View this film, just under two minutes, which shows Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII, consecrating the Basilica of St. Therese at Lisieux in 1937 before an immense crowd. 

Every year the Shrine at Lisieux sponsors an exhibit of Nativity sets from all around the world.  This year, thanks to GloriaTV, you may view a film of the Nativity sets which lets you see many in detail.  The exhibit, open till February 2, 2013, shows more than two hundred Nativity sets.

Thanks to the work of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux and their helpers, the first one hundred letters written by St. Therese of Lisieux are available online in English.  Please read her New Year's letter to her uncle and aunt, Isidore and Celine Guerin, written December 30, 1889.  She wrote at the end of the year 1889; the "bitter chalice" to which she refers is the illness of her father, who on February 12, 1889 had to be interned in a psychiatric hospital at Caen, where he remained for more than three years. 

On the anniversary of the birth of little Therese Martin, I am thinking of her in the context of this reflection by Rodney Kissinger, S.J.:

 Whether we live a long life or a short one, whether we are sickly or healthy, whether we are rich or poor, learned or uneducated, whether we accomplish much or little in this world, is only incidental. What is important is that I make the love of God visible in me, that I give the love of God credibility so that others may believe, hope and love – and be happy to be themselves.

How Therese let God's love be visible in her.  How much credibility she gave it in the world.  How does that love want to be made visible in you this year? 

The pilgrim relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus are making their third visit to the Philippines between now and April 15, 2013.  On January 2, 2013 the 140th anniversary of the birth of St. Therese will be celebrated with a Mass at the Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Pasay City.