Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

In a few hours the relics of St. Therese will visit the Wormwood Scrubs prison in London.  See the BBC News story.  About three hundred of the prisoners are Catholic.  After Mass in the prison's chapel, the prisoners will have the opportunity to venerate the relics before returning to their cells. 

This visit reminds me of Therese's reported words:  "If I had not been accepted into Carmel, I would have entered a Refuge and lived out my life there among the poor penitents, telling them of God's mercy.  My happiness would have been to pass for one of them." 

She ended her memoir with these words:  "Even if I had on my conscience all the crimes one could commit, I would go, my heart broken with sorrow, and throw myself into Jesus' arms.  I know how much He loves the prodigal child who returns to Him.  It is not because God, in His anticipating mercy, has preserved my soul from mortal sin that I go to Him with confidence and love . . . "

Therese lived in full solidarity with the poorest and most unfortunate of God's children.  Please join in praying that, through St. Therese, God will accomplish the spiritual renewal of the whole community of Wormwood Scrubs, and that an era of nonviolence will begin there now.