Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

 Statue of St. Therese of Lisieux as a Doctor of the Church. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Carmel.

A quarter of a century ago, Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed St. Therese of Lisieux a Doctor of the Universal Church: the youngest Doctor and only the third woman.  His reasons, and the reasons of the Church, for doing so are powerfully presented in the Apostolic Letter he issued on that occasion: Divini Amoris Scientia, the "science of the love of God."  This document, his homily at the doctoral Mass, and several other documents on which one can fruitfully reflect on this occasion are gathered on my page "Doctor of the Universal Church" on "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway." 

 So many valuable documents and homilies were offered for that occasion that I want to reflect on what we have experienced, and what Therese has experienced, in her first 25 years as a Doctor. 

• St. Therese has seen the continued travels of her relics throughout the world.  This reverse pilgrimage, in which Therese comes to the people, began in 1994, and continues to this day.  It has been greeted with remarkable enthusiasm, and has been an extraordinary experience of grace.  Among other places, the relics were received by vast crowds in the United States in 1999, in Ireland (where 75% of the population turned out to venerate them) in 2001, and in Australia (where 400,000 people venerated them) in 2002.  More remarkable than the many who came to venerate St. Therese's relics and to pray in their presence has been the atmosphere of deep prayer and the experiences of grace  that accompanied them on their travels.
• St. Therese has seen her parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, beatified in 2008 and canonized, the first saints canonized as a couple, in 2015.  They are a model for achieving holiness as spouses, living out the universal call to holiness of all the baptized, and becoming saints while engaged unreservedly in the life of the family, the Church, and the community.
• St. Therese has seen the opening of the cause for the beatification of her sister, Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese of the Visitation at Caen, a woman whose life shows that special-needs persons, abused and wounded persons, and those who find their true vocation only late in life can become whole and holy.