Commercialism is well established in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The first sign advertising merchandise for Christmas shoppers that I noticed was strung across one of the main roads near the center of the city as early as November 1.

 A large number of people in the area are, of course, very poor and they do not have money to spend on the upscale advertised merchandise.  They have barely enough to buy the minimum of food.

 What strikes me about this is the patient and generally pleasant spirit even among many of the very poor. Beside poverty that is inflicted unjustly on them, they have been gifted with a certain spirit of poverty that they have willingly adopted.   In that spirit they have found a certain peace that is a blessing.

 Make no mistake about it, though: the many slums around Nairobi, housing probably more than two million people, are ripe for an uprising not unlike what we are seeing in Northern Africa and in other parts of the Arab world.  Whether such an uprising, if it were to take place in Kenya, would be peaceful is difficult to predict, since many of the poor living in the slums are young and aware of the corruption that at least partly causes poverty.  And many of these young poor are harboring feelings of oppression and violence.

 Since most of those living in and around Nairobi are Christians, they will be celebrating Christmas with much rejoicing and with long religious ceremonies.  The Mass that I attended last year at midnight on Christmas was celebrated in the local language and lasted well over two hours, with much singing and dancing.  And the songs tend to have components that are interminably repetitious.

 This year I will be attending a Mass celebrated in English at the local parish.  Many of the students I teach will be present and we will be praying for all the Kenyan people and all the people around the world suffering the oppression of corruption and poverty.  The prayer will be joined with the pope’s plea that he had made during his two visits to Africa, the most recent just last month.  Each time he has warned that corruption in government must be stopped if poverty was to end and justice prevail in Africa.

 The spirit of poverty is a blessing that we all need, and one that Therese has at the heart of her little way; but abject material poverty in a country where there is much squandered wealth is a cruel and violent evil that needs to be brought to an end. 

1889 was a tumultuous year for St. Therese of Lisieux, who was then the sixteen-year-old novice Sister Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face at the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux in northern France.  On February 12, 1889, a day she later called "our great treasure," her adored father had to be taken to a psychiatric hospital, where he remained for more than three years.  At the end of the year, writing to her uncle and aunt on December 30, 1889, she wrote:

 “Your Benjamin comes in her turn to wish you a Happy New Year!  Just as each day has its last hour, so each year sees its last night coming also, and it is on the night of this year that I feel drawn to cast a look over the past and on the future.  When I consider the time that has just run out, I feel drawn to thank God, for, although His hand has offered us a bitter chalice, His divine Heart has been able to sustain us in the trial, and He has given us the strength necessary for drinking His chalice even to the dregs . . . .  What is He reserving for us for the year that is about to begin?”

(Letters of St,. Therese of Lisieux, Volume I, tr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1982, p. 600)

A blessed Christmas!  As a Christmas gift to the readers of this Web site, I have prepared, in my December newsletter, short illustrated articles about three Christmases of Therese:  Christmas 1886, when she received "the grace of leaving my childhood;" Christmas 1887, which she hoped to spend in Carmel, and Christmas 1888, her first Christmas in Carmel.  If you are not a subscriber to the newsletter, please see it here.

May St. Therese obtain for each of you from God graces as powerful as the one she received on December 25, 1886. 

I am delighted to announce that the Shrine at Lisieux has produced its first calendar in English for 2012 and invited me to distribute it online.  It is a beautiful 8" x 22" wall calendar which includes several articles about St. Therese and information about activities and publications sponsored by the Shrine at Lisieux.  The pages for each month display photographs of Therese and her family, with a quotation from her writings, above a complete liturgical calendar in grid form.  Each month also notes the "Theresian anniversaries," the dates of significant events in the life of Therese and her family and in the history of her sainthood.  34 oages, full color, glossy paper.  $10.  To see the cover and sample pages, please click on the image below.  To order,  call the telephone number listed below.

December 24th:  The good news is the calendar is very popular; the bad news is that we can't send out any more till we get more from Lisieux.  Demand for the calendars has been so intense that our first order from France was exhausted in two days.  Lisieux is sending more, but it will be a couple of weeks before you receive them.  We are still taking orders from our customers, so please feel free to order now, and we will give you priority in shipping as soon as the next batch of calendars arrives.  By ordering now, you will also help us know how soon we need to place another order and how many to bring in.  We regret that we could not make them available earlier, but, in this first year of the English calendar, they arrived in the U.S. only this week.  We are assured that the 2013 calendar will be here in the summer of 2012.  Thank you very much for your generous orders.

    order by phone at 610 914 9470 

In his second "guest column," Brother Joseph Schmidt, FSC reflects on the response of the young religious with whom he works in Kenya to the prayer of St. Thérèse of Lisieux:

The educational system of Kenya has been greatly influenced, as one might expect, by the experience of colonization. Many of the details of the current system are remnants of the late 19^th-century British educational approach and are based on the lecture method. Children in elementary and secondary classes are asked to respond by rote memorization, and there is little emphasis on experiential learning, personal responses, or creative, exploratory thinking.

The same is true with religious education. The result is that young religious and seminarians who are in the process of spiritual formation at the college level think of spiritual development as linked to rote memorization. An experiential, exploratory approach or creative, reflective thinking have been given little emphasis as part of spiritual growth.

When I suggest that one of the characteristics of Thérèse’s spirituality is that she learned from her own experience, students are surprised and fascinated  I try to point this out especially with regard to her understanding of prayer.

 Thérèse described her private, personal prayer as including a cry of recognition (gratitude) and of love, embracing both trial and joy.  The students are surprised when I mention that some of the time Thérèse prayed by simply noticing and welcoming as God’s will the time of suffering as well as the time of enjoyment in her life. 

 The students have usually thought of praying as reciting memorized prayers or prayers from a book. They regard praying not as exploring and welcoming the experiences of their life but mostly as petitioning. They have not considered that prayer can simply be the prayer of being willing to discover the truth of what God is saying to us in our daily experiences of pain and joy.

 Thérèse learned this form of prayer mostly from her own experience.  She knew it was true prayer because she trusted that accepting and appreciating her life, as she was held in the arms of God, was all that was asked of her.  She remarked once that Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude. That was her fundamental spirit as she prayed. She knew also that from the position of being embraced by God, she could best respond with whatever action, great or small, was required of her to fulfill God’s will at each moment.

 Thérèse’s teaching on prayer has been a great help to young religious and seminarians in Kenya and can be a help to our prayer as well.

--

Brother Joseph F. Schmidt, FSC
Nairobi, KENYA

Joseph F. Schmidt, FSC is a lecturer, spiritual director, and pastoral counselor.  For many years he was on the staff of the international sabbatical center, Sangre de Cristo, Santa Fe, NM, USA.  During the last years he has focused his interest on St. Thérèse of Lisieux. He has written three books focused on Thérèse and her spirituality/