Please read the below letter from Father Antonio Sangalli, O.C.D., the vice-postulator for the cause of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin.  When I saw him in Lisieux last week, he gave a special blessing to all the persons who visit thereseoflisieux.org.  Now he requests our prayers for Mariella Tesse, a young woman in Rome:

Dear friends, please read below the letter I have received. I ask you to pray and to invite other people to pray: your family, your friends, and your relatives. Please distribute to all of them the novena prayer below to the Blessed Spouses Louis and Zélie Martin.  Ask them all to distribute it and to bring more and more people together to ask the Lord, through the intercession of the incomparable parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, to heal Mariella or to give Mariella the strength and serenity to embrace with love the Will of God. 

"I am Lilliana Monroy, a consecrated lay person.  I live in Rome, and I am very devoted to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and to her parents.  Here I have an apostolate with families.  In particular, I work with a young woman named Mariella Tesse, who has two wonderful children aged 10 and 13.  Mariella is suffering from liver cancer, and in recent days the doctors have realized that, humanly speaking, there is not much chance of her survival.  After three years of fighting cancer, now it seems that the final moment is coming.  But I really believe that the parents of St. Thérèse may help if that is God's plan.  I read about the miracle that saved little Pietro Schiliro, and I know that she has encouraged her family and friends to storm heaven.

 I ask for your prayers for Mariella, who is an incredible woman; her healing could help the conversion of many people.  I ask you (Father Antonio) to speak personally with Mariella by telephone to help her understand that miracles can happen even to her, but she must wait with confidence and detachment; explain to her that the parents of St. Thérèse have helped little Pietro in a unique way.  Mariella is now somewhat discouraged by the thought of having to leave her children and her beloved husband, and she needs much support."

 Thank you for praying for Mariella through the intercession of theBlessed Spouses Louis and Zélie Martin, and praying for their glorification. Please recite the prayer below:

God of eternal love,
You give us Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin,
the parents of St. Therese,
as an example of holiness in marriage.
They remained faithful to You and your commandments
in all the duties and trials of life.
They desired to raise their children to become saints.
May their prayers and example
help Christian family life to blossom in our world today.
If it be your will, grant us the grace we now ask of You,
through the intercession of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin,
and let them be counted among the Saints in your Church.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

To report favors received or for more information, please write to me at:

Padre Antonio Sangalli
Vice Postulatore
Convento S. Maria delle Grazie
Padri Carmelitani Scalzi
via Cappella del Monte 17
80066 Montechiaro di Vico Equense (NA)

Fax 081 8028045, cell phone 338 4607070
E-mail: sangalli.antonio@tiscali.it

To share with everyone the joy of being present at the ceremony of beatification of Zelie and Louis Martin, the parents of St. Therese, in Lisieux, I have done my best to recreate the experience for you.  For

• link to an online film of the whole ceremony (three hours) courtesy of KTO TV, with French commentary
• link to a 52-minute special program online courtesy of KTO TV with highlights of the ceremony and interviews with Bishop Guy Gaucher, O.C.D. and other scholars and bishops; voices in French
• an English translation of Cardinal Saraiva Martins' homily "Witnesses of Conjugal Love"
• an English translation of the biographical profile read during the Mass by Father Antonio Sangalli, O.C.D., the vice-postulator for the cause of Louis and Zelie
• links to photo galleries of the beatification celebrations
• the first photo of the beautiful reliquary in which the bodies of Zelie and Louis now rest together
• a link to a slide show of the historic exhibit of objects belonging to the Martin family now on display at St. Jacques Church in Lisieux

please visit this page.

I reached Lisieux at 6 pm Thursday to join some other American friends of thereseoflisieux.org.  Writing briefly from a borrowed French keyboard

Last night a special nocturnal visit to the marvelous exhibit of the Martin family belongings at St Jacques Church, where they often went to weekday Mass.  "Louis and Zelie Martin" and "Isidore and Celine Guerin" were there in costume to welcome us and we saw furniture; portraits; toys; a small traveling bag of Louis that Therese used on the pilgrimage to Rome; and much of their two homes recreated  The exhibit is breathtaking, and if you can get over to see it before it closes (November 1, I believe), it alone is worth the trip.  I will post photosafter we return home.

This morning we drove to Honfleur to visit the chapel of Notre Dame de Grace where the two Gosselin sisters went in 1837 with Father Nicholas Sauvage to pray that they might be accepted as Carmelites and found the Carmel of Lisieux.  Fifty years later, in July 1887, Therese Martin prayed in the same chapel that she might be admiited to the Carmel they founded.  It is a place of grace.  This afternoon we returned to the exhibit to photograph it for you:  I pray that all the friends of thereseoflisieux:org will share abundantly in the graces of our pilgrimage.  I will report again when I can. Please pray for us.

The Venerable Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, will be beatified on Mission Sunday, October 19, in the basilica dedicated to their daughter at Lisieux in France. The first parents of a saint to be beatified, they are the first spouses in the history of the Church to be proposed for sainthood as a couple and the second to be beatified together.

Zélie and Louis are an inspiration to the families of today. Each owned a small business and worked hard while raising a large family. In the 19^th century this two-career couple faced the challenges we face in the 21st: finding good child care; achieving professional excellence; operating a profitable business; caring for aging parents; educating a special-needs child; forming their children in the faith; finding time to pray and to be active in their parish. Devout Catholics, they saw Christ in the poor and worked for a just society. In 1877 Zélie died of breast cancer, leaving Louis a single parent with five minor daughters to bring up. Later Louis was diagnosed with cerebral arteriosclerosis and spent three years in a psychiatric hospital.

Like us, Louis and Zélie could not control their circumstances. Life came at them unexpectedly, just as it comes at us. They could not prevent their tragedies: the Franco-Prussian war, when they had to house nine German soldiers; the infant deaths of four of their nine children, one from abuse by a wet-nurse; their painful diseases; Zélie’s premature death. Nor could they escape their responsibilities as business owners, caregivers, spouses, and parents. Their genius lay in how they accepted what happened to them: they accepted their own powerlessness, that God might be all-powerful in their lives.

They taught the same radical openness to their youngest daughter, Thérèse, now a doctor of the Church. Zélie and Louis were not declared “blessed” because of Thérèse. She became a saint because of them. They created an environment that invited her to holiness, and she responded freely to the invitation they offered her.

They offer the same invitation to us. We know many “married saints,” but most canonized saints have not been married. In recognizing Louis and Zélie as a blessed couple, the Church points to the mystery of the vocation of marriage, the way of life in which most people are called to reach the common goal of all Christians: sainthood. Engaged unreservedly in the responsibilities of daily life, Zélie and Louis became saints in the fabric of their marriage. They epitomize the words of Pope John Paul II: “Heroism must become daily, and the daily must become heroic.” They are the heroes of the everyday.

Jose Cardinal Saraiva Martins will preside at the Beatification Mass at the Basilica of Saint Thérèse in Lisieux on Mission Sunday, October 19, 2008.  Download the press release for the beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin.

Fr. Antonio Sicari, O.C.D., of the Verona Province of the Discalced Carmelite Friars, presented this excellent conference on the soon-to-be-Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin in Italian.  I am most grateful to Fr. Thomas Koller, O.C.D., of the California-Arizona Province, for translating it and to Fr. Sicari for his gracious permission to post it here.  Fr. Sicari reflects on the life of this couple with many extracts from Zelie's letters and shares his thoughts about how they speak to us today.  To read it, scroll to the bottom of this page.