In this ten-minute film, Father James Martin, S.J., a contributing editor of America magazine, shares about how he discovered St. Therese of Lisieux through Alain Cavalier's film "Therese" and about the difference she makes for us.  Father Martin is the author of many successful books, including My Life With the Saints (which includes a chapter about Saint Therese), Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life, and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life.

In anticipation of the third visit of the reliquary of St. Therese to the Philippines, please see this film of the 2008 visit of her relics.  Here the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police pay tribute to St. Therese, who is their patron. 

I am happy to announce that Experiencing Saint Therese Today has been reprinted by Christus Publishing and is available to readers again in hard copy and as an e-book. This collection of essays about Saint Therese's contemporary significance is based on conferences given at a symposium sponsored by the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance near Chicago in 1988, to mark the centenary of Therese's entrance into Carmel,

Since they were first published by ICS Publications in 1990. these articles have lost none of their freshness and vigor. Among other topics, Fr. Jim Geoghegan strikingly compares Therese with the photographer Edward Weston. Fr. John Russell examines, probably for the first time in English, the eight "pious recreations" (plays) Therese wrote for the Carmelite recreations. (These plays were later published by ICS Publications under the title The Religious Plays of Saint Therese of Lisieux).  Joann Wolski Conn's "A Feminist View of Therese" finds Therese a mature adult who authored her own life vision and created relationships of mutuality. Fr. Redemptus Valabek's "Therese's Approach to Gospel Living" explores Therese's spirituality and reveals the warrior saint beneath her image.  Sister Margaret Dorgan's "Therese and John of the Cross" explores one of the most intriguing aspects of Therese. Professor William Thompson's "Therese: Challenge for Doctrine and Theology" is a rich and provocative look at Therese's theological significance. Gracefully written and perceptive, this short essay plumbs the depths of Therese and suggests she is a forerunner to a "third Vatican Council," that Vatican II was insufficient to permit the Church to "catch up" with the young woman who has since become its newest Doctor.

Peter Mongeau of Christus Publishing is to be congratulated for reissuing this valuable book.  Christus has published many books in Carmelite spirituality and has recently reprinted most of the ICS Publications backlist.

Louis Martn in death.  La Musse, 1894.  Photo credit: Carmel of Lisieux

 The letter  from Celine Martin, at La Musse, near Evreux, to her Carmelite sisters in Lisieux to tell them about the death of their father:

July 29, 1894

Dear little sisters,

     Papa is in heaven! . . . I received his last breath, I closed his eyes. . . . His handsome face took on immediately an expression of beatitude, of such profound calm !  Tranquility was painted on his features . . . He expired so gently at fifteen minutes after eight.

     My poor heart was broken at the supreme moment; a flood of tears bathed his bed.  But at heart I was joyful because of his happiness, after the terrible martyrdom he endured and which we shared with him . . . .

     Last night, in a sleep filled with anguish, I suddenly awakened; I saw in the firmament a kind of luminous globe . . . . And this globe went deeply into the immensity of heaven.

. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .    Today, St. Martha, the saint of Bethany, the one who obtained the resurrection of Lazarus . . . .
     Today, the gospel of the five wise virgins.  . . .

     Today, Sunday, the Lord's day . . . .

     And Papa will remain with us until August 2, feast of Our Lady of the Angels.  . . .

Your little Celine

(from Letters of Saint Therese of Lisieux, Volume II.   Washington, D.C.: copyright 1988 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, pp. 874-875.  Used with permission).

See also Marie Guerin's meditation, in 1895, on the first anniversary of Louis Martin's death

 Below, courtesy of the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, is a photograph of the small building at La Musse in which Blessed Louis Martin died on that Sunday morning a hundred and eighteen years ago.  

photo courtesy of the Limerick Leader

On Sunday, July 8, 2012, the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux (relics that are displayed permanently in Dublin) visited the church in Dromin, together with the relics of her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin.  Three thousand people greeted them, a larger crowd than had ever assembled in the rural church.  Excerpts from the story reported by Aine Fitzgerald for the Limerick Leader:

“There was a throng of people out the road trying to park their cars. They were walking for a couple of miles to get to the church. We had never seen anything like it in Dromin,” said local woman Anne Mockler, a native of Ashford, Killeedy who has been living in Dromin for over 30 years.

“The people who were waiting didn’t mind waiting. They kept the rosaries going and the prayers. There was no talk – it was just a volume of prayers,” she explained.

“They came from far and near. They came on crutches, they came in wheelchairs, people helped them in. It was the most moving experience,” continued Anne whose own son, Fr John Mockler, arranged his visit home from Rome to coincide with the event.

Read the complete story in the Limerick Leader.