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."

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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!!!!!!!!!



"

That's a lot of visuals to take in at one go, but we need to see what's coming down the pike (sofar as we can - which is not very far, I admit!), and what's coming is so lovely that we have four thousand words today before I've even started typing. You know, a picture is worth a thousand?

It turns out there are two VERY true things in my life at this juncture. Well, okay, three.

1. I have many friends who really need our prayers.  

2. I'm practically a superhero when it comes to counting to 9.

3. The Saints are loving our attention, and now that they know what kind of fun we have with Marcel and Therese, they're all about getting in on the action!

So let's go in order here.

First, there are two lovely women who I am blessed to count as dear friends, and who are both so beaten down by suffering right now that they don't know which way to turn. I'm eternally grateful that I was in the right place at the right time, and so to some extent I've convinced them to turn to me! They both have children who are suffering, and come to think of it, that reminds me of a third friend, a man, who is also watching one of his children suffer these days, which is about the hardest thing a person can do. But as I say, God allowed our paths to cross, and so I'm thrilled and honored to spearhead more prayers to ease their hearts and obtain the miracles they and their children need. And if you who are reading this are neither of these 3 people or their children, that means you are yet another friend who just may have some unanswered prayers left in your outbox!

Second, there's this gift for counting to nine which has become almost a super power with me.

You see, I have no attention span for praying lately (yes, maybe my whole life, but that hardly concerns us here), which means I have a lot of free time during Mass on Sundays. And that, in turn, means I need to amuse myself, but with something approaching the sacred so I don't go home feeling too awful. (Ha! I do not go home feeling awful at all, because I have decided scrupples are for not for the likes of little souls!)

What I can do, though, that I find tremendously entertaining and seems, if not holy, at least not impious, is to count on my fingers to nine. Did you know that if you start with the thumb of your left hand (at least that's where I start) and count to your pinky and then start on your right hand (though if you started right, you next go left), if you stop before your pinky, you've counted nine? It is absolutely true, and very convenient!

Very convenient because it allows a person to quietly count out nine days in particular. like this:

October 5, St. Faustina, October 6, October 7, October 8, October 9, October 10, October 11, October 12, and BINGO October 13 (ring finger of right hand).

This is an amazing super power because 9 is a great holy number (3 of 3's) and a novena to boot. Which means that if I can go from October 5, St. Faustina, and get to October 13, 102nd anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima, and hence a kind of Fatima feast (though I can't remember if it's official and I'm too lazy to look it up) - well that's exciting right there, isn't it?

We could start a novena on October 5, St. Faustina, and go straight into Fatima-day! How cool is that?!

But you know what else? Triple novenas are totally addictive! And impressive! You trot out those numbers, and people think you're some kind of liturgical expert rather than just a super girl with this one crazy super power of counting to 9 (and a really short attention span, and, happily, ten fingers)!

Because what comes next is this:

Starting on October 14 (just after finishing our first novena), if we count 9 days, we get to October 22 - the feast of our beloved Pope St. John Paul the second! And then - get ready, because we've got something even better coming next - if we count nine more days (doing a third novena, hence "triple novena"), we arrive at the Vigil of All Saints!!!

So what do you say? Do you begin to see where we're going with this?

I've received many wonderful responses to our first triple novena, including a request to re-post an interview I did with Michael Lichens (God bless him and his bride Sophia!) at Catholic Exchange. The re-post happened after I talked to my agent (ha!), and it happened at this truly spectacular website of the Padre Pio Prayer Group of Nashville.

And guess what? Those people in Nashville are something! You just connect them with the love and prayers of St. Padre Pio and kablooey! We're talking major miracles, and what's more, a whole group of saints who want in on the action! I hope you'll enjoy roaming around on their website which is HERE. (Not here as in on my blog, but HERE where the big letters are, both times!) Enjoy their amazing and edifying and completely inspiring faith-driven site, and if you scroll down a little, you'll see me and Marcel and Therese! Thrilling news for us little ones!

Meanwhile, a new friend of ours in Minnesota went to see St. Padre Pio's relics on guardian angel day, and while there, he prayed for everyone in our first triple novena! 

Not to mention our Rome correspondent praying for us (she prayed for me, and my intentions, which of course include all of yours, especially since we've started this triple novena club) at a Carmelite church in Rome on St. Therese's feast day . . . 

And then I'm expecting, thanks to the immense kindness of our friends in Nashville, 3rd class miracle working relics (well it is God who will work the miracles, thanks to the Saints' intercession, but these Saints are so much closer to us thanks to physical objects which have touched their holy bones!) - and they are slated to arrive if not tomorrow, on St. Faustina's day, just as we begin our next triple novena, at least very, very soon!

I think God couldn't be any kinder than He is!

As St. Therese explained, He is in fact much kinder than we imagine, and satisfied with a glance or sigh of love . . . Which means our prayers will be very simple for this triple novena, like they were for the last one. And if you don't get the prayers said every day - if you don't manage one day's prayer - know you are still covered, as if by a warm blanket that is really Our Lady's mantle, because you are in our hearts and we are all in this together!

First, then, from October 5, St. Faustina's day, up to October 13, Fatima day, let's say this prayer which Jesus taught Faustina. He told her that if said with confidence, it will convert a sinner! Isn't that great news? And if you don't feel much confidence, just do what I do and borrow St. Therese's confidence because she doesn't need it anymore, now that she sees Love face to Face! Here we go then, and if you want to say this prayer at 3 p.m., that's perfect. But if you want to say it when it occurs to you, go for that time too! Or if you simply say it now, how wonderful is that!?

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

And now, let's conclude with our secret handshake prayer, the one that entrusts the whole world to Jesus in five simple words:

Draw me, we will run!!!

This is a picture of one of the roses St. Therese had me deliver for her feast. A new friend took the photo because she was the recipient of the rose and was in awe of its beauty and heavenly fragrance. I was too, and I'm grateful she captured its loveliness so we could share it with you.

How was your St. Therese day? Or perhaps I should ask, how were they? Because thanks to the two calendars of the Church (the one we use with the Novus Ordo or "New Mass" and the one that preceded it but is again in use with the Extraordinary Form of the Mass), not only was it little Therese's feast on October 1st, but again on October 3rd! I can only thank the good Lord who knew that for little souls, one Little Flower feast is not enough! And until Marcel, the second Little Flower, gets his own feast, he's super happy to share with his big sister Therese.

My guardian angel was such an angel on the second Therese feast that he woke me and my husband early. This meant we could go to the early Mass in the extraordinary form and thus celebrate Therese's feast all over again!

The Mass was said by the same good priest who said Mass mid-day on her first feast two days before, and again, after Mass, he blessed us with a relic of St. Therese and invited us to come to the altar rail to honor our little sister. For the second time in three days, then, I knelt and had the joy of kissing dear Therese on her feast! I wondered if the priest would remember that I had done this recently . . . but then so had he, and I couldn't imagine he would recall every upturned face.

To my delight, after I kissed the relic Father stopped (rather than moving on to the next upturned face), looked straight at me, and said as if reading my mind, "That's twice now!" I had a hard time not laughing, but I avoided Marcel's gaze and made it back to my pew. Really, just when you least expect it, a kiss, a glance, a smile!

I feel like “That’s twice now” might be my motto lately.
Two lovely little Miss Marcels in Michigan sent me the most beautiful rosary I’ve ever seen – for keeps! – and it arrived just in time for her first feast. Being me, I immediately loved it and rejoiced in it, and then lost it! (I bet you two dear Miss M’s are reading this! But don’t give up on me – I have friends in high places and I promise it all turns out all right!) Several prayers, and friends praying too, to St. Anthony later, and voila! It was once more in my appreciative possession. It was, actually, another kind of “That’s twice, now!” Nothing like losing something, if only for a few hours, to help one appreciate it more!

Another very dear friend gave me a French holy card on the second Therese feast day - it would take a long time to tell how much this holy card means to me (and why), but the amazing "That's twice now!" miracle comes in when I found the same holy card - only in English - in a library book (still at the library!) of St. Therese's Letters. I was putting a post it note into the book to mark Letter 197 (which I'll say more about below), when I found - marking Letter 197!! - the double of the holy card I'd been given. Wow! I realized later that this was a sign from the previous owner of the holy card - not my friend who gave it to me, but a dear friend of us both who is now in Heaven, if you ask me, and conspiring with Therese and Marcel to get us all to look at and love Letter 197!!!
 
And then there’s the “That’s twice now!” that I somehow thought I could avoid, but alas and alack, we’re in October already (else how could we have so much fun feasting over Therese) and I might as well admit this is twice now that I've missed our Marcel Book Club meeting in its proper month!

We are plodding along, however and thankfully, the Little Way. And we are approaching, late though we are, the chapter that is hands down my favorite in Story of a Soul. What a gift in this week of feasts! What a conclusion to our unfailing triple novena of love!
 
There remains, then, nothing to do but take a look, at long last, at Chapter 9 of Story of a Soul (Manuscript B), which is Therese's letter to her sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, written in answer to Marie's request that she recount her dream and her little doctrine.

Have you ever had the experience of wanting to tell someone the funny thing you read, or the clever thing a friend wrote to you, and found yourself saying, "Wait, wait," and pulling out their words to read exactly so you won't mess up the well-said original you’re trying to convey?

I feel like that now.

For while Marcel preferred the early chapters of Story of a Soul - and I get that because he was a child when he read our sister's memoirs, and he found so much in her childhood that matched his own and encouraged him – I myself find in Therese's letter to Marie (which ended up as Chapter 9), and her “Letter 197,” which we'll glean from too, the sublime expression of Therese’s teaching on spiritual childhood. I hope you get a chance to read the whole thing soon (this Chapter 9, and you can find Letter 197 on the internet if you don't have it handy), but meanwhile, let's Book Club it. And I hope you don’t mind if I do that quoting thing, since I could never express this half as good, even though I’d surely use twice as many words. As in, “That’s twice now!” So here we go! And forgive whatever is lacking in my commentary - I want to get this meeting going so we can try to fit in MBC 10 in October too! (But hey, no promises! We'll just say "God willing!")

*      *      *

Marcel's Book Club - 9.0 - Chapter 9 of Story of a Soul – in the words of our sister St. Therese:

"Without showing Himself, without making His voice heard, Jesus teaches me in secret; it is not by means of books, for I do not understand what I am reading. Sometimes a word comes to console me, such as this one which I received at the end of prayer (after having remained in science and aridity): "Here is the teacher whom I am giving you; he will teach you everything that you must do. I want to make you read in the book of life, wherein is contained the science of LOVE." [From a book on St. Margaret Mary and Jesus’ words to her.] The science of Love, ah, yes this word resounds sweetly in the ear of my soul, and I desire only this science. Having given all my riches for it, I esteem it as having given nothing as did the bride in the sacred Canticles. I understand well that it is only love that makes us acceptable to God, that this love is the only good I ambition. Jesus deigned to show me the road that leads to this Divine Furnace, and this road is the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its Father's arms. "Whoever is a little one, let him come to me." So speaks the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Solomon. This same Spirit of Love also says, "For to him that is little, mercy will be shown." The Prophet Isaiah reveals in His name that on the last day: "God shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather together the lambs with His arm, and shall take them up in His bosom." As though these promises were not sufficient, this same prophet whose gaze was already plunged into the eternal depths cried out in the Lord's name: "As one whom a mother caresses, so will I comfort you; you shall be carried at the breasts and upon the knees they will caress you."

"After having listened to words such as these, there is nothing to do but to be silent and to weep with gratitude and love. Ah! if all weak and imperfect souls felt what the least of souls feels, that is, the soul of your little Therese, not one would despair of reaching the summit of the mount of love. Jesus does not demand great actions from us but simply surrender and gratitude." . . . .

"See then all that Jesus lays claim to from us: He has no need of our works but only of our love, for the same God who declares He has no need to tell us when He is hungry did not fear to beg a little water from the Samaritan woman. He was thirsty. But when He said, "Give me to drink," it was the love of His poor creature the Creator of the universe was seeking. He was thirsty for love. Ah! I feel it more than ever before, Jesus is parched, for He meets only the ungrateful and indifferent among His disciples in the world, and among His own disciples, alas, He finds few hearts who surrender to Him without reservations, who understand the real tenderness of His infinite Love."

I (Miss Marcel) must interject here. What I love about this last sentence - this last part of this last sentence, to be more specific - is the reality that underlies our sister's words. She says, "He finds few hearts who surrender to Him without reservation," and we may think, "Oh no! This is me! I do not surrender to Him without reservation!" But wait! There's more! She immediately adds that there are few hearts who understand the real tenderness of His infinite Love.

Enter Marcel!
The beauty of Conversations is that in it Jesus, through His little secretary Marcel, expresses the real tenderness of His infinite Love so that more hearts (namely ours) can then surrender to Him without reservation.

Think about it. You don't need to blame yourself for not surrendering entirely to God. You don't yet understand the real tenderness of His infinite Love, so you are scared to trust Him completely! But that is what Marcel and Therese were sent on this earth to do - to show us how very trustworthy He is, to lead us by the hand to meet the real Jesus who so gladly shows us, through their words (and His to Marcel), the real tenderness of His infinite Love.

If you haven't yet fully surrendered to Him without reservations, I say it's because you haven't yet understood the real tenderness of His infinite Love. And I have a prescription for you! Read Conversations tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day! Read it from front to back, or back to front! Read it with one sentence following another, or skip around and dip in here and there. What will you find? The real tenderness of Jesus' infinite Love!

Therese says, not much further on, this other bit which thrills me to the core. She says, "I feel how powerless I am to express in human language the secrets of heaven, and after writing page upon page I find that I have not yet begun. There are so many different horizons, so many nuances of infinite variety that only the palette of the Celestial Painter will be able to furnish me after the night of this life with the colors capable of depicting the marvels He reveals to the eye of my soul."

This means that she looked forward to now! Now she can begin to show us the marvels she has to revealed to her, and she does that with a double feast, a double holy card, and roses galore! She does it with the scent of a rose - did I tell you that our rose at the top had a heavenly scent? Well I forgot to tell you that it, out of the dozen I bought together, was the one that exuded a fragrance that filled the kitchen of my new friend, while its mates at my house sat and just looked pretty! That was Therese letting us know she is alive and well and ready to reveal much more of His love than ever before! 

Marie wanted Therese to tell her of a dream Therese had . . . you must read about this dream, but suffice it to say Therese learned from it that THE SAINTS LOVE US SO MUCH!!!

She goes on to tell of the martyrdom of her desires to be all things in the Church, and the Holy Spirit's solution for her that she will be Love in the Heart of the Church . . . 

Ah, and then Therese says to Jesus, "O luminous Beacon of Love, I know how to reach You, I have found the secret of possessing Your flame. I am only a child, powerless and weak, and yet it is my weakness that gives me the boldness of offering myself as victim of Your Love, O Jesus! In times past, victims, pure and spotless, were the only ones accepted by the Strong and Powerful God. To satisfy Divine Justice, perfect victims were necessary, but the law of Love has succeeded to the law of fear, and Love has chosen me as a holocaust, me, a weak and imperfect creature. Is not this choice worthy of Love? Yes, in order that Love be fully satisfied, it is necessary that It lower Itself, and that it lower Itself to nothingness and transform this nothingness into fire."

Do you know what? There is way, way more in this chapter! But here is how Therese ends, my favorite part of all, and also loved by Pope Pius XI so much (he who called her his guiding star!) that he quoted it to end his homily at her canonization:

"O Jesus! why can't I tell all little souls how unspeakable is Your condescension? I feel that if You found a soul weaker and littler than mine, which is impossible, You would be pleased to grant it still greater favors, provided it abandoned itself with total confidence to Your infinite Mercy. But why do I desire to communicate Your secrets of Love, O Jesus, for was it not You alone who taught them to me, and can You not reveal them to others? Yes, I know it, and I beg You to do it. I beg You to  cast Your Divine Glance upon a great number of little souls. I beg You to choose a legion of little Victims worthy of Your LOVE!"

But then here's where things get really good. Marie (Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, St. Therese's eldest blood sister and her godmother) received what she requested - this letter from Therese to her - and promptly felt . . . . something kind of akin to despair! She was thrilled that her sister was so amazing, sad that her sister was likely going to be snatched up to Heaven by God (and away from those who loved her on earth - or so they thought, though Therese reassured them later that she would "come down" and did find ways, still finds ways, to do so), but most of all somewhat discouraged that she would never be like this little victim of love with such great desires and passion.

So Marie wrote back to Therese expressing her gratitude, her joy and sorrow, and her last question: "I would like you to tell your little godmother, in writing, if she can love Jesus as you do."

Therese wrote back in the letter now identified as Letter (LT) i97, and here is what she said:

Dear Sister, 
I am not embarrassed in answering you. How can you ask me if it is possible for you to love God as I love Him? . . . My desires for martyrdom are nothing, they are not what give me the unlimited confidence that I feel in my heart. They are, to tell the truth, the spiritual riches that render one unjust, when one rests in them with complacence and when one believes they are something great...These desires are a consolation that Jesus grants at times to weak souls like mine (and these souls are numerous), but when He does not give this consolation, it is a grace of privilege. Recall those words of Father: "The martyrs suffered with joy, and the King of Martyrs suffered with sadness." Yes Jesus said: "Father, let this chalice pass away from me." Dear Sister, how can you say after this that my desires are the sign of my love? ...Ah! I really feel that it is not this 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 Godmother, why would this treasure not be yours?...

....."O 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, but we must consent to remain always poor and without strength, and this is the difficulty, for "The truly poor in spirit, where do we find him? You must look for him from afar," said the psalmist. He does not say that you must look for him among great souls, but from afar, that is to say in lowliness, in nothingness....Ah! Let us remain then very far from all that sparkles, 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."

Therese says, "Nine o'clock is ringing, and I am obliged to leave you. Ah, how I would like to tell you things, but Jesus is going to make you feel all that I cannot write."

Me too! Eight o'clock is ringing, and I am obliged to leave you, but I am confident with the confidence of Therese that Jesus is going to make you feel all that we cannot write. 

As for Marcel, he has written a lot more than Therese and I - or perhaps I should say he's written a lot more of Jesus' words, which we highly recommend! As always we suggest you start with Conversations. And enjoy!

I'm so grateful to have been able to share some of Therese's feast(s) with you, and now, one last "That's twice now" before we adjourn . . .

I've been hearing from a lot of people who enjoyed the triple novena. So... Let's do it again! Details coming soon since it starts tomorrow on Faustina's day, October 5 (but join in any time!)..If anyone wonders why we're doing another triple novena, well there are lots of reasons - as many reasons as prayer requests that still need answering! Sure, I know that God always answers prayers, and that sometimes He just says "maybe" or "later" or even (gasp) "no." Or so they say! But I'm taking Jesus at His word. Call Him the unjust judge (haha - it was His parable, not mine!) but I think if we keep pestering Him, poor widows that we are, He will have to keep His word and say YES to everything!

And now, before I get into trouble (or laugh to hard to finish), let's pray together and trust Jesus for everything!

Draw me, we will run!!!

My day was full of joy, and I pray yours was too....but keep in mind this is just the beginning of our sister's triduum, so I'll meet you here tomorrow, God willing, and we'll talk Therese, Marcel, and roses!!!

Wishing you a happy feast - the one that was so far today, and the one that we will celebrate tomorrow: Guardian Angel day! Just a little break before the old calendar (extraordinary form) brings Therese back on Thursday! 

Meanwhile, may you find roses everywhere you look! 

Oh Little Therese, we could never celebrate your great Love, Jesus, in just one day. Bring us safely to tomorrow when we may join you in loving Him again, and rejoice with you in the angels God has given each of us . . . and bless all those in our triple novena. Shower us with the roses you promised, and kiss little Jesus for us. And that Marcel, the second little Flower, the second Therese? Please give him our love too - and invite him to help you scatter your rose petals and roses all over the world. Watch over all missionaries tonight; bless our Holy Father and our Bishops; keep our priests close to Mary and Jesus; and our religious, bless them too! As for the many, many lay people who have turned to you today - or who have never heard of you! - roses, roses, roses!

Little Jesus,
draw me, we will run!!!

It's our darling father Padre Pio's feast day - the day he entered into the joy of our Father and saw Jesus face to Face at last! Hooray and Alleluia! But before we forget, let's say the closing prayer in our novena to him, which ends today, just before we say our opening prayer in Therese's novena, which starts today! If you think we're having too much fun, you're absolutely right, but it's hard to know what else to do with so many saints surrounding us with God's love! Here we go then:

O Blessed Padre Pio,
holy bearer of the wounds of Christ,
accept us this day as your spiritual sons and daughters
and keep us always on the Little Way by your intercession.
And do thou, O our Spiritual Father,
relieve our suffering and the suffering of those we love, and then
stay there at the Gates of Heaven, as you promised,
until all of your spiritual children have entered through,
even and including us and all those we love.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
And while we're in such a prayerful state, we can begin again:

St. Thérèse, you who promised to make fall a shower of roses, see what confidence I put in you and receive my intentions. Ask the Lord to grant my prayers and obtain for me the grace to always love Him and make Him to be loved. Amen.

And just because I can never get enough of this prayer (and our sweet Mother Mary), let's finish our pious offerings with:

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.

And now, don't you think, as I know Marcel does, that on such a happy feast, we need some pictures to enjoy along with the words?

Here is a photo just taken today, a photo of a gorgeous church in Rome (Italy! really!), a church called San Salvatore in Lauro (which means "Holy Savior at the Laurels"). Our Rome correspondent Lizzie took it for us, and in a moment you'll find out why. I can't wait to tell you! But first, the church:

And the reason for the season? Or rather the reason for this photo in this season?? Well . . . we can offer another photo to help you understand why we are, with dear Lizzie, in this church today . . . 

Can you guess what you are looking at?

These are Padre Pio's relics in this lovely church! And lovely Lizzie went there today, to represent all of us, to bring our hearts and our intentions to Padre Pio on the day when everyone in heaven, especially the Holy Trinity and Blessed Mother, just HAVE to give him whatever he asks for because it is his birthday there!!!

So then, here is the beautiful statue that will explain the life of Padre Pio - and explain the connection between part 1 of our Triple Novena - ending on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross - and part 2 to our dear Padre:

Yes, there is our True Love, adorable Jesus, and Padre Pio is helping Him carry His cross to save us! Thank You Jesus! Thank you dear Padre!

But if you think we're not having too much fun, I will let you know why I, for one, am almost out of my mind with delight. I have found a little way to fool the internet today! Did you notice something? This post is Part 1 and .... below will be (is already for I'm writing backward today!) Part 2, and then below that again is Part 3! Yes, for once no one need read backwards to go in order (or upside down). So read on, going from top to bottom as any sane literati would, and find out what exactly Lizzie was doing (for us!) in this church of Our Holy Savior in Rome today . . . you will be as thrilled as I am because God's Limitless Love is pouring forth through the kindness of Padre Pio and his friends - to us!

Ah, dearest Jesus,
we won't forget to ask you three times today (and the first right now):
​Draw me, we will run!!!

So do you see that woman in purple in the center of the photo? She's to the right of the woman in white, and she's practically invisible because she is blending into the whole experience of Padre Pio carrying Jesus' cross . . . but what is she doing exactly?

She's praying for YOUR intentions!
In fact, what she just did today on this glorious feast of Jesus' friend and ours, St. Padre Pio, is she just put a slip of paper into Padre Pio's hand. Not just any piece of paper, but one on which were written your intentions! Really! Some were very specific, for the little boy who started us on this triple novena path, for the daughter who is ill but healing, we pray, for my father-in-law, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law, and for the amazingly beautiful family who just lost little Ida to heaven, and for the family I know who just welcomed a little boy into their midst, a boy who may have Down Syndrome as his special gift to their hearts and home . . . and "all the intentions of those prayed for in the triple novena," which means absolutely all of YOUR intentions and the intentions of those you love!

And what did my friend-in-purple say about putting all these intentions before Padre Pio today on his feast? She wrote to me: "Put the email you sent me with all the intentions right in his hand in this statue and there it stays....Lit a candle for everyone's intentions....St. Pio is so good!"

Well Miss Lizzie, so are you! And we are so grateful!!

So what I have to say to you, my dear, dear visitors and friends, is that you are so taken care of - if you knew how well, you'd laugh until you cried, or perhaps you'd cry until you laughed! There are some wonderful quotes from Padre Pio about his love for his spiritual children (of which you are now one, or two if you are reading this in pairs, or more if you are a group huddled around the computer or listening as someone among you reads aloud this divinely good news!) - and you can find them in this delightful piece written by moi at the request of the editor of Catholic Exchange. He (the editor) is, by the way, on his honeymoon in Prague right now because, as he said, "My bride and I have both wanted to go there since childhood!"

Well fancy that! God is such a romantic that not only does he bring two souls together in true love, but He adds little touches like their both wanting to go to the same surprising (and lovely) destination their whole lives, so that having found each other, they can go together! He is so sweet!

The article is HERE - I mean the one on Padre Pio and his spiritual children, and about our Triple Novena too! How much fun can we have in one day? A whole lot, I promise! And if you don't believe me, if you're still worried about a little something, well read on, and we will try our little best to allay your fears in Part 3!

Meanwhile, not forgetting Jesus our Love for one second, we say again:
Draw me, we will run!!!!

Yes, this is it! We have nothing to worry about, any more, ever! Not only did Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese tell that to Marcel several times, even devoting whole arguments and conversations to this purpose (that he and we should no longer worry), not only did St. John Paul II take up Jesus' frequent advice (Be not afraid!), not only is it true that with Mary as our Mother it makes no sense to worry . . . but this is the day Jesus gives us another spiritual father (besides our infinitely loving Heavenly Father) - St. Padre Pio who loves, loves, loves to take care of us and all those we love!

So let's give it our best shot, let's not worry any more ever. If we find ourselves failing, we have the Little Way to fall back on, and dear Blessed Mother's perfect suggestion: we can repeat the easy prayer: "Little Jesus, I offer You this worry as a sacrifice," and by this means save many souls. But the best part is, as she said, to let ourselves experience His peace after we offer Him our worries.

And now, just to make sure we've begun our third novena, a quick refresher: Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!

Oh, and one of her very favorite prayers, which we've adopted as our own:

Draw me, we will run!!!

First things first:
O Blessed Padre Pio,
holy bearer of the wounds of Christ,
accept us this day as your spiritual sons and daughters
and keep us always on the Little Way by your intercession.
And do thou, O our Spiritual Father,
relieve our suffering and the suffering of those we love, and then
stay there at the Gates of Heaven, as you promised,
until all of your spiritual children have entered through, 
even and including us and all those we love.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

And…

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.

If you’re just now joining us in the midst of our triple novena, Welcome!
The good news is that this novena is designed to allow anyone to pick up where we left off, namely, right where we are! The better news is that we’ve been praying for you all along. And the best of all news is that Jesus’ Love is so very limitless and so absolutely stunning in its effects, that you’ll feel and see the fruits of our prayers any moment now, if you haven’t already. So cast your cares upon Him who cares for us all, and feel free to read some of the posts below this one to get a sense of the awesome adventure you’re now part and parcel of!
 
Meanwhile, we’ve got some housecleaning to do here at Miss Marcel’s Musings. Somewhat like the time Marcel was complaining to Mother Mary that he didn’t have time to clean his room and she explained that (a) she would clean the room of his soul of the pesky cobwebs of worry, plentiful though these were; and (b) she’d help him get his room clean on an upcoming Thursday in just 15 minutes flat, so no need to worry over that either . . .  similarly we’ve been worrying over here (with the help of a little Rose we know) just how we’d fit in the August edition of Marcel’s Book Club on Chapter 8 of our sister Therese’s Story of a Soul . . .
 
Yes, you read that right. August edition. As in last month’s, like we’ve become some sort of online journal that (like many a small print journal) somehow fell behind and will soon be publishing the Spring 2012 issue! Well no, it’s not quite that bad, but we are a month behind because somehow or other August slipped away from us and we find ourselves here in mid-September with Chapter 9 looming and Chapter 8 still undiscussed. I don’t know about you, but I have 15 minutes free this very hour, so let’s have at it and clear the way for our upcoming (and as is our more typical fashion, 11th hour or 30th day) September book club.
 
Think of it as a bonus! This month we get two Marcel Book Club meetings, and by missing last month’s, no harm is done but rather we prove our Paradise Project (of reading Therese’s autobiography a chapter a month in 2019) to be a truly little way!
 
Onward and upward then, and into Chapter 8 . . .
 
Just as if God knew we’d be reading this chapter in the midst of a triple novena (think: prayer), He inspired Therese to begin these pages with a comment about her own experience of prayer. She writes:
 
“I should have spoken to you about the retreat preceding my Profession . . . it was far from bringing me any consolations since the most absolute aridity and almost total abandonment were my lot. Jesus was sleeping as usual in my little boat; ah! I see very well how rarely souls allow Him to sleep peacefully within them. Jesus is so fatigued with always having to take the initiative and to attend to others that He hastens to take advantage of the repose I offer to Him . . . but instead of being troubled about it, this only gives me extreme pleasure.”
 
So far, so good. Our little sister is teaching us that when we are seemingly getting nothing out of our prayers or prayer time, then it is that we’re giving Jesus a rest. Gotta love that silver lining! But Therese is aware of the humor in this. After all, here we are pathetic at prayer and blaming Jesus. I love it! She continues:
 
“Really, I am far from being a saint, and what I have just said is proof of this; instead of rejoicing, for example, at my aridity, I should attribute it to my little fervor and lack of fidelity; I should be desolate for having slept (for seven years) during my hours of prayer and my thanksgivings after Holy Communion; well, I am not desolate.”
 
What cheek! How can one do anything but love the Little Flower, tiny yet bold as she is! And will she share her secret with us? Always! Her secret is no secret; St. Paul revealed it to us when God revealed it to him – that His power reaches perfection in our weakness. But let’s hear Therese’s take:
 
“I remember that little children are as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as well as when they are wide awake.”
 
For those of us who are parents, or even Aunts, Uncles, or babysitters, we can agree that often children are not only as pleasing, but even more pleasing when they are asleep!
 
“I remember too that when they perform operations, doctors put their patients to sleep. Finally I remember that The Lord knows our weakness, that He is mindful that we are but dust and ashes (Psalm 102).”
 
Finally Therese explains, “I have frequently noticed that Jesus doesn’t want me to lay up provisions; He nourishes me at each moment with a totally new food; I find it within me without my knowing how it is there. I believe it is Jesus Himself hidden in the depths of my poor little heart: He is giving me the grace of acting within me, making me think of all He desires me to do at the present moment.”
 
The first time I read Story of a Soul was, I think, in the summer of 1986. (I was going to tell you how many years ago, but I always lose a decade in there somewhere, so you can do the math if you like!) What struck me then is the same thing that strikes me now, or at least one of the many things that strike and move me: Therese is so very intimate with Jesus! And how that delights Him and delights me! I was just reading today in her little brother Marcel’s book of Conversations this beautiful passage that applies to Therese and Marcel and us all equally. It is the last day of December, 1945, and Marcel has just spoken to Jesus the following words:
 
“Little Jesus, I love You very much. Now I wish to ask You a question. How is it that I hear certain brothers say that they have a great fear of You? Little Jesus, how do You behave toward other souls that they are afraid of You? If You acted with them as You do with me, I ask myself who could be afraid of You, since You are so good, so sweet, only finding pleasure in love. That there can be souls who are afraid of You is something I find very strange. It has never happened that You scold me and yet there are souls who are afraid of You. Could it be because You treat each soul in a different manner? That being the case, what use will the words that I am writing here be for souls?”
 
My stars, how I love Marcel! He hits the nail on the head every time (except maybe for all the times he wildly misses, and then I love him, perhaps, even more!), and he has surely asked some important questions here. Take it as a kind of quiz for Jesus from us at our more than half-way-point of our sister’s book.
 
Therese certainly didn’t fear Jesus. Nor did Marcel. But we often do! What are we missing? Or is it that Jesus is dealing differently with some favored souls, more gently and meekly with them than He deals with us? Let’s see what He who is Truth has to say in His own defense. He replies:
 
“Yes, Marcel, it is very strange. I find it strange myself and I do not understand why a good number of souls have such a fear of me. They are so afraid that they dare not even open their mouths to say a word of friendship to me. However, I conduct myself towards these souls just as I do towards you . . . It is simply because they compare my love with that of earthly creatures that they fear in that way. If, on the contrary, they used the glance of love to probe the depths of my love, their fear would disappear . . . I do nothing that is of a nature to frighten anyone. And if my love ever wished to sow fear among men, it would no longer deserve the name ‘Love.’. . . My conduct towards all souls is the same as towards you, Marcel; I wish to give them my kisses and give them evidence of my love.” (225-226)
 
There we have it, then. God who is, as we read in Scripture, the same yesterday, today, and forever, is as all-loving to us as He has been to Therese and Marcel. This Jesus they know, the One who sleeps in the little boat of their souls, He is the same Jesus who sleeps in our boats! Don’t be afraid, then, that He is angry with you. No, He is just so tired! He does have the whole world to run, remember, and so He is pleased to be able to relax with us, as with His own dear friends, and fall asleep!
 
Incidentally, Marcel has a wonderful response to Jesus’ explanation as just recounted. Marcel says simply: “Little Jesus, I understand absolutely nothing.” Ah, our dear brother! How wonderfully imitable you are!
 
And Jesus? He has, as always, the most wonderful reply to Marcel’s reply. He says, “Marcel, who is obliging you to understand? . . . I have not said these words for you, but really for souls who are afraid of me.” Which would be us! So let’s do our little best to stop comparing Jesus with those who have failed us in the past, or those whom we fear will fail us in the present and future. That’s the great thing about Jesus – He never fails!
 
Therese began Chapter 8 by talking about the retreat before her profession. She goes on to tell how she then suffered a great temptation: she who had begged to be allowed to enter the convent at 15 was now afraid she didn’t have a vocation. And here is a lesson for us. No, not the one about not begging to join a convent at 15! The more universal lesson is the one I’m thinking of – when Therese was filled with confusion, she sought out her Novice Mistress (and really, many other people could fill in this role for those of us without Novice Mistresses) and told her the problem that was so overwhelming. Therese recounts:
 
“Fortunately, she saw things much clearer than I did, and she completely reassured me. The act of humility I had just performed put the devil to flight since he had perhaps thought that I would not dare admit my temptation. My doubts left me completely as soon as I finished speaking; nevertheless, to make my act of humility more perfect, I still wished to confide my strange temptation to our Mother Prioress.”
 
Ah! A double confession! And what did this higher superior say to ensure Therese’s peace? This is the response I love: Therese reports that Mother Prioress “simply laughed at me.”
 
Therese later used this same tactic, sweetly and wisely because sometimes laughter is the way out of our fears. When her own novice, Marie of the Trinity, confessed the same kind of fear, (“Oh no! I realize now it was all an illusion – I don’t have a vocation!”) Therese, like her own Novice Mistress had done, understood completely and calmed Marie’s fears. Later, though, she would tease Marie if the latter came to her with a vexed countenance or a worry to be solved. “Oh no, I bet you don’t have a vocation!” she’d say with a laugh. Poor Marie, but actually, she loved it!
 
Doesn’t it seem like only 10 days ago that September 8 came and went? Ah how the days and years fly! For it was on this day (a few years back) that Therese felt flooded with a river of peace  and pronounced her Holy Vows. And what truth she speaks when she says, in retrospect, “This beautiful day passed by just as do the saddest since the most radiant day has a tomorrow; it was without sadness, however, that I placed my crown at the Blessed Virgin’s feet. I felt that time could not take away my happiness.”
 
How lovely a thought to remember when we are feeling like a sad day will never end! It too will end, like (unfortunately!) the happy days do . . . with the difference that our sadness will cease, while our happiness is the true feeling, the one that will be eternal!
 
Some pages later, after speaking of the holy foundress of their particular Carmel in Lisieux, Therese tells us of the relic she got after their Mother Genevieve departed for heaven.
 
“During her last agony, I had noticed a single tear glistening like a diamond on her eyelash, and this tear, the last she was to shed on earth, never fell; I saw it still glistening there when she was laid out in the choir. So when evening came, unseen by anyone, I made bold to approach her and with a little piece of linen I took the saint’s tear as a relic. Since then I have carried it in the little container which holds my vows.”
 
In fact, Therese later gave this tear-relic to her beloved sister Celine. I, too, have a hard time holding on to relics, but I love to gather them when I have the chance! When I was in Lisieux this past May, I had a blast imitating Therese and when no one was looking (not even my husband), I gathered up some pebbles from around the site where Therese was first buried (a place of miracles) and from around the graves of Marie of the Trinity and the other holy nuns. If you love relics too and would like one of these little rocks, use the Contact Me button in the sidebar (over on the top right) and send me your postal address. I’d love to send you some of my treasure!
 
Therese goes on to tell about the influenza that hit her Carmel and took many of the nuns away to Jesus forever. God sustained her in the midst of this epidemic; not only was Therese on her feet and free of sickness, but she ministered to the dying like an angel. To top it off, she was allowed to receive Holy Communion every day during this time, thus making the Bitter Valley a place of springs, the autumn rain covering it with blessings. And how did Therese make the most of these communions with her Beloved?
 
She tells us, “I picture my soul as a piece of land and I beg the Blessed Virgin to remove from it any rubbish that would prevent it from being free; then I ask her to set up a huge tent worthy of heaven, adorning it with her own jewelry; finally I invite all the angels and saints to come and conduct a magnificent concert there. It seems to me that when Jesus descends into my heart He is content to find Himself so well received, and I, too, am content.”
 
Lest we think Therese had a series of ecstatic communions bearing little resemblance to our own poor ones, she adds:
 
“All this, however, does not prevent both distractions and sleepiness from visiting me, but at the end of the thanksgiving when I see that I’ve made it so badly I make a resolution to be thankful all through the rest of the day.”
 
And here is the take away. Ready?
 
“You see that I am far from being on the way of fear; I always find a way to be happy and to profit from my miseries; no doubt this does not displease Jesus since He seems to encourage me on this road.”
 
Yes! Let us too shake the dust of the way of fear from our souls! Let’s find ways to be happy, to profit from our little miseries. This will not displease Jesus – He’s the One who inspired every Pope since Therese’s time to hold her up for us as an example! He’s the One who glorified her and proved the truth of her words by fulfilling her wish to spend her heaven doing good on earth. He’s the One who has strewn her Little Way with roses and papal endorsements that we, too, might become (as He long ago requested) little fearless children climbing into His arms to kiss His Holy and sweet Face!
 
Later in Chapter 8, Therese tells about the one retreat that was an exception to her usual rule of dryness and distraction. The priest, a Franciscan, was known for his ministry to great sinners. Therese’s love for Magdalene must have qualified her, because Fr. Prou did great good for her too. As she explains, though she didn’t say much in the confessional, this priest was enlightened to understand her in a marvelous way, reading her soul like an open book and (as she writes), “He launched me full sail upon the waves of confidence and love which so strongly attracted me, but upon which I dared not advance.”
 
Isn’t it wonderful to think that even St. Therese was at one time afraid to advance in confidence and love? Until, that is, Jesus gave her the green light, and then through her, gave that green light to the rest of us! Jesus told Therese through this priest “that God was very much pleased” with her. These are the very words Jesus is forever telling us through Marcel! No wonder this little brother is the second Therese – his message is the same, and his intimacy with Jesus the same. And as Jesus told Marcel, He treats us the same way, though we often know it not. The great thing is, as we can see from this chapter, Therese was confident, but not because she felt Jesus’ presence constantly. Far from it! She was confident because she heard and clung to the words of His ministers and His gospel, the words of love He speaks in the beauty of creation, the tear of a loved one, the gentle laughter of a superior. She explains:
 
“Oh! How happy I was to hear those consoling words! Never had I heard that our faults could not cause God any pain, and this assurance filled me with joy, helping me to bear patiently this life’s exile. I felt at the bottom of my heart that this was really so, for God is more tender than a mother, and were you not, dear Mother, always ready to pardon the little offenses I committed against you involuntarily? How often I experienced this! No word of reproach touched me as much as did one of your caresses. My nature was such that fear made me recoil; with love not only did I advance, I actually flew.”
 
I can never believe how full this book is of everything I love!
 
If we skip a few pages ahead, we find Therese confiding that “God showed me the same mercy He showed to King Solomon. He has not willed that I have one single desire which is not fulfilled, not only my desires for perfection but those too whose vanity I have understood without having experienced it.” She then gets specific, and records how she had wanted to be like her dear older sister and second mother (now her Mother in the Carmel), Pauline (Mother Agnes). She wanted to paint and write poetry like Pauline did, and to everyone’s surprise, when she was given these tasks in the Carmel, she fulfilled them beautifully!
 
Even then, “instead of doing me any harm, of making me vain, the gifts which God showered upon me (without my having asked for them) drew me to Him; and I saw that He alone was unchangeable, that He alone could fulfill my immense desires.”
 
This makes so much sense to me. I have often thought about how a great artist cannot simply create one great piece of art and be done. We have the Mona Lisa, or the Pieta, yet Leonardo and Michaelangelo (the artists, not the Ninja Turtles!) did not create only those works of beauty, or rest in them. In lesser art forms, I think of one of my favorite movies, “You’ve Got Mail,” and how Nora Ephron didn’t write only that movie and retire, nor did Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan act in it and hang up their hats. Similarly, Gerard Manley Hopkins could have rested forever (in my books) if he’d only given us “Pied Beauty,” or “God’s Grandeur,” or one of his Marian poems – but thank the good Lord he didn’t; he kept writing!
 
I think that’s why Therese realized that “He alone was unchangeable, He alone could fulfill my immense desires.” The artist has a desire to share the beauty he sees and feels, the beauty God has given him to express, and yet it is always so much less than real Beauty, God Himself!
 
And here is where Therese and her Jesus (Who is, of course, our Jesus too!) slay me. She goes on to tell about how God granted not only even her unspoken noble desires, but her childish desires as well.
 
She loved flowers. She thought she was giving them up when she went into Carmel. Well sure, there might be a few arrangements to be put in the church near the altar, but gone were the fields of flowers she’d run through and bring home in baskets to her heart’s content.
 
Except . . . except, God can do anything! And if she could not go to the fields of His glory, He could bring them to her. She recalls, “It is the custom for fiancés to often give their fiancées bouquets and Jesus didn’t forget it. He sent me in great abundance sheaves of cornflowers, huge daisies, poppies, etc., all the flowers that delighted me the most. There was even a little flower called corncockle that I had never found since our stay at Lisieux; I wanted very much to see it again, that flower of my childhood which I had picked in the fields of Alencon. And at Carmel it came to smile at me again and show me that in the smallest things as well as the greatest, God gives the hundredfold in this life to those souls who leave everything for love of Him.”
 
Can I tell you something? If you are reading this blog and have read this far, there is no doubt you have left everything for Jesus. No, there wasn’t some hidden commitment, some unseen poverty clause you inadvertently signed when you got half way through this post! But you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t love Jesus (or weren’t thinking you might fall in love with Him any moment if only you keep reading), and that is precisely what leads to (or results from) giving up everything for Him! His love makes everything else pale in comparison, so don’t worry that it will be hard to leave the rest for Him. Most of us will “leave” by staying in the midst of our surroundings, our loved ones, our jobs and duties and little round. But the leaving is in the where, as in where our treasure and heart are, and how could they not be in His, the Heart of Love? And so having left all in His Heart, you will, as Therese says, find your hundredfold and all that you were willing to leave behind – you will find again things you thought you had lost forever, and people most of all – right there in the Heart of Love!
 
Just today I had the most amazing experience of Jesus giving back to someone a gift she had long given up for Him. I had two friends visit me at my dear alma mater, Thomas Aquinas College. We went to Mass there and had lunch, roamed the lovely campus a bit, and in the midst of it all one of my friends told me she had never expected to find herself in this beautiful place again. She used to come here with her husband, it turned out. When he died some 10 or more years ago, in the deepest, quietest place of her heart, she had grieved this loss (so little in comparison to her loss of him, but a loss nonetheless). So what did Jesus do? He brought her back to the place her heart had sorely missed! A little hundredfold in gratitude for her sacrifice and love.
 
As for Therese, what she found that she had lost was her sister Celine. She speaks of this next, and though I won’t re-tell the whole story here, suffice it to say that the one whom Therese had most deeply felt the loss of, this sister who was the sweet echo of her soul and a friend the likes of which we all long for, her dear Celine was given back to her in Carmel, even despite great odds. There were rules to prevent too many relatives form being in the same monastery, and these rules had already been far exceeded in the case of Therese’s family!
 
Then there was a missionary, the priest dearest to the Martins (Therese’s family) and their spiritual director. He was off in Canada and inviting Celine to come be a missionary there too. How could she resist?
 
Then there were the suitors and parties and dances. There was Celine’s prodigious artistic talent and her father’s offer to have her paint under the direction of a great master in Paris. In short, there was almost no end to the options ahead of Celine, all of them more glamorous than entering the tiny Carmel in the tiny town in which she lived. And yet, watch out when Therese wants something! She is confident her Spouse will give it to her, and He always does!
 
“And now,” Therese writes, “I have no other desire except to love Jesus unto folly. My childish desires have all flown away. I still love to adorn the Infant Jesus’ altar with flowers, but ever since He has given me the Flower I desired, my dear Celine, I desire no other; she is the one I offer Him as my most delightful bouquet.”
 
We think of Heaven as the place where God fulfills our desires, and well we should. Yet in the case of Therese, I must add this caveat: she who was a daughter of her mother in Carmel, Teresa of Avila, whom the poet Crashaw called “the daughter of desires,” she too – Therese – is a worthy daughter of desires. And she sure looks, in Heaven, like one who continues to desire! She told us she would want to work in Heaven until the end of time, until the last trumpet sounds. And that means that now, right now this very minute you are reading this, she is desiring you as she desired Celine. Desiring you to share in a union with Jesus even surpassing her own!
 
This is marvelous, but not too surprising if you read Story of a Soul. Okay, very surprising, but it makes so much sense! For there Therese writes:
 
“How sweet is the way of love! True, one can fall or commit infidelities, but, knowing how to draw profit from everything, love quickly consumes everything that can be displeasing to Jesus; it leaves nothing but a humble and profound peace in the depths of the heart.”
 
Therese and Marcel and I – and Jesus most of all! – wish for you that peace. We are praying for it for you and in you and in all those you love – praying in our triple novena, and thanking God as we do so.
 
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for the joy of our sister and brother, that sweet joy which you share with us. Thank You, dear Jesus, for treating us the way You treated them – may we recognize Your love in all that befalls us! And dear Holy Spirit of Love, fill and animate us completely, act in us, pray in us, love in us until the day we are united altogether with You, in Your unity in the Heart of the Blessed Trinity!
 
I have heard a sad thing today. The beautiful 4-year-old girl we have been praying for is now in the arms of Jesus in Heaven. Well, if I put it that true way, it doesn’t seem sad at all, but surely her parents and sisters and friends will miss her greatly until the day they too are in His arms. Please remember them, then, in your own little glances and sighs and smiles for Jesus. And let’s pray together one final little prayer of love and confidence:
 
Draw me, Jesus, we shall run!!!