Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Where I live, there are many Mexicans, and so Our Lady gets the honor that is her due, with her children rising before dawn to sing to her, and many others sure to make it to Holy Mass to receive her Divine Son.

But you know what? We are all Mexican today! Our Lady returns to us in every one of her true apparitions so that we will know her tender maternal love, and I will tell you something I discovered today: I'm convinced this appearance of Our Lady to St. Juan Diego in 1531 is Marcel's favorite. 

How do I know? Well first off, it's mine, and I'm sure my little brother and I think alike on this score.
Secondly, though, I think Our Lady is at her most maternal when she appears to St. Juan Diego - calling him even, as a mother will, "Juanito, my Juan Dieguito" - "Little Juan," and "My Juan little Diego!" St. Juan was a widower at this point, not a little boy, but to a mom, her son is always her little boy!

I found two things this morning that confirm my opinion that Marcel''s Our Lady and Our Lady of Guadalupe are essentially the same. (Okay, yes, I suppose I have to concede that all the Our Ladies are essentially the same! But still, who can resist Our Lady of Guadalupe as the most Our Lady-ish of Our Ladies?!)

My first discovery has delighted me to no end, and will continue to delight me until I get to Heaven and then some! For this morning I found that the words of Our Lady to all of us through Juanito on this day are ACTUALLY in the Church's official Liturgy of this day!! To be more specific, the Office of Readings (part of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours which all priests are obliged to say, and most religious and many lay people say too) has for its second reading (the "non-Biblical reading") today the account of Our Lady of Guadalupe's visit to Juan and it includes my favorite words ever. I'll share the whole story with you here (from the Office) with the best part highlighted (though it's all wonderful) -

At daybreak one Saturday morning in 1531, on the very first days of the month of December, an Indian named Juan Diego was going from the village where he lived to Tlatelolco in order to take part in divine worship and listen to God’s commandments. When he came near the hill called Tepeyac, dawn had already come, and Juan Diego heard someone calling him from the very top of the hill: “Juanito, Juan Dieguito.”

He went up the hill and caught sight of a lady of unearthly grandeur whose clothing was as radiant as the sun. She said to him in words both gentle and courteous: “Juanito, the humblest of my children, know and understand that I am the ever virgin Mary, Mother of the true God through whom all things live. It is my ardent desire that a church be erected here so that in it I can show and bestow my love, compassion, help, and protection to all who inhabit this land and to those others who love me, that they might call upon and confide in me. Go to the Bishop of Mexico to make known to him what I greatly desire. Go and put all your efforts into this.”

When Juan Diego arrived in the presence of the Bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, a Franciscan, the latter did not seem to believe Juan Diego and answered: “Come another time, and I will listen at leisure.”

Juan Diego returned to the hilltop where the Heavenly Lady was waiting, and he said to her: “My Lady, my maiden, I presented your message to the Bishop, but it seemed that he did not think it was the truth. For this reason I beg you to entrust your message to someone more illustrious who might convey it in order that they may believe it, for I am only an insignificant man.”

She answered him: “Humblest of my sons, I ask that tomorrow you again go to see the Bishop and tell him that I, the ever virgin holy Mary, Mother of God, am the one who personally sent you.”

But on the following day, Sunday, the Bishop again did not believe Juan Diego and told him that some sign was necessary so that he could believe that it was the Heavenly Lady herself who sent him. And then he dismissed Juan Diego.

On Monday Juan Diego did not return. His uncle, Juan Bernardino, became very ill, and at night asked Juan to go to Tlatelolco at daybreak to call a priest to hear his confession.

Juan Diego set out on Tuesday, but he went around the hill and passed on the other side, toward the east, so as to arrive quickly in Mexico City and to avoid being detained by the Heavenly Lady. But she came out to meet him on that side of the hill and said to him: “Listen and understand, my humblest son. There is nothing to frighten and distress you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and let nothing upset you. Is it not I, your Mother, who is here? Are you not under my protection? Are you not, fortunately, in my care? Do not let your uncle’s illness distress you. It is certain that he has already been cured. Go up to the hilltop, my son, where you will find flowers of various kinds. Cut them, and bring them into my presence.”

When Juan Diego reached the peak, he was astonished that so many Castilian roses had burst forth at a time when the frost was severe. He carried the roses in the folds of his tilma (mantle) to the Heavenly Lady. She said to him: “My son, this is the proof and the sign which you will bring to the Bishop so that he will see my will in it. You are my ambassador, very worthy of trust.”

Juan Diego set out on his way, now content and sure of succeeding. On arriving in the Bishop’s presence, he told him: “My lord, I did what you asked. The Heavenly Lady complied with your request and fulfilled it. She sent me to the hilltop to cut some Castilian roses and told me to bring them to you in person. And this I am doing, so that you can see in them the sign you seek in order to carry out her will. Here they are; receive them.”

He immediately opened up his white mantle, and as all the different Castilian roses scattered to the ground, there was drawn on the cloak and suddenly appeared the precious image of the ever virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the same manner as it is today and is kept in her shrine of Tepeyac.
​
The whole city was stirred and came to see and admire her venerable image and to offer prayers to her; and following the command which the same Heavenly Lady gave to Juan Bernardino when she restored him to health, they called her by the name that she herself had used: “the ever virgin holy Mary of Guadalupe.”

*    *     *

I do admit that the part about the Castilian roses and then Our Lady's image are pretty exciting and beautiful moments too, but I can never get over her words to us, which I usually read in this translation:

Hear and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little one:
Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you.
Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance.
Am I not here who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not your fountain of life?
Are you not in the folds of my mantle?
In the crossing of my arms?
Is there anything else that you need?
Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.

My guess is that our little brother Marcel never knew, in his life on earth, the words of Our Lady to our little brother Juanito, but thankfully he knew words nearly as gentle, compassionate, and loving, if not more so - words from Our Lady, or better yet, our Mother, to Marcel himself! 

Just today I had a blast reading Marcel's Conversations entry for May 13 - which is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima (though I don't think Marcel knew about that apparition either), but also another important feast of Our Lady, especially for those who claim Therese as their sister: May 13 was the day Our Lady smiled on Therese and cured her of her mysterious childhood illness!

Well, reading the pages Marcel wrote for us on May 13, 1946, I alternated between laughter and, no, not tears, but simple joy at the words Marcel and Our Lady exchanged. 

You see, Marcel was very concerned about (and frankly against) people calling Mary "Queen" because he saw and felt that she was our Mother, and why in the world would she be anything else, especially something (namely, Queen) that puts distance between herself and her children?

And so, Marcel asked Mary straight out:

Mother, later in heaven, you will continue to call me your child, is that not so? And I, I will give you the name of Mother to the exclusion of any other name. And similarly, if I do not call you by the name of "Queen", will you be pleased with me? Is there anything wrong in not calling you "Queen"?

To which Mary replies, equally straight forwardly:

My child, let me put it another way. Before dying, did Jesus tell you to call me "Queen" or did He tell you to call me "Mother"? Did He say: "Here is Mary, your Queen?" No, He never said that. In giving me to you to be your Mother and in giving you to me to be my child, He simply said, "Here is your Mother, there is your child." Consequently, not calling me "Queen" has no importance. I am not a queen; I only have the power of a queen. In relation to men, my children, I am simply and always your true Mother. I would never deal with you as a queen with her subjects, for fear of contradicting Jesus' last words to me. The Trinity never established me as a Queen; it has established me only as  a Mother. So, in heaven, you will never hear the word "Queen" but only the word "Mother."

Hooray, Marcel! You have found for us the true name of Mary, and even beguiled from her the
true reason for her true name!

And so, on this Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I can only bid you in the words of St. Paul repeated on Advent Sundays, Evening Prayer II (again, from the Church's solemn Liturgy):

Rejoice in the Lord always; I say it again, rejoice! Everyone should see how gentle you are. The Lord is near. Dismiss all anxiety from your minds. Make known your needs to God in every form of prayer, and in petitions full of gratitude. Then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. (Philippians 4: 4 - 7)

I hope today is a day of great rejoicing for you! Our Lady loves you so very much, and she repeats to you her words to Juan Diego, meant for all of us. Let's close with her words so they might surround us like the fragrance of Castilian roses surprising us in winter.

Hear and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little one:
Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you.
Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance.
Am I not here who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not your fountain of life?
Are you not in the folds of my mantle?
In the crossing of my arms?
Is there anything else that you need?
Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.

Mary, our dear Mother, we love you!
St. Juan Diego, pray for us!
Our Lady of Guadalupe bless us and all those we love with your maternal solicitude.

Draw me, we will run!

Pictured, from left to right: top row: Our Lady and little Jesus from the Tokyo Carmel, St. Therese with her signature roses, Murillo's St. Joseph and baby Jesus; bottom row: Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos (who now speaks Vietnamese, thanks to Marcel!), Padre Pio (who spoke many languages occasionally, thanks to his guardian angel), Marcel (who speaks all languages now that he is in heaven) and novena prayer to St. Therese.

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"I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of . . . "
                                                           -St. Therese's Act of Oblation to the Merciful Love of the Good God

                                                                +                                              +                                               +

Heavens to Murgatroyd, it's been a coon's age since I've mused here, but Thanksgiving is fast approaching as well as the end of November and beginning of December, and before we know it, the first Sunday of Advent, the start of a whole new year, will be upon us! I thought I'd better make an appearance then, because what use is Thanksgiving without thanking God together for the many signal graces He has given us? And what would November 2019 be without our continuing paradise project, which leads us this month to Chapter 11 of Story of a Soul in MBC, also known as Marcel's Book Club? And finally, what better time than now (as the liturgical year ends and begins anew) to gather to remember the enormous - limitless, really! - Love of the Good God?

I thought I'd start our musings, then, with a gratitude list. If you're not in the habit of making gratitude lists, I highly encourage the practice, a tried and true method of getting oneself out of the drizzly (or worse!) cold of a late November day and into the warmth of the Heavenly Father's embrace. It's very simple too - all you have to do for my version is pick up a Rosary (or use your fingers if no Rosary is at hand), and begin counting. For each bead, or each finger, you name a blessing. Sometimes this is easy and the blessings and beads (or fingers) slip along like nobody's business. Other times it takes a little help from our guardian angels because we may have fallen into a rut and forgotten all the many good things that surround us. But either way, it's bound to bring us closer to God, the giver of all good gifts, because He has truly surrounded and filled every one of us with So Many Good Things!

Were you able to go to Mass last Sunday? And even (I hope and pray) receive Jesus in Holy Communion? Right there you have a double infinite blessing that comprises the best the Father has to offer!

How about this morning? Did you get some breakfast or a cup of coffee or tea? Possibly even a smile from someone you saw or ran into as the day began or got going? Or here's one you can try - is your own smile still working? Lift the corners of those lips and make your cheekbones rise into your eyes! Try to look like Marcel and me, whose eyes always disappear in photos when we give our best grins and say cheese - or pho mai (which sounds like foe-my) if we're speaking Vietnamese! What a gift, to be able to smile so big your eyes scrunch up! And if you're able to share it with someone else, another double blessing! (No pressure though. Maybe share it with yourself first, when you're near a mirror. You'll find yourself looking so much better - and so much better looking! - than if you just gaze critically at the reflection gazing back!)

The quote I began with under the picture I'm grateful for (of the holy cards I'm grateful for, of the Saints I'm grateful for, and whew! that's a handful of fingers or almost a decade of beads right there!), is from one of my favorite prayers, Therese's Act of Oblation to Merciful Love. You can find the whole prayer HERE, along with other beautiful prayers and lovely photos, and if you do check it out, you might discover what comes after the ellipses with which I ended my partial quote above, but I'm happy to save you the trouble by repeating the quote:

"I thank You, O my God, for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of . . ."

You can see I've left the ending blank again so you can fill it in yourself. In fact, I'm not a big fan of how Therese ends the sentence in her prayer, so I usually skip that part and substitute my own - she thanks God especially for the grace of passing through the crucible of suffering! As I've mentioned more than once at this blog, I'm not a big fan of suffering, and so it wouldn't be a very authentic prayer if I repeated it word for word. I like to insert instead here after "I thank You, O my God, for all the graces You have granted me" the more true-for-me phrase, "especially for the grace of knowing the Saints." I can never get over how blessed we are here at MMM to have met Marcel, so little known and yet so very lovable! What joy he and his Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese have brought to my life!

If you're Catholic, let me congratulate you on already having won the lottery, by the grace of having at your fingertips (to receive and thank God for) the 7 Sacraments so full of Jesus our Love, and so guaranteed to bring you close to the only One (the Three-in-One) who will make you truly and completely happy - forever!

So having won the lottery, what else is there? I think the discovery of Marcel and all he teaches about Jesus (which is everything Therese and Jesus and Mary taught him) - and I'm happy to share this rich gift with you - is like knowing what to spend the lottery on, now that we've won it. The Church is so big, so very catholic and replete with all the treasures of Christ. And yet we each need to find our place in this Ark, this barque of Peter, and that can take time. I'm so happy that after 51 years of happy membership, I found Marcel's mansion in our Father's house! Come on in, there's so much room and lots of comfy chairs!!!

You can finish the unfinished sentence/prayer with whatever grace you're especially grateful for, but as I can't say often enough, I'm definitely especially grateful for getting to know the Saints, and in particular, Marcel. Which brings us, because if I don't get there we never will - my being the little typist who's providing the words of our post which today includes our Book Club for November - to Chapter 11 of Story of a Soul. 

Now that I've admitted to using a "Take what you like and leave the rest" approach to one of my favorite prayers (Therese's Act of Oblation and in particular the sentence we began with), let me say two things about Chapter 11.

First, I used this same approach of taking and leaving in my reading of Chapter 11 itself! I was surprised to find that I didn't love every line or paragraph at the outset of this chapter, but then it hit me: how can Therese appeal to such a wide audience if not by having parts God intends specifically for each reader? Marcel loved the memories of her childhood. Those are not my favorite of her recollections! I love the chapter we read last month, which had originally been her letter to Marie of the Sacred Heart, her eldest sister and godmother. Someone else no doubt loves the opening half of Chapter 11! God is so good, so benevolent, so solicitous to each of us, that I'm confident He highly approves of our taking what we particularly like, and leaving the rejected rest for those who will find most nourishment precisely where we don't.

I mentioned that our opening quote today comes from Therese's offering of herself to Merciful Love. That very offering resulted from her familiarity with the practice some had of offering themselves to Divine Justice. Therese said straight out (in this exact book we're reading!) that she found that offering to Justice very generous - but it didn't appeal to her at all!

Amen, sister!

And then today I read in Chapter 11 a passage in which she explains her own approach to prayer, which she contrasts to reciting  the prayers of others. After praising the power of prayer over God's Heart, she writes:

"To be heard it is not necessary to read from a book some beautiful formula composed for the occasion. If this were the case, alas, I would have to be pitied! Outside the Divine Office which I am very unworthy to recite, I do not have the courage to force myself to search out beautiful prayers in books. There are so many of them it really gives me a headache! and each prayer is more beautiful than the others. I cannot recite them all and not knowing which to choose, I do like children who do not know how to read. I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me. For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus."

Well, no wonder Marcel and I love this passage! It reminds us exactly of what Jesus Himself told Marcel! In Conversations, our little brother recorded the following dialogue from April 3, 1946:

Jesus: Little Marcel, do you love me?
Marcel: Yes, I love you.
Jesus: But how do you love me?
Marcel: I love you so much that it is impossible for me to express it.
Jesus: In that case, you must never worry.

We could stop right there and call it a day. Is there anything else we need to know or do? Just to love Him, that's all Jesus asks for from us, and then He doesn't want us to worry. Ever! But as always, because His Love is infinite, there is more. And perhaps I should add: because Marcel is Marcel, there is always more. For here is what Marcel says next:

"But, little Jesus, why does Brother Mark behave so harshly towards me? Do not forget that I can place the fault at Your feet since it is You who lives in Brother Mark; it is You who allows him to make me suffer. Little Jesus, before accusing me of lacking in charity, see what virtue You Yourself are lacking in acting as You do. Enough, this month is the month of brotherly charity. I beg You in my turn to devote Yourself again to the practice of this virtue. And we, in practicing it thus, both of us together, we will certainly make rapid progress and Mary will be happy ...

"Little Jesus, here we are now well into Lent and, lo and behold, You are sending me delights. It seems to me that acting so You are behaving against the spirit of the Church. Is that not the case little Jesus?"

I could quote Marcel forever - he is so wonderfully bold, brash, honest, and direct with Jesus! First he accuses little Jesus of being unkind to him in Brother Mark, then he blames little Jesus for being too kind to him in Lent! Doesn't this sound like us? A few days ago where I live we were complaining about the unseasonable heat. Now it has become a more proper frigid temperature for the season - and I'm totally ready to complain about that! And how does Jesus respond, in His limitless Love, to our limitless accusations? What we might call our heartfelt and hilarious prayers? They are surely not from books, any more than Marcel's rant was (sure, now it's in a book, but he wrote it down after expressing it or as a way of expressing it - our little brother wasn't reading this "prayer" from a book anymore than Therese read her prayers, aside from the Divine Office!)

I bet that along with your gratitude list, you have a few choice complaints to make about how someone has been treating you, which (taking Marcel's cue) you can really attribute to Jesus Himself! Why in the world does He treat us (or allow us to be treated) this way? And if we approach Him with our complaints as well as our gratitude and love, will He be angry with us? The wonderful thing about Marcel's Conversations is that Jesus had him write them down in two voices - namely Marcel's and his heavenly interlocutors' - precisely to teach us how to pray, and to teach us what He makes of our prayers.

At the outset of this marvelous transcription of conversations in Conversations (4), Jesus tells Marcel:

"In asking you to be the intermediary of my love with your companions, my intention was that you write not only the words that I dictate to you, but also those that you speak to me. Since there are many who only listen to what I say without daring to converse quite frankly with me as children, under the pretext that it is not proper . . . tell them that I gladly listen to ordinary conversations, even the simplest ones, and I take pleasure in hearing them. There, that is all I expect from souls who love me . . . Continue to write my words down and call them 'Love of Jesus.' As for the words you address to me, you will call them 'Love of Marcel.' I do not look for elegant words as do people of the world, only childlike words coming from a loving heart have the gift of charming my ear. And you, my child, always act in this way since I find much attraction in the words that you address to me here; I never tire of listening to them . . . "

Do you know what? I'm going to give you a special blessing, a special gift for Thanksgiving, and just like Marcel complained that Jesus was giving out of season by giving to him in Lent (rather than waiting for Easter), so too you may complain that I'm giving you this gift on the cusp of Advent rather than waiting for Christmas. No worries! I will give you this gift over and over as long as I'm able to type my musings and post them here - it's a gift that keeps on giving, not only to you, but to Jesus, the Spouse of your little soul!

The gift is this truth from Jesus: "And you, my child, always act in this way since I find much attraction in the words that you address to me here; I never tire of listening to them . . . "

Perhaps no one has told you before, but it is entirely true, for Jesus is God who can neither deceive nor be deceived. He is Truth, so He only speaks truth, and He tells you this: that He never tires of listening to your prattle, your words of love or complaint or thanks or - if we might import our little Therese's understanding of prayer - your every simple glance toward Him! He never tires of any of it! And to seal the deal, He tells us in the Song of Songs: 

"You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace."

Don't you think a jewel of our necklace could be one of our Rosary beads of gratitude? But our glance - that comes first as most dear and ravishing to Him, and this glance can be even a glance of annoyance, as long as we look toward Him!

Do you want to excuse yourself on the grounds that perhaps these words are not meant for you? Haha! You find yourself at the wrong blog! Because here Jesus has answers for all our timid fears and hesitations, answers that Marcel wrote for us in Conversations, a book I have free access to (in 2 copies, no less!), and here is what Jesus says to your fear of being left out of His circle of Love. Directing His words to Marcel on November 4, 1945, He explained:

"All the words that I have spoken to you from the beginning until the last one I speak to you in the future - know that it is not to you alone that I am speaking, but to all souls. You see by this that I communicate with all of them. And if, like you, they are sincere in their relationship with me, then I am speaking also to them . . . Do not be afraid, therefore, if later somebody says that I spoke only to you . . . "

And now, knowing Jesus is speaking to all of us in His words to Marcel, let me complete the dialogue we were listening in on a few paragraphs back. Remember the chat Jesus and Marcel were having in Lent? Jesus told Marcel that, seeing as Marcel loved Jesus, "he must never worry." And then Jesus added, "When I say something to you, you must listen straight away."

And what is Jesus saying to us? To what does He want us to "listen straight away?" He tells us that He loves to hear us! He loves to speak to us - not only has He given us every word in the Bible for our own, but every word of the book of Conversations in more recent times, just to make sure we don't miss out on the sentiments of His Sacred Heart and the totality of His message of Love. But more than that, more than the words Jesus gives us, He wants us to give to Him our words, our sighs, our glances, our kisses!

And how does He respond to Marcel's childlike diatribe about Brother Mark, His supposed faults, and His "behaving against the spirit of the Church"? Jesus replies:

"Come, come, Marcel, you are speaking as if you do not know how to reflect. If you were to speak that way to someone who was about to do you a favour, the person would not be able to stop himself from scolding you. But I, far from scolding you, I still love to hear you speak in this way, since you do not intend to reproach me and furthermore, it gives me an opportunity to make you understand something about grace. Marcel, listen carefully. In order to give grace to men, I do not need to wait for a particular season or to pay attention to the temperature because, in that case, there would be times when men would be deprived of the grace necessary for the life of their souls. Remind yourself that my Love never acts in that way. It knows the moment when it must show itself and when it must be hidden. " (352)

I could quote these two forever, and even here in this passage there is so much more to bolster our courage and make us laugh, but we must return to Chapter 11 lest the paradise project police find us out! I started by saying there was plenty I would leave aside when meeting with you about this chapter, and now I find that there is far too much of interest to have time to finish with it in one (even one very long) post - and yet one is all we have. At least our sister Therese is laughing at my dilemma, and I have to laugh with her as I find her writing some pages along, "I am once again far from my subject, with all my dissertations; I beg you to excuse me . . . " Yes, I do excuse you, sis! And I know the feeling!

Ah, but dear sister - then you write to your Mother Marie de Gonzague these words which tell me the Holy Spirit knew long ago of this day when we would meet and laugh, for you write:

"You act like God Himself who does not weary of hearing me even when I tell Him simply my pains and joys as if He did not know them."

I am reading as I write, and what a gift our sister gave us in advance, to confirm the truths of Conversations we have been attending to while wandering away from her Story of a Soul! 

"No matter," it's as if she says. "My lessons are the same whether in my Story or Marcel's. Isn't he the second little flower of Jesus?"

Yes, he is! And how both of you remind us that God loves to hear our every familiar story too!

And so, even while I encourage you, dear reader, to revisit, at your leisure, these pages from our sister's pen in Chapter 11, I will fly to the end, soaring over many words that may be precisely the ones you need, but ending with the exact words we always end with here . . .These are perhaps my favorite words from Story of a Soul, because they ease my own soul, helping me to live my own story with peace and joy and confidence, and finally, they put God's words in my mouth, sweeter than honey!

However new you may be to this blog, you will know by now that I love to comment - to muse, as it were - on the beautiful passages that fall from my sister's and brother's pens. But in a gesture of thanksgiving, as well as in honor and deference to your own Thanksgivings, I am going to simply transcribe the last pages of Story of a Soul. These are the pages that bring me greatest joy from Chapter 11, and perhaps most joy from the whole book. Next month we will have the Epilogue (written by her sisters) to occupy us for one last month of paradise, but for now, let's finish with the last words Therese wrote in her memoir. These words are on prayer, and so they complement what we've found in Marcel and earlier in this chapter and finish our lesson on "How to Pray." She tells us:

"Since I have two brothers [her adopted spiritual brothers, missionary priests for her to pray for specifically] and my little Sisters, the novices [assigned to her spiritual direction], if I wanted to ask for each soul what each one needed and go into detail about it, the days would not be long enough and I fear I would forget something important. For simple souls there must be no complicated ways; as I am of their number, one morning during my thanksgiving, Jesus gave me a simple means of accomplishing my mission.

"He made me understand these words of the Canticle of Canticles: 'DRAW ME, WE SHALL RUN after you in the odor of your ointments.' O Jesus, it is not even necessary to say: 'When drawing me, draw the souls whom I love!' This simple statement: 'Draw me' suffices; I understand, Lord, that when a soul allows herself to be captivated by the odor of your ointments, she cannot run alone, all the souls whom she loves follow in her train; this is done without constraint, without effort, it is a natural consequence of her attraction for You. Just as a torrent, throwing itself with impetuosity into the ocean, drags after it everything it encounters in its passage, in the same way, O Jesus, the soul who plunges into the shoreless ocean of Your Love, draws with her all the treasures she possess. Lord, You know it, I have no other treasures than the souls it has pleased You to unite to mine . . . "

[And now I am - forgive me! - skipping 3 glorious pages which I pray you will have the grace to read without me, though certainly Marcel will be near you! We pick up, then with Therese's continued commentary.]

"Mother, I think it is necessary to give a few more explanations on the passage in the Canticle of Canticles: 'Draw me, we shall run,' for what I wanted to say appears to me little understood. 'No man can come after me, unless the FATHER who sent me draw him,' Jesus has said. Again, through beautiful parables, and often even without using this means so well known to the people, He teaches us that it is enough to knock and it will be opened, to seek in order to find, and to hold out one's hand humbly to receive what is asked for. He also says that everything we ask the Father in His name, He will grant it. No doubt, it is because of this teaching that the Holy Spirit, before Jesus' birth, dictated this prophetic prayer: 'Draw me, we shall run.'

"What is it then to ask to be 'Drawn' if not to be united in an intimate way to the object which captivates our heart? If fire and iron had the use of reason, and if the latter said to the other: 'Draw me,' would it not prove that it desires to be identified with the fire in such a way that the fire penetrate and drink it up with its burning substance and seem to become one with it? Dear Mother, this is my prayer. I ask Jesus to draw me into the flames of His love, to unite me so closely to Him that He live and act in me. I feel that the more the fire of love burns within my heart, the more I shall say, 'Draw me,' the more also the souls who will approach me (poor little piece of iron, useless if I withdraw from the divine furnace), the more these souls will run swiftly in the odor of the ointments of their Beloved, for a soul that is burning with love cannot remain inactive. No doubt she will remain at Jesus' feet as did Mary Magdalene, and she will listen to His sweet and burning words. Appearing to do nothing, she will give much more than Martha who torments herself with many things and wants her sister to imitate her. It is not Martha's works that Jesus finds fault with; His divine Mother submitted humbly to these works all through her life since she had to prepare the meals of the Holy Family. It is only the restlessness of His ardent hostess that He willed to correct.

"All the Saints have understood this, and more especially those who filled the world with the light of the Gospel teachings. Was it not in prayer that St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. John of the Cross, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and so many other famous Friends of God have drawn out this divine science which delights the greatest geniuses? A scholar has said: 'Give me a lever and a fulcrum and I will lift the world.' What Archimedes was not able to obtain, for his request was not directed by God and was only made from a material viewpoint, the Saints have obtained in all its fullness. The Almighty has given them as fulcrum: HIMSELF ALONE; as lever: PRAYER which burns with a fire of love. And it is in this way that they have lifted the world; it is in this way that the Saints militant still lift it, and that, until the end of time, the Saints to come [that's us!] will lift it.

"Dear Mother, now I would like to tell you what I understand by the odor of the ointments of the Beloved. Since Jesus has reascended into Heaven, I can follow Him only in the traces He has left; but how luminous these traces are! how perfumed! I have only to cast a glance in the Gospels and immediately I breathe in the perfumes of Jesus' life, and I know on which side to run. I don't hasten to the first place but to the last; rather than advance like the Pharisee, I repeat, filled with confidence, the publican's humble prayer. Most of all I imitate the conduct of Magdalene; her astonishing or rather her loving audacity which charms the Heart of Jesus also attracts my own. Yes, I feel it; even though I had on my conscience all the sins that can be committed, I would go, my heart broken with sorrow, and throw myself into Jesus' arms, for I know how much He loves the prodigal child who returns to Him.

"No, there is no one who could frighten me, for I know too well what to believe concerning His Mercy and His Love. I know that this whole multitude of sins would be lost in the twinkling of an eye like a drop of water cast into a burning furnace. In the lives of the desert fathers, it is told how one of them converted a public sinner whose evil deeds were the scandal of the whole country. Touched by grace, the sinful woman followed the Saint into the desert to perform a rigorous penance. On the first night of the journey, before even reaching the place of her retreat, the vehemence of her love and sorrow broke the ties binding her to earth, and at the same moment the holy man saw her soul carried by angels to God's bosom. This is a striking illustration of what I want to say, but the reality itself is beyond the power of words to express.

"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 . . . "

And here is the end of Therese's writing - the last pages being written in pencil, for she no longer had the strength to hold a pen!

What shall we take away? His Mercy, His Love, her determination to tell us the Truth of both!

Little Therese, little Marcel, we thank darling Little Jesus for giving you to us as our flowers too! Help us to thank Him for the untold blessings He has given us, which only we can discover and thank Him for. Help us to turn to Jesus always with confidence and love, to tell Him our simplest (and most complex) hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows, and even what we're looking forward to or dreading tomorrow!

Thank you, Therese, for teaching us the words with which we close today and always:

Draw me, we will run!!!

Once upon a time, about three or four months ago, a dear friend who has a talent for shopping (more like a super power, really), bought and gave me an antique French medal with the most adorable image of Little Jesus on the front. We knew it was French because not only did she buy it from France (thanks to the wonders of modern technology, i.e. the internet), but on the back of the medal there were French words. Specifically:

O Jesus,
Roi d'Amour,
J'ai confiance
en Votre
Misericordieuse
Bonte.

(and please mentally insert an accent mark over that final "e" in Bonte!)

Translated literally, this prayer says:
"O Jesus, King of Love, I have confidence in Your merciful goodness."
What a beautiful set of words to go with the truly beautiful image of Little Jesus!

When my friend gave me the medal, she explained that I didn't have to wear it but could instead place it where I would see it often. 

"Au contraire!" I replied (though in English). "I must wear something this beautiful. I want it always with me."

And thus my association with Little Jesus, King of Love began. He was a bit anonymous, and I did not often remember to speak to Him in the words of His flip-side-prayer, but He accompanied me everywhere, attached as He was to a rosary bracelet our sister St. Therese had given me on our last day together in Lisieux last May.

Then recently (it was All Souls Day, to be exact), another kind friend sent me a link to a devotion she had just discovered which she - knowing nothing of the medal dangling from my wrist - thought I would love too.

She was right! But add in the dangling medal bearing sweet Little Jesus as my constant companion, and I more than loved the new devotion. I was bowled over, delighted, thrilled, and in a word, awestruck.

I was, in fact, once again overwhelmed with God's tender solicitude, for it often seems that He loves us so much that He can't stop sending new tokens of His affection. Considering that He said twice in the Bible, "Behold I make all things new," (in both Isaiah and in the Book of Revelation), I don't think His ever-new tokens are merely figments of my imagination. Sometimes He sends a new version of something ancient - like each day's sunrise and sunset - and sometimes He sends something entirely new, like this devotion that the Holy Spirit was determined I would "discover," with the help of angels both heavenly and earthly.

For what my dear friends had sent me, each unaware of the other's find, were first the medal with invocation, and then the story of the invocation and subsequent medal of Jesus, King of Love.

The invocation was revealed on August 28, 1922 to a humble French laywoman, Yvonne Beauvais, who became an Augustinian Canoness, a Hospitaller of the Mercy of Jesus, known later as Mother Marie Yvonne Aimee de Jesus, or in English, Yvonne Beloved by Jesus.

And just as when Jesus spoke to Servant of God Marcel Van, and so many other mystics, He promised that His words were not only for the original recipient who then transcribed the message, but for all little souls, so, too, Jesus told Yvonne that the short invocation He gave her was not only for herself but also for all little souls.

Quite understandably, then, Yvonne spent the rest of her life - when she wasn't busy running a convent, serving the poor, singing the Divine Praises, helping priests, advising Abbots, hiding Jewish men, women, and children from Nazi's, and so on -  spreading this invocation, gaining indulgences and endorsements from Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, and Pope St. John XXIII, and even painting a picture to go with the prayer.

In 1940, the world was full of sadness and fear as war raged, so Mother Yvonne gave it a cause  and source for serenity in the image of Little Jesus she painted. He holds an olive branch in one hand, while His other hand points to His Sacred Heart. He wears a crown on His curly topped boyish head to show He is King of Love, and His gaze looks out, waiting to meet the gaze of each little soul, waiting to fill each dear soul with His peace that passes all understanding. 

Since the medal sent me some months ago was antique, when I heard more recently of the story behind it, I thought the devotion must have fallen into obscurity. Who knew of such a lovely person as Yvonne Beauvais? Who knew of the invocation Jesus had revealed to her nearly 100 years ago, and who had seen (besides my generous friend, myself, and the shopkeeper in far-away France who had sold the medal) Little Jesus as Mother Yvonne portrayed Him? 

To my astonishment and great joy, I couldn't have been more wrong in my guess that Little Jesus was neglected. Thanks to the links sent by my second friend, I discovered there exists a monastery in Ireland, Silverstream Priory in County Meath, which in 2012 was consecrated to little Jesus King of Love. As if this wasn't enough (and it wasn't!) the monks at Silverstream have started a confraternity for those who wish to unite, simply, in the saying of the little invocation morning and night and in wearing (or carrying on their person) the medal of Jesus, King of Love.

The monks say a Mass for the confraternity members once a month, and also on 5 special days in January and February each year. There are no dues, no fees, no big commitments and no meetings - just a union of prayer under the King of Love, a union of confidence in Him, a union of saying the invocation morning and evening each day. If you want to join, you can click HERE and fill out the form online. I did so a week ago, and lo and behold, I have already received from the monks an enrollment card (with Jesus' adorable picture), a holy card of Mother Yvonne, who is now a Servant of God, and a blessed golden medal of Jesus King of Love!

As for the invocation, I have read varying translations of it. The one sent in the monk's welcoming letter (and the one that is most literal) says in English:

O Jesus, King of Love, I trust in Your merciful goodness.

The prayer on the back of the medal says 

O Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in Thy loving mercy.

Another possible translation is:

O Jesus, King of Love, I trust in Your merciful kindness.

I think each one of those translations does its own beautiful job of capturing in a sentence the invocation Jesus gave Mother Yvonne for us. As she said in her letter to Pope Pius XI when she requested an indulgence for the prayer:

"It is so sweet, so strong, so rich, this little invocation . . . This invocation is appreciated by the sick; it consoles them. They love this prayer because it appeals to the Kingship of Christ Jesus, to His Love, His Mercy, His Goodness; in some way, it compels us to trust. It condenses our familiar invocations to the Sacred Heart and sums them up."

On their website, the monks answer the question "Who may join?" the Confraternity, by saying it is perfect for those who have suffered or are suffering. I would add that this Confraternity, with its devotion to Jesus, King of Love, is tailor made for the scruppulous, for converts, for long-time and cradle Catholics, and finally for everyone! You can't help but notice the similarity between this invocation and the prayer our Savior taught us through St. Faustina, "Jesus, I trust in You." Who doesn't need an infusion of trust, confidence, and peace? And I can think of no better way to attain these desperately needed gifts than by igniting the spark of love in our hearts into a burning flame through the repetition of the cry, "O Jesus, King of Love, I trust in Your merciful goodness!"

If you go to the link for the confraternity (which is, again, HERE), you can follow other links provided therein to more information on this devotion. May God be praised for His infinite solicitude, His unending Love for us, and His mercies which are new each morning.

Draw me, we will run!

From where I sit (on the East Coast for a too-short visit), All Saints Day is ending, and All Souls Day about to begin. But I know that elsewhere (westward, where I usually am) it is still the Feast of All Saints, while traveling toward our friends in the British Isles, Europe, and Africa (in other words, eastward), we find All Souls Day already begun.

I take the Heavenly Liberty, the liberty of bilocation if you want to call it that, of being in All Saints Day a titch longer then. It's so hard to leave this glorious feast, even as I look forward to doing my part tomorrow to release all of purgatory to join Heaven's ranks . . . 

What shall I say, then, while I still have the chance to celebrate our known and unknown brothers and sisters who see the loving Face of God?

Marcel would have me quote our favorite sister, little Therese, in one of our (many) favorites passages among those recorded by Mother Agnes (our sister Pauline) when Therese was preparing to enter eternal life.

Our little dying Carmelite said, on her deathbed, some hilarious things, and some prophetic things, and many simply remarkable and memorable things, and we are so grateful they were transcribed by Pauline, Celine, the Maries (of the Sacred Heart, of the Trinity, and of the Eucharist) and later published as her Last Conversations. Though I love this book and frequently search its pages, I have to smile that 99% of the time I am totally unaware that it has nearly the same title as the second Therese's (i.e. Marcel's) book - my Book of books - Conversations.

Be that as it may, I woke this morning with a desire to share with you a very particular passage from Therese's Last Conversations, and so I began to transcribe it asap. Alas, life intervened and delayed my progress, but hooray, now I can finish copying out the passage for you at last.

Here, then, is a gift to you from Marcel and Miss Marcel, in thanksgiving for all the Saints, and in cahoots with our own particular sister-Saint, little Therese. Our gift (Therese's really) is a thought worth musing over, and we hope and pray you will realize its implications. Since it's gotten late, we won't leave these implications a mystery for you to solve, but tell you our hope:

You, dear one, can be the little spark that lights the fire of Love in the heart of a great Saint, or even many great Saints!

How?

Marcel and I love to increase the glory and joy of our brothers and sisters the great saints (and the small too) by saying the short but powerful prayer we presented earlier this week. We're then confident that we'll be told, on the Last Day when all is revealed, that we were the cause of Therese's holiness, as well as the holiness of many other of our saintly siblings!

We've finished our two triple novenas, but the prayers we said or read for the last 50 days (as well as the fruits of these prayers) will be with us forever. Here, then, is the last of those prayers we introduced, presented now as the icing on the cake, or rather the bow tying up our gift to the Saints, even as we await their gifts to us (the answers to our petitions for our needs in these novenas).

Merciful Father, in the name of our gentle Jesus, the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and all the Saints, we beg You to enkindle every one of our sisters and brothers with Your Spirit of Love and to grant them the favor of making You loved very much.

And now that we've prayed this innocent looking but so powerful prayer together, let me show you what trouble I've gotten you into! Here is the passage I've been waiting all day to share with you, in which St. Therese paints a vivid picture of our meddlesome part in the Communion of all the Saints! 

Pauline (Mother Agnes) records this "Last Conversation" from July 15th:

She told me about the following, the memory of which was the source of a great grace to her:

"Sister Marie of the Eucharist wanted to light the candles for a procession; she had no matches; however, seeing the little lamp which was burning in the front of the relics, she approached it. Alas, it was half out; there remained only a feeble glimmer on its blackened wick. She succeeded in lighting her candle from it, and with this candle, she lighted those of the whole community. It was, therefore, the half-extinguished little lamp which had produced all these beautiful flames which, in their turn, could produce an infinity of others and even light the whole universe. Nevertheless, it would always be the little lamp which would be first cause of all this light. How could the beautiful flames boast of having produced this fire, when they themselves were lighted with such a small spark?

"It is the same with the Communion of Saints. Very often, without our knowing it, the graces and lights that we receive are due to a hidden soul, for God wills that the Saints communicate grace to each other through prayer with great love, with a love much greater than that of a family, and even the most perfect family on earth. How often have I thought that I may owe all the graces I've received to the prayers of a person who begged them from God for me, and whom I shall know only in heaven.

"Yes, a very little spark will be capable of giving birth to great lights in the Church, like the Doctors and Martyrs, who will undoubtedly be higher in heaven than the spark; but how could anyone think that their glory will not become his?

"In heaven, we shall not meet with indifferent glances, because all the elect will discover that they owe to each other the graces that merited the crown for them."

+    +    +

Praise God with me for the marvelous assembly of our brothers and sisters the Saints, and the joy and love with which they regard us from their places already before Him! May they bring us, every one, to their company, and meanwhile may they answer all your so-far-unanswered prayers!

I must admit that I'm charmed by Therese's "half-extinguished little lamp which had produced all these beautiful flames which, in their turn, could produce an infinity of others and even light the whole universe."

I know two such half-extinguished little lamps - or three, or four, or five, come to think of it. These are dear friends, heroes of mine, who seem swamped in suffering, yet their faith, and hope, and charity (all of which seem to them more than half-extinguished) are being used by our dear Jesus at this very moment to produce beautiful flames in erstwhile cold hearts . . . using them, in other words, to save souls on earth and liberate those in purgatory.

Do not be afraid, little half-extinguished lamps. We are in this together, and together not only with each other, but with the whole Communion of the Saints-in-Heaven too! May they intercede for us, obtain the answers to our hearts' deepest longings, and fill us and those we love (especially those we love who are suffering) with inescapable peace and joy!

Jesus, we trust in You!
And for those who can only say it but don't feel it, no matter - we know You are God, You are all good, all-powerful, and You love us (even when we can't see or feel it)!

Jesus, we trust in You!
DRAW ME, WE WILL RUN!!!

"It is confidence, and nothing but confidence, that must lead us to LOVE!"
                                                                              - Marcel's sister St. Therese

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

Merciful Father, in the name of our gentle Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints, I beg You to enkindle all my sisters and brothers with Your Spirit of Love and to grant them the favor of making You loved very much.

So here we are, in the last few days, the final triduum, of our second Triple Novena of Love. We are just past St. Jude (pray for us!) and his compadre, St. Simon (pray for us too!) and sneaking up on the Vigil of All Saints, our last day of prayer. Ever? No way, Torme! (We're big Mel Torme fans over here, so I thought I'd change that up a little!)

I'm thinking maybe one way God ensures we'll keep praying is by not answering all our prayers at once. But I do hope you're seeing answers to some of your prayers! I think the way it happens in my life is that God answers prayers constantly - some for me, some for others - but then new needs crop up so quickly that I hardly have time to thank Him for those He has satisfied before I find myself asking for more. And just for the record, I don't think He minds at all. As St. Therese used to tell her novice Marie of the Trinity: To restrain our hopes, desires, and prayers would be to put a limit on God's Limitless Love, Goodness, and Omnipotence! So ask away!

This week I'm very grateful because my husband and I are in the midst of a miracle, even though the miracle sits amidst an ongoing unanswered prayer request. Our miracle is the great grace to spend time with Tony's family even while my father-in-law Paul is very ill - terminal cancer and the latest complication, pneumonia - but we're hopeful Paul will be home from the hospital soon, and we're so happy we can spend some days with him wherever he is! My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are the ones holding the fort, and what a mightily heroic job they're both doing! I know that even with the help of their good angels, these dear women are exhausted, so I ask your prayers that our presence will lighten their load.

Meanwhile, your intentions are included in our prayers as well!  We've got them all in our big bucket of prayer requests which correspond to St. Therese's buckets of roses. She's planning to share them (the intentions and the roses) with the other Saints this week - may every Saint be involved, and may every rose be dropped down to a needy heart and home! You qualify I'm sure, so look for roses!!!

​And then, along with our other graces and miracles, we are here together! And just in time to have a meeting of Marcel's Book Club for October! Yes, we already had one earlier this month, but that was really last month's overdue . . . like last month's was the month's before, better late than never. Never give up, though, because miracles happen and we're getting back on track before our year of reading Story of a Soul comes to a close. We're not done (or undone!) yet! So if you've got a copy of our sister's autobiography handy, you can read it before or after you read this post, but I hope you do read it - Chapter 10 in particular, which is where we are for our 10th month's installment. I'm sure I'm going to glide over (or skip altogether) many pages, and those might be the very pages she wrote for your heart, so think of this as an appetizer, rather than the whole feast!

Chapter 10 of Story of a Soul (in John Clarke's edition, but really every edition is good) picks up Therese's religious life where she left off in her writings for Mother Agnes, her sister Pauline, who (prompted by their sister Marie of the Sacred Heart) had requested Therese's childhood memories. Those formed Manuscript A, the opening chapters of the book.

Now Therese is writing for Mother Genevieve, the mother superior who received her into Carmel and oversaw her first steps there, and is now mother again (following the three years when Pauline became Mother Agnes and was superior). This portion of the book is referred to as Manuscript C, and is the third part of what Therese wrote that was gathered, after her death, into what the world now knows as her "Story of a Soul."

As Marcel and I dive in, we find ourselves skimming until the third page of Chapter 10, when we are, together, arrested by this paragraph:

"O Mother, how different are the ways through which the Lord leads souls! In the lives of the saints, we find many of them who didn't want to leave anything of themselves behind after their death, not the smallest souvenir, not the least bit of writing. On the contrary, there are others, like our holy Mother St. Teresa, who have enriched the Church with their lofty revelations, having no fears of revealing the secrets of the King in order that they may make Him more loved and known by souls. Which of these two types of saints is more pleasing to God?"

Therese has a ready answer, but I have another question . . .

She says, "It seems to me, Mother, they are equally pleasing to Him, since all of them followed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and since the Lord has said: 'Tell the just man ALL is well.' Yes, all is well when one seeks only the will of Jesus, and it is because of this that I, a poor little flower, obey Jesus when trying to please my beloved Mother."

Ah, yes, all that is well and good, but here is my question:

"Which of these two types of saints is more pleasing to me?"

And my ready answer is, always, the Saint who leaves books for me to read!

It is a constant source of wonder to me that God has chosen books as the way to reach my soul. Time and again books have changed my life, to the point that you might ask, "How much changing can one life afford?"

Oh, plenty, I assure you! And I know God has many ways of changing lives, even without books (perish the thought, but then again, His ways are not always ours!!). Did you know, for instance, that the good Carmelite known as Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (who wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, which has changed many a life) was himself changed and converted by seeing a tree without its leaves when the seasons changed? I appreciate this and have looked at trees admiringly and wonderingly, hoping something miraculous would happen to me too, but give me a book any day (which I suppose we can think of as a tree in another form) and I am happier and more changed by far!

Take Story of a Soul, say, and let's pick up where we left off a moment ago, because here is a passage with great life changing potential! Therese writes:

"You know, Mother, I have always wanted to be a saint. Alas! I have always noticed that when I compared myself to the saints, there is between them and me the same difference that exists between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and the obscure grain of sand trampled underfoot by passers-by."

Marcel and I interrupt merely to say, "Amen, sister!" And then back to Therese:

"Instead of becoming discouraged, I said to myself: God cannot inspire unrealizable desires."

Did you know this is one of the great truths of all the Saints and the spiritual life?

Therese got it from St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, as well as from the Scriptures. But just yesterday I found it in an article on Mother Teresa written by my dear friend Maura HERE. Maura quotes a letter Mother Teresa wrote to Malcolm Muggeridge, and when I saw Mother Teresa's words, I almost fell off my chair!! 

St. Mother Teresa says (in words reminiscent of her namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux), "“I don’t know why, but very often in my heart a desire has come to be with you in England when you make your first Holy Communion with Jesus. I don’t know—but Jesus never gives desires which He does not mean to fulfill.”

Poor Malcolm had no idea he would make his first Holy Communion ever - but sure enough, the grace of God and His love through the saints brought dear Malcolm into the Church ten years later, and he received Jesus in his First Holy Communion, and many, many more thereafter.

Talk about miracles! If we have had the grace to receive Holy Communion even once in our triple novenas, we can be sure miracles are happening! And I love that Maura's article appeared on Mother Teresa's feast, September 5th, the day before we set out on our Road of Triple Novenas!

What goes around comes around, as they say, and how lovely that we are still here (or here again) to petition Mother Teresa, Malcolm Muggeridge, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, Brother Marcel Van and so many more on this upcoming feast of All the Saints. God is so good, and our Communion of Saints - and our communion with the saints in Holy Communion - is yet another miracle of His grace and His Love in which we can rejoice, even while we don't let up petitioning Him for all we need and haven't yet received.

But what about Therese and her lack of discouragement? I, for one, and Marcel for another (as he tells in his own writings), have certainly felt some discouragement when seeing the difference between ourselves and the saints. What is Therese's solution? What saved her from a like feeling?

She knows, and we must learn, that God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. This is a perfect lesson for our prayers, too! If yours aren't answered when this triple novena ends, do not be discouraged! Keep knocking, and the door will open! Keep asking and you will receive! Here is what Therese says she understood next:

"Instead of becoming discouraged, I said to myself: God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness. It is impossible for me to grow up, and so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections."

Wow! Did you expect this answer to our prayers? An answer to the plague of perfectionism! How marvelous!

A dear new friend and brother recently sent me two stones, precious relics from the Cave of St. Michael that Padre Pio used to frequent (as did many other Saints, and Popes too). St. Michael had appeared at this cave, said it was holy, and promised those who came to the cave would be healed of the ravages of the plague - and even those to whom stones from the cave were brought! This must be the gift I was given recently: to be healed from this plague of perfectionism! But I hate to hoard relics, so please accept them (spiritually at least) from me as little pebbles from our sister Therese and our brother Marcel, in the name of St. Michael. What are these little pebbles? They are our saints' healing words, and they sound like this:

"I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness. It is impossible for me to grow up, and so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections."

So far, so good! And then?

"But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new."

Aha! We are little, we cannot be other than we are (try as we might, for years, for decades even!), so we too need a little way to get to heaven! Lucky for us, our sister explains:

"We are living now in an age of inventions, and we no longer have to take the trouble of climbing stairs, for, in the houses of the rich, an elevator has replaced these very successfully. I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection."

Me too! Marcel too! You too? Let's read on!

"I searched, then, in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: "Whoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me."

"And so I succeeded. I felt I had found what I was looking for. But wanting to know, O my God, what You would do to the very little one who answered Your call, I continued my search and this is what I discovered: 'As one whom a mother caresses, so will I comfort you; you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you.'

"Ah! Never did words more tender and more melodious come to give joy to my soul. The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more."

This gets better and better! Therese has already given us permission to stay little. Now she says it is even better to become littler and littler! This is not just a cure for perfectionism, it is a whole new way: the way of the child who abandons himself in his father's or mother's arms!

And next comes something to make me smile. I brought back many holy cards from Lisieux (and sent out one of the last extras today!), and some were in French. I delighted in pretending to know French so I could translate them, and one of my favorite quotes I translated as, "O my God, You have exceeded all my expectations!"

Knowing that Therese's hopes and expectations were so very great, I love that she says He not only met them, but exceeded them. I like to think about how St. Monica prayed for years that her son Augustine would get baptized before he died, so he could slip into heaven. God far exceeded that mom's expectations! He went so far as to make Augustine one of the greatest Doctors of the Church (right up there with our sister Therese, haha!)!!

And here it is, the line I love:

"O my God," Therese writes next, "You surpassed all my expectation. I want only to sing Your mercies. "You have taught me from my youth, O God, and until now I will declare Your wonderful works. And until old age and gray hairs, O God, forsake me not.' What will this old age be for me? It seems this could be right now, for two thousand years are not more in the Lord's eyes than are twenty years, than even a single day."

I love, love, love that Therese took God at His Word. She never hesitates to remind those around her (and the rest of us, who have inherited her words) that God promised and explained, over and over in the Scriptures, that it is not years alone that bring wisdom. In fact, as she and Marcel and I love to quote, and as I heard again today at Mass because the Church loves to use this as the Alleluia verse,:

"Jesus full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what You were pleased to do."

Marcel and I are skipping to the next page, because Therese says it so much better than we can:

"Mother, you know that those souls are rare who don't measure the divine power according to their own narrow minds; people want exceptions everywhere on earth, but God alone hasn't the right to make any exceptions! For a very long time, I have known that this way of measuring experience according to years is practiced among human beings. For instance, the holy King David has sung to the Lord: 'I am YOUNG and despised.' And in the same Psalm 118, he does not hesitate to add: 'I have had understanding above old men, because I have sought your will. Your word is a lamp to my feet. I am prepared to carry out your commandments and I am TROUBLED ABOUT NOTHING.'"

*    *    *

I find myself in a great dilemma at this juncture. It seems absolutely wrong to write more. There is so much here already to fill our hearts and minds, that writing more for you to read is like inviting you to be a glutton!

At the same time there is so much left in this chapter that is beautiful, that would nourish our souls, that seems a waste to leave in the book and not bring out onto the table.

And yet I cannot go on. I think my dilemma is solved by the simple solution of what Fr. Thomas Dubay (God rest his darling soul!) used to call "The Time Pressure Problem." I need to go make dinner (or discover it in the fridge!), and you? You may have things to do, people to love, prayers to say, something to eat, or sleep to enjoy. 

But most of all, I hear Marcel saying, "Enough! I want to stop where Therese talks about very few years bringing great wisdom, and especially where she finishes with our being TROUBLED ABOUT NOTHING!"

Yes, Marcel, it's your book club, so you get the last word. How about one I remembered in the middle of the night, which brought me as much consolation as any of the magnificent sentences we read in Story of a Soul? Granted, this word is from Jesus, but it does appear as you wrote it for us in your Conversations. Thanks be to God for the miracle of books, and especially this book-of-my-heart! And so I quote (for once from memory!) these words of Truth Himself to our hearts:

"The smaller your love for Me, the more mine will envelop you in its intimacy."

Now there's a reason to get littler and littler! 

May your dinner be delicious, and your sleep even more so! I ask Our Lady to send angels to watch over you, and may God answer your prayers, every one, though He take His sweet time in doing so, until the day we sing, with little Therese and Marcel, "O my God, You have surpassed all my expectations!"

Draw me, we will run!!! 

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

Welcome to the last phase of our second triple novena! I'm afraid - which is bad, after making you recite with me, "Be not afraid," nine days in a row! - okay, so I'm not deeply scared, but simply a little concerned that I might be confusing newcomers (and even friends of long years) with this seemingly endless sequence of novenas . . . Or perhaps I might be worrying newcomers (or you old standbys) with the thought that you're too late to fully partake of our double (because we've had two) triple (because each consists of three back to back nine day sessions)  feast of novenas.

Therefore, let me repeat, before we get any further in, or any further out (of our minds), our triple novena story.

I love novenas - i.e. nine consecutive days of prayer to a saint or for a particular intention - because I'm pretty good at counting to nine. (Start with thumb of left hand, proceed through five digits of that hand, switch over to thumb of right hand, stop at ring finger - don't count pinky!)

Furthermore I have a short attention span, so during Mass I have lately amused myself with this holy trick of counting (silently!) on my fingers up to nine, while naming the days starting with some particular feast or day near where I sit and seeing where the nine count gets me.  But "us" is so much more fun than just "me," especially because "me" is already "we" (Marcel, Therese, moi - not Miss Piggy, but Miss Marcel) . . . so when I found out that we could, for instance, start on September 6 and in nine days (a novena) reach the Feast of the Holy Cross, then start on Our Lady of Sorrows (the next day) and count nine - another novena - to reach St. Padre Pio, and then start on Padre Pio's day, and with a final novena (this would be the third in a row) reach St. Therese's feast - well, our first triple novena was born, and it was "ours" because I invited everyone within earshot or eyeshot or any kind of shot, really (root beer, anyone?), to join me in this newfound joy!

That first triple novena was so much fun, and went so well, and yet so many prayers had still to be answered - and if you were listening this past Sunday at Mass, you know that Jesus counsels persistence in prayer, even to the point of calling His Dad an unjust judge, or at least likening Him to one, though He's the justest, sweetest, best Papa ever - well the next thing we knew, I'd counted out another 27 or so days and whoosh, we were involved in a second triple novena. This one started October 5, which turned out to be not only St. Faustina's feast, but also the feast of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos (and yes, my memory is so famously like Marcel's, namely forgetful, that I had to pull out his relic-card just now, after a long and fruitless brain-search, to merely remember Blessed FX's name! Wow! That's bad, but funny!).

From October 5 it was a quick nine days to the canonization of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman (which so cool to say, after all these years of his being merely Cardinal Newman, impressive as that was too) which was also the 102nd anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. Nine more days brought us to the feast of St. John Paul II on October 22. And now, in the home stretch, we're heading for nothing less than the Vigil of All Saints! Nothing like roping in all the holy ones to intercede for us and our every need!

So what prayers have we been saying for this double triple novena? We've tried a variety of prayers, some longer, some shorter, and we're ending now in this last nine days with the prayer that started the whole shebang. It's called "An Old French Prayer for Friends," it's addressed to our Blessed Mother, and knowingly or not, you've said it already, if you started reading this post at the top!

But before you try to think that far back (or worse yet, scroll up), let me repeat what I've enjoyed emphasizing in this novena, what I even wrote about at Catholic Exchange HERE (click the HERE and you'll be there!), namely, two special rules that make our triple novenas not only unique but also breathtakingly freeing (which is hard to say aloud, but true!):

1. You don't have to say any or every prayer we suggest on every day of the novena, because these are little novenas in the spirit of St. Therese's Little Way. We're trying to remember that it isn't our perfection that attracts God - He's already got that! - it's our littleness, our weakness, and the blind hope we have in His infinite Mercy! So it's okay to miss a day, or two, or . . . 

2. In fact, to make this a foolproof non-threatening, anxiety-reducing (rather than stress increasing) novena (or triple novena, or double triple novena), you don't even have to say ANY of the novena prayers to be included, to be part of the plan, to have your intentions and the intentions of all those you love included here!

After all, haven't you ever prayed before, even a single Hail Mary, for someone who had no suspicion what mischief you were up to? And don't you think they were prayed for even if they knew nothing about it?

Our novena-fest is kind of like that - with the bonus that if you know we're praying for you, and you want to be part of the praying,  and yet perhaps you forget to re-pray the prayers each day, or you get distracted and walk away from the prayer in the middle (am I the only one who does that?) - well these sweet happenstances can hardly disqualify you from our prayers! Especially when you're happy to be prayed for and even wish to join in too (but your weakness or busy schedule prevent you).

I've had a few wonderful souls write to me and ask if they can join in though the novena seems to have already started (or has it finished?), but what prayer should they say, please? Or are they too late?

Darling little souls! You're so very welcome here, and you are never too late! If anyone is reading this in 2024 (which sounds really bizarre and yet is only 5 years away from where I sit as I write) and if the month is July, yet here you are nonetheless - by all means read away, pray away, and know you have been in this novena from its outset, because God is outside of time, and after all, here you are before Him, enjoying His Saints and depending on Him for the solution of all your troubles (and the troubles of those you love). Isn't this fun?

You may have trouble believing me, though, that it's our littleness, our weakness, and the blind hope we have in His infinitely Merciful Love that attract God to us. I know I have trouble believing it (or remembering it) myself! But we've got all the time in the world to absorb this life-changing truth, and you'll be glad to know you have not only my word for it, but proof from our favorite little Doctor of the Church. She's quite a prodigy, for all her youth; the Doogie Howser of the spiritual life; a general practitioner, an internist, a brilliant psychiatrist and psychologist, and a specialist in hearts, no less. 

Doctor Therese wrote about exactly this question of our weakness when she responded to her sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (and here you see how important it is that Therese is a heart specialist!) in my favorite of her many wonderful letters, Letter 197. Marie had complained, sounding just like we might, that Therese's desires (for martyrdom, to preach to the ends of the earth, even simply to love Jesus as He had never before been loved) were awesome but rather intimidating. Since Marie didn't have those same desires (just like we might not), how could she, like Therese, delight the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

Therese responded without hesitation. She literally picked up a pen and wrote back asap to disabuse Marie of her error. Isn't that a great word, "disabuse"? It's the opposite of abuse! It is what a Saint does to help heal her sister - and all who come after - from the abuse of the accuser, that liar, the devil. And here to disabuse us too is the plain truth, spoken as directly as only a Saint can speak it:

"Ah! I feel that it is not this (my desires) at all that pleases God in my little soul; what pleases Him is that He sees me loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that I have in His mercy...That is my only treasure, dear one, why would this treasure not be yours?"

And she explains:

"Oh, dear Sister, I beg you, understand your little girl, understand that to love Jesus, to be His victim of love, the weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more suited one is for the workings of this consuming and transforming Love....The desire alone to be a victim suffices..."

We must interrupt here, Marcel and I, to explain that Therese is talking about the desire to be a victim OF LOVE - to invite God's infinite tenderness to flow into our souls, so that He won't be so sad anymore about how He longs only to set us aflame with Love, Love, Love, and yet He is rejected on every side. What can we do? Even if we want to console Him and receive His love, what must we be to worthily invite God to lavish this infinitely lovable Love upon us? Therese continues:

"We must consent to remain always poor and without strength...Ah! Let us love our littleness, let us love to feel nothing, then we shall be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to look for us, and however far we may be, He will transform us in flames of love...Oh! How I would like to be able to make you understand what I feel!....It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love....Since we see the way, let us run together. Yes, I feel it, Jesus wills to give us the same graces, He wills to give us His heaven gratuitously."

Ah, how our divinely inspired sister is filled with the Word of God! Just yesterday, in the distant past of 24 October 2019, I heard the most beautiful words from the Gospel at Mass, words which echo - or rather foreshadow - the words of Therese.

How do you like that? A new take on Scripture studies: The Old Testament foreshadows Christ, and then Christ Himself foreshadows Therese! Given the amazing words He spoke, that we would do greater works than He did, there may be some startling and odd truth here (or I may be a material heretic, which means not on purpose, so I do submit my every thought, word, and action to the judgment of the Church, and gladly admit I'm a little silly!).

But getting back to this gospel reading from St. Luke, our dear Lord is speaking, and He says: 

"I have come to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already enkindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!"  (Luke 12:49-50)

These words remind me of something else St. Therese said, or rather something she asked of her adopted spiritual brother, Fr. Adolphe Roulland. I don't know if I've mentioned Fr. Roulland here before, but he was a practice brother (and a real priest and missionary) whom God used to get Therese ready to be a big sister to little Marcel some fifty years later, just as He did with her other spiritual brother, the seminarian Maurice Belliere.

St. Therese had asked the soon-to-be-Father Roulland to pray for her at his first Mass, and then every day after that. She later realized he might think he could stop praying for her after she died and entered eternal life, so she made sure to carefully instruct him. Was she asking for prayers to exit purgatory later (or sooner rather than later)?

Not at all! She was firm in her conviction that "for those who love, there is no purgatory," even while she loved to have Masses said for those who had died, because the Church's treasury is so promising and abundant. Also like her holy mother and ours, St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila, Therese wasn't worried about spending time in purgatory, believing as we like to say nowadays, "It's all good."

No, what Therese really wanted was to ensure God would let her spend her heaven doing good on earth, so she asked Fr. Roulland to pray this prayer not only during her life-in-exile, but once she entered the Presence of God. Here is the prayer, from her LT (letter) 220:

"Merciful Father, in the name of our gentle Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints, I beg You to enkindle my sister with Your Spirit of Love and to grant her the favor of making You loved very much."

She explains to her first spiritual brother, "You have promised to pray for me throughout your life; no doubt your life will be longer than mine, and it is not permitted you to sing like me: 'I have the hope that my exile will be short!...' but neither are you permitted to forget your promise. If the Lord takes me soon with Him, I ask you to continue each day the same prayer, for I shall desire in heaven the same thing as I do on earth: To love Jesus and to make Him loved."

Ah, wonderful Therese! She continues, "You must think I am very strange; perhaps you are sorry to have a sister who seems to want to go and enjoy eternal repose and leave you working alone...But rest assured, the only thing I desire is God's will, and I admit that if in heaven I were no longer able to work for His glory, I would prefer exile to the homeland."

Can you beat that? I thought her having Fr. Roulland continue to pray for her was brilliant. I didn't start to think she was a little crazy until she said she doesn't want to rest in heaven! What??? I love rest!!! But admit I also love what REALLY makes our sister crazy - her love for Jesus that desires only and forever to love the Beloved and to make Him loved - even by the likes of us! Keep trying, Souer Therese, and don't give up!

What do you think? Doesn't her prayer and desire remind you of Jesus' prayer and desire? To fill the earth with the fire of love! And so, I had a thought, an extra prayer idea. Why not pray Therese's prayer for ALL THE SAINTS in heaven and on earth?! Granted here on earth some of us are more saints-in-potentia, but isn't this a wonderful prayer to pray for everyone ever? And if we're going to finish off our double triple novena, we might as well have a magical sort of grand finale like in the fireworks shows on 4th of July and every single night in the land of Disney!

So here is our other prayer, which we can say at least once as we read it now, and who knows, perhaps daily - maybe even for the rest of our lives! Greater miracles have happened. Oh, and sillier ones too! I must tell you, before we get to our modified Theresian, ultimate, cover-it-all, grand finale prayer, the latest report on Brother Marcel's and Blessed Seelos' Vietnamese prank which they recently pulled off in the land of Tennessee.

Marcel's brother and ours, P.C., shared the story of Marcel's antics with his marvelous Padre Pio Prayer Group. Note how the great Papa Pio keeps showing up here! He was a jokester too, as well as madly in love with Jesus our Love, and he can't help sharing Marcel's laughter, and retelling his little brother's joke. Brother P.C. writes:

"For the last few weeks, I have been reading the book, Marcel Van Complete Works 2 - Conversations, and you wouldn't believe this! We had several prayer cards of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos on our altar and they are all in English. They were next to the picture of Bro Marcel Van. One of the Fr. Seelos prayer cards turned Vietnamese. I don't think I have a Fr. Seelos prayer card that is Vietnamese?? I think Bro Marcel greeted me. Fr. Seelos and Bro Marcel are both Redemptorists. I flipped through all our Blessed Seelos prayer cards and checked all my drawers and I cannot find a single Vietnamese Blessed Seelos prayer card. On the Feast Day of St. JP 2, October 22nd, 2019, Fr. Seelos and Bro Marcel played a trick on me. This is too funny! It won't be difficult to remember this date."

Thank you so much, Bro P.C., for sharing the joy and laughter and immense love of the saints! I really have to smile when I think of some of our readers here asking, "But wait. Who is Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos?" Ah, a good question, and a perfect imitation of our Bro Marcel with his own query to Jesus, "Who is St. John Eudes?"

If you scroll down, you may be able to find where we recently wrote about Blessed Seelos in one of our musings, but suffice it to say he is yet another great lover of Jesus, and another who loves, like Therese and Marcel, to "come down" and work miracles! So invoke him for your hardest cases, challenge him to become your friend, and you will discover that you are dearly loved by Blessed Seelos already!

We're getting close to our Grand Finale Prayer, but I have this niggling feeling I may not yet have convinced you (or maybe it's me I haven't yet convinced) that our weakness is Jesus' delight. I happened to be thinking about this yesterday because, my weakness being always with me, it's something of an obsession to remind myself of Marcel's message - or to speak more properly, Jesus' message to us through Marcel - along these lines. So in case you're in the same leaky boat, here's what Jesus spoke to me, thanks to Marcel's writing in that same book Bro P.C. is reading these days, Conversations:

"My child" says Jesus, "the smaller your love is for me, the more mine will envelop you with its intimacy."

Okay, that wasn't the passage I was about to transcribe for you, but we little secretaries have to take our dictation as it comes! That was from (122) in Conversations. Let's see if we can get Jesus to tell us more, and if possible from the place I read yesterday . . . 

Ha! I just looked back down at the page in order to turn it to the proper place, and what do I accidentally read below the bold quote above? Marcel writes (123-1), "This [what we just quoted] is what Jesus said to me yesterday."

Little brother, you are very good! And I love that we are so completely one that it's as if He said to me yesterday what He said to you yesterday! This union would make sense, too of how I often experience every word and every page of your Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and Therese as meant exactly for me at every moment of my life! But if you and Padre Pio and Blessed Seelos will stop teasing for a moment, let's see if we can find the passage I hoped to share with these other little souls who have found us here at MMM, and to whom, also, these words are very personally directed!

Ah, not quite yet. Now St. Joseph and Little Jesus (on a bookmark) are giving us (235),  another word Jesus wants us to hear before anything else is written:

"Yes, Marcel [insert your name here!] . . . you are very weak. I have never seen a soul weaker than yours. However, this must not discourage you. It means little that you are weak. After having put everything into my hands, why would you be afraid of your weakness? All that remains for you to do is to love me. As for the rest, I will take it upon myself. Indeed, what can little children know? To love: there you have it, their sole occupation."

I would add (not to correct Jesus, but to extrapolate on how we love) that little children know how too, in their love, to dance! When I was a little girl, I loved to dance and swirl and pretend to be a ballerina to Swan Lake before the sweet, gentle, adoring gaze of my Uncle Edmond (my godfather). I don't know if either of us ever had a better time in our whole lives! Well, that goes for me, at least. Uncle Edmond, having had a holy death assisted by our Mother, the Church, is probably having a better time in his life now, watching Therese dance and shower roses upon us. Though I do suspect he enjoys her so much because she reminds him of a little goddaughter from years past . . . 

Still, there is that passage from my own yesterday that I'd like to share with you - the one I was looking for and which I've found at last! If heaven was less indulgent, there would be Saints and Angels shaking their heads right now, because I did quote this fairly recently in our musings. Happily, heaven is more indulgent, never less, and I'm confident the whole Heavenly Court highly approves of our reminding each other of the words of Love that Jesus speaks to us. Here and now, then, from Marcel's Conversations (82), Jesus tells us:

"You, my child, you know that I always call you by the name of little flower. You, therefore, belong to the category of my little flowers and, in fact, you are a very fragile little flower; the slightest breath of wind is enough to make you fall at my feet. That is why I dare not depart from you. Is that not to your advantage? It is precisely because of your weakness that you are, on my part, the object of a greater love and that my lips are always ready to cover you with kisses. But you are very weak, so weak that you cannot even put up with my kisses. My little flower, remember always that you must never be sad because of your weakness. And no matter how great your weakness may be, be tranquil always, believing that my love would never have the heart to separate itself from you, my little flower."

Is there anything more to say?

I must have the easiest and best job in the world. I get to re-type the words our brother Marcel wrote on his pages for Jesus, pages which his bearded Jesus, Fr. Boucher, re-wrote to keep safe, and later translated from Vietnamese into French. (What would we do without missionaries???) These pages were later translated by our brother Jack Keogan from French into English (thank you, Jack, again and again and forever!). And my job, similar to Fr. Boucher's first job, is to simply re-write them to make sure these adorable words from Jesus are not lost. Then I translate them into some pidgin version of Valley-Girl Thomistic Silly (a language all my own, but which more people speak than we might imagine . . . ).

In other happy news, I have a holy hour today, and since we all have the thrill of praying whenever we want for whomever we want, I'm going to offer my holy hour for everyone in our triple novena! That means you!!! Consider yourself prayed for, since by the time I post this, I will be just about in or already out of the comforting Real Presence of Jesus on the altar in the monstrance . . .

But first, our fireworks prayer. This is the one we can say now by reading it, and forever after according to our desires and our angels' promptings. I think even once is fabulous, though, so no worries! Here we go:

Merciful Father, in the name of our gentle Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints, I beg You to enkindle all my sisters and brothers with Your Spirit of Love and to grant them the favor of making You loved very much.

And lest we forget Who is behind all our prayers, the Wind beneath our wings so to speak, let's conclude with our signature prayer, the one that encapsulates every single one of the others, up to and including our Grand Finale Prayer, into 5 short words. Because after all, as St. Therese liked to say and then proved by her life: It only takes a small spark to start a huge fire!

Draw me, we will run!!!

I'm delighted to be wishing you a happy JPII day! I had hoped to write early and often today, but the Holy Spirit had other plans. I pray your day has been blessed! 

Mine began early with some "work" on translating French into English to finish off a wonderful book on St. Therese that I've had the privilege to write. I put "work" in quote marks because it's not clear to any of us (me, Therese, Marcel, John Paul II, my guardian angel, and so on to the whole cloud of witnesses) that I can translate more than escargot (no thank you) and croissant (yes, please)! But I had to laugh when I saw a post it note I'd put on the French page last time I attempted this process. It was apparently a message from St. Therese who was teasing me, saying, "You're the only person I know who gets infused knowledge and then uses a dictionary!." 

I remember! I had prayed for infused knowledge of French so I could read this important page which had been sent to me from France (in the real mail!) after our visit to Lisieux. That particular morning, I felt the gift had been given! I whooshed through the passage and understood - and my goodness was it a miracle: not only that I understood, but what I understood! If I am being cryptic, all will be made clear soon when the book is available. Thanks to a terrific priest we met in Lisieux, a real lover of Therese and an encouraging soul if ever there was one, the book will be available much sooner than I had hoped - or so I hope now! But meeting Fr. Ken was only the first of the final steps in the book's development. Another important step was reading this page's confirmation of my thesis, in French no less!

You can understand (do take my side, not hers, will you?) that it was only natural I should check my infused knowledge with a dictionary!! I'm not entirely used to living on the supernatural plane, so basic reference works continue to be a crutch. Also, my infused knowledge was short-lived, so the dictionary is a necessity once again. Ah, for more faith and union of love with my guardian angel! I'm praying for that, for sure!

Meanwhile, after messing about with French this morning, I was ecstatic to receive an email from good Jack Keogan, a man who does know French, enough to have translated Marcel's works from that language into our English. The man, in other words, to whom I owe an eternal debt of gratitude! Jack was telling me that he is still involved in various translation projects, and I told him it was high time he called on Marcel, who anticipated (in his Conversations) that he would himself know French once he was in heaven. He also is the second Therese and wanted to be like his big sister in everything, so I think it's fair to expect him to spend his heaven doing good on earth. Why not put him to work helping Jack help him? (Of course I'm assuming Marcel now knows English too. But then of course he does! As Therese spoke Vietnamese beautifully, once she spoke to Marcel from Heaven, so Marcel speaks English beautifully too - you only have to read the Conversations in English to see that!)

No sooner had I finished and sent my email to Jack, then I received an email from a beautiful couple in Nashville, members of the Padre Pio Prayer Group there, with whom I've been trading Saints. I sent them Marcel, they sent me Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos! And guess what they reported Marcel had been up to today? Nothing more nor less than teaching Blessed Seelos some Vietnamese!!! Here is what P.C. wrote to me:

"Hi Sis Suzie,

You wouldn't believe this. I had several prayer cards of Fr. Seelos. I put them by accident next to Brother Marcel. One of the Fr. Seelos prayer cards turned Vietnamese. I don't think I have a Fr. Seelos prayer card that is Vietnamese?"

Well actually, P.C., I do believe it! And I think you DO have a Fr. Seelos prayer card that is now, thanks to Marcel's antics, quite Vietnamese indeed! Here is the proof, from the photo P.C. sent:

I know this prayer card well, since P.C. sent me several to share, but I also know this card didn't used to be in Vietnamese - so I can't think of a lovelier rose to share with you on St. John Paul II's feast today then a miraculous holy card from one of his beata!

I have been thinking of all he gave us, our dear St. John Paul the Great. The Catechism and the Code of Canon Law. A renewed love of Fatima, taking a bullet for us, beatifying the little shepherds, revealing the third secret. He gave us Our Lady of Guadalupe, declaring himself a Mexican in Mexico, a true son of Our Lady, to whom he said, and taught us to say: Totus Tuus! He gave us his love of Our Lady and the Rosary, even going so far as to give us a new set of 5 luminous mysteries!

He knocked down Communism, this fearless leader on the world stage. He led us into the 3rd milllenium, he visited the whole world, he instituted World Youth Day and inspired countless vocations to the priesthood and religious life. He blessed innumerable married couples, and I'm just thinking of the ones I know personally!!! 

This brilliant Polish pontiff who belonged to us all gave us St. Faustina and the Feast of Divine Mercy, the chaplet of Divine Mercy, the image of Divine Mercy, and the prayer to solve all our difficulties: Jesus, I trust in You! And as if all that weren't enough, alongside his own example of selfless dedication and sanctity, he gave us 483 Saints and 1,340 Blesseds - Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos among them!!

But if you think I'm forgetting something, I'll tell you what is on my heart today so you know I have not forgotten. Far from it, I've been rejoicing since early this morning, thinking, "I know he did other things, but they escape me at the moment, because dear St. John Paul II did one thing I can't wait to hug and kiss him for. He recognized and proclaimed St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face the 33rd and youngest DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH!!!"

Ah, the glorious communion of Saints! We are in the thick of them now, celebrating their feasts (even their canonizations, as in the case of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman!) in our triple novenas and they surround us so lovingly that we have hardly enough time to mention them all, let alone do them justice.

Now St. John Paul II is one of their number, a brightly shining star in the firmament of heaven, yet close enough to hear every one of our prayers. And he knows what we need. He knew it long before he went home to the Father's house. He told us, from the very beginning, these words we have been repeating (or at least intended to repeat, or at the very least can say now) through this second part of the second of our triple novenas: the very words of Jesus we so badly needed - and still need - to hear, the very message that Therese and Marcel (or Jesus and Therese through Marcel) continue to give us:

Be Not Afraid!

and again,

Jesus, I trust in You!

Thank you, St. John Paul II! We love you!!

I will be honest with you. I'm really very super duper extremely excited about beginning the last 9 days of our second triple novena, because finally we can acknowledge all those we never remember to acknowledge: the whole kit n caboodle, the glorious communion of saints, in toto! (Not the dog, but the entirety!!).

And I have to admit that I'm ready, now that I had shaved our prayers down to a minimum, to spend these next 9 days in a little tiny bit more prayer, because I've missed having something a little longer to say. Turns out a short attention span is not cured by a short prayer! Not that any of us needs curing, precisely.

Jesus has convinced me, through His Conversations with Marcel (which He promises are for us too, every word!) that we are delightful to Him in our weakness, just as He assured St. Paul told us long ago, and as St. John Paul II confirmed in graduating Therese with her doctorate. We are the perfect vessels - misshapen, cracked, and worn as we are! - for God's ultimate gift of Himself, perfect, all-powerful, Limitless Love!

I hope you don't mind if we go back to the beginning, to the prayer that began this love fest of triple novenas. I can't get enough of the way this "Old French Prayer for Friends" covers all our bases, and I'm confident it will help us hit the novena ball out of the park straight into heaven where it will roll to Jesus' feet. He, then, will notice how the ball's in His court so to speak (a slight change in metaphor, but still sporting!), and what can He do?

Nothing but answer our prayers, as He loves to do. He was just waiting for the whole cloud of witnesses to cry out in one voice with our petitions! What a deafening roar! How can He refuse us a single thing we need?

Know, then, that your prayers are my prayers, and all of our prayers are the Blessed Mother's prayers. He cannot refuse her, and she loves to intercede for us, so let's call on her again, for these next 9 days and the rest of our lives in earth and in heaven, to be the loving mother she is.

Here, then, is our novena prayer to begin tomorrow (but no problem getting a running start!) and lead us to the Feast of All Saints:

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

Draw me, Jesus, we will run!!!

May your days be full of saints, your nights be watched o'er by angels, your languages be infused, and your prayers be answered, every one!

Our rules still hold - just to have heard about our triple novena is to be included, along with all your loved ones, so no more worrying, any more, ever! We've got enough confidence here for your intentions and then some, so have a cupcake or a glass of wine, and feast in the glory of our Risen Lord and His love for you! 

Blessed be God, in His Angels and in His Saints!

​

Today we begin Part 2 of our 2nd Triple Novena. Hooray!

We're praying our way to the Feast of St. John Paul II now, and so above we have an image of him holding a small child. Do you know why you can't see the little one's face? Because that little one is you! Our dear Holy Father is offering your littleness to the Heavenly Father! And you can see that he is not alone . . . the good smiling Padre on the left is Padre Pio who offers you too! Somehow, since his feast during our last triple novena, he just can't stay away!

A few years ago, as St. John Paul II's feast was approaching, I asked him to obtain for me his love of Our Lady and her Rosary. He not only came through, he told me (or showed me) that I needed more help than he alone could (or wanted) to give. My experience has shown me that the Saints love to work together, and in this case, St. John Paul II pointed to St. Padre Pio and said, "If you want to love Our Lady and the Rosary, he's your man!"

No, I don't hear voices (well sometimes those of my family, but only if I'm not reading or writing when, for some reason, I conveniently go semi-deaf), but I'm sure JPII and Pio were in cahoots because on October 22nd (JP's feast) in that year of my request, I received in the mail my enrollment in Padre Pio's "spiritual child" program. I had sent $5 for a Mass stipend, along with my name to be enrolled somewhere official. As I think I've mentioned here before, you can ask the good Padre to be your spiritual father, and he will happily and instantly take you on, and all those you love too! So I had no doubts that I was his spiritual daughter, but a friend who is even crazier for him than I am had given me this form I could send in, so I thought, "Why not?"

I am now in a position to tell you why not. At least for me. It was a perfect invitation for the good Padre (drawn into the situation by his friend Karol W.) to play a huge joke on me! On the Holy Father's feast, then, back into my mailbox came the form with something postal and rejecting stamped on the envelope. I think it said "No such address" though I had tried to copy the info carefully. And our postal service in the U.S. is so excellent, that even if you get an address a smidge wrong, they usually manage to get your mail to the right person . . . unless the saints and angels are playing tricks!

Just to keep the fun going, the two of them (PP and JP) then sent me on to St. Anthony to tell me that "Il Santo" was the REAL deal . . . and now, as if in honor of our Triple Novena x 2, the 3 amigos are back! Because you know how St. Anthony will always help you find things? (If you don't know, try him. He's so good about this!) Well, this month he's been collaborating with the Padre and our Holy Papa to actually hide something in order to get me back on track. What is he hiding? What did he want me to do for him? It goes like this:

I've been getting Magnificat (the monthly missal) for years. For the first time ever, a few months back I didn't get my issue. I was able to get a replacement, though heaven knows whether it was really them or me who lost the original. Still it had never happened before. and I hoped it wouldn't happen again . . . and then this month, with that "one more time all over again" feeling the French have a fancy name for, I couldn't find my issue (of the missal! other issues are plentiful and obvious!) - only this time I was fairly certain I'd received it but misplaced it, so I prayed to St. Anthony (as I had done the first time) and just waited. 

We are, I'm beginning to realize, a good chunk of the way into or through October. Still no Magnificat turning up, so I've been bringing last month's copy (with my favorite prayer cards tucked inside) with me to Mass. Yesterday I wondered while at church, "What is in this September issue that I'm supposed to be paying attention to, reading, allowing to be a conduit of grace?"

Bingo! It was the meditation for Septermber 23, St. Padre Pio's feast! I had read it at the time and loved it, but hesitated to share it here because perhaps you too had already read it. But yesterday I realized it is a magnificent sum of what Jesus forever tells us - through Marcel, and also through John Paul II. And I realized that this passage from St. Pio's letters (the one quoted in last month's Magnificat) is just what all Heaven wants me to covey to you, and it even provides our novena prayer!

This morning I came across a short quote from Padre Pio, one I'd never seen before but which struck me as a potential motto, it so exactly suits Marcel and Miss Marcel. Here it is:

"Love cannot manage without words."

Amen!
At least my love can't, and it seems Jesus' love can't either!

When you think of the Blessed Trinity giving us, over the centuries and even the millenia, the entire love letter of the Bible! And then when you consider the many words Jesus left us, His "most precious relics on earth" as He said to St. Gertrude the Great. And then, Marcel's Conversations!! Not to mention the many words of His love through the other Saints to us! Woohoo - that's clearly a whole lotta love God needs to give us! The sheer volume of words tells the story!

And yet, it is all so simple. Here is how Padre Pio sums it up in the passage Jesus so earnestly wants us to hear that He's willing to tie St. Anthony's hands and refuse to let him find my Magnificat for October. And when you read what Jesus says to us through our father Pio, you will know how this fits perfectly with His beloved Vicar, John Paul II . . . Padre Pio's words of love to a spiritual child:

What should I say to you in the name of this most sweet God become Man? I repeat, a thousand times and I will always repeat what I have always said to you:

Do not fear. Jesus is with you. He is working within you and is pleased with you, and you are entirely and always in Him.

This is the entire and only truth.

*     *     *

There is more, and it is eminently worth sharing too, but I wanted to make sure you had that first part, that main part, that simple "entire and only truth" part before I added the rest. St. Pio continues:

You are right to complain at finding yourself more often than not in darkness. You seek your God, you sigh for Him, you call Him and cannot always find Him. Then it seems to you that God hides Himself, that He has abandoned you! But I repeat,

Do not fear. Jesus is with you and you are with Him. 

In darkness, times of tribulation and spiritual anxiety, Jesus is with you. In that state, you see nothing but darkness in your spirit, but I assure you on behalf of God, that the light of the Lord invades and surrounds your entire spirit. You see yourself in tribulations and God repeats to you through the mouth of His prophet and that of authority: I am with the troubled soul. You see yourself in a state of abandonment, but I assure you that Jesus holds you more tightly than ever to His divine Heart. Even our Lord on the cross complained of the Father's abandonment. But did the Father ever and could He ever abandon His Son, the object of all His divine pleasure?

These are the trials of the spirit. Jesus wants it so. Fiat! Pronounce this fiat and do not fear. By all means complain to Jesus as you like: Pray to Him as you wish, but adhere firmly to the words of him who speaks to you in the name of God.

+     +     +

It is with good reason that our blog is called "Miss Marcel's Musings" - not only because here I muse, but because Marcel is our muse! Or rather, Jesus to Marcel is our foundation and pinnacle. And so when I opened Conversations this morning in prayer, I was delighted to find Our Lord telling us the same thing Pio just did! And John Paul II? He couldn't start without saying, very first off, "Be not afraid!" and he, like Jesus whose voice he was, could never repeat it enough. 

Here, then, is Jesus speaking to Marcel, more words of love because, as St. Pio put it simply and truly, "Love cannot manage without words," This passage is from November 15, 1945, in Conversations (122):

My child, the smaller your love is for me, the more mine will envelop you with its intimacy . . . my dear child, following the example of the little one, be happy to gaze on me and I will penetrate the depths of your heart more even than the mother penetrates that of her child; and throughout eternity, my love will never be separated from you. On the contrary, it will only make your love grow eternally . . . 

My child! Without end and in every way, you will only receive marks of my love for you . . . My dear little one, my love will never depart from you . . . Oh loving child of my heart, look at me covering you now with kisses. My child, even if you looked for a means of divesting yourself of my love, you would never succeed because, already, you are wrapped and shrouded deeply in my love. My child, my dear child, it is no longer possible for you to escape from my love.

*     *     *
And so what shall we pray for these next 9 days?

I can think of no better words than these: first the words of Jesus, Pio, and John Paul II, and then the words Our Savior and Spouse put on our lips through the writings and witness of His little girl who started us off on this Triple Novena fest, St. Faustina. And because we are big fans of the Little Way around here, you've already prayed these once today - when you read the title of this post! But here, for the record, are these wondrous words again:

Do not be afraid!
Jesus I trust in You!

These words have been the clarion call for centuries of Saints, including the one we celebrate today, October 14, Pope St. Callistus; the one we rejoice to fete tomorrow, October 15, with our little sister Therese and our little brother Marcel - their Madre and ours, St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila!!; and then just to keep the party going, the very next day, October 16, Marcel's special Redemptorist patron of lay brothers (and patron of expectant moms and babies in utero), St. Gerard Majella, along with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, lover of the Sacred Heart!

Letting these Saints help us see Jesus' love more clearly should keep us busy for a while, and the best way I can think to keep ourselves from complete dissolution (ah, our foretaste of Heaven: here, one feast after another; there, one endless feast!), is this formula - let's try to hear Jesus' words to us daily, perhaps hourly:

Do not be afraid!

And let's respond just as often in the words He delights in hearing from us:

Jesus, I trust in You!

Remember not to worry - that's what Jesus is telling us - and that includes not worrying about how well you're doing in or on our Triple Novena #2. Believe me, you're doing fabulous! Aren't you here now? What a gift and grace! What joy to be together, united in prayer with little souls all over the world, saying in the words Therese cherished from the Song of Songs (because they expressed everything):

Draw me, we will run!!!

You and all your intentions and all your loved ones and all their intentions? Covered! As in His kisses and His Limitless Love, as well as the sweet embrace of our Mother Mary. who folds her mantle around us and tucks us in safe, close to Jesus on her heart.

No more worrying, about anything, anymore, ever! Or, in the words of Our Lord and His servants:

Be not afraid!

Jesus, I trust in You!!!

Do you recognize that slightly smiling man on the left? You may not, because in real life his smile was much bigger, but that's one of Marcel's brothers - or fathers, really - in the Redemptorist order! He's Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, originally from Bavaria but ordained a Redemptorist priest in the USA where he then - until and including today! - loved his flock and worked many miracles. And guess what? His feast day is October 5th, the same day as St. Faustina's and the day we began our triple novena (#2)! Which means he's our father now too!!!

Then on the right you see a more smiling man. He's chuckling about what is about to happen in a few days. He's the wonderful Cardinal John Henry Newman, now Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, and soon to be Saint JH Newman! When will this exciting elevation take place? This coming Sunday, October 13th....yes, precisely 9 days after our novena started, and thus the day phase one is completed! And his special day is also the 102nd anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima!

Cardinal Newman's feast will continue to be celebrated on October 9, anniversary of his reception into the Catholic Church by Fr. Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist priest. Oh, forgive me, I mean Blessed Dominic Barberi!! Way to go Dominic and John Henry!!! But I'm musing today on how marvelous it is that while good St. John Henry (this is my oldest brother's name, so I can't get enough of the new status of bro's heavenly patron) is associated with someone on his level, like Blessed Dominic, he's also linked forever - or will be after October 13th this year - with the tiny shepherds of Fatima, the ones who begged and obtained from Our Lady on that day a miracle witnessed by  70,000 people, believers and atheists alike! The Little Way does sure keep rising up to meet our feet as we plod along in exile! Thank Heaven!

As I write (in my blue office, which is a 2012 Prius :), I am listening for the first time in forever to an old favorite recording of John Michael Talbot, and I just heard him sing - and in my heart I sang too - "I was young, so young, but now I'm older . . . I have never seen the just one forsaken . . . "
Like much of JMT's music, this song is from the Psalms, and this one, Psalm 37, appears frequently in the Divine Office - how I love the praise of God which we are invited to sing!

"The humble one shall be raised up and know the fullness of God . . . " comes into it too. Yes, we see this in our own lives as well as the lives of our loved ones, and above all in the lives of the Saints. 

Take St. Faustina, for instance, the gal who started us off on this second triple novena (second triple novena sounds like a fancy dive, doesn't it?  Just add a twist!). She was not only hidden and invisible to the eyes of the world in her own lifetime in exile, but she remained so, long after her death, despite Our Lord's promises and pleadings that she do huge things like start a universal feast for the Church, spread His image and "Jesus I trust in You" everywhere, institute perhaps the most famous novena of the modern age, and so on . . . .

But then the Holy Spirit did this crazy thing and put a Polish priest on the papal throne, which the new Pope soon turned into a Pope-mobile so he could kiss and hug and pat his sheep, and bless everyone in the whole wide world. And this Pope helped it all to happen - everything that seemed so unlikely and impossible for Faustina, including her becoming a Saint! And what a wonderful little Saint she is!

I love how she tells us in her Diary that one day she decided to do something about the drought that was ruining the crops. She started saying the Divine Mercy chaplet Jesus had taught her. She just said it over and over because He said it could gain any grace - and it did! After a few hours, the heavens opened and the rain fell!

But there's another episode in Faustina's life that I love even more. It's not only one of my favorites, but one of Marcel's too! Not that he knew of Faustina and her Diary in his life (not that I know of) but rather now that they're in heaven, he and she attend monthly meetings on the first Saturday (or is it the second?) for all Jesus' (and Mary's) little secretaries. It's kind of like a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, with popcorn (though heavenly popcorn doesn't get stuck in your throat or teeth), jelly beans, and ice cream, don't you think? (Okay, Snoopy put out toast, not ice cream, but this is Heaven we're talking about!!)

Anyhow, in our MBC 9.0 we had to skim past the awesome dream Therese had (which she recounts in Chapter 9 of Story of a Soul) due to time constraints. -- Boy, I can't wait till we get to Heaven and eternity too, where time doesn't run out!! -- But Marcel won't rush past a Saint's dream of a Saint (Therese had dreamed of Venerable Anne of Jesus, who showed her such love that Therese understood even more than before how the Saints care for us, even those we don't particularly know, like St. John Eudes!). And so, he wants us to tell you about St. Faustina's dream of . . . St. Therese!

Yes, I would make this up if I had to, it's so cool - but no, I'm not making it up, because I don't have to! It really happened! St. Therese had been canonized - raised, as they say, to the canons of the altar - in 1925, a mere 28 years after she died (which means she would have been 52 at her canonization had she lived, but then that would've been an odd situation indeed!). In 1925, Faustina was 20, having been born just 8 years after Sister Therese of the Lisieux Carmel died.

Oh, and Story of a Soul, which came out from the Carmel in 1898, a year after Therese skipped off to heaven from earth, was translated into Polish in 1902 by the Carmelite priest Raphael Kalinowski in amends to Therese because he'd scoffed at the book, then received a favor from her one day when he was feeling desperate, and so . . . well there are many morals here, but the funniest part is that Fr. Raphael is now Saint Raphael Kalinowski. Which just goes to show that if you ever have the chance to translate Story of a Soul into some new language (pig Latin may be all that's left that it's not in already, which is about my level, so let's race!), well you definitely should!

But getting back to Faustina's dream, here it is in her own words in her Diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul (#150):

"I want to write down a dream that I had about Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. I was still a novice at the time and was going through some difficulties which I did not know how to overcome. They were interior difficulties connected with exterior ones. I made novenas to various saints, but the situation grew more and more difficult. The sufferings it caused me were so great that I did not know how to go on living, but suddenly the thought occurred to me that I should pray to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. I started a novena to this Saint, because before entering the convent I had had a great devotion to her. Lately I had somewhat neglected this devotion, but in my need I began again to pray with great fervor.

"On the fifth day of the novena, I dreamed of Saint Therese, but it was as if she were still living on earth. She hid from me the fact that she was a saint and began to comfort me, saying that I should not be worried about this matter, but should trust more in God. She said, "I suffered greatly, too," but I did not quite believe her and said, "It seems to me that you have not suffered at all." But Saint Therese answered me in a convincing manner that she had suffered very much indeed and said to me, "Sister, know that in three days the difficulty will come to a happy conclusion." When I was not very willing to believe her, she revealed to me that she was a saint. At that moment, a great joy filled my soul, and I said to her, "You are a saint?" "Yes," she answered, "I am a saint. Trust that this matter will be resolved in three days:" And I said, "Dear sweet Therese, tell me, shall I go to heaven?" And she answered, "Yes, you will go to heaven, Sister." "And will I be a saint?" To which she replied, "Yes, you will be a saint." "But, little Therese, shall I be a saint as you are, raised to the altar?" And she answered, "Yes, you will be a saint just as I am, but you must trust in the Lord Jesus." I then asked her if my mother and father would go to heaven, will . . .  And she replied that they would. I further asked, "And will my brothers and sisters go to heaven?" She told me to pray hard for them, but gave me no definite answer. I understood that they were in need of much prayer.

"This was a dream. And as the proverb goes, dreams are phantoms; God is faith. Nevertheless, three days later the difficulty was solved very easily, just as she had said. And everything in this affair turned out exactly as she said it would. It was a dream, but it had its significance."

I should say it had its significance! 
Except do me a favor, please, and don't get stuck on that "She told me to pray hard for them, but gave me no definite answer. I understood that they were in need of much prayer."

It's so easy to get scared, especially since the devil works on it day and night! But think about it this way: If Therese just kept saying yes about everyone going to heaven, don't you think we'd all decide to forget prayer and just watch more TV? (or write and read more blog posts, etc!) . . . And yet aren't we all in need of much prayer? Absolutely! 

Which brings us back to our triple novena.
I've had so much trouble getting online to post here that I'm afraid I left you with one tiny prayer and then . . . nothing! So I hope you remember our rules:

First, just praying the prayer once means you're in this triple novena for good, and I'm banking on someone out there (not you, don't worry!) actually being faithful to our one little prayer each day. I almost think I have been, though to be quite honest I may have missed a day.

But second, just hearing about this novena means your in! And you can throw in all your intentions pell-mell, and we are all in this together, praying or not praying, dreaming of Saints or not getting enough sleep, and so on, and BEST OF ALL -

Third, we've got praying for us St. Faustina and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, SAINT John Henry Newman (soon to be, if you're reading this before October 13, 2019 or already, if after), and St. Raphael Kalinowski (because don't you think that to tell a funny story about a Saint is to invoke him?), and we haven't even gotten to those darling little shepherds whose whole job was to pray, pray, pray, to keep the rest of us out of hell! Thank you, Saints Jacinta and Francisco, and Lucia!

And then there's St. John Paul II, thoroughly mixed up in the whole business, because he not only was a saint, but had the super duper fun job of beatifying and/or canonizing Faustina, Seelos, Raphael, and Jacinta and Francisco! We'll be praying the second phase of our novena starting October 14 and up to October 22, the day dear Karol became our Holy Father! And then - hold onto your hats or your socks - the last part of this novena takes us to the Vigil of All Saints - which means we've got the whole company of heaven (we'll ask the angels to join in too) praying for us to the Lamb upon the Throne, and our Heavenly Father and the Spirit of Love, our adorable Blessed Trinity! WOW!

Okay, then, to do our little part while we're here, let's get some encouragement from one of those "All Saints" who isn't beatified or canonized yet, but is an awesome role model and said something wonderful about prayer that he made sure I stumbled upon today. This is Fr. Michael Scanlan, T.O.R., whom you may remember as the college president who brought back Franciscan University of Steubenville into a great saint-making place again. And Fr. Mike quotes good authority when he tells us:

"The best way I can express how I pray today is to quote Pope John Paul II from Crossing the Threshold of Hope: 'The pope prays as the Holy Spirit permits him to pray.'

"I find that the Holy Spirit opens and closes doors to prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who anoints in power certain directions in prayer, and it is the Holy Spirit who blocks other avenues. Although I must start prayer, prayer once started is not my own. As my prayer changes, so does my life. The Holy Spirit reshapes my life through prayer."

I love this! Thank you Father Scanlan, dear Holy Father JPII, and Holy Spirit of Love! This was just what I needed, and I hope it encourages you too. Let's trust God ("Jesus, I trust in You!") EVEN in our prayer! What a concept!

So, on the subject of prayer, and now that our fear is banished (let's hope), here's our prayer for the novena so far, a truly miraculous prayer about which Jesus (who taught it to Faustina) said, "If you say this prayer with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give that soul the grace of conversion." So here goes:

O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a font of mercy for us, I trust in You!

And then, in honor of Cardinal Newman's impending canonization, I thought we might add the prayer of his that Mother Teresa - excuse me, Saint Mother Teresa! - loved so much that she had and still has her sisters, her Missionaries of Charity, say it every day! We'll say it once now, if you're up for it, and feel free to come back and say it again, but feel free not to, also. You see, it's a little longer than our previous prayer, and you may need to rest or eat - I've learned from Jesus' compassion for Marcel in Conversations that we're allowed to stop talking to Him to eat and sleep, or even just rest!

So here it is, our extra prayer (we'll become saints yet, at this rate!) -

Dear Jesus, help us to spread Your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with Your Spirit and Life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel Your presence in our souls.
Let them look up, and see no longer us, but only Jesus!
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be ours.
It will be You, shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise You in the way You love best,
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach You without preaching,
not by words but by example,
by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear for You. Amen.
                                                              --Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman

What an awesome prayer! What slays me is that it is so Mother Teresa - and yet so Cardinal Newman too! I hope it reminds you that St. John Henry, St. JH I like to call him, is on our team, now, too, and our Little Way suits him perfectly! He was such an innovator that he was even walking it (come to think of it, like all the Saints before him too) before Therese gave it a name!

And now it really is almost time to eat and rest. It's been beyond lovely to visit with you here, though I didn't even get to tell you all the lovely things I planned to. About relics that have been entering my life like roses in the mailbox (where Therese said we'd find her!) . . . about pilgrimages, retreats, Saturday Padre Pio meetings, and other sublime activities some other Marcelites have reaped as fruits of our novena . . . OH, not to mention (which I didn't, due to the shortage of space on the internet) the many, many places all over the world where people are praying with us, praying for us, and praying for my father-in-law Paul!

But how about just one instance of the kind of grace that's been floating down from heaven these days like beautiful orange leaves from a maple tree. This shower fell in Scotland, where our sister Therese's relics have been touring recently. A new friend wrote the best story ever, and I think there's a lot we can learn from it (much to our advantage). My friend writes:

"So, this past weekend I had a great, big, wonderful, frustrating, tiring weekend with family...

"Car ride home Sunday I was tired, messy, grumpy. My faith was really flagging. I said to Saint Therese, "Please send me some flowers. If it's real find a way to send me roses. I don't care how you do it- get me some roses in the next day or so".

"Yesterday, as I was leaving the house, a delivery man came. Big box from Marks and Spencer's shop. I had a chuckle, wouldn't it be funny if it was My roses? Didn't really think it was. Box strange shape not like flowers. I opened it. Staring me in the face - a dozen pink roses. And a bottle of prosecco and box of chocolates. My heart just stopped. I couldn't BELIEVE  it.

"What do you think!!!!??? I literally said, "In some way, shape or form send me your flowers, Therese ". Next morning, unexpected, 12 pink roses. I can't seem to grasp it. I want to believe it. I want to "feel" it."

*     *     *

Full disclosure, it was in fact said friend's birthday, and dear friends had sent the box. But before you go dismissing the Therese Connection, oh ye of little faith, let me ask you this: When is the last time you received a dozen roses, prosecco, and a box of chocolates for your birthday? From friends at a distance. From a cool department store. ???? I rest her case!

I haven't had time yet to write much about our pilgrimage to Lisieux in May, and the way this life hurtles along - what with people getting cancer and children involved in stage plays, and new friends and new saints (new heavenly friends and new earthly saints!) - I have to admit it may never happen (my telling of those pilgrimage graces). But I totally get what happened in Scotland with Therese and the gift she sent our Miss Marcel there (for this friend is one I made through Marcel, and she was as excited as a person should be when getting his collected ouevre in the mail a month ago!).

What happened was that Therese was asked for roses.
Her response?
She sent roses, sparkling wine, and CHOCOLATES!
That's the Therese I met in France. She was a revelation. And can I admit something silly?

I have loved her so long, and yet I always suspect she might be just a little harsh. 

But Guess What?

She is not. Not even a little harsh. Therese is the most loving sister you can imagine, and she even goes so far as to reassure us in Marcel's Conversations, "I'm not angry with you! Nor have I ever been! Nor could I ever be!"

Far from it, she's only a little peeved sometimes that we make our requests so puny. Or maybe not. Maybe she's happy we didn't think to ask for prosecco and chocolates along with the roses. This way she gets to surprise us!

My special prayer for you as we continue with our second unfailing triple novena of love is that you will begin to suspect how much God loves you. Just a little, so you don't keel over dead of joy, which could be rather disconcerting to those around you!

Because if St. Therese loves us this much - and I know Marcel loves us even more! - it's mind boggling how much God must love us. 

Hooray!
Little Jesus, draw me, we will RUN!!!!!!!!!



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