"Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway" has the honor to introduce, as its first "guest columnist," Brother Joseph Schmidt, FSC.  You can read about Brother Joe's life and about his books about St. Therese below, but I want to say how happy I am to introduce him to you and how grateful I am to him for writing a series of guest columns for us.  Although, like me, Brother Joe is a native of Philadelphia, he is now working in Kenya, and I look forward to reading about how Therese is received in Kenya, where he is now working.  Please use the "comments" feature to share your comments and questions.  Welcome, Brother Joe!

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, all focused on Thérèse and her spirituality, published by Word Among Us Press.

Everything is Grace: the Life and Way of Thérèse of Lisieux prompts readers to walk with Thérèse through her life as she understands her spirituality unfolding in her experiences over the course of her life. It is a more systematic biography of the saint, bringing together in one book for the first time many details from various sources. This book was published in 2007 and is in its sixth printing.  It has received very favorable reviews.  It is also available in electronic format.

Praying Our Experiences explores an approach to prayer based on Thérèse's way of personal prayer in which she reflected on her own experiences in a prayerful way. Although the text of the book does not contain many direct references to Thérèse's writings, it is filled with her spirit.  This book is also available in electronic format.

Praying With Thérèse of Lisieux follows Thérèse’s life and spirituality as that developed over her life.  This book includes large sections of quotations from the writings of Thérèse. Each chapter focuses on a theme from the life of Therese. Reflective questions are provided at the end of each chapter that invite readers to reminisce about their own experiences, using their memories as the content of their prayer, just as Thérèse did.

Brother Joe's column:

In the course of giving retreats in various cities of the U.S. over the last several years.  I have often searched out chapels, churches and prayer rooms of retreat houses looking for images of Thérèse.  It would surprise me to find her image in the most unlikely places of devotion. Usually I would notice a stained glass window or a picture or a statue of Thérèse.  Sometimes these were in areas that were hidden and out of the way.

When I came to Kenya three years ago, I also continued the practice of looking for images of Thérèse in churches and shrines.  The image of Thérèse is not present in many of the churches or chapels of religious communities that I have had the opportunity to visit in  this African Country. But there is a statue of Thérèse in the Cathedral in Nairobi, the capital city.  It is a very simple plastic statue on the side altar, relatively hidden away and opposite the more elaborate side altar given over to the images of Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.

What has struck me is that Thérèse is present in the Cathedral, but inconspicuously present, as she was during her life in her Carmelite community.  And what has also struck me is that the need to know Thérèse and her spirituality is more widespread and just as important in Kenya as in the U.S. 

In future blog entries I will talk more about what aspects of Thérèse's spirituality seem to be especially needed in the spiritual development of Kenya. I will also be sharing with you some of my own experiences of ministry in teaching and spiritual formation ministry here in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi.   

In future blog entries I will also be guided by comments and questions that you might have as you share your interest in Thérèse in her role in the spiritual growth of the Church in Kenya and in the universal Church as well.

Brother Joseph F. Schmidt, FSC
Nairobi, KENYA

In honor of the feast of All Souls, please see "The Teaching of St. Therese of Lisieux on Purgatory," translated from the German.  It was published in "For Heaven's Sake," a newsletter of the Holy Souls Sodality (Volume 3, number 9, September 2012).  Read about Therese's belief that it was not necessary to pass through purgatory; she believed that the purifying fires of divine love were all-sufficient. Thanks to the Internet Archive.

I am happy to announce the introduction of a new monthly newsletter from "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway."  The newsletter will highlight various "buried treasures" from the Web site, give news of events and publications about St. Therese and about the Martin family, and explore different themes.  Three issues have been published: one to promote the news of the publication in English of the letters of St. Therese's mother and father; one for the feast of St. Therese on October 1; and a special anniversary issue for October 19th, the third anniversary of the beatification of Louis and Zélie Martin and the fourteenth annniversary of Pope John Paul II's proclaiming St. Therese a Doctor of the Church.  To see these issues, visit the newsletter archive, and, if you want to subscribe, complete the form below.  Thank you.

This less than five-minute film captures many vignettes of persons praying near the relics of St. Therese in 2008 in the Philippines, a country where she is very much loved.  The photos are set to the sound of Josh Groban singing "You Raise Me Up."  Unlike many such films, this one does not merely film crowds but concentrates on showing how individuals are moved by the visit of the reliquary. 

The Carmel of Lisieux, at its Web site, http://www.carmeldelisieux.fr.,  is posting each week the story of the vocation of one of the nuns who lives there now.  I thank the Carmel for permission to translate this story into English and to post it.  It is the story of an extern sister:

A life at the service of the pilgrims of Therese

I come from a Catholic family; my father had three sisters who were nuns, so, when his daughter also wanted to enter an order, it did not make him cry!  Since I was very little I wanted to be a nun.  It is on account of little Thérèse that I entered here, and then I had an aunt who was an extern sister here, that is to say a Cramelite who does not live within the enclosure and who is responsible for the monastery’s relations with the world outside.  When I was very little I heard my aunt speaking of Thérèse .  That is how I received the vocation of being an extern sister.

I have had this vocation since I was eighteen months old!  In 1927 my parents took me to the speakroom to see Mother Agnès, the older sister of Thérèse.  When I saw the grilles, I was so afraid of them that I rolled on the floor!  Mother Agnès said to my parents:  “Don’t worry, she will come back to us; she will come back to us!”  And 22 years later, I came as an extern sister, for I want to be at the service of the pilgrims of little Thérèse.  To welcome them at the door, to accompany them at the big ceremonies, to pray in the chapel with them, it is my joy  to receive whole pilgrimages.  I entered the Carmel of Lisieux for little Thérèse, but, before all else, it is to love Jesus and to make him loved.

Thérèse

For me Thérèse is a big sister who has always accompanied me.  Since I was born: my delivery was very difficult and they feared losing me; my father entrusted me to Thérèse  and made a vow to her to give me her name if I survived.  She has always been everything for me.

My favorite saint:

Saint Joseph! I would like all the little boys to be called Joseph as I have a great devotion for him.

Sentence of the Bible:

"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you .  Remain in my love" (Jn 15: 9).  To remain in his love, to feel oneself loved by Jesus, to have the desire to love him also, that’s what brought me here.  To remain in his love, this is my vocation as a Carmelite.

My great desire, it is to die for love.  I often repeat the last verse of  Thérèse’s poem “Vivre d’Amour” (“To Live by Love”):

Dying of Love is what I hope for.

When I shall see my bonds broken,

My God will be my Great Reward.

I don’t desire to possess any other goods.

I want to be set on fire with his Love.

I want to see Him, to unite myself to Him forever.

That is my Heaven . . . . that is my destiny:

Living on Love!!! . . . . . .