Dr. Frances Renda, a practicing psychotherapist in Manhattan, has been blessed with a deep and powerful understanding of the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux and the difference it can make in our lives.  She is the editor of A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885.  Tonight she was interviewed by Fr. Benedict Groeschel on EWTN about Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese.  In the above 30-minute video by SpiritualityTV, Bill O'Donnell interviews Dr. Renda about the spirituality of St. Therese.  I recommend it.  

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