's body taken when it was laid out in the infirmary on October 1, 1897.  I thank the Carmelites of Lisieux for sharing this treasure with us.