St. Therese the "Little Flower"

   Last Sunday I used our Shrine of St. Thomas More as a homily illustration. Since we also have a Shrine to St. Therese the “Little Flower” at our church (a memorial from the Olivers) and her relic, and also since her Feast Day was last Tuesday, I thought I would make her the subject of this week’s article.
   For more than a century, Saint Therese of Lisieux, also known as “The Little Flower.” has captivated countless minds and hearts. Her simple and pure heart burned with a deep love for our Lord, and that love overflowed into the lives of many. She daily inspired those who knew her, and she continues to inspire those who read her story.
   Marie Francoise-Therese Martin was born on January 2, 1873, in Rue Saint-Blaise, Alencon, France, to Marie-Azelie Guerin (Zelie), and Louis Martin, a jeweler and watchmaker. Her mother, who often called Therese her “little angel,” died from breast cancer only a few months before Therese’s fifth birthday. But those early years with her mother had such an impact upon Therese that, in many ways, her mother remained with her, in her heart and mind, throughout her life. The love that mother and daughter shared was eternal. Her father, Louis Martin, who called Therese his “little queen,” daily manifested his profound love for her, and she looked up to him as her “king.” As a child, Therese would spend hours with her father as he worked in the garden, desiring to be near him as often as she could. She would regularly accompany him om daily walks that always included a visit to the Blessed Sacrament at the nearby convent in Lisieux. Therese had four living sisters and four siblings who died at an early age (three as infants and Helene at age five). Her living sisters all entered religious life, three of them entering the same Carmelite convent in Lisieux as Therese.
   Therese’s entire family shared tender, affectionate, and unwavering love for one another. Their home was a true “school of love,” and the lessons of love were learned and lived in their home each and every day. In many ways, Therese learned about the love of God first and foremost through the love she experienced within her family.
   Just before her fifteenth birthday, after overcoming many obstacles, Therese received permission from the Bishop of Bayeux to be received into the Carmelite convent. She formally entered as a postulant on April 9, 1888, at the age of fifteen. She embraced religious life and lived with fervor and devotion, making her temporary vows on January 10, 1889, and her final vows on September 24, 1890. For the next seven years, Sister Therese lived the hidden and holy life of a Carmelite nun.
   Just three years before she was to die, Sister Therese began to write her autobiography when she was twenty years old, under obedience to her sister Pauline who had recently been elected as Mother Superior, Mother Agnes of Jesus. This autobiography, The Story of a Soul, captures the beauty and profundity of her family life, offers beautiful insights into her vocation as a Carmelite nun, and reveals how devoted she was to Jesus, longing to be with Him forever in Heaven, even from the earliest moments of her childhood.
   But her sister, Sister Agnes of Jesus, kept a detailed notebook of Sister Therese last months, which was printed in a separate book called, Her Last Conversations. Also available in print is Letters of Sister Therese of Lisieux, much of which was first published under the title, General Correspondence. Lastly, Sister Therese was an avid writer of poetry, prayers, and plays, many of which are published in various formats.
   Sister Therese died on September 30, 1897, surrounded by three of the Martin sisters as well as all of her religious sisters in the Carmelite convent of Lisieux. Her final words were, “Oh!... I love Him!....My God, I...love...Thee!”
   As we honor this lovely little saint who has captivated the hearts and minds of so many, we should ponder the importance of family life. Some families are broken and divided; others are graced as “schools of love.”
    Saint Therese was blessed to be raised in a family that formed her deeply in the love of God and others. She was widely unknown outside of her family and religious community when she died, but God shared her precious soul with the world through her detailed autobiography and numerous letters. Allow her soul to touch  yours by getting to know her through her writings, venerating her relic sin the high altar this month, or praying at her Shrine here at SMV. Seek her intercession so that she can fulfill her promise that her “Heaven will be spent doing good on earth.”

Faithfully, your friend and Pastor, 
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook