On the feast of St. Francis Xavier, co-patron of the missions with St. Therese, I present a short dialogue Therese wrote between the Blessed Virgin and the young Polish Jesuit, St. Stanislaus Kostka. 

The last "pious recreation" St. Therese wrote, performed at the Carmel's recreation on February 8, 1897, was "Saint Stanislaus Kostka."  Therese placed on the lips of Stanislaus words that expressed her desire to continue her mission after her death:

Saint Stanislaus:

My Well-Beloved Mother . . . . I regret nothing on earth, still I have one desire . . . a desire so great that I'm not sure I could be happy in Heaven if it were not fulfilled . . . . Ah! my dear Mother, tell me that the blessed can still work for the salvation of souls . . . if I can't work for the glory of Jesus when I'm in heaven, I'd prefer to stay in exile, still fighting for Him!

The Blessed Virgin:

You would like to increase the glories
Of Jesus, your only Love.
For Him, in the Heavenly Court,
You will win victories . . .
Yes, my child, the Blessed
Can still save souls. 
By their love, sweet flames
Draw hearts to heaven.

Saint Stanislaus:

Oh! how happy I am . . . Sweet Queen of heaven, I beg you, when I am with you in the Fatherland, let me come back to earth, to watch over holy souls, souls whose long career on earth will complete my own; then, through them, I'll be able to bring the Lord an abundant harvest of merit.

The Blessed Virgin:

Dear Child, you'll protect
Souls struggling in the world.
The more fruitful their harvest,
The more in Heaven you will shine.

from The Plays of St. Therese of Lisieux, tr. Susan Conroy and David J. Dwyer.  Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 2008, pp. 353-354.

Therese told Sister Marie of the Trinity:  "What pleased me in composing this play is that I explained my certitude that, after death, one can still work for the salvation of souls on earth.  St. Stanislaus, who died so young, has served me very well to express my thoughts and hopes on this subject."  Plays, p. 332.

St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Francis Xavier, co-patrons of all missions, are also co-patrons of the Apostleship of Prayer, which was founded on the feast of St. Francis Xavier in 1844 and of which Therese became a member at age twelve in 1885. May these two saints, brother and sister on fire with love for God, watch over us and allow us to complete their mission. 

"You love us, Mary, as Jesus loves us."

from "Why I Love You, O Mary!"  in The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux, tr. Donald Kinney, O.C.D.  Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1995, p. 219.

December 1:

When an angel from Heaven bids you be the Mother
of the God who is to reign for all eternity,
I see you prefer, O Mary, what a mystery!The ineffable treasure of virginity.
O immaculate Virgin, I understand how your soulIs dearer to the Lord than his heavenly dwellling.I understand how your soul, Humble and Sweet Valley,
Can contain Jesus, the Ocean of Love!...

from "Why I Love You, O Mary!"  in The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux, tr. Donald Kinney, O.C.D.  Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1995, p. 215.

This photo gallery of Louis and Zelie Martin includes many previously unpublished photographs of their environment at Alencon and Lisieux, their family, the ceremony of their beatification, and their reliquary.  These photographs are among those which appear in my photo show "Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin: Their lives and beatification," but I have been asked to display the photos here so that you can examine them at leisure.  I thank the photographers, Susan Ehlert, Ann Hess, and Juan Marrera.  Special thanks to the Pilgrimage Office at Lisieux for permission to display the photographs of their historic 2008 exhibit of objects, photos, and documents associated with the Martin family.  I am happy to offer these photographs in honor of the Feast of All Saints.

Thanks to the "research online" site of the University of Note Dame of Australia, I am happy to invite you to read at http://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/42 this excellent paper published in 2006.  It links the development in Therese's understanding of mission to the challenge of the Church's mission in the postmodern era.  I recommend it.

Abstract:

This dissertation analyses the development in the understanding of mission in the life and
writings of St Thérèse of Lisieux and considers its contemporary significance. The thesis
is that Thérèse progressed from a ‘mother missiology’ to a ‘sister missiology.’ This
missiological evolution is intrinsically united to Thérèse’s transcendence of the faith categories
of her era.

Initially, with her Catholic contemporaries, Thérèse regarded it as her duty to ‘mother’
unbelievers into divine life. This ‘mother missiology’ gradually became ‘sister
missiology’ as two movements of grace, namely the emergence of the ‘little way’ and
Thérèse’s intensifying union with Jesus, the kenotic Christ, took Thérèse beyond her
era’s vision of faith. The paradigm of ‘sister missiology’ has an entwined dual dynamic:
radical solidarity with unbelievers and radical receptivity to the gratuitous outpouring of
God’s love.

Sister missiology is demonstrated to be a potentially vital enabler of the Church’s
missionary agenda in the twenty-first century. It is able to facilitate the realisation of the
missionary objectives of the Second Vatican Council and offers a road-map for the
Church’s engagement with postmodernity.

Citation:  Jones, Michelle, "From Mother to Sister: The Development in the Understanding of Mission in the Life and Writings of St Thérèse of
Lisieux and its Contemporary Relevance" (2006). Theses. Paper 42.
http://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/42