Happy Pentecost! Welcome to our first Octave of Pentecost post, complete with a triple feature, in honor of the Blessed Trinity!

First, my theory of miracles.
Second, a guest post by Monica Seeley on the joy the Holy Father's election brought to a wonderful Catholic school in sunny Southern California. 
And third, a mini-celebration of St. Therese's offering to Merciful Love, which she first made 130 years ago today!

*  *  * 

My theory of miracles is that they usually last about 10 minutes. Not that they then poof out of existence, but that we adjust so quickly to the wonderful that we forget to be grateful for what was brand new a few moments ago but is now, 10 minutes later, old hat!

Have you experienced any miracles lately? If you have, you'll know what I mean, and if you haven't, let's keep praying so that soon you can be in this happy position of taking for granted the grace you've been begging God for, lo these many moons.

Our little sister Therese, who has more to tell us in Part III of this post, wants to remind us at the outset that she's spending her Heaven doing good on earth, letting fall a shower of roses. That means miracles, and she'd hate for you to miss out simply because you got tired of asking. May we ask for you?

Little Flower in this hour show your power!

Our little sis is all about simplicity, so we'll let that suffice for our prayer . . . and while we wait for new miracles, let's remember one from the recent past.

It was about a month ago that we saw (or heard about) the white smoke at the Vatican, and today we have the privilege of posting an article that recently appeared on Catholic Exchange. It's by our friend Monica Seeley, whose bio states only that she raises children and chickens on the West Coast . . . I don't doubt it, but I can attest that she does much more than that! She brought my family a delicious dinner when we needed one, and she frequently organizes local 40 Days for Life events. She's what I'd call a champion for life, and a terrific writer to boot, so it's with great pleasure that we here at Miss Marcel's Musings share her story of the day the pope was elected.

Here is a LINK (just click LINK) to Monica's other articles at Catholic Exchange, but first and foremost we offer you "Habemus Papam 3 Weeks Out: Happy to be Catholic." Enjoy!

​May the Holy Spirit awaken our hearts to the miracle of Pope Leo while enlightening his mind and enflaming his heart with Eternal Wisdom and Infinite Love!

Habemus Papam 3 Weeks Out: Happy to be Catholic
by Monica Seeley

When I dropped off my high schooler at St. Augustine Academy each morning last week, a large, hand-lettered yellow sign still greeted me, propped against a stucco wall, proclaiming “Viva Il Papa!”
As exams and award ceremonies marked the end of the school year and carpools pulled out for the last time, no one wanted to take it down. It was a reminder of a day that students, teachers, and parents will long remember as one of the happiest in our little school’s 31-year history.

On Thursday morning, May 8th, the 7th grade students in headmaster Tim Moore’s Latin class weren’t doing declensions; they were discussing what happens at a papal conclave, while keeping one eye on the “chimney watch” on his laptop. When the class period ended, Tim had to go back to his office, taking his laptop with him. A mere two minutes later, white smoke billowed from the iconic smokestack.  The 7th grade will never let him forget it, he says, and he can’t blame them.

As Tim told it in his weekly “blue letter” to parents, as soon as the white smoke appeared, “the students, with some of the teachers, immediately grabbed the Vatican flag and ran out to the street with signs saying, ‘Habemus papam!’ They wanted to tell the world.”

Half an hour later, the entire student body watched the new pope appear and give his first Urbi et Orbi blessing. 

At the news that the Church had an American pope, more than a hundred students ran back out to the street, jubilantly waving more signs, an American flag now fluttering alongside the Vatican flag. Joyful chaos ensued. Students waved and shouted; trucks and cars honked enthusiastically as they drove by on the busy street.

“The students then ran back to the campus and spontaneously began singing—no teacher had prompted them,” Tim said, recounting that “beautiful day.”

Gathered on the playing field, they sang hymns. They sang patriotic songs. A video shared by Tim shows high schoolers and middle schoolers singing a French hymn to Mary with unselfconscious piety. They followed that up with a rousing “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Wild cheering, applause, and dancing broke out at “Glory, Glory Hallelujah.” 

“When the next pope is elected, I hope I am still here at St. Augustine Academy because I don’t think any other school partied like us,” Tim said in an email later that day. The partying ended on a very American note, with ice cream sandwiches for all.

When that morning began, very few of us knew much, if anything, about Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. Twelve years ago, I can remember a similar scene of tumultuous happiness at the election of Jorge Bergoglio, also an unfamiliar name.

Among the parents and staff at our little school, where students attend daily Mass and learn Latin polyphonic hymns in choir, there was a certain amount of trepidation. I lie; there was a great deal of trepidation as we anxiously watched the papal balcony, wondering what kind of man had been chosen to fill the shoes of St. Peter. 

Putting your faith at the center of your life gives you a greater emotional stake in a papal election. But when Leo stepped out onto the balcony, anxiety suddenly took a backseat to joy that the Church was no longer sede vacante. The uncomplicated rejoicing of our students brought home the reality of those words and the fact of Christ’s presence in His vicar on earth.

The vague unrest that had filled me for the past few weeks—welling up at the Eucharistic prayer as the priest stumbled over “We pray for our Holy Father,” and at the end of the Rosary when we could no longer pray for the pope’s intentions—resolved itself into peace, plain and simple. 

Habemus papam! We have a father!

As our new pope stood on the balcony, looking out over the vast crowds in St. Peter’s square with tears in his eyes, discussion of his leanings—liberal, conservative, centrist?—was already buzzing.
But that went over the heads of a crowd of kids in Catholic school uniforms, trooping triumphantly down the sidewalk waving the gold and white, and red, white, and blue. Celebration was the order of the day.

“We don’t know what he will bring for the Church,” Tim said, “However, we do know who the pope is, and that is the successor of St. Peter—and like Peter, he holds the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. We know that Pope Leo is our leader and represents Christ as the leader of the Church here on earth. That is well worth celebrating.”

There will be days for discussion. But almost three weeks out, a large yellow sign proclaiming “Viva Il Papa!” reminds me that we’re still basking in the glow of the day when a bunch of school kids were just happy to be Catholic, and thrilled to have a Holy Father once again.

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And now, a word from our sponsor, or rather a word about her on a special anniversary . . . 

130 years ago today, history was made. Or perhaps a better way to put it is that 130 years ago today, Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, the youngest of Louis (and the late Zelie) Martin of Alencon and Lisieux, gave herself as a victim of Love to the Blessed Trinity, and the world hasn't been the same since.

She was only 22 years old, and at 24 she left this exile for Heaven, where she was finally able to fulfill her greatest dreams and desires: to love God and to make Him loved to the ends of the earth.

While she was still an unknown nun in the tiny Carmel of the tiny town of Lisieux, she couldn't do much anyone would notice, but that didn't bother her a bit. In fact she loved being hidden and unknown, which made it all the more interesting and extremely strange that in the last months of her life she began to speak prophetically of the great glory she would have, the great good she would do, the great importance of her sisters saving not only her last words, but the rose petals she dropped on her crucifix (which saved petals were later distributed and mysteriously responsible for miracles) as well as the fingernails they clipped from her!

I was just reading a few pages of a book long recommended to me, The Passion of Therese of Lisieux by the great fan (and scholar) of St. Therese, Bishop Guy Gaucher of Lisieux (God rest his dear soul), and there I found - as I often do when reading of our sister - a new anecdote. New to me at least, because as much as one knows about this Little Flower, so much more is there (and then some) yet to know!

Therese was talking to her sisters (the Martin sisters who were also her sisters in Carmel) from her bed in the infirmary. She told them, "You're taking care of a little saint." I knew that line, but I didn't know that Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (her eldest sister and godmother) was so moved that she left the room and thus didn't hear Therese's next line: "And you're saints too."

Therese has full confidence - she had it then, and she's now exchanged it for full knowledge - that we too can become saints by following her Little Way wherein sanctity consists in simply abandoning ourselves into the Father's arms and letting Him do the heavy lifting.

One of the most exciting ways she found to perform this simple act of resting in God's embrace was her offering of herself to Merciful Love, and even more exciting to me is that she wants us all to imitate her in this offering.

I've written a whole book about just one line of her offering: 

"Remain in me as in a tabernacle; never separate Yourself from Your little victim."

I've written lots of books, and I have no hesitation in recommending all of them, but this one is the bomb! It will explode your fears into a million smithereens and replace them with the ardent love God has for you, filling you with a renewed and exceedingly consoling love for Him . . .

Considering that Something New with St. Therese: Her Eucharistic Miracle is about just one line of Therese's Act of Oblation, you can imagine how many volumes upon volumes could be written about the rest of her prayer, and that's in addition to the many volumes that already have been written!

For now I will merely repeat that this day 130 years ago changed history . . . and I'll add that this day TODAY can change history again, because you too can offer yourself to Merciful Love!

Therese assured Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart that offering oneself to God in this way is NOT to invite suffering. Marie was a marvelously down to earth woman who had NO INTEREST in suffering any more than she had to. I bet that like me she didn't even have an interest in suffering as much as she had to! So there was no way she was going to invite more suffering, and when Therese asked her to join in offering herself to God's Love, Marie immediately responded "No!" She explained her complete refusal to open herself up to more suffering, and Therese explained that this offering to Love was different from the offering of oneself as a victim to God's justice that they'd both heard about in the lives of the saints. They'd even listened a few weeks before to the account of a Carmelite nun who'd recently died after offering herself to God's justice, and Therese is very clear in her Story of a Soul that this was the inspiration for her to make a totally different kind of offering. She clearly states that the offering to God's justice was very generous, but didn't attract her at all . . .

But here I am, beginning my next volume already. 
Enough blathering . . . let me share with you our little sister's Offering to Merciful Love, the offering of oneself to receive all the love God wants to give but that others reject.

Therese's first offering of herself as a victim to this Love (on June 9, 1895, Trinity Sunday that year) was made in the Carmel's chapel after Mass. She then grabbed her sister Celine and dragged her to their older sister Pauline (Mother Agnes) to ask her permission to make this act. Permission granted, Therese wrote up the formal Act over the next two days. Then on June 11, she and Celine made it together. (Sister Genevieve was Celine's name as a nun, and she is pictured above with Therese at the stone cross in the Carmel's courtyard about a year after their Oblation.)

The next December, Therese invited Sister Marie of the Trinity, her protege and favorite novice, to make the offering to Merciful Love too. After immediately saying yes, a few hours later Marie said no, she wasn't worthy or ready. Therese happily informed her that the only thing one needed to be ready was to know one wasn't worthy! Voila! The Little Way strikes again! Marie then made the Offering the next morning after Mass, with Therese beside her, offering Marie as a priest offers Jesus to the Father. (You can see Marie sitting beside Therese in the picture above, taken about 3 months after her Offering.)

Would you like Therese beside you to help offer you? I'm sure she will oblige!
She loves nothing more than making God's love known, unless it's making Him loved as she loves Him, and her Offering is her favorite method for doing just that. She put it best:

"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, You would be pleased to grant it still greater favors . . . 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. 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!"

Here, for your delectation and participation then, is Therese's Act of Oblation to Merciful Love:

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make You Loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Sanctity! 

Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with Love. 

I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints (in heaven and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! the Love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of His mortal life: "Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you!" I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! that the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not allpowerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim. 

I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself. 

I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion. 

After earth's Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally. 

In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved! 

Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You. 

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God! 

May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love. 

I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!

*  *  *

Draw me, we will run!

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus
Please pick for me a rose from the heavenly garden
and send it to me as a message of love.

O Little Flower of Jesus,
please ask God to grant the favors
we now place with confidence in your hands . . . 

St. Therese, help us always to believe as you did,
in God’s great love for us,
so that we may imitate your “Little Way” each day.
Amen.

*  *  *

Alleluia! He is risen! And He has raised up with Him our sister St. Therese, canonized this day, May 17, in the Jubliee Year 1925, that is, 100 years ago today!

With joy and gladness, then, let us celebrate the Little Way our sister has opened up for us. As Pope Pius XI exhorted in his homily at the canonization Mass:

We have proof that on entering into Paradise she began at once, there also, this work among souls, when we see the mystical shower of roses which God permitted her, and still permits her to let fall upon earth, as she had ingenuously foretold.

Therefore do We desire earnestly that all the Faithful of Christ should render themselves worthy of partaking in the abundant profusion of graces resulting from the intercession of "little Thérèse." But We desire much more earnestly that all the faithful should study her in order to copy her, becoming children themselves, since otherwise they cannot, according to the oracle of the Master, arrive at the Kingdom of Heaven.
​
If the way of spiritual childhood became general, who does not see how easily would be realized the reformation of human society which We set ourselves to accomplish at the commencement of our Pontificate, and more especially in the promulgation of this Jubilee. We, therefore, adopt as our own the prayer of the new St. Thérèse with which she ends her invaluable autobiography: "O Jesus, we beseech Thee to cast Thy glance upon the vast number of little souls, and to choose in this world a legion of little victims worthy of Thy love." 

+  +  +

We pray that your day, your year, and the rest of your life in exile is simply a joyful beginning of the eternal life we share with St. Therese. May her example, her intercession, and her teaching make her for you, as she was for Pope Pius XI, "a guiding star." She promised her sisters that she would not merely watch over them, but that she would "come down," and she continues to fulfill this promise!

The book I was hoping to soon announce did indeed arrive in my mailbox like a splendid rose from our sister just in time for her centenary. A Shower of Roses, written by Camille Burette and published by Angelico Press, should be available on May 23, and you can pre-order it here:

A Shower of Roses


It is marvelous! As the subtitle announces, this book contains, "The Most Beautiful Miracles of Saint Therese of Lisieux," although I must warn that it may not actually contain The VERY Most Beautiful Miracle of St. Therese - because our sister reserves the right to have reserved that very most beautiful rose for YOU!

I'm certainly confident she has quite a few roses left up her heavenly sleeve, and she loves nothing more than to draw us into the arms of our good Jesus, there to receive His loving embrace and a free ride to Heaven. Let's not forget to ask for the moon - by which I mean every single need we can think of! Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is charmed by our confidence in Him as He was charmed by the confidence of little St. Therese . . .

For your reading pleasure, I've pasted in the Homily of Pius XI for Therese's Canonization, as well as the Bull of Canonization. Don't be alarmed if you notice, like I did, his cataloguing of some of her heroic virtues. She would want you to remember above all that hers is truly a Little Way and within the reach of us all, for it is God who begins and completes His work in us. Our job is to let Him! That's hard enough for us little ones who want our own way, but rest assured His way is not only better, but easier than ours, for He will do the heavy lifting.

Let's pray for each other! Let's pray that sometime we can meet on this earth to smile and laugh together in the knowledge of Jesus' great love for us, and then meet in Heaven for that ecstatic union with God that also will encompass our reunion with those we love and those hosts of angels and saints, many unknown to us until then, who have loved us, 

Hooray for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Hooray for their littlest son and brother, Marcel Van! And three cheers of Hip, Hip, Hooray for their littlest daughter, sister, Saint and Doctor of the Church, Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face of Lisieux, the Little Flower!!!

Draw me, we will run!!!

Homily of Pope Pius XI at the Canonization of St. Thérèse on 17 May 1925.

Source: Taylor, Rev. Thomas N., Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Flower of Jesus. New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1930, 271-274.

Blessed be God and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies, and God of all consolation; who in the midst of the countless cares of our apostolic ministry, has granted Us the joy of inscribing as our first Saint in the calendar the Virgin who was also the first to be beatified by Us, at the beginning of our Pontificate. This maiden became a child in the order of grace, but her spirit of childhood was united to such greatness of soul that, in accordance with the promises of Christ, she merited to be glorified before the Church upon earth, as well as in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

We give thanks to God likewise for permitting Us, who hold the place of His Only Son, to repeat insistently today from this chair of Truth and during this solemn ceremony the salutary teaching of the Divine Master. When the disciples asked: "Who will be the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven?" calling a child and setting him in their midst, He pronounced these memorable words: "Amen, I say to you, unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Mt 18:2)

The new St. Thérèse had learned thoroughly this teaching of the Gospels and had translated it into her daily life. Moreover she taught the way of spiritual childhood by word and example to the novices of her monastery. She set it forth clearly in all her writings, which have gone to the ends of the world, and which assuredly no one has read without being charmed thereby, or without reading them again and again with great pleasure and much profit. For this simple child, this flower that blossomed in the walled garden of Carmel, not content with adding to Thérèse the name of the "Child Jesus," retraced in herself His living image, so that it may be said that whosoever honors Thérèse honors the Divine Model she reproduced.

Therefore We nurse the hope today of seeing springing up in the souls of the faithful of Christ a burning desire of leading a life of spiritual childhood. That spirit consists in thinking and acting, under the influence of virtue, as a child feels and acts in the natural order. Little children are not blinded by sin, or disturbed by the passions, and they enjoy in peace the possession of their innocence. Guiltless of malice or pretense, they speak and act as they think, so that they show themselves as they really are. Thus Thérèse appeared more angelic than human in her practice of truth and justice, endowed as she was with the simplicity of a child. The Maid of Lisieux had ever in memory the invitation and the promises of her Spouse: "Whosoever is a little one, let him come to Me." (Prov. 9:4) "You shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you; as one whom the mother caresses, so will I comfort you." (Is. 64:12-13)

Conscious of her weakness she abandoned herself entirely to God, and leaning upon Him she labored to acquire -- at the cost of every sacrifice, and of an utter yet joyous abdication of her own will -- the perfection she arrived at. We need not be surprised if in Thérèse was accomplished the word of Christ: "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven." (Mt 18:4) In her catechism lessons she drank in the pure doctrine of Faith, from the golden book of The Imitation of Christ she learned asceticism, in the writings of St. John of the Cross she found her mystical theology. Above all, she nourished heart and soul with the inspired Word of God on which she meditated assiduously, and the Spirit of Truth taught her what He hides as a rule from the wise and prudent and reveals to the humble. Indeed, God enriched her with a quite exceptional wisdom, so that she was enabled to trace out for others a sure way of salvation.

That superabundant share of divine light and grace enkindled in Thérèse so ardent a flame of love, that she lived by it alone, rising above all created things, till in the end it consumed her; so much so that shortly before her death she could candidly avow she had never given God anything but Love.

Evidently it was under the influence of that burning charity that the Maid of Lisieux took the resolution of doing all things for love of Jesus, with the sole object of pleasing Him, of consoling His Divine Heart, and of saving a multitude of souls who would love Him eternally. We have proof that on entering into Paradise she began at once, there also, this work among souls, when we see the mystical shower of roses which God permitted her, and still permits her to let fall upon earth, as she had ingenuously foretold.

Therefore do We desire earnestly that all the Faithful of Christ should render themselves worthy of partaking in the abundant profusion of graces resulting from the intercession of "little Thérèse." But We desire much more earnestly that all the faithful should study her in order to copy her, becoming children themselves, since otherwise they cannot, according to the oracle of the Master, arrive at the Kingdom of Heaven.

If the way of spiritual childhood became general, who does not see how easily would be realized the reformation of human society which We set ourselves to accomplish at the commencement of our Pontificate, and more especially in the promulgation of this Jubilee. We, therefore, adopt as our own the prayer of the new St. Thérèse with which she ends her invaluable autobiography: "O Jesus, we beseech Thee to cast Thy glance upon the vast number of little souls, and to choose in this world a legion of little victims worthy of Thy love." Amen.


Bull of Canonization of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. (Vehementer exultamus hodie)

Source: Taylor, Rev. Thomas N., Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Flower of Jesus. New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1930, 279 - 289.

Vehemently do We exult this day, and We are filled with the greatest joy, because it is granted to Us who beatified the daughter of Carmel, Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and proposed her as a model, to celebrate now her canonization, under the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and under our own authority.

This Virgin, truly wise and prudent, walked in the way of the Lord in the simplicity of her soul, and being made perfect in a short space, fulfilled a long time. Thereafter while still in the flower of her years, she was called to Paradise to receive the crown which her heavenly Spouse had prepared for her. During her lifetime she was known only to a few, but immediately after her saintly death her fame spread abroad in marvelous fashion throughout the whole Christian world, on account of the innumerable wonders wrought by Almighty God at her intercession. Indeed, it seemed as if, in accordance with her dying promise, she were letting fall upon earth a shower of Roses. Hence it came to pass that Holy Church decided to bestow upon her the high honors reserved for the Saints without observing the statutory delays.

The child was born at Alençon in the diocese of Séez, in France, on January 2, 1873, of a father and amother remarkable for their piety, Louis Stanislaus Martin and Marie Zélie Guérin. [They were canonized October 18, 2015.] On January 4 she was baptized, receiving the name of Marie Françoise Thérèse.

Scarcely had she passed the age of four years and a half when she was bereft of her mother, and so became a prey to the deepest sorrow. Her education was thenceforth entrusted to her sisters, Marie and Pauline, whom she strove to obey perfectly in all things, the while she lived under the watchful care of her well-beloved father. Thanks to her teachers, Thérèse hastened like a giant along the way to perfection. From her earliest years it was her chief delight to talk frequently of God, and she always kept before her mind the thought that she must not inflict the slightest pain on the Holy Child Jesus.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit she longed to lead a most holy life and promised earnestly that she would refuse God nothing He should seem to ask of her, a resolution she endeavored to keep until death. As soon as she had reached the age of nine she was given into the charge of the Benedictine nuns of Lisieux, with whom she spent the day, returning home at nightfall. Though younger than the other scholars, she outstripped them all in progress and piety, studying the mysteries of our Faith with such zeal and insight that the chaplain of the convent styled her his "theologian," or the "little doctor." As time passed she learned by heart the whole of that admirable book, The Imitation of Christ, while the Sacred Scriptures became so familiar to her, that in her writings she used them aptly, frequently, and with authority.

In her tenth year, she was long afflicted by a mysterious and deadly disease from which, as she herself narrates, she was freed through Our Blessed Lady, to whom she had been making a novena under the invocation of Our Lady of Victories, and who appeared to her with a smile upon her lips. Thereafter, filled with angelic fervor, she made her soul ready for the sacred Banquet in which we partake of the Body of Christ.

As soon as she had tasted of the Eucharistic Bread, she felt an insatiable hunger for that heavenly Food, and, as if inspired, she begged of Jesus, her sole delight, to "change for her into bitterness all human consolation." Then, all aflame with love for Christ and His Church, she had a most keen desire to enter among the Discalced Carmelites, so that by her self-denial and continual sacrifices "she might bring help to priests and missionaries and the entire Church," and might gain innumerable souls for Jesus Christ. At the approach of death she promised that when with God she would continue this work.

While yet but fourteen years old, on account of her tender age, she met with serious opposition on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities regarding her vocation to the cloister. These difficulties she surmounted with a strength of soul well-nigh incredible, and in spite of her natural shyness, she revealed her intention to our predecessor, Leo XIII of happy memory. The Pontiff remitted the matter to the decision of the Superiors. though balked of her desire, and stricken with grief, nevertheless she was perfectly submissive to the divine will.

After this stern trial of her patience and her vocation, on the night day of April 1888, with the approval of her Bishop, she entered the Carmelite Monastery of Lisieux. In Carmel God wonderfully trained the heart of Thérèse, who, imitating the hidden life of Our Lady at Nazareth, like a well-watered garden put forth the flowers of every virtue, but most of all those of a burning love for God and most ardent charity of her neighbor, inasmuch as she had thoroughly understood that commandment of the Lord: "Love one another as I have loved you."

In order more and more to give pleasure to Jesus Christ, having dwelt upon the invitation given in Scripture: "If anyone is little, let him come unto Me," she desired to be a little one in spirit, and thenceforth with a childlike and perfect trust she surrendered herself entirely and for ever to God, as to a most loving Father. This way of spiritual childhood, in keeping with the doctrine of the Gospel, she taught to others, especially to the novices, whom out of obedience she had undertaken to train in the exercise of the virtues of the religious life, and then filled with a holy and apostolic zeal [by her writings] she enthusiastically opened up the way of evangelical simplicity to a world puffed up with pride, "loving vanity and searching after falsehood."

Jesus, her Spouse, set her completely on fire with a longing to suffer both in body and in soul. Realizing with the utmost sorrow how Divine Love was on all sides forgotten, two years before her death she offered herself wholeheartedly as a victim to "God's Merciful Love." Then, as it is reported, she was wounded by a flaming dart, so that, consumed by the divine fire, rapt in ecstasy, with the cry of "My God, I love Thee!" upon her lips, she went to her reward at the age of twenty-four. It was on September 30, 1897, that she took flight to her Spouse, and thus, according to the well-known eulogy of Holy Scripture: "having been made perfect in a short space, she fulfilled a long time."

The funeral rites were duly carried out, and she was buried in the cemetery of Lisieux. From there her fame spread throughout the world and her sepulcher became glorious. Scarcely had she entered Paradise than she began to fulfill by innumerable miracles -- as she still continues to fulfill -- her promise of sending down to earth a perpetual shower of Roses, that is, of graces. The high esteem which she enjoyed among those who knew her in life was wonderfully increased after her death.

Urged by her great reputation for holiness, many Cardinals, Bishops, and Religious Superiors sent petitions to Pope [St.] Pius X, begging that her cause of canonization would be introduced. the Holy Father hearkened to the many prayers, and on the ninth of June, 1914, signed the decree of the Commission of the Introduction of the Cause, which was entrusted to the Postulator-General of the Discalced Carmelites, Reverend Father Rodrigo of St. Francis of Paola.

The Process having been carried through its various stages, and the heroic nature of the virtues practiced by Thérèse having been duly inquired into, the General Congregation was held on August 2, 1921, in presence of Pope Benedict XV. His Eminence, Cardinal Vico, Ponent of the Cause, submitted for discussion the question of the heroism of the Servant of God in practicing the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, as also the cardinal virtues of Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance. The Cardinals and Consulters present gave their vote, and after delaying in order to obtain further light from God, Our Predecessor promulgated his decision on the eve of the Assumption, to the effect that the Venerable Thérèse had practiced the above virtues to an heroic degree.

So rapid and triumphant was the progress of the Cause that at once two miracles were proposed for examination, chosen out of a multitude of prodigies said to have been wrought throughout the Christian world by the powerful intercession of the Venerable Thérèse. The first concerned Sister Louise of St. Germain, of the Daughters of the Cross, victim of an organic disease, namely, a grave ulcer in the stomach, of hemorragic nature. On having recourse to the intercession of Thérèse, she was restored to perfect health, as three eminent doctors have unanimously testified at the request of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The second miracle, somewhat similar to the first, was the cure of the young seminarist, Charles Anne, victim of pulmonary haemoptysis, of the cavitary stage. He confidently invoked the aid of the Servant of God and was perfectly cured. This is clear from the testimony of the three doctors, and from the reasons on which they based their decisions.

After the Antepreparatory and Preparatory Congregation, the General Congregation, on January 30, 1923, discussed in our presence the miraculous nature of three cures. According to custom, We reserved our decision in order to obtain further assistance from God, and on Quinquagesima Sunday, February 11, 1923, Feast of the Apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes, and eve of the first anniversary of our coronation, We decided to make it known. In the presence of Cardinal Vico, Prefect of the Congregation of Rites, and others of its members, We solemnly declared the above instantaneous and complete cures to be beyond doubt miraculous, and We gave orders for the promulgation of a Decree to that effect.

Shortly after, on March 6, Cardinal Vico, at another general reunion of the Congregation of Rites, put the question: "The virtues of the Venerable Servant of God and the two miracles required having been formally recognized, can the Beatification safely be proceeded with?" The decision was unanimously in the affirmative. After a brief delay, on the Feast of St. Joseph, We solemnly declared that in all safety Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus could receive the honors of Beatification, and We ordained the publication of the Brief for the ceremony in the Vatican Basilica. In the same Patriarchal Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles amid an outpouring of universal joy, the Servant of God became Blessed Thérèse.

Hearing of the fresh prodigies accomplished by Thérèse of the Child Jesus, We commissioned the Sacred Congregation of Rites on July 27, 1923, to take up anew the Cause of the Beata. On July 11, 1924, We ratified a decree of the Sacred Congregation which declared that the examinations in the dioceses of Parma [Italy] and Malines [Belgium], concerning miracles attributed to Blessed Thérèse were valid processes.

Gabriella Trimusi, who at the age of twenty-three had entered the Convent of the Poor Daughters of the Sacred Heart in Parma, began in 1913 to suffer in her left knee. She was in the habit of breaking the firewood across her knee, and this caused a lesion at the joint which prepared the way for a tuberculous infection. The trouble began with a dull pain, then the knee became swollen, and finally loss of appetite brought about emaciation. She was attended by two physicians, but without success, so that three years later she was sent to Milan, where injections, sunbaths, and various other forms of treatment were tried in vain; at the end of four years the spine itself became affected. The invalid returned to Parma, where several doctors diagnosed it as a case of tuberculous lesion, and prescribed general remedies. A radiograph of the knee revealed at this period the existence of periostitis at the head of the tibia. Taken to the hospital, she was once more subjected to X-rays, but while there was attacked by Spanish influenza, and began to suffer fresh and constantly increasing pain in the vertebral column. All remedies proving ineffective, she was recommended by a priest on June 13, 1923, to join in a public novena in honor of Blessed Thérèse. She joined in the prayers, more concerned, however, over the health of the other nuns than her own. The close of the novena coincided with the close of a triduum in a neighboring Carmel, and several of the nuns -- Gabriella among the rest -- sought permission to attend the ceremony. On her return, after slowly and painfully effecting the short journey, she entered the chapel of the Community, where the others were already assembled. The Superioress exhorted her to pray with confidence, and bade her go to her place. Strange to say, the invalid knelt down unconsciously on her knee without feeling the slightest pain, nor did she realize what she had done, on account of the increase of suffering at the moment in the spine. She next went to the refectory with others, and, the meal finished, slowly mounted the stairs. Going into the first room she saw, she took off the apparatus she wore to support the spine, and cried out loudly: "I am cured, I am cured!"

Sister Gabriella Trimusi returned at once to her labors and the exercises of religious life, without either pain or fatigue. The doctors appointed by the Sacred Congregation discussed the miracle at great length, and decided that the lesion at the knee was chronic arthrosynovitis and the spinal trouble was chronic spondulitis. These two lesions, rebellious to all other treatment, yielded to God's power, and Sister Gabriella by a miracle recovered the health which she still enjoys.

The story of the second miracle is more brief. In October 1919, Maria Pellemans was a victim of pulmonary tuberculosis, and this was followed by gastritis and enteritis, both of them likewise of a tuberculous nature. She was medically attended at home, then in a sanatorium. In August 1920, she went to Lourdes, but all to no purpose. In March, 1923, she accompanied a small band of pilgrims to Lisieux, and while kneeling at the tomb of the Blessed Thérèse she was suddenly restored to perfect health. Three specially appointed doctors made a favorable report to the Sacred Congregation on both miracles.

In these cures, the reality of the miraculous nature admitted of no doubt whatsoever, indeed it shone with unwonted splendor on account of the special circumstances in which the prodigies occurred. For that reason, on March 17, 1925, in a General Congregation, Cardinal Vico sought the verdict of the Cardinals and Consulters, based on the unanimous decision of the medial experts. We ourselves reserved our opinion until March 19, Feast of St. Joseph, when in the presence of the Cardinal Prefect and other dignitaries of the Sacred Congregation of Rite We solemnly proclaimed the two cures to be of a certainty miraculous. On March 29, after having received the unanimous vote of the Cardinals and the Consulters, We solemnly declared the Canonization of the Blessed Thérèse could be proceeded with in safety.

After all these preliminaries, in order to comply with the prescriptions laid down by our Predecessors, and to enhance the splendor of the august ceremony, We convoked a Secret Consistory of the Cardinals on March 30, to ask their advice on the question of the solemn canonization. Cardinal Vico spoke eloquently on the life and miracles of Blessed Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and warmly begged that she be raised to the highest honors. Each of the Cardinals expressed his opinion on the matter in question. On April 2 We held a Public Consistory, at which after an able discourse by the Consistorial advocate, John Gusco, all the Cardinals exhorted Us to give a final decision. We, however, invited by special letters not merely the neighboring Bishops, but also those most remote to come to Us and pronounce their opinion. Many came from various countries, and on April 22 took part in a semi-public Consistory, after having acquainted themselves -- by means of an abridgment -- with the life and miracles of the Beta, and all the process gone through by the Congregation of Rites. Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops united themselves to the Cardinals, urging upon Us to celebrate this canonization.

We therefore decided to celebrate it on May 17, in the Vatican Basilica, and exhorted the faithful to redouble their prayers, both for their own spiritual benefit and for our guidance by the Spirit of God.
On this most happy and desired day, the secular and regular clergy of Rome, the Prelates and Officials of the Curia, and finally all the Patriarchs, Bishops and Abbots then in the Eternal City gathered in the Vatican Basilica, the same being magnificently decorated. We ourselves brought up the rear of the procession. Then our Venerable Brother, Anthony Cardinal Vico, after a speech by Virgil Jacoucci, Consistorial advocate, set forth to Us the desire of the Episcopate, and the Order of Discalced Carmelites, that We should place among the Saints Blessed Thérèse of the Child Jesus, whom already We had proclaimed the patroness of the Missions and Noviciates of the Order. A second and third time they renewed their petition. Then after earnest prayers for light: "In honor of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the glory of the Catholic Faith, by the authority of Jesus Christ, of Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, after mature deliberation and at the request of the Cardinals, Patriarchs and Bishops, We declared that the professed nun of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Thérèse of the Child Jesus, was a Saint and was to be inscribed in the calendar of the Saints, memory of her to be kept on October the third of each year. [With the change of the liturgical calendar, St. Thérèse's feast day was moved to October 1st .] Finally, We returned fervent thanks to God for so great a favor, celebrated the Holy Sacrifice, granted a Plenary Indulgence, and ordained the publication of the Decree, to be signed by all the Cardinals and by ourselves.

Today, faithful flock of Christ, the Church offers a new and most noble model of virtue for all of you to contemplate unceasingly. For the peculiar characteristic of the sanctity to which God called Thérèse of the Child Jesus lies chiefly in this, that having heard the Divine call she obeyed with the utmost promptness and fidelity. Without going beyond the common order of things, in her way of life she followed out and fulfilled her vocation with such alacrity, generosity, and constancy that she reached an heroic degree of virtue. In our own day, when men seek so passionately after temporal goods, this young maiden lived in our midst practicing in all simplicity and devotedness the Christian virtues in order to honor God and to win eternal life. May her example strengthen in virtue and lead to amore perfect life, not only the cloistered souls but those living in the world.
​
In our present needs let us all invoke the patronage of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, that by her intercession a shower of Roses, that is, of the graces we require, may descend upon us. All of which We solemnly affirm out of the fullness of the Apostolic authority, and if anyone contravene our Decree -- he shall incur the wrath of God and of St. Peter and St. Paul. Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, May 17, 1925, in the fourth year of our Pontificate, I, Pius, Bishop of the Catholic Church, et cetera.

We're late, but then we're almost always late . . . The question is, what are we late for this time?


We joyfully announce that it is time and past time to start our novena leading to the centenary of our little sister Therese's canonization. Yup, time flies, and it's already been almost 100 years since May 17, 1925!

Technically, our novena started yesterday, so forgive me for waiting until today to let you know. If you want excuses, I'll trot up the old standard that we were all distracted praying for a new pope. God took care of that in quick time, though, so now we can get back to our important work of piling up all our other needs before Him. The good news is that thanks to a friend of mine reminding me here (God bless and reward you, dear Mary!), Marcel and I started for the novena for us all yesterday, so we've got your back! Jump in now and we'll pray together until, before you know it, 100 years will have passed - from Therese's canonization to our centenary celebrations of the same!

This is a feast you don't want to miss because whether you're ready or not, our favorite Heavenly florist is sure to do what she does so well and shower you with roses upon roses. As we used to say when I was a kid, "Expect it when you least expect it!" As for when you most expect it, well you're absolutely right to expect it then too! St. Therese has her statue in just about every Catholic church in the world for good reason: she LOVES to show us God's love, and this past 100 years of her coming down in order to draw us back up to Him is just the very beginning.

Before we lose any more time, though, let's get our novena started:

Novena to St Therese

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus
Please pick for me a rose from the heavenly garden
and send it to me as a message of love.

O Little Flower of Jesus,
please ask God to grant the favors
I now place with confidence in your hands . . . 

St. Therese, help us always to believe as you did,
in God’s great love for us,
so that we may imitate your “Little Way” each day.
Amen.

*  *  *

I had the joy of speaking with Marcel's translator recently, and he surprised me by teasingly calling me the Queen of Novenas. While it's true that I love a good novena, I've been inspired by a local friend who might possibly love novenas even more than I do! And then when considering candidates for the title, I'm wondering if the Queen of Novenas should really be our Blessed Mother. After all, she was there in the upper room with the Apostles at the first novena leading to Pentecost, and then she is (although Marcel has to plug his ears because he will only call her Mother and never worry about her being something as grand as Queen), well, she is the Queen of everything, so why not Queen of Novenas too?

Ah, but we are Miss Marcel's Musings because we want to follow Marcel in all things (just as he wanted to follow Therese in all things), so perhaps we can find a fourth candidate for the title . . . 

St. Louis, Therese's Papa, was fond of calling the Little Flower his Little Queen! Surely, then, we can pass the title off to Little Queen Therese. This is quite fitting, too, because she is arguably the one in Heaven to whom the most novenas have been said, at least since she flew there herself in 1897. 

I'd like to submit, as Exhibit A on Therese's behalf, a soon-to-be-released book coming to us from France, courtesy of Angelico Press, God bless them. I'll alert you as soon as I know more about the when, but as for the what, this is a book of testimonies of miracles worldwide, testimonies taken from the many volumes of Shower of Roses published by the Lisieux Carmel in the years before and just after Therese's canonization. The online archives of the Lisieux Carmel have this to say about the original volumes (from which the new book's Roses are taken):

"The Shower of Roses is a one-of-a-kind collection of miracle stories. Published between 1907 and 1926, in 10 volumes including 7 chronological, 2 thematic and an anthology, it presents more than 3,200 testimonies of graces and healings obtained through the intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, before her canonization."

The lay archivist of the Lisieux Carmel has compiled a selection from these wonderful old books, and now Angelico Press has had her book translated into English, soon to be released as evidence for Therese's new title: Queen of Novenas! You'll discover just a fraction of her answers to the gazillions of novenas said in hopes of her obtaining miracles, and the awesome news is that SHE DID OBTAIN MIRACLES! Better yet: She still does obtain miracles!

One of the delightful and hilarious things about little Therese (or, I should say, about the Queen of Novenas) is that she loves to tease by making us say several novenas before she gives in and lets go of all those roses she's holding. I smile and start laughing just thinking of the miracle stories I've read that start typically enough with a desperate person saying a novena to little Therese . . . and then as the story continues, the person gets no answer at the end of the novena so . . . starts another novena to Therese . . . and continues with novenas until the answer finally comes! Don't get me wrong, often people have their prayers answered on the first or second day of their first novena to Therese. She's known for promptness, attention to detail, and HUGE miracles! But she is also known, as Marcel reveals her in his Conversations, as very mischievous and also very clever. 

I don't know about you, but once my prayer is answered and my miracle obtained (and yes, I have definitely seen miracles!), it takes about ten minutes, sometimes less, for the miracle to become just the most normal thing in the world. That's how miracles work for us humans, and that's why we need so many! As soon as one terrible problem is solved, another one rears its unwelcome head! Or to look at things a little more positively, as soon as God has answered our prayers, we adjust to the new normal and forget that this was a longed for and almost unhoped for grace!

Sheesh, what a bunch of maroons we are, as Bugs Bunny long ago noticed!
No wonder Our Heavenly Father and little St. Therese sometimes conspire to make us wait for our needed miracles . . . 

We have our good points too, however, like always turning again to God in search of the next miracle. Some might call this greedy, but Therese and Marcel and I are assured by Jesus that it is actually endearing.

As Therese told her sister Marie, what pleases the Good Lord is to see us love our littleness and our poverty. She assures us that what He loves in her isn't some greatness, but rather, "It is the blind hope that I have in His mercy . . . This is my only treasure, why shouldn't this treasure be yours?"

Let's start and end there. We are delightful to God precisely because in our poverty we look to Him for our daily bread, not to mention sundry and assorted daily miracles. I've got a long list I'm insistent He take care of asap. How about you? Do you need miracles? I'm adding yours to my list, and feel free to add all mine to yours. Then, let's pray! We've said the novena prayer once already, but if we say it again, you'll be all caught up, and if by chance you started yesterday, you'll be ahead of the game! It's a joyful race to May 17, and following our little sister, I say:

Draw me; we will run!

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus
Please pick for me a rose from the heavenly garden
and send it to me as a message of love.

O Little Flower of Jesus,
please ask God to grant the favors
we now place with confidence in your hands . . . 

St. Therese, help us always to believe as you did,
in God’s great love for us,
so that we may imitate your “Little Way” each day.
Amen.

From today's Mass, Thursday of 3rd week of Easter:
Blessed be God, Who refused me not my prayer or His kindness!

From today's Divine Office:
Like a shepherd He will gather the lambs in His arms and carry them close to His heart, alleluia.

From the depths of our hearts:
Viva il Papa!

Today is May 8, the anniversary of St. Therese's First Holy Communion and also (from a much earlier date) the anniversary (and feast) of the apparition of St. Michael the Archangel in the cave of Gargano, a place more recently much beloved by St. Padre Pio, who sent many a penitent there to pray.

Today is also the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, the church built by St. Bartolo Longo in honor of Our Lady. On this day in 1876 the foundation stone was laid of what is now a magnificent pilgrimage site. On this day a few years later, in 1884, Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii graciously healed Fortuna Agrelli. I'll include a wonderful timeline of the history of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii below, thanks to "the Miracle Hunter." (Hey, we share what we find because all truth is from the Holy Spirit!)

And today today - not a repetition, but rather on this day today, Our Heavenly Father has given us a new Holy Father. And so we say, Viva il Papa!

Please join me in thanking God and, if you are so inclined, join me too in offering a Rosary and some sacrifice for Pope Leo XIV. I like prayer much more than I like sacrifice, but I've decided such a momentous occasion deserves both! I'm thinking we can up our Rosaries as the days go on (because however wonderful this very day is, it will only be 24 hours long, and then Our Holy Father will, with each succeeding day, need our prayers more than ever), and perhaps offer an ongoing sacrifice of some sort. Don't hurt yourself, but have fun with it because God loves a cheerful giver!

I absolutely love that Pope Leo XIV's first words were reminiscent of Pope St. John Paul II's - both quoted Our Lord, and both gave us words to dwell on and abide in.

"Be not afraid," said Our Lord and JPII.

"Peace be with you," said Our Lord and Leo XIV.

To quote him more fully, Pope Leo said in his first words to us, his children, his flock:

Peace be with you! Dearest brothers and sisters, this was the first greeting of the risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the flock of God. I, too, would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families and all people, wherever they are; and all peoples, and all the earth: Peace be with you.

This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a disarming and humble and persevering peace. It comes from God. God, who loves all of us, without any limits or conditions. Let us keep in our ears the weak but always brave voice of Pope Francis, who blessed Rome - the Pope who blessed Rome and the world that day on the morning of Easter.

Allow me to continue that same blessing. God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward. We are disciples of Christ, Christ goes before us, and the world needs His light. Humanity needs Him like a bridge to reach God and His love. You help us to build bridges with dialogue and encounter so we can all be one people always in peace.

Thank you Pope Francis!

Thank you to my Cardinal brothers who chose me to be the Successor of Peter and to walk together with you as a united Church searching all together for peace and justice, working together as women and men, faithful to Jesus Christ without fear, proclaiming Christ, to be missionaries, faithful to the gospel.

I am a son of Saint Augustine, an Augustinian. He said, “With you I am a Christian, for you a bishop." So may we all walk together towards that homeland that God has prepared for us.

To the Church of Rome, a special greeting:

We have to look together how to be a missionary Church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone, like this square, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, love.

[In Spanish]:
Hello to all and especially to those of my diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, a loyal, faithful people accompanying the bishop and helping the bishop.

[Returning to Italian]:
To all you brothers and sisters of Rome, Italy, of all the world, we want to be a synodal church, walking and always seeking peace, charity, closeness, especially to those who are suffering.

Today is the day of the Supplicatio [Plea] to Our Lady of Pompeii.
Our Blessed Mother Mary always wants to walk with us, be close to us, she always wants to help us with her intercession and her love. So let us pray together for this mission, and for all of the Church, and for peace in the world.

We ask for this special grace from Mary, our Mother.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
​

*  *  *

Draw me, we will run!

+  +  +

Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii
​
Summary

Bl. Bartolo Longo founded the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary and enshrined a miraculous image there. Many healings have ensued including one involving Fortuna Agrelli. The Virgin appeared as the Queen of the Rosary on March 3, 1884 to Fortuna Agrelli after she and her parents had prayed for her recovery from an illness. The girl was healed on May 8 of that year.

​Aug 24, 79
Pompeii was destroyed when nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in molten lava.

ca. 300
In the fourth century, Christians settled in the area. Early records indicate that a large church dedicated to the Most Holy Savior was erected there.

ca. 1000
The church there was entrusted to the care of the Benedictines. In time, the church was destroyed and a small chapel built on the site. The lands were eventually ceded to a Neapolitan noble who allowed the property to deteriorate. Local inhabitants acquired the right of patronage, and Valle di Pompeii became one of eighteen parishes in Italy where the priest was elected by the people.

1841
Bartolo Longo was born the son of a doctor near Brindisi, on Italy's Adriatic coast. He became an easygoing, intelligent man devoted to the Church.

Bartolo went through a crisis of faith in his university years as he studied to be lawyer, where he joined a sect and was ordained as a priest of Satan. He publicly ridiculed Christianity and did all in his power to subvert Catholic influence.

A good friend, Vincent Pede, eventually showed Bartolo the gentleness of Christ and arranged for him to meet a saintly Dominican priest, Alberto Radente. The Dominican had a deep, personal devotion to Mary and fostered the devotion of the rosary.

When Bartolo Longo was baptized, he chose the second name, Maria, to be his baptismal name. He saw Mary as a 'Refuge of Sinners' and attributed his miraculous conversion to her. She was the 'Refuge' who would lead him to Christ. After his conversion, Bartolo Maria Longo wanted to do penance for his past life and serve the Church he had so viciously slandered. He made a promise to work for the poor and destitute. He also published a pamphlet entitled, The Rosary of New Pompeii and did all in his power to spread the devotion.

One evening, as he walked near the ruined rat- and lizard-infested chapel at Pompeii, he had a profound mystical experience. He wrote:

As I pondered over my condition, I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide. Then I heard an echo in my ear of the voice of Friar Alberto repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: "If you seek salvation, promulgate the Rosary. This is Mary's own promise." These words illumined my soul. I went on my knees. "If it is true ... I will not leave this valley until I have propagated your Rosary."

1872
When he arrived in Pompeii to administer the property of a wealthy widow, the Countess Marianna De Fusco, he was struck by the human and religious poverty of the local peasants. He dedicated himself to teaching the catechism and spreading devotion to the rosary, and he organized yearly festivals in the fall to bring people together for catechesis and to pray the rosary.

1873
Bartolo then sponsored a festival on the Feast of the Holy Rosary. His first effort failed. It rained, and the preacher spoke in classical Italian instead of the local dialect which the people understood.

1874
He tried the next year; he wasn't much more successful, but he had taught some of the people to pray the rosary.

1875
The third year, he invited the Redemptorist Fathers to hold a two-week mission. In preparation, he fully restored the little church. The mission, blessed by the bishop, was a successful revival. It was, in fact, the bishop who envisioned a large church and pilgrimage place in the future.

Feb 13, 1876
He thought, if the people had a proper church and, most especially, an image of Our Lady of the Rosary as the focal point, their hearts might be converted. Bartolo began searching the stores of Naples, and found and restored a painting, considered to be of dubious beauty and quality.

The only one he could afford was an oleograph on paper. At the time, church law required sacred images to be painted in oils on canvas or wood. He was told about a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary being kept in a convent that had been purchased in a junk shop for 3,40 Lire. Longo described it himself:

Not only was it worm-eaten, but the face of the Madonna was that of a coarse, rough country-woman ... a piece of canvas was missing just above her head ... her mantle was cracked. Nothing need be said of the hideousness of the other figures. St. Dominic looked like a street idiot. To Our Lady's left was a St. Rose. This I had changed later into a St. Catherine of Siena ... I hesitated whether to refuse the gift or to accept ... I took it. (Queen of the Valley by Martin A. Stillmock)

The image was too large to carry from Naples to Pompeii, but Bartolo finally found someone who would take it to the chapel for him. When it arrived, it was lying on a wagon of manure. An attempt was made by an amateur to restore it, and it was placed in the church on the day of the foundation for the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary there.

1880
The famous Italian painter, Federico Madlarelli, offered to restore the image.

1883
The new shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary was completed. Within the month, miraculous events began to take place at the shrine. Four healings were recorded including that of Fortuna Agrelli (see below). From that time on, especially between 1891 and 1894, hundreds of miracles have been officially recorded at the sanctuary.

Bartolo appealed to the people:
In this place selected for its prodigies, we wish to leave to present and future generations a monument to the Queen of Victories that will be less unworthy of her greatness but more worthy of our faith and love.

Jan 1883
Fortuna Agrelli became ill with 3 separate incurable diseases and her doctors had given up on her case saying it was hopeless.

Oct 1883
A special devotion known as the Supplication to the Queen of Victories was begun on October 1883 and is recited all over the world, especially on May 8 and on the first Sunday in October. The devotion includes a request thought to have been given by Our Lady to one of the children healed at Pompeii, "Whoever desires favors of me should make three novenas of petition and three of thanksgiving."

Feb 16, 1884
She and her relatives began a novena of Rosaries for her recovery.

March 3 , 1884
The Blessed Mother appeared to Fortuna. She was sitting on a high throne profusely decorated with flowers with the Infant Jesus on her lap. She held a Rosary in her hand and was accompanied by St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. Our Lady and the Child were clad in gold-embroidered garments.

Fortuna petitioned Our Lady, "Queen of the Holy Rosary, be gracious to me, restore me to health." The Blessed Virgin replied, "You have invoked me by various titles and have always obtained favors from me. Now, since you have called me by the title so pleasing to me, 'Queen of the Holy Rosary,' I can no longer refuse the favor that you petition; for this name is most precious and dear to me. Make three novenas, and you will obtain all."

May 8, 1884
Fortuna was cured. Afterwards, Our Lady appeared again. This time she said, "Whosoever desires to obtain favors from me should make three novenas of the prayers of the Rosary in petition and three novenas in thanksgiving."

1891
The neoclassical pontifical shrine and Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, in all its frescoed, marble splendor, was dedicated sixteen years after Longo began to collect pennies from the peasants to build this temple to Mary.

1894
Bartolo and his wife, Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, gave the new church to the papacy, in whose care the shrine has remained since. The image was crowned immediately after its enthronement on the inauguration day of the opening of the new shrine.

1926
Bartolo Longo died in 1926.

1934
The present structure of The Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary
was begun at the request of Pope Pius XI.

1965
The image was again finally restored by Vatican artists. In 1965, after the third restoration of the image, Pope Paul VI said the following during a homily: "Just as the image of the Virgin has been repaired and decorated ... so may the image of Mary that all Christians must have within themselves be restored, renovated, and enriched." At the end of this solemn celebration, Pope Paul VI placed two new precious diadems on the heads of Jesus and Mary, crowns that had been offered by the people.

Oct 21, 1979
Pope John Paul II first visited the shrine.

Oct. 26, 1980
Pope John Paul II beatified the founder of the shrine, Bartolo Longo. His feast day is Oct. 6. Blessed Bartolo, a Third Order Dominican, founded the Sisters of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii and he also established homes for the poor, for orphans and for the children of people in prison. He was called 'the man of the Madonna' and the 'Apostle of the Rosary'.

Oct 7, 2003
John Paul II made his second visit to Pompeii on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Feb 24, 2025
Pope Francis approved the votes made by the Ordinary Session of the Cardinals and Bishops of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in favor of the canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo, layperson of the territorial prelature of Pompeii; married; member of the Lay Dominicans and founder of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Pompei; born in Latiano, Brindisi (Italy) on 10 February 1841, and died in Pompei, Naples (Italy) on 5 October 1926; beatified on 26 October 1980.

*   *    *

As a sweet postscript, the canonization of Bartolo Longo will fall into the hands of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, elected this day on the feast of Our Lady whom Bartolo so honored and esteemed. 

Penultimately, in a memory of my own (and Jesus laughs, saying, "You see, I do let you retain some memories! Plenty, in fact!"), I first encountered Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii in a Maronite convent and hostel in Jerusalem, where I stayed with my father in the summer of 1984. The sisters had a little gift shop, and I bought a canvas print of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii. I didn't know who she was in particular (only knowing she was Our Lady of the Rosary because she and little Jesus held out rosaries to St. Dominic Guzman and St. Catherine of Siena) . . . and I really didn't know why she was so ugly! I didn't think her face was beautiful, but she was still my Mom, so I got the print. Only much, much later did I discover that part of the joy of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii is that even though she falls aways from the magnificent beauty of Our Lady even more than most images do, she has been venerated and loved because she, too, showers us with graces and miracles galore. May she watch over our new Holy Father and the whole Church and the world!

And finally, last but not least: if you read the timeline carefully, you may have noticed the institution of the 54 day Rosary novena! Hooray for Our Lady of Victories! Hooray for Our Lady of Pompeii! Hooray for Our Lady of the Rosary!

If you'd like to say the special prayer to Our Lady of Pompeii, the "Supplica" or Supplications that Pope Leo mentioned, here you go!

Supplica to Our Lady of Pompeii

O August Queen of Victories, O Sovereign of Heaven and Earth, at whose name the heavens rejoice and the abyss trembles, O glorious Queen of the Rosary, we your devoted children, assembled in your temple of Pompeii (on this solemn day), pour out the affection of our heart and with filial confidence express our miseries to you. 



From the throne of clemency where you are seated as Queen, turn, O Mary, your merciful gaze on us, on our families, on Italy, on Europe, on the world. Have compassion on the sorrows and cares which embitter our lives. See, O Mother, how many dangers of body and soul, how many calamities and afflictions press upon us. 



O Mother, implore for us the mercy of your divine Son and conquer with clemency the heart of sinners. They are our brothers and your children who cause the heart of our sweet Jesus to bleed and who sadden your most sensitive heart. Show all that you are the Queen of Peace and of Pardon.

Hail Mary...

It is true that although we are your children we are the first to crucify Jesus by our sins and to pierce anew your heart. 

We confess that we are deserving of severe punishment, but remember that on Golgotha you received, with the divine blood, the testament of the dying Savior, who declared you to be our Mother, the Mother of sinners. 



You, then, as our Mother are our Advocate, our Hope. And we raise our suppliant hands to you with sighs crying, "Mercy!" O good Mother, have pity on us, on our souls, on our families, our relatives, our friends, our deceased, especially our enemies, and on so many who call themselves Christian and yet offend the heart of your loving Son. Today we implore pity for the misguided nations throughout all Europe, throughout the world, so that they may return repentant to your heart. 



Hail Mary...

Kindly deign to hear us. O Mary! Jesus has placed in your hands all the treasures of His graces and mercies. You are seated a crowned Queen at the right hand of your Son, resplendent with immortal glory above the choirs of angels. Your dominion extends throughout heaven and earth and all creatures are subject to you. 



You are omnipotent by grace and therefore you can help us. Were you not willing to help us, since we are ungrateful children and undeserving of your protection, we would not know to whom to turn. Your motherly heart would not permit you to see us, your children, lost. The Infant whom we see on your knees and the blessed Rosary which we see in your hand inspire confidence in us that we shall be heard. We confide fully in you, we abandon ourselves as helpless children into the arms of the most tender of mothers, and on this day, we expect from you the graces we so long for. 



Hail Mary...

One last favour we now ask of you, O Queen, which you cannot refuse us (on this most solemn day): Grant to all of us your steadfast love and in a special manner your maternal blessing. We shall not leave you until you have blessed us. Bless, O Mary, at this moment, our Holy Father. To the ancient splendors of your crown, to the triumphs of your Rosary, whence you are called the Queen of Victories, add this one also, O Mother: grant the triumph of religion and peace to human society. Bless our bishops, priests and particularly all those who are zealous for the honor of your sanctuary. Bless finally all those who are associated with your temple of Pompeii and all those who cultivate and promote devotion to your Holy Rosary.

O blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we shall never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of agony: to you the last kiss of our dying life. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompeii, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. Be blessed everywhere, today and always, on earth and in Heaven. Amen. 


​
Hail, Holy Queen...

​Yesterday Jesus, our Love, died for us. Today we might think of Him as dead in the tomb, and we'd be right to a point, but He is also, as always, very busy doing His Father's work. The liturgy, which seems so silent today with no Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, actually spills the beans in the 2nd reading of the Office of Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours, taken from an ancient homily for this day:

"What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly He goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; He wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, He who is God, and Adam's son.

The Lord goes in to them holding His victorious weapon, His cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees Him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: 'My Lord be with you all.'

And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand He raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.'

‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.'

‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of My hands, arise, you who were fashioned in My image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in Me and I in you, together We are one undivided person.'

‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.'

‘Look at the spittle on My face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on My cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to My own image.'

'See the scourging of My back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See My hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.'

`I slept on the cross and a sword pierced My side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; My sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; My sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.'

‘But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of Heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.'

'The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.'"

*   *   *

This is one of my favorite readings of the year, and helps make this a favorite day of the year. But God's love is infinite, and His treasures shine forth demanding more that one glance.  

Some time ago a dear fellow Carmelite, Brother Mark, sent me this poem by SIster Mary Ada, OSJ. God bless them both!

Limbo 

The ancient grayness shifted
Suddenly and thinned
Like mist upon the moors
Before a wind.
An old, old prophet lifted
A shining face and said:
"He will be coming soon.
The Son of God is dead; 
He died this afternoon."

A murmurous excitement stirred
All souls.
They wondered if they dreamed -
Save one old man who seemed
Not even to have heard.

And Moses standing 
Hushed them all to ask
If any had a welcome song prepared.
If not, would David take the task?
And if they cared
Could not the three young children sing
The Benedicite, the canticle of praise
They made when God kept them from perishing
In the fiery blaze?

A breath of spring surprised them,
Stilling Moses's words.
No one could speak remembering
The first fresh flowers,
The little singing birds.
Still others thought of fields new ploughed
Or apple trees
All blossom-boughed.
Or some, the way a dried bed fills
With water
Laughing down green hills.
The fisherfolk dreamed of the foam
On bright blue seas.
The one old man who had not stirred
Remembered home.


And there He was 
Splendid as the morning sun and fair
As only God is fair.
And they, confused with joy,
Knelt to adore
Seeing that He wore
Five crimson stars
He never had before.

No canticle at all was sung.
None 'toned a psalm, or raised a greeting song.
A silent man alone
Of all that throng
Found tongue -
Not any other.
Close to His heart
When the embrace was done,
Old Joseph said,
"How is Your Mother,
How is Your Mother, Son?"

*   *   *

Holy Saturday is Mary's day par excellence.

As Jesus told Marcel on Good Friday, 1946:

Remember, today is the day when I gave you to my Mother Mary so that you might be her true child; it is also the day when I gave Mary to you to be your true Mother. Finding myself in the presence of my Mother, I suffered with joy. At that moment, when all the creatures of the world seemed to have abandoned me, only my Mother remained to comfort me. Even God the Father seemed to wish no longer to look at me; but my Mother Mary did not cease to look at me until the time when I escaped from suffering. Oh! Little brother, Mary is your real Mother as well as mine. When she sees you suffer, she is closer to you to console you, for all time until you, too, will have escaped all suffering. Mary, you are the true Mother of Marcel, the real Mother of all souls; never be far from your children.

Marcel, Mary is your true Mother, and you are really her child. Always think of her; she understands you better than you understand yourself. She knows your sufferings, she is always close to you, carrying you unceasingly in her arms and covering you with kisses . . . 

Little brother, no matter how great your sufferings, always remind yourself that I, also, have suffered, but Mary has comforted Me. It will be the same for you. Mary will never abandon you in your suffering. Besides, when you suffer, it is she who suffers even more, since she is your Mother . . . 

+   +   +

So beautiful, but that was yesterday. Today, on the day Our Lady is seemingly alone in the silence that reigns on earth between her Son's death and resurrection, Jesus sends us to her again. He asks us the question He asked Marcel on Holy Saturday, 1946, and He gives us the same perfect advice: 

Today, little brother, have you thought yet of your Mother? What favor do you propose asking of her? Perhaps it is not necessary to ask her, since all that belongs to her already belongs to you. However it is not possible for you to receive her favors without giving her a big smile. That's how it is! See, Mary is looking at you and wishes to speak to you. Listen.

*   *   *

I hope you find Mary today, and rest assured that even if you're running around with last minute Easter preparations, she will find you. Yes, she has found you long ago, she loves you, she is always close to you, carrying you unceasingly in her arms and covering you with kisses . . . and she will take care of everything! So no more worrying about anything, any more, ever. The victory is with love, and Love has you safe and sound.

​Draw me; we will run!

Palm Sunday: 14 April 1946 (from Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and Therese of the Child Jesus)

Marcel: Little Jesus, I am very tired and I don't wish to write any more. And because of my extreme fatigue my hand is shaking a lot. Today, after returning from Mass, I had to go and work straight away; that is why I am very tired and have no further wish to write down Your words, little Jesus. Are You happy, nevertheless? I really would like to write but since I am too tired I can hardly hold my pen.

Jesus: Marcel, are you very tired? All right, that's enough, try to rest. I love you dearly little brother and I gladly allow you to rest. You will write again when you wish to do so However, although tired, do not be sad, agreed? Little brother, you are very sensitive; the slightest vexation causes you suffering. Offer all of it to Me. If you suffer in this way it is because of your weakness; do not trouble yourself about it since it does not offend me in any way. That's enough, take a rest. I am kissing you and I do not cease to hold you tightly in My arms, on Mary's bosom.

*   *   *

Jesus is full of surprises, or as He expressed it through the prophet Isaiah in the very words we heard last Sunday at Holy Mass (Isaiah 43: 18-19):

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing something new;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

His chosen apostles, prepared by the acclaim that greeted Him as they entered into Jerusalem on this day about 2000 years ago, surely did not expect - despite His predictions and warnings - that soon He would be tortured, crucified and then would die in order to save us and bring us into His true Kingdom, that of His own eternal life in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity.

But so too, I surely didn't expect, when I picked up Marcel's book this morning, to have the very reading I was looking for (that of Palm Sunday) fall open in my lap . . . and I was even more surprised to find what Marcel and Jesus had to say to each other. Not too surprising that I had forgotten this day's conversation, but I am mightily touched by the gentleness with which Jesus, not at all concerned to draw Marcel into a deep meditation on His Passion as Holy Week begins, instead reassures our little brother - and us through him - with exactly the words we need to hear.

I have reached the end of my major treatments for cancer, and I am so grateful for all the prayers! Thank you! The radiation oncologist and her wonderful staff (nurse and techs and even another terrific radiation oncologist I got to see) let me know I might feel fatigue this week, but praise God it is mild. Mostly, I'm feeling like Marcel does (not surprising, since I am Miss Marcel; or rather I am Miss Marcel because this coincidence of feelings happens often), namely weak. Not primarily weak in body, but weak in spirit, weak in love. 

I don't find myself in a hurry for Holy Week and Easter . . . and yet, again as happens so often, Jesus is there in Marcel's transcriptions, reassuring me with exactly the right words. If we're feeling tired because we didn't get enough sleep because we stayed up a little too late or woke too early or worked hard or simply because we are little ones and could always use more sleep, or even if we're well rested but a little hesitant about entering this Week of weeks . . . no matter what ails us, Jesus is here for us. He suffered so He could be with us who are already suffering, or would be, or will be or have been. It wasn't about making us suffer more, but joining us in this inevitable mess that has ensued from those early days of Adam and Eve. He's come down into the muck to join us, and so He reassures us that He loves us, and He uses whatever words He knows we will hear and understand.

A friend told me recently that her spiritual reading had been leaving her anxious. I've been in that situation, and sometimes just about all spiritual reading leaves me anxious because the anxiety I'm feeling when I begin my search for His words to me is just too great to be alleviated by the first words I find. Or the second or third!

In those times, even Marcel's words, even Jesus' words to us through Marcel can rub us the wrong way. That's when we depend on the Holy Spirit to take us to the unfailing words of Love, the words of the Song of Songs or those Jesus spoke to us on the night before He died (I go to John's gospel, chapters 14 to 17), and we find what we've been needing to assuage our pain, our unrest, our anxiety and vexation: our Good Shepherd, Him whose voice we know, calling us to His arms, lifting us to His bosom, reminding us that He will do the heavy lifting - even lifting us! - and our job is simply to rest in Him and let Him.

I was relieved and consoled that the Holy Spirit led me to exactly what we needed today so I could share the Father's Word with you:

"Offer all of it to Me. If you suffer in this way it is because of your weakness; do not trouble yourself about it since it does not offend me in any way. That's enough, take a rest. I am kissing you and I do not cease to hold you tightly in My arms, on Mary's bosom."

You are in my prayers this Holy Week. Thank you for loving Jesus! Now let's let Him love us.

Draw me; we will run!

“I always feel the same bold confidence of becoming a great saint, because I do not count on my merits, having none, but I hope in Him who is Virtue, Holiness Itself. It is He alone who, content with my weak efforts, will raise me up to Him and, covering me with His infinite merits, will make me holy."  - St. Therese, Story of a Soul (Ms A 32 r°)

I just got this lovely quote from Lisieux straight to my inbox. Since I'm making no progress whittling down email, I thought I'd share this with you instead. As I write, the color of the words is red, delightfully matching the dress of Our Lady as the angel Gabriel appears to her above.

Happy Feast of the Annunciation! In the brilliant words of Dr. Warren Carroll:
Truth exists. The Incarnation happened!

I don't know if he put an exclamation point after his famous tagline, his favorite message, but St. Therese and I are sure we want the exclamation point there. After all, what could be better news?

I was thinking yesterday about the Word becoming flesh in Mary's womb, and I had such joy in the thought of how very tiny Jesus was. He told us the night before He died that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and St. Paul assures us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so we can bet He was the Way from that first moment in the womb of Mary Immaculate, but what a tiny, what a very Little Way He was!

Our Mother the Church is such a dear and caring teacher that she gives us this feast of the Incarnation in the midst of Lent. Just when it might occur to me to begin meditating on Our Lord's Passion in earnest (or at all!), my Mother gives me a different image . . . Jesus in Mary, Jesus so very small that He is as invisible as He is in the Sacred Host - even more so! 

I had the thrill of seeing Blessed Fra Angelico's Annunciation at the top of the stairs in San Marco in Florence recently, and WOW - what a joy to behold the original in its vivid color (the red on Gabriel's wing sparkles!) and in its full size. I wanted to bring the whole thing home - not all of San Marco (I'm a reasonable girl), just the full fresco of the Annunciation. Here it is in a smaller version:

I'm sorry it's such a little image - I didn't succeed in doing the angelic work of miraculously transporting the original home with me, and even if I had, I think I'd have to bring you to southern California to see it, and that would be complicated. But here is a close up of Gabriel. I was so impressed by his look of hopeful anticipation, but also there is joy, because I think he suspects the answer. "Please, Mary, say yes!"

If you can't think of a reason to smile today, please smile because Mary did say YES!

And now, here we are, 2000 years plus later, and we still get to celebrate this moment of her Yes to the Blessed Trinity which then allowed Jesus' Yes to His Father, and our being the lucky and blessed children with a Savior who has taken on us all our nature. WOW!

And then what? What next?
We all have duties and joys and sorrows tugging on us, and sometimes the joys don't seem to prevail. May I make a suggestion?

Having so lately been awash in beauty in Italy (and thank you to anyone who has ever said a prayer for me - it surely helped bring about the uncountable graces of that trip, which I ask the Holy Spirit of Love to direct right back to your hearts too), I have moments of sadness and fear that all I experienced will disappear.

How silly is that?
It's a good thing God doesn't get impatient with us. He might (if He wasn't so wonderful) start thinking He should stop Therese's showering me with roses, seeing as I'm always plagued with these absurd fears afterward! 

I felt this same silly way after the miraculously perfect wedding of our son and daughter-in-law, and yet I am happy to report that whether or not I remember it, the wedding happened, the marriage is a fact, and though I could never have expected their happily ever after including a trip to Italy that I got to crash, it did!

And so, too, while I may not remember in real time every wondrous detail of Italy and the saints I met and the angels (heavenly and earthly) I encountered, still it did happen and nothing will take that away, not even my pathetic memory.

I surprised one of my doctors a couple days ago when I not only thanked her for encouraging me to go to Italy. but told her the trip was life-changing.

"Life-changing?" she repeated with a shade of a doubt.

Yes!
Though I couldn't explain it to her then, her bemused expression made me wonder later if it was true, and I'm happy to report that yes, life-changing it was . . . because beauty is eternal, and even corrupting material beauty can be restored (I'm thinking of the work done on frescoes, not on faces in my neck of the woods!) . . . Nonetheless, this beauty we experience through our senses merely represents higher beauties and calls our minds and hearts to reflect on them:

The beauty of a maiden interrupted by an angel, for instance, and the very real awed humility, unworthiness, and amazed joy she must have felt at his message, his invitation straight from God . . .

This morning I went for a walk in our suburban neighbor and saw a red winged blackbird sitting in a tree, seeing me before he flew away. I had enough time to realize what he was, and I wondered at his nearness and stillness. 

Yesterday morning I went to a Missa Cantata and heard the most glorious Credo - around the words "et incarnatus est," the organ stopped, and the choir, which had been singing in one voice, broke into polyphony. Tears spring to my eyes just remembering this beauty (which I will, alas, perhaps soon forget) - but that doesn't matter. What is life changing is God's eternal love which won't leave us without beauty for long. We may not hear a Missa Cantata every day (I sure don't!), or often see a red winged blackbird, or glory in the close-up view of a Fra Angelico at the top of the stairs where the saint first painted it . . . but I bet - I'm sure! - the infinite solicitude and unceasing tenderness of this God who became man to die for us to bring us into Eternal Beauty forever will not let us go long without surprising us with another passing beauty, just to remind us He, Eternal Beauty is near. 

I hope and pray that you experience and remember boatloads of beauty, and that when it is present before you, when it is present in your memory, or even when it is long forgotten, it will have changed you by reminding you that God loves you now and forever. 

May the beauty of Our Savior greet you today when you least expect it!

Draw me; we will run!

"The Almighty has concentrated in St. Joseph, as in a Sun of unrivalled luster, the combined light and splendor of all the other saints." - St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

What do you need today? If you're anything like me, the answer may be:
1. Miracles
2. A cappuccino
3. Sleep
And I don't know if that's the right order, but probably the miracles come first!

I have just returned from a pilgrimage of miracles (and cappuccino, and just the right amount of sleep), and yet would you believe it? I'm in search of more! More of all three, but especially more miracles. I had the absolute joy of praying before the tombs/bodies/remains of many of my favorite saints of old, and some new ones, including:

St. Dominic Savio
St. Don Bosco
St. Mary Mazzarello (helper of John Bosco)
St. Anthony of Padua
Bl. Luca of Belludi (friend of St. Anthony)
St. Luke the Evangelist
St. Charles Borromeo
Blessed Idelphonso Schuster
St. Andrew Corsini, Carmelite
Apostles Philip, James, Jude, and Simon
St. Philip Neri
Blessed Fra Angelico
St. Catherine of Siena
St. Ignatius Loyola
St. Francis Xavier
St. Camillus de Lellis
Pope St. John Paul II
Pope St. Pius X
Pope St. John XXIII
Pope St. Paul VI
Venerable Antonietta Meo
St. Monica . . . 

If you're tired just reading this list, you might imagine I was tired making the pilgrimage, but I'm here to assure you that reading is much more tiring than seeking out (or being surprised by) the saints! In fact, I wasn't very tired, and the occasional gelato did more than enough to keep me going, to the bemusement of those who led me around Rome (endless thanks, C and T!).

You see, the saints are alive and well, even as their mortal coils (now shuffled off and free of the duty to house their immortal souls) either retain their living tones, take on darker hues, or disintegrate as we would expect them to do . . . But man-oh-man, these saints are continuing to befriend us in the Mystical Body, taking their places in the Communion of Saints and ready to intercede for us at a moment's notice.

I always remember fondly the years of homeschooling my boys because whatever else did or (usually) did not get done, if it was a feast of any level (from barely-heard-of-would-be-saint all the way to solemnity), you can bet one of us tried to get the day "off" from even our own extremely relaxed version of Catholic unschooling.

On St. Joseph's feast - highest solemnity! - we definitely took the day to celebrate, and I hope you will too, whether you have kids at home, kids grown, or are a kid yourself!

These days my thoughts turn less to cupcakes and more to favors I want the saints to procure for me from the infinite, but sometimes seemingly elusive, mercy and love of our awesome Almighty God. And with St. Joseph, we have every reason to believe that we'll get what we ask for because He who obeyed Joseph while they walked the earth will certainly grant his petitions now that they are walking in Heaven. (Or possibly reclining.)

One of the holy cards I brought back from Italy, where I had found, or been found by, the numerous saints listed above, was from Turin where St. John Bosco founded the Salesians, a religious order of men dedicated to helping educate boys in the spirit of St. Francis de Sales. John loved St. Francis because of his gentleness, and I loved discovering years ago that this St. Francis really had to work on what later became his captivating gentleness, because by nature he was choleric and prone to anger!

The holy card I got has on the front a picture of St. Francis de Sales kneeling before a crucifix, a quill pen in his hand and an open book before him. Angels are floating above him, quite interested in what he's writing (although he has his eyes on Christ crucified), while in the background we see a statue of Mary and little Jesus. The card has on the back one of St. Francis de Sales' sayings in Italian:

"Fate tutto per amore, nulla per forza," which translates to this beautiful advice: "Do everything through love, nothing through force." 

This was exactly Don (Italian for Father) Bosco's approach, and while I can't say I always follow it, I sure want to!

I've been thinking about St. Joseph, and it occurred to me in one of those rare moments (when my thinking yielded a thought that wasn't instantly about food) that he and Jesus must have spent a LOT of time together. We glide over those thirty years of silence as if the only thing that happened was the Finding in the Temple, but we can imagine another set of rosary mysteries ("The Hidden Mysteries") that might include "Jesus loses his first tooth," and "St. Joseph teaches Jesus how to shape, cut, join, and finish wood," as well as "Mary and Joseph teach Jesus how to read," and so on. He, Our Lord, was like us in all things but sin. He was also unlike us in that He was God, but He willed to be little like us and actually learn, in His human nature, as we do, gradually. At the very least we can remember that He was born into a family, and spent not only his childhood years with Mary and Joseph, but even up to His thirtieth year when He launched into the three years of His public mission.

Wow! Thirty years - and (most likely) most of them with Joseph as well as Mary. Which means St. Joseph, after Mary, was the person who spent the most time with Jesus. Not just three years, like some of the apostles, but perhaps ten times that long! What friends they must have become, as we can become with our parents and our children when we grow (or they grow) into adults. What conversations they must have had, from Jesus' first articulate words to the last words He and Joseph said to each other as Joseph lay dying. Because the Scriptures mention Mary's presence at the foot of the Cross, but not Joseph's, we can safely believe that Joseph had already passed out of this life and into the next before Christ's passion and death and resurrection, and what a death that must have been, with Jesus and Mary beside him.

When St. Therese was made Doctor of the Church in 1997, we had a super fun pizza party after an evening Mass in her honor (thank you, Father R!), and I remember at that party talking about the other Doctors of the Church (thirty-two others at that time) and asking a smart friend (the same T who led me around Rome and re-awakened my devotion to St. Peter's just a few days ago), "Who is St. Lawrence of Brindisi?" It turns out he was a Capuchin from the 16th century, and in Fr. Calloway's Consecration to St. Joseph book I found this wonderful quote from St. Lawrence:

"Though not Jesus' father by generation, St. Joseph was His father in His upbringing, His care, and the affection of His heart. It seems to me, therefore, that Joseph is clearly the holiest of all the saints, holier than the patriarchs, than the prophets, than the apostles, than all the other saints. The objection cannot be raised that the Lord said of John the Baptist: Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist [Lk 7:28]. Just as this cannot be understood to mean that John is even holier than Christ or the Blessed Virgin, so it can't be understood in reference to blessed Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary and the father of Christ, for just as husband and wife are one flesh, so too Joseph and Mary were one heart, one soul, one spirit. And as in that first marriage God created Eve to be like Adam, so in this second marriage He made Joseph to be like the Blessed Virgin in holiness and justice."

As an American who doesn't know Italian, faced with a myriad of glorious basilicas, cathedrals, vistas, sculptures, etc., all I could do was repeatedly express in one globally understood word:

WOW!

I feel the same after reading, typing, and re-reading St. Lawrence of Brindisi's description of the marriage of Mary and Joseph.

Wow!!!

Thank You, Father, for sending the Holy Spirit to enlighten and prompt the Doctors to teach us the otherwise unimaginable intimacy You delighted to behold in the Holy Family!

St. Joseph, you have answered so many of our prayers. You have quietly taken them to Jesus - or whispered them into His ear while you held Him close - and He has, as always, responded with everything we needed. The list of the miracles you've obtained for us is a wonder to recall, from home sales and home purchases that allowed us to live in peace in exile, to the infinitely greater graces of beautiful deaths in union with the Church . . . and in between, on some level of combined earthly and heavenly bliss: marriages in the heart of the Church, children loaned to us to bring up for God's glory, perseverance in receiving the sacraments and loving Christ and the Church, cures that bring health and joy back into our homes, and jobs that give us dignity and allow us to work for the salvation of souls. 

Thank you, good St. Joseph! Thank you for every grace you've obtained for us: those we've begged for and those you gave us unasked; those we remember, and those we never even noticed, but which, like every good father, you anticipated and gave us before we even knew we needed them.

We come to you once again, grateful and yet still in need. Please scoop us up into your strong arms that so wonderfully held little Jesus and protected Him. Protect us too, and obtain for us from dear Jesus all the miracles we so urgently need: the healings, the peace, the work, the play, the home sales and home purchases, but most of all the life of joyful, peaceful conversation and intimacy with Jesus and Mary that you lived on earth and now live with them forever in Heaven.

St. Francis de Sales, on my mind because of his wonderful advice on that holy card, said some very exciting things about St. Joseph. The Oblates of St. Francis de Sales tell us on their website:

In May of 1621, Pope Gregory XV had ordered that the March 19 feast of St. Joseph henceforth be observed by the universal Church. On March 19, 1622, the first time this feast was observed by the whole Church, Francis preached an important sermon on the virtues of St. Joseph to the Visitation Sisters in Annecy.
Towards the end of this profoundly beautiful sermon, Francis added: 

“What more remains for us to say now, except that we cannot doubt at all that this glorious saint has great influence in heaven with Him who so favored him as to raise him there in body and soul . . . for how could He who had been so obedient to him all through his life, have refused this grace to St. Joseph?” (pages 124-25 of Oblate Father Joseph F. Chorpenning’s Sermon Texts on Saint Joseph by Francis de Sales: Toronto, Peregrina Publishing, 2000)
St. Joseph does not utter a single word in Scripture. But, in this same sermon Francis imagines that the silent Joseph now addresses the newly risen Jesus in these words: 

“My Lord, remember, if it please You, that when You came from heaven to earth, I received You into my house, into my family, and, as soon as You were born, I received You into my arms. Now that You are returning to heaven, take me with You; I received You into my family, receive me now into Yours . . . I have carried You in my arms, now carry me upon Yours; and, as I took care to nourish and guide You during the course of Your mortal life, take care of me and lead me into life eternal” (page 125).


Francis then concludes:

“How can we doubt that Our Lord caused to rise with Him to heaven in body and soul the glorious St. Joseph . . . St. Joseph, then, is in heaven in body and soul, there is no doubt” (page 125).

+  +  +

What a magnificent picture we see with the help of the gentle and wise St. Francis de Sales: in Heaven today, while most await the return of their bodies at the end of time, there is a holy family, the Holy Family, already reunited with their bodies as well as with each other. How wonderful to be able to imagine them and know that while our imagination may miss out on the vibrancy of the colors of their clothes or the glory with which Jesus's wounds sparkle and shine or the beauty of Our Lady's face, but we do not err in imagining them together and in their glorified bodies!

May St. Joseph, in the heart of the Holy Family, shower you with Therese's roses today. We have no doubt that little Therese and that imp Marcel have snuck their way into the midst of this happy family, even if our little sister and brother have no bodies at this juncture! As the Christmas carol put on our lips a few short months ago, "Oh that we were there! Oh that we were there!" 

Meanwhile, let's not waste this great feast. Let's ASK FOR THE MOON - or some other, more practical miracles that have been commended to our prayers and we have possibly been praying for a long time. I'm sure today is the day for some of them, and I have proof that St. Joseph loves to surprise us by giving the very things we were ready to (finally) give up on.

No giving up!
Hope may not spring eternal, but by the grace of God may it spring throughout time until we reach eternity and have no more need of it. Then Love will be all in all, and for the nonce, let's do our best to trust Him who is that Love beyond telling.

Jesus, we trust in You!
Joseph, we trust in you too!
Mary, make sure St. Joseph and Jesus stop wrestling long enough to give us our wish list of miracles!

Draw me, we will run!

Yesterday and the day before I read the best advice about Confession that I've ever found, and after my first feelings of utter freedom and peace, I knew I had to share it with the whole world.

Thank you to Maura McKeegan, whose 2 part article on Catholic Exchange broke open the jar, and thank you to Caryll Houselander (author of The Reed of God and more) whose intimacy with Christ and compassion for timid souls led to her consoling understanding of this sacrament as an embrace of Our Lord. Enjoy!

Confession for the Anxious: Caryll Houselander’s Advice
by Maura Roan McKeegan

In the mid-20th century, a British woman went to Confession one day in a (not unusual for her) state of exhaustion and depression.

“What will help you,” the priest said to her in the confessional, “will be a book by Caryll Houselander called This War is the Passion. You probably won’t understand all of it, but read such-and-such pages.”

Unbeknownst to him, the woman on the other side of the screen was Caryll Houselander herself.

“What did you do?” asked her friend Frank Sheed, whose wife, Maisie Ward, tells the story in her book Caryll Houselander: Divine Eccentric.

“Read it, of course,” Caryll answered. “I always do what I’m told in confession.”

By that time, Caryll’s fame as a spiritual writer had perpetuated an endless stream of people flocking to her for help and advice. It was her gift for easing anxious minds that spurred the priest to recommend her own book to her that day in the confessional. Her profound insight came the hard way, earned through a lifetime of struggling with what she called “neurosis,” an illness that gave her tremendous empathy and understanding for people who, like her, also suffered from scruples, anxiety, depression, and other related symptoms.

Because she had experienced their struggles firsthand, Caryll was able to counsel the scrupulous and anxious with remarkable results. Even doctors sent their patients to her, and she helped to heal them, though she had no medical training at all.

One subject Caryll often discussed with people who suffered from anxiety was how to approach Confession. The sacrament of Penance, she observed, often induced fear in the hearts of timid and anxious souls. But this type of fear is contrary to the true nature of the sacrament, which is meant to draw us closer to God in love, not drive us away from Him in trepidation or self-flagellation.

“Remember Confession, like Communion, is first of all a contact, a loving embrace with Our Lord,” she writes to a friend in The Letters of Caryll Houselander.

“Penance is a form of Communion, a means of union with Christ—that above all else,” she writes to another friend.

An anxious person will often obsess over the state of his own soul, Caryll notes. In Guilt (the book Maisie Ward aptly called Caryll’s “most important work”), she describes what Confession might be like for a woman suffering from anxiety:

She will doubt the sincerity of her contrition because she does not think that she feels sorry, or sorry enough, or sorry for the right reason. She will doubt the sincerity of her purpose of amendment because she thinks it likely that in spite of her good intentions she may sin again. The examination of conscience, her greatest bugbear of all, will present insurmountable difficulties. She will either think that she has not done anything sinful, or that everything she has done is sinful, or that she has forgotten what she has done that is sinful. If she ever reaches a decision about what she has or has not done, she will proceed to the torment of trying to assess the gravity of the sin, to decide whether it is mortal, venial, deliberate, sin at all, or imperfection. When she has at last made her confession she will fall into fresh anxiety about how she made it, whether she forgot, left out or misrepresented something, even whether the priest understood what she said. Next she will bring to the saying of the act of contrition, and her penance, the same anxiety which she does at home to whether she has switched off the electric light or not. She will worry about whether she really remembers what penance she was told to say.

All these difficulties come from concentrating on self instead of on God, and not really believing in the goodness of God.

The tendency to overthink and overanalyze one’s own sinfulness, Caryll points out, is often not a willful choice on the part of the penitent. It is a psychological symptom that might stem from childhood experiences, genetic predisposition, or any number of influences outside of the person’s control. Whatever the cause, though, reflecting on the true nature of the sacrament of Penance will help to ease the anxious mind.

When we think too much about our sins, we lose sight of the true meaning of the sacrament: the mercy and forgiveness of God. It’s about His love, not our failure. Ruminating over our own sins keeps our eyes fixed on ourselves. The remedy is to turn one’s thoughts to God’s goodness instead.

"I think that Confession must be a very real trial to anyone as sensitive as you are,” Caryll Houselander writes in a letter to a teenage girl struggling with nervous illness after a difficult childhood. “No one likes it; the toughest old Catholics of my acquaintance get a sort of squiggle in their insides even over the most paltry recitation of their sins, and nearly all have been through searching periods of nervous scruples which leave a miserable association of ideas.”

Caryll’s own lifelong battle with nervous illness made her particularly sensitive to the needs of others who suffered the same symptoms, and she understood with tremendous empathy the plight of those plagued by anxiety about the sacrament of Penance. In her writings, Caryll advises the following measures for anxious people to consider when approaching Confession:

1. Keep the examination of conscience short.

Caryll advises beginning with a brief prayer to the Holy Spirit to bring to mind what is most important to confess—“Let me make a good confession”—and then limiting the examination of conscience to two minutes.

“Confess only what comes to mind in those two minutes,” she writes.

Once the penitent has prayed to the Holy Spirit for light, a few minutes is all it takes to recall the sins that are most important to confess.

Not long ago, I came across an article in which a priest advised beginning the examination of conscience the night before Confession. Though well-intentioned, this kind of advice makes the sacrament of Penance a more difficult process than it needs to be, especially for anxious souls. Long hours spent examining one’s conscience will not help the anxious penitent. Overcomplicated preparations only increase stress. The sacrament should be simple and easy, so as not to “break a bruised reed” (Mt. 12:20).

“We are so apt to forget that it is Christ who does the most important things in the sacrament, and what He asks of us, to make Him able to do His part, is a very small minimum,” Caryll writes.

2. Remember that repentance is an act of the will, not a feeling.

To an anxious person worried that he doesn’t feel sorry enough, Caryll would answer that contrition is not a feeling but an act of the will.

“Sorrow for sin is just the will to be sorry, proved by receiving the sacrament of penance,” she writes to a friend. All God asks is that we should want to be sorry, because we want to be closer to Him.

“Going to confession is an act of love for God,” she explains in Guilt. “Like all love it is an act of will. Feeling may or may not enter into it.”

3. Avoid dwelling on venial sins, and don’t magnify imperfections.

Caryll emphasizes the fact that it is not necessary (or even possible) to confess every venial sin.
“Sometimes scrupulous people are well advised to confess only one sin,” she writes. At least, sticking to a small number rather than an exhaustive list is advisable. “All you forget or are unsure of is forgiven anyway; you are not obliged to confess any but mortal sin. So long as you confess something, the rest is forgiven with it.”

To a young woman suffering from crippling anxiety, she writes:
You are not bound to confess venial sins at all, even if you remember them at the time, and you are almost bound—in fact, really bound—not to work up and magnify imperfections “to be on the safe side.” Anyway, that would not make you safe—far from it. It would blind you to God’s loving desire to forgive you and take you closer to His heart. Only one thing ever makes you safe—putting your trust in God.

4. Don’t be afraid of God.

Just as the father of the prodigal son in the Gospel was deeply moved just to see his son returning to him, God the Father is deeply moved just to see His children coming back to Him in confession.
It would be a mistake, Caryll says, to believe that God is waiting to catch us in some failure.
“He is there with open arms to take us to His heart, and He makes it as easy as possible for us to come,” she writes. “He isn’t there rubbing His hands and saying, ‘Ha! X forgot something! I’ll jump on her for that!’”

“The devil loves to distract from God’s love and mercy by worry about sin,” she continues. “The only cure for this worry is to concentrate not on self-perfection but on the love and tenderness of God.”

5. Let Confession be easy and simple.

To make it as “easy as possible for us to come,” the Church, in Her wisdom, has ensured that the sacrament is both simple and accessible in its requirements.

“The whole process of going to Confession, which is a quick and simple process if it is rightly used, is ordered and controlled by the wise and gentle discipline of the Church,” Caryll writes in Guilt.
There are many who complain of the . . . almost extreme measures used by the Church to make it easy for the weakest. For example, that any words expressing sorrow suffice for the act of contrition, that venial sins need not be confessed at all, that forgotten sins are included in the forgiveness anyway, that it practically never happens that a confession made in good will need be, or should be, repeated.

How strange it is, many decide, to surround a sacrament with so many little rules. But it is sufficient to spend one hour with the anxious or over-scrupulous person, to realize that these are the rulings of divine mercy. They are the balm poured into the wounds, the calm and rest insisted upon by the divine Physician.

6. If you aren’t sure if it’s a mortal sin, it’s not a mortal sin.

I once had a conversation with a mother who was in great agony over a sick child. So distraught was she that, in her exhausted mind, she began to worry that she was in a state of mortal sin without knowing it.

Since one of the conditions for mortal sin is full knowledge, this poor mother was clearly not in mortal sin; but sadly, her suffering was heightened by this needless fear.

“You will never be, never could be, in any doubt about mortal sin,” Caryll assures a friend in one of her letters. “If there is doubt there is no mortal sin. That is certain.”

7. Do not re-confess sins or redo penances.

Confess once and only once, and then leave it all behind. If the same sin happens again later, it can be brought to the next confession, but there is no need to re-confess what has already been forgiven.
Likewise, say the penance once and only once, no matter how distracted you may feel while doing it.
I would also add from personal experience that it helps to know that penitents can ask for a different penance if the penance given feels too burdensome or vague. For example, if the penance is to “focus extra hard while you say a chaplet” (this type of mental exertion is highly stressful, if not impossible, for someone who struggles with anxiety and attention deficits) or “be extra nice to your family” (how do we know when the penance is completed?), the penitent is free to ask the priest for a different penance.

8. Be gentle with yourself in making resolutions.

Making sweeping resolutions to overcome sins of weakness through sheer will power often leads to discouragement when those resolutions fail and the same sins prevail or even increase. Instead, Caryll recommends a gentler form of retraining.

“Repetition of ‘I will’ or ‘I will not’ is again a concentration on self,” she writes in Guilt. “Such acts of will become a strain, and tiring too; and for nervous people fatigue is an added danger.” She continues:

It is advisable not to focus upon [the sweeping promise never to sin again] but to stick simply to the purpose of amendment, pray that one may not sin again, and concentrate upon some way of avoiding some one sin. It may be a negative way—to give up a place where the temptation always lurks, or the company that provokes it; or it may be a resolution of humility that will help—for example, the irritable could decide to take more sleep, the censorious to make fewer voluntary acts of self-denial.

Likewise, one should not expect a sudden transformation; the change that takes place in a soul might not be visible, and will likely happen slowly.

“Christ grew secretly, imperceptibly, in Mary, and He grows secretly in us,” Caryll writes.

9. Remember that the heart of the sacrament is love.

In the end, the heart of Caryll’s message is the heart of the sacrament itself: the mercy of God, which is infinitely greater than our sins. Caryll encourages anxious penitents to go regularly to Confession, but not to worry about it at all, as it is an occasion for joy, not fear.

The Father who longs more for the return of the lost child than does the child himself, who makes the way back as easy as he can and comes halfway to meet the child . . . asks not for a microscopic, dreary history of his misdeeds, or for a trembling, broken expression of sorrow—but only for an expression of the child’s love and trust in His love.

“To imagine, once you’ve done your best, that God isn’t satisfied, is an insult to God,” she says. “He is overjoyed, and so should you be.”

*   *   *

For many years I have preferred this particular Act of Contrition (and my reasons for preferring it are in perfect accord with #8 above):

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishment, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

*  *  *

Draw me, we will run!

“My God, I am so convinced that you keep watch over those who hope in you, and that we can want for nothing when we look for all in you, that I am resolved in the future to live free from every care and to turn all my anxieties over to you... I shall never lose my hope. I shall keep it to the last moment of my life; and at that moment all the demons in hell will strive to tear it from me… Others may look for happiness from their wealth or their talents; others may rest on the innocence of their life, or the severity of their penance, or the amount of their alms, or the fervour of their prayers. As for me, Lord, all my confidence is confidence itself. This confidence has never deceived anyone… I am sure, therefore, that I shall be eternally happy, since I firmly hope to be, and because it is from you, O God, that I hope for it."  -  St. Claude de la Colombiere

Somehow or another it slipped by me that Our Holy Father Pope Francis released a 4th encyclical last October. Dilexit Nos ("He loved us") is a remarkable document, and yet I was in danger not only of NOT remarking on it, but of not knowing it existed! Such is this fast flurry of exile we mistakenly call "life!"

Fortunately, I have friends, and some of them are almost as nuts as I am over St. Therese, the Little Flower. One of them, a diocesan missionary priest (he has the heart of a missionary and the incardination of a diocesan priest) and Secular Discalced Carmelite I've been lucky enough to know since what seems like our childhoods, sent me an email on December 3, feast of St. Francis Xavier, buddy of St. Ignatius, brilliant missionary, and even co-patron of missionaries with little St. Therese. (Yes, we usually say she is co-patron with him, but he's chivalrous and likes to give her top billing these days.)

The subject line of the email was: "The Heart of the Pope's New Encyclical" (to which I naturally wondered, "Hmmm.....what new encyclical?"), and the email contained an excerpt from said encyclical, from "the heart of it" - a lovely play on words since the encyclical is about Jesus' Sacred Heart, and the heart of His Heart (or at least the heart of the encyclical on His Heart) is none other than St. Therese! Well, she famously found her vocation in St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians and exclaimed, "I will be love in the heart of the Church!" so I guess we shouldn't be surprised!

The encyclical is wonderful, and the Holy Father does a spectacular job leading us through the testimonies of the saints on the love of Jesus for us. A highlight of development of devotion to Jesus' love as instantiated in the Sacred Heart is His revelations to St. Margaret Mary, and a highlight of that revelation is the support and commentary St. Claude de la Colombiere gave her and us.

Since St. Claude's feast on February 15th just whooshed by, I thought I'd start with his picture above and some of his words quoted by Pope Francis in the encyclical. St. Claude, pray for us to know and experience this Love beyond all love!

If I had my druthers, I'd quote more of St. Claude, but I think I'd rather send you to the whole encyclical so you can read at leisure and repent in haste! Ha, that's a joke, but I recently found Blessed Solanus Casey saying he'd need to keep converting until death (LIFE!) - so feel free to follow his example, as long as you keep his characteristic smile on your face too!

Here's the encyclical, and if you want to order it online, I found a wonderful paperback copy with a picture of the Sacred Heart on the front - it gets to you in 2 days! But for now, instant gratification:

DILEXIT NOS (HE LOVED US)

Meanwhile, another link I'm happy to share is for my favorite website: Catholic Saints Mobi, which gives ALL the saints of the day each day. I am making so many new friends! 

Today, for instance, I found Tommaso, a priest who is terrific, and Pepi (my new best friend - pictured above with his son on his shoulders), a Dominican priest and a Dominican nun who both drew all my admiration (and the priest had teachers and students and colleagues and friends also blesseds, I think), and then my own St. Josefa Naval Girbes, a secular Carmelite who lived in Spain and had a "school" of needlework, catechism, and all around loving guidance for young women of her parish. (As Carmelites, we celebrate her feast November 6, but February 24, today as I write, is the day she exited stage left for Heaven.)

Here is the link to them all - and you can navigate from there to other days to find more saints:

CATHOLIC SAINTS MOBI

AND THEN as if all this is not enough (I did warn you there were too many saints and not enough time), today is the anniversary of Therese's dear Celine making her vows and becoming Jesus' spouse.

I posted about that in 2020 HERE
but I want to add today that if you need help with anything, call on Celine!
Yes, yes, Therese is the proven and known quantity, but Celine might surprise you. She was (and is) such a good friend, and she liked to get things done! So if you need help (a) getting things done or (b) breaking the cycle and letting go of all the things you think you need to get done, well, she's pretty perfect for both ends of the spectrum!

And now I've got to run, but in case you're hoping for a glimpse into the heart of the encyclical on the Sacred Heart, here is what my good Padre sent, but I must add that there is MORE - way more - in the encyclical. No, I don't mean more from others, I mean EVEN MORE from Therese. This deserves another post, and if the Holy Spirit so blows, that may yet happen. If not, you've got plenty to read, and I'd start with the heart of the Heart!

*   *   *

From Pope Francis' Encyclical Letter Dilexit Nos
Our Holy Father learns from and teaches using the Wisdom of St. Therese of Lisieux...

as she explains the longings of Jesus' Sacred Heart . . . 

133. ...Saint Therese of the Child Jesus was influenced by the great renewal
of devotion that swept nineteenth-century France. Father Almire Pinchon, the
Spiritual Director of her family, was seen as a devoted apostle of the Sacred
Heart. One of her sisters took as her name in religion "Sister Marie of the Sacred
Heart" and the monastery that Therese entered was dedicated to the Sacred
Heart. Her devotion nonetheless took on certain distinctive traits with regard to
the customary piety of that age.

134. When Therese was fifteen, she could speak of Jesus as the One "Whose
Heart beats in unison with my own." Two years later, speaking of the Image of
Christ's Heart crowned with thorns, she wrote in a letter: "You know that I myself
do not see the Sacred Heart as everyone else. I think that the Heart of my
Spouse is mine alone, just as mine is His alone, and I speak to Him then in the
solitude of this delightful heart to Heart, while waiting to contemplate Him one
day face-to-Face."

135. In one of her poems, Therese voiced the meaning of her devotion, which
had more to do with friendship and assurance than with trust in her sacrifices:
I need a Heart burning with tenderness / Who will be my support forever / Who
loves everything in me, even my weakness / ... and Who never leaves me day or
night. I must have a God Who takes on my nature / And becomes my Brother /
and is able to suffer! Ah! I know well, all our righteousness / is worthless in Your
sight / So I, for my purgatory / Choose Your burning Love / O Heart of my God!

136. Perhaps the most important text for understanding the devotion of Therese
to the Heart of Christ is a letter she wrote three months before her death to her
friend Maurice Belliere. "When I see Mary Magdalene walking up before the
many guests, washing with her tears the feet of her adored Master, Whom she is
touching for the first time, I feel that her heart has understood the abysses of love
and mercy of the Heart of Jesus, and, sinner though she is, this Heart of Love
was disposed not only to pardon her but to lavish on her the blessings of His
Divine Intimacy, to lift her to the highest summits of contemplation. Ah! dear little
Brother, ever since I have been given the grace to understand also the love of
the Heart of Jesus, I admit that it has expelled all fear from my heart. The
remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my
strength which is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy
and love even more." [see II COR 12:1-10]

138. To Sister Marie, who praised her generous love of God, prepared even to
embrace martyrdom, Therese responded at length in a letter that is one of the
great milestones in the history of spirituality. This page ought to be read a
thousand times over for its depth, clarity, and beauty. Therese helps her sister,
"Marie of the Sacred Heart", to avoid focusing this devotion on suffering, since
some had presented reparation primarily in terms of accumulating sacrifices and
good works. Therese, for her part, presents confidence as the greatest and best
offering pleasing to the Heart of Christ: "My desires of 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 one believes that they are something great... what
pleases Jesus is that He sees my loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind
hope that I have in His Mercy... That is my only treasure... If you want to feel joy,
to have an attraction for suffering, it is your consolation that you are seeking...
Understand that 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. 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."

139. In many of her writings, Therese speaks of her struggle with forms of
spirituality which are overly focused on human effort, on individual merit, on
offering sacrifices and carrying out certain acts in order to "win heaven" [e.n.
Pelagianism & Jansenism] . For her, "merit does not consist in doing or giving
much, but rather in receiving." Let us read once again some of these deeply
meaningful texts where she emphasizes this and presents it as a simple and
rapid means of taking hold of the Lord "by His Heart."

140. To her sister Leonie she writes, "I assure you that God is much better than
you believe. He is content with a glance, a sigh of love... As for me, I find
perfection very easy to practice because I have understood it is a matter of taking
hold of Jesus by His heart... look at a little child who has just annoyed his
mother... If he comes to her, holding his little arms, smiling and saying, "Kiss me,
I will not do it again," will his mother be able not to press him to her hear tenderly
and forget his childish mischief? However, she knows her dear little one will do it
again on the next occasion, but this does not matter; if he takes her again by her
heart, he will not be punished."

141. So too, in a letter to Father Adolphe Roulland she writes, "My way is all
confidence and love. I do not understand souls who fear a Friend so tender. At
times, when I am reading certain spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown
through a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd of illusions, my poor little
mind quickly tires; I close the learned book that is breaking my head and drying
up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a
single word uncovers for my soul infinite horizons, perfection seems simple to me.
I see that it is sufficient to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself
like a child into God's Arms.

142. In yet another letter, she relates this to the love shown by a parent: "I do not
believe that the heart of a father could resist the filial confidence of his child,
whose sincerity and love he knows. He realizes, however, that more than once
his son will fall into the same faults, but he is prepared to pardon him always,
if his son always takes him by his heart." . . .

Draw me, O Love of Jesus, we will run!