Beloved Holy Father, Pope St. John Paul II, give to us your filial love for Mary and for her Rosary please, and may St. Padre Pio, whom you beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002, obtain for us his love of Mary and the Rosary too!

Padre Pio, our dear father along with John Paul II, obtain for us a double portion of his and your love for Mary and the Rosary!

Marcel and Therese, run quick and find St. Anthony (he's busy helping others look for lost things, but just tell him that we need help too!), and then together wake up St. Juan Diego (he's taking a siesta on Mary's lap). With them ask our Blessed Mother, our dear Lady of Guadalupe, to obtain for us from the Heavenly Father the graces to love her very much - as much as all the angels and saints put together and then some! - and to love her Rosary all that and more too! 

There! That should do it! That's a clean-up job of the sloppiest novena I've ever said, but I figure if we pray three times in honor of the Trinity (and a fourth for good measure in our post title), then someone as generous and sweet as Our Lady of Guadalupe can hardly resist! In fact, how can she resist any of our requests when we need only quote her own words to fill our hearts with confidence and remind her (as well as us) of all her promises?

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

Phew! I feel like I've just run a big race, got to the finish line, and am ready to be taken care of by my race team! - Is that what happens at the end of a big race? I sure hope so! I've never really run a big race except maybe in 4th grade or so, and that was just at recess. And the ends of races I've seen in movies end up with the runner collapsing on the ground, happy but gasping for breath . . . Whereas I feel more like after my big race this past week, our team (you know, the ones that cheer us on and then help us at the end) - Marcel, Therese, JPII, Padre Pio, Our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, the North American Martyrs, et al - obtained for me at the end a s'more (refueling food), followed by a hot bath and ten hours sleep!

Lest you think I'm just painting a sweet but imaginary picture of that s'more (two marshmallows roasted over a gas flame stove and a little Hershey's special dark between the de rigueur graham cracker halves), let me add that the captain of my team is St. Thomas Aquinas. If you don't yet know his principal teaching for our times, let me insert it here - because what's a musing and a blog for, if not to share the wondrous treasures of our patrons?

From the Summa Theologiae, Prima Secundae (that means first part of the second part or IaIIae in the biz), Question 38, The Remedies of Sorrow or Pain:

Article 5. Whether pain and sorrow are assuaged by sleep and baths?

Objection 1. It would seem that sleep and baths do not assuage sorrow. For sorrow is in the soul: whereas sleep and baths regard the body. Therefore they do not conduce to the assuaging of sorrow.
Objection 2. Further, the same effect does not seem to ensue from contrary causes. But these, being bodily things, are incompatible with the contemplation of truth which is a cause of the assuaging of sorrow, as stated above (Article 4). Therefore sorrow is not mitigated by the like.
Objection 3. Further, sorrow and pain, in so far as they affect the body, denote a certain transmutation of the heart. But such remedies as these seem to pertain to the outward senses and limbs, rather than to the interior disposition of the heart. Therefore they do not assuage sorrow.

On the contrary, Augustine says (Confess. ix, 12): "I had heard that the bath had its name [Balneum, from the Greek balaneion] . . . from the fact of its driving sadness from the mind." And further on, he says: "I slept, and woke up again, and found my grief not a little assuaged": and quotes the words from the hymn of Ambrose [Cf. Sarum Breviary: First Sunday after the octave of the Epiphany, Hymn for first Vespers], in which it is said that "Sleep restores the tired limbs to labor, refreshes the weary mind, and banishes sorrow."

I answer that, As stated above (I-II:37:4), sorrow, by reason of its specific nature, is repugnant to the vital movement of the body; and consequently whatever restores the bodily nature to its due state of vital movement, is opposed to sorrow and assuages it. Moreover such remedies, from the very fact that they bring nature back to its normal state, are causes of pleasure; for this is precisely in what pleasure consists, as stated above (I-II:31:1). Therefore, since every pleasure assuages sorrow, sorrow is assuaged by such like bodily remedies.

Reply to Objection 1. The normal disposition of the body, so far as it is felt, is itself a cause of pleasure, and consequently assuages sorrow.
Reply to Objection 2. As stated above (I-II:31:8), one pleasure hinders another; and yet every pleasure assuages sorrow. Consequently it is not unreasonable that sorrow should be assuaged by causes which hinder one another.
Reply to Objection 3. Every good disposition of the body reacts somewhat on the heart, which is the beginning and end of bodily movements, as stated in De Causa Mot. Animal. xi.

*    *     *

Isn't St. Thomas the best ever? At least one of the best ever, since we can't exclude St. Therese from that category!

But getting back to the need for assuagement, please don't worry that I needed a remedy for sorrow. I mean we all do while we're in this valley of tears, but with Our Blessed Mother watching our back (and rubbing it like a good mom does when her kid is sick - and who isn't, occasionally or frequently, as the case may be, in this exile?), we here at Miss Marcel's Musings have been feeling a lot better lately - especially after that 10 hours of sleep, no kidding!

More interesting, though, than the pain and sorrow which require remedies, are the remedies themselves. Call me Pollysuzanna and you won't be the first! We like the glass full-full, not even half full, Marcel and I . . . which lead us to articles 3 and 4 by our big brother: Whether pain and sorrow are assuaged by the sympathy of friends and the contemplation of truth. And in the interests of time (yours!), let's cut to the chase and just say YES! Absolutely! No question!

Which must be why this last week's (this last novena's) race has been not only exhausting but sheer delight!

If you recall, it began a day late and five dollars short on our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus' feast this past Sunday, October 15. What I didn't remember as I mused that morning was that the BIG MOMENT of that big day was going to be the current Holy Father's release of his Apostolic Exhortation on our dear sister St. Therese! Well he did and it was! WOWIE ZOWIE!

I was going to say, "his Apostolic Exhortation on our dear sister St. Therese on the occasion of her anniversaries," but I'm stopped short by his magisterial words at the outset:

"I have not chosen to issue this Exhortation on either of those dates [150th anniversary of her birth, January 2, or 100th anniversary of her beatification, April 29] or on her liturgical Memorial, so that this message may transcend those celebrations and be taken up as part of the spiritual treasury of the Church. Its publication on the liturgical Memorial of Saint Teresa of Avila is a way of presenting Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face as the mature fruit of the reform of the Carmel and of the spirituality of the great Spanish saint."

If you want to read that letter in full, you can go HERE to our previous post or HERE to the Vatican website (a place where you can find tons and tons of wonderful documents, if these heavenly pronouncements weighed more than the feather of an angel's wing).

If you're feeling less frenetic and don't want to leave us even for a moment, I'm happy to present, here and now, with Marcel, a few of the points that thrilled me to the core . . . 

1. The title is "C'est la confiance" which comes from the first line of the apostolic exhortation, which our Holy Father quotes in French (and then, happily for us mono-linguists, in English) from Letter 197 of St. Therese to her Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart:

“C’est la confiance et rien que la confiance qui doit nous conduire à l’Amour.” “It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love.” 

2. He then goes on to say (are you sitting down? This is SO AWESOME!!!!!):

"These striking words of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face say it all. They sum up the genius of her spirituality and would suffice to justify the fact that she has been named a Doctor of the Church." 

Would suffice to justify the fact that she has been named a Doctor of the Church?! Glory be and Alleluia! This means, for those of us bears of very little brain, we only have one thing we need to remember from our dear sister's teachings and Little Way:

"It is confidence, and nothing but confidence, that must lead us to Love!"

3. But lest we start panicking because our confidence is at a low ebb on our best days, the Holy Father continues (with more of our sister's thirst quenching words):

It is confidence that sustains us daily and will enable us to stand before the Lord on the day when He calls us to Himself: “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.”

Shooooo! (That's the sound my husband used to make all the time when he was my boyfriend. He got it from his mama, and by the time of our graduation from college, the whole class of our friends said it too. It's a kind of sigh of love that means all sorts of things, but in this case, Thank Heavens!)

But more to the point (this third point), we can be full of confidence because, as the Pope explains, we are confident in GOD, our loving Father, not in ourselves! Hooray for omnipotence, omniscience, and INFINITELY MERCIFUL LOVE!!!!!

4. Believe it or not, there are some very good angels involved with the publication (virtual as it is, unless printed out) of Miss Marcel's Musings, and they won't let me post this unless I add that to my eternal and utter confoundation, in the middle of C'est la Confiance, the Holy Father actually quotes the line that is behind, or better yet beneath, as the foundation, my book (and Therese's great gift to us) Something New with St. Therese, Her Eucharistic Miracle.

He writes: 

"This insistence of Therese on God’s initiative leads her, when speaking of the Eucharist, to put first not her desire to receive Jesus in Holy Communion, but rather the desire of Jesus to unite Himself to us and to dwell in our hearts. [33] In her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love, saddened by her inability to receive communion each day, she tells Jesus: “Remain in me as in a tabernacle”. [34] Her gaze remained fixed not on herself and her own needs, but on Christ, who loves, seeks, desires and dwells within."

Ah. The kindness and tender solicitude of God in answering our deepest desires with His own deepest desires is beyond anything we can ask or imagine!

I'd like to get back to the day, this day, though, so I can go eat something slightly more sustaining (if a little less fun) than a s'more for breakfast . . . (no, I didn't already have a s'more this morning! And no, I'm not going to break out a pop-tart or Ho-Ho from my pantry - those are for late night snacks when absolutely necessary in the assuaging of pain or sorrow, or just celebrating our feasts, but for now I'm thinking two eggs over easy and a half piece of toasted sourdough) . . .and I can't eat anything until I finish the work set out before me - which is simply this, to wish you:

Happy Feast of our Holy Father St. John Paul the Second!!!!!!!!

His photo at the top of this post shows him in Lisieux, the land of Therese, "during my unforgettable visit to Lisieux on 2 June 1980," (his words, not mine!) - and at first glance, after noticing how adorably young our Holy Father looked, I thought he was in the room of Les Buissonnets where the Virgin of the Smile healed young Therese (where I've been too, in my unforgettable visit to Lisieux with my dear husband in May 2019), but then I realized he's in the infirmary of the Carmel where, surrounded by her sisters, Therese finally got to enter eternal life. If you look closely, you'll see the amazing photo Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face (Therese's sister Celine) took of her in repose when her soul had been sipped up, finally, like a drop of dew. Ah, sweet Sister Death! - when will you come for us and, with the angels, lead us straight into the arms of Love?

This picture of Pope St. John Paul before little Therese is also extra special because it's the closest any of us mere mortals will ever get in this life to the infirmary of the Carmel of Lisieux unless we become Carmelite sisters of Therese there too! 

Sometimes, though, even if a picture is worth a thousand words, a thousand words can be worth a million pictures (I just made that up, but I think it's true) - like when the words are the words of a Papal letter on St. Therese! Because wouldn't you know it, just so we could remember THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT of our beloved JPII's papacy, the Holy Spirit stuck it smack down in time in the novena leading to his Feastday!

First, Pope St. John Paul II's feast day is today (though this year hidden behind the Sunday) on October 22 because that's the day (in 1978) he was elected to the papacy. Yay, October 22nd! Viva il Papa!

Second, now that we are saying novenas because JP2 is not only our Holy Father but a Saint in Heaven with Therese and Marcel and our (and his) dear Blessed Mother and good St. Joseph, not to mention the most Holy and Blessed Trinity, this novena happens to cruise right past October 19. Have I told you about October 19 before?

Without including any more links (because if I look it up, I'm sure I'll find I must have rejoiced with you in previous years on this glorious day of October 19), let me just fill you in now:

October 19 is, first and foremost, the Feast of the North American Martyrs. Click on them or HERE for a wondrous sermon by Fr. Thomas Aquinas McGovern, S.J., about their wondrous lives on this earth and into eternity. Talk about being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses!

But it gets better, because on October 19, 1997, Therese's centenary year of entering into her Heaven of doing good on earth, Pope St. John Paul II, God bless his dear papal heart, proclaimed Therese a Doctor of the Universal Church! Tears come to my eyes as I write, thinking of the good friends with whom we partied that joyful night! May God bless them too, dear Fr. Jack and C and T and 75 students of Christendom College! Yes, I am here to tell you that the sympathy of friends can assuage the pain and sorrow of this silly exile wherein we find ourselves - and there's nothing like a pizza party in honor of the Little Flower to seal the deal!

And then, just when one thinks there can be no more surprises, no more heights of bliss, no more bursts of laughter at the antics of a new friend more delightful than every sweet thing, more stunning than a sunset, more bracing than the smell of salt and the feel of the ocean breeze on a long awaited trip to the seaside - then, on October 19, 2016, in my case, along comes Marcel . . . 

I had been minding my own business, trying not to trip while little Therese, her firm, guiding right hand on the small of my back, pushed me through the writing of Something New with St. Therese, Her Eucharistic Miracle (and lest you think it's always all about her, let me insist that this one is all about us and Little Hidden Jesus), when what to my wondering eyes did appear in my mailbox but a sweet and long-awaited rose named Marcel, and his Conversations (with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese).

​That was 7 years (and three days) ago, and I haven't been the same since. Talk about Divine Reassurance for fun and for free! Thank You, Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese, for giving us our little brother Marcel Van! Thank you, Jack Keogan and Fr. Antonio Boucher, CSsR, for loving him and translating him so that we can read his remarkable and hilarious conversations! And thank you, Pope St. John Paul II, for in naming our sister St. Therese a Doctor of the Universal Church, you allayed any absurd and residual fears we could ever have had about whether to believe her audacious and comforting words to us. Just for an example, as quoted in "C'est la confiance," her words explicating the verse of the Song of Songs that we use as our concluding prayer in each post here:

“Draw me, we shall run after You in the odour of Your ointments. O Jesus! It is not even necessary to say: When drawing me, draw the souls whom I love! This simple statement, ‘Draw me’ suffices. I understand, Lord, that when a soul allows herself to be captivated by the odour of Your ointments, she cannot run alone; all the souls whom she loves follow in her train; this is done without constraint, without effort, it is a natural consequence of her attraction for You. Just as a torrent, throwing itself with impetuosity into the ocean, drags after it everything it encounters in its passage, in the same way, O Jesus, the soul who plunges into the shoreless ocean of Your Love, draws with her all the treasures she possesses. Lord, you know it, I have no other treasures than the souls it has pleased You to unite to mine.” 

I have been quietly musing in the back of my mind and heart, all during the writing of this post, whether to conclude with the entire text of Pope St. John Paul II's apostolic letter on Therese as Doctor, Divini Amoris Scientia. But even after ten hours of restorative sleep, I'm getting tired before the day's even begun, so at the behest of Therese and Marcel and especially sleepy St. Juan Diego, I'm just putting in a link to that letter (see the shimmeriness of "Divini Amoris Scientia"? that means one click will take you there) . . . 

There's always tomorrow, when most of us will find ourselves waking after way less than the enormous amount of sleep needed to assuage the ennui following whatever festivities we can drum up today, so let's meet again here (and if not tomorrow, then the next day or the next) to use JPII's octave as an occasion to post his full and authoritative document on Therese's doctorate. Meanwhile, encouraged by them both and by Jesus, our Divine Magnet, we've got one last prayer to say before closing:

Draw me, we will run!

APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
C’EST LA CONFIANCE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
ON CONFIDENCE IN THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD
FOR THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF
SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS AND THE HOLY FACE
1. “C’est la confiance et rien que la confiance qui doit nous conduire à l’Amour”. “It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love”. [1]
2. These striking words of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face say it all. They sum up the genius of her spirituality and would suffice to justify the fact that she has been named a Doctor of the Church. Confidence, “nothing but confidence”, is the sole path that leads us to the Love that grants everything. With confidence, the wellspring of grace overflows into our lives, the Gospel takes flesh within us and makes us channels of mercy for our brothers and sisters.
3. It is confidence that sustains us daily and will enable us to stand before the Lord on the day when he calls us to himself: “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”. [2]
4. Saint Therese is one of the best known and most beloved saints in our world. Like Saint Francis of Assisi, she is loved by non-Christians and nonbelievers as well. In addition, she has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the most significant figures for contemporary humanity. [3] We would do well to delve more deeply into her message as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of her birth in Alençon (2 January 1873) and the centenary of her beatification. [4] Yet I have not chosen to issue this Exhortation on either of those dates, or on her liturgical Memorial, so that this message may transcend those celebrations and be taken up as part of the spiritual treasury of the Church. Its publication on the liturgical Memorial of Saint Teresa of Avila is a way of presenting Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face as the mature fruit of the reform of the Carmel and of the spirituality of the great Spanish saint.
5. The earthly life of Saint Therese was brief, a mere twenty-four years, and completely ordinary, first in her family and then in the Carmel of Lisieux. The extraordinary burst of light and love that she radiated came to be known soon after her death, with the publication of her writings and thanks to the countless graces bestowed on the faithful who invoked her intercession.
6. The Church quickly recognized her great significance and the distinctiveness of her evangelical spirituality. Therese met Pope Leo XIII during a pilgrimage to Rome in 1887 and asked his permission to enter the Carmel at the age of fifteen. Not long after her death, Saint Pius X, sensing her spiritual grandeur, stated that she would become the greatest saint of modern times. Therese was declared Venerable in 1921 by Pope Benedict XV, who, in praising her virtues, saw them embodied in her “little way” of spiritual childhood. [5] She was beatified a century ago and then canonized on 17 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI, who thanked the Lord for granting that she be the first Blessed whom he raised to the honour of the altars and the first Saint whom he canonized. [6] In 1927, the same Pope declared her the Patroness of the Missions. [7] Therese was proclaimed one of the patron saints of France in 1944 by Venerable Pius XII, [8] who on several occasions developed the theme of spiritual childhood. [9] Saint Paul VI liked to recall that he was baptized on 30 September 1897, the day of her death, and on the centenary of her birth he wrote a Letter on her teaching to the Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux. [10] On 2 June 1980, during his first Apostolic Journey to France, Saint John Paul II visited the Basilica dedicated to her, and in 1997 declared her a Doctor of the Church. [11] He also referred to Therese as “an expert in the scientia amoris”. [12] Pope Benedict XVI returned to the subject of her “science of love” and proposed it as “a guide for all, especially those in the people of God who carry out their ministry as theologians”. [13] Finally, in 2015, I had the joy of canonizing her parents, Louis and Zelie, during the Synod on the Family. More recently, I devoted one of my weekly General Audience talks to Saint Therese, as part of a cycle of catecheses on apostolic zeal. [14]
1. Jesus for others
7. In the name that Therese chose as a religious, Jesus stands out as the “Child” who manifests the mystery of the Incarnation, and the “Holy Face” of the one who surrendered himself completely on the Cross. She is “Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face”.
8. The name of Jesus was constantly on her lips, as an act of love, even to her last breath. She had also written these words in her cell: “Jesus is my one love”. It was her interpretation of the supreme statement of the New Testament: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8.16).
A missionary soul
9. As with every authentic encounter with Christ, this experience of faith summoned her to mission. Therese could define her mission in these words: “I shall desire in heaven the same thing as I do now on earth: to love Jesus and to make him loved”. [15] She wrote that she entered Carmel “to save souls”. [16] In a word, she did not view her consecration to God apart from the pursuit of the good of her brothers and sisters. She shared the merciful love of the Father for his sinful son and the love of the Good Shepherd for the sheep who were lost, astray and wounded. For this reason, Therese is the Patroness of the missions and a model of evangelization.
10. The final pages of her Story of a Soul [17] are a missionary testament. They express her appreciation of the fact that evangelization takes place by attraction [18], not by pressure or proselytism. It is worthwhile reading her own words in this regard: “ Draw me, we shall run after you in the odour of your ointments. O Jesus! It is not even necessary to say: When drawing me, draw the souls whom I love! This simple statement, ‘Draw me’ suffices. I understand, Lord, that when a soul allows herself to be captivated by the odour of your ointments, she cannot run alone; all the souls whom she loves follow in her train; this is done without constraint, without effort, it is a natural consequence of her attraction for you. Just as a torrent, throwing itself with impetuosity into the ocean, drags after it everything it encounters in its passage, in the same way, O Jesus, the soul who plunges into the shoreless ocean of your Love, draws with her all the treasures she possesses. Lord, you know it, I have no other treasures than the souls it has pleased you to unite to mine”. [19]
11. In this passage, Therese quotes the words of the bride to the bridegroom in the Song of Songs (1:3-4), following the profound interpretation found in the writings of the doctors of Carmel, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. The bridegroom is Jesus, the Son of God who united himself to our humanity in the Incarnation and redeemed it on the Cross. There, from his open side, he gave birth to the Church, his beloved bride, for which he gave his life (cf. Eph 5:25). What is striking is that Therese, conscious of her own impending death, did not approach this mystery merely as a source of personal consolation, but in a fervent apostolic spirit.
The grace that sets us free from self-absorption
12. We see something similar when Therese speaks of the working of the Holy Spirit, which immediately takes on a missionary hue: “That is my prayer. I ask Jesus to draw me to the flames of his love, to unite me so closely to him that he live and act in in me. I feel that the more the fire of love burns within my heart, the more I shall say ‘Draw me’: the more also the souls who will approach me (poor little piece of iron, useless if I withdraw from the divine furnace), the more these souls will run swiftly in the odour of the ointments of their Beloved, for a soul that is burning with love cannot remain inactive”. [20]
13. In the heart of Therese, the grace of baptism became this impetuous torrent flowing into the ocean of Christ’s love and dragging in its wake a multitude of brothers and sisters. This is what happened, especially after her death. It was her promised “shower of roses”. [21]
2. The little way of trust and love
14. One of the most important insights of Therese for the benefit of the entire People of God is her “little way”, the path of trust and love, also known as the way of spiritual childhood. Everyone can follow this way, whatever their age or state in life. It is the way that the heavenly Father reveals to the little ones (cf. Mt 11:25).
15. In the Story of a Soul, [22] Therese tells how she discovered the little way: “I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness. It is impossible for me to grow up, and so I must bear with myself such as I am, with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new”. [23]
16. To describe that way, she uses the image of an elevator: “the elevator which must raise me to heaven is your arms, O Jesus! And for this, I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more”. [24] Little, incapable of being confident in herself, and yet firmly secure in the loving power of the Lord’s arms.
17. This is the “sweet way of love” [25] that Jesus sets before the little and the poor, before everyone. It is the way of true happiness. In place of a Pelagian notion of holiness, [26] individualistic and elitist, more ascetic than mystical, that primarily emphasizes human effort, Therese always stresses the primacy of God’s work, his gift of grace. As a result, she could say: “I always feel, however, the same bold confidence of becoming a great saint, because I don’t count on my merits, since I have none, but I trust in him who is Virtue and Holiness. God alone, content with my weak efforts, will raise me to himself and make me a saint, clothing me in his infinite merits”. [27]
Apart from all merit
18. This way of speaking is in no way opposed to the traditional Catholic teaching on the increase of grace, namely, that once gratuitously justified by sanctifying grace, we are changed and enabled to cooperate by our good works in a process of growth in holiness. Through this “elevation”, we can possess real merits by virtue of the development of the grace received.
19. Therese, for her part, wished to highlight the primacy of God’s action; she encourages us to have complete confidence as we contemplate the love of Christ poured out to the end. At the heart of her teaching is the realization that, since we are incapable of being certain about ourselves, [28] we cannot be sure of our merits. Hence, it is not possible to trust in our own efforts or achievements. The Catechism chose to quote the words that Saint Therese addressed to the Lord: “I will appear before you with empty hands”, [29] in order to express that “the saints have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace”. [30] This conviction gives rise to a joyful and tender gratitude.
20. It is most fitting, then, that we should place heartfelt trust not in ourselves but in the infinite mercy of a God who loves us unconditionally and has already given us everything in the Cross of Jesus Christ. [31] For this reason, Therese never uses the expression, common enough in her day, “I will become a saint”.
21. Even so, her boundless confidence encourages all who feel frail, limited and sinful to let themselves be elevated and transformed in order to reach greater heights. “If all weak and imperfect souls felt what the least of souls feels, that is, the soul of your little Therese, not one would despair of reaching the summit of the mount of love. Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude”. [32]
22. This insistence of Therese on God’s initiative leads her, when speaking of the Eucharist, to put first not her desire to receive Jesus in Holy Communion, but rather the desire of Jesus to unite himself to us and to dwell in our hearts. [33] In her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love, saddened by her inability to receive communion each day, she tells Jesus: “Remain in me as in a tabernacle”. [34] Her gaze remained fixed not on herself and her own needs, but on Christ, who loves, seeks, desires and dwells within.
Daily abandonment
23. The confidence that Therese proposes has to do with more than our individual sanctification and salvation. It has an integral meaning that embraces the totality of concrete existence and finds application in our daily lives, where we are often assailed by fears, the desire for human security, the need to have everything under control. Here we see the importance of her invitation to a holy “abandonment”.
24. The complete confidence that becomes an abandonment in Love sets us free from obsessive calculations, constant worry about the future and fears that take away our peace. In her final days, Therese insisted on this: “We who run in the way of love shouldn’t be thinking of suffering that can take place in the future; it’s a lack of confidence”. [35] If we are in the hands of a Father who loves us without limits, this will be the case come what may; we will be able to move beyond whatever may happen to us and, in one way or another, his plan of love and fullness will come to fulfilment in our lives.
Fire burning in the night
25. Therese experienced faith most powerfully and surely in the midst of the dark night and especially amid the darkness of Calvary. Her witness culminated in the final months of her life, in the great “trial against the faith” [36] that began at Easter of 1896. In her account, [37] she directly relates this period of testing to the painful reality of the atheism of her time. The last years of the nineteenth century were the “golden age” of modern atheism as a philosophical and ideological system. When she wrote that Jesus allowed her soul “to be invaded by the thickest darkness”, [38] she was evoking the darkness of atheism and the rejection of the Christian faith. In union with Jesus, who took upon himself all the darkness of the sin of the world when he willed to drink from the cup of the Passion, Therese came to appreciate its underlying sense of despair and sheer emptiness. [39]
26. Yet darkness cannot overcome the light: Therese had been conquered by the One who came as light into the world (cf. Jn 12:46). [40] Her account reveals the heroic nature of her faith, her triumph in spiritual combat with the most powerful temptations. She felt herself a sister to atheists, seated with them at table, like Jesus who sat with sinners (cf. Mt 9:10-13). She interceded for them, ever renewing her own act of faith, in constant loving communion with the Lord: “I run toward my Jesus. I tell him I am ready to shed my blood to the last drop to profess faith in the existence of heaven. I tell him, too, that I am happy not to enjoy this beautiful heaven on this earth so that he will open it for all eternity to poor unbelievers”. [41]
27. Together with faith, Therese experienced a deep and boundless trust in God’s infinite mercy: “confidence that must lead us to Love”. [42] Even in her darkness, she experienced the complete trust of a child that finds refuge, unafraid, in the embrace of its father and mother. For Therese, the one God is revealed above all else in his mercy, which is the key to understanding everything else that can be said of him: “To me he has granted his infinite mercy and through it I contemplate and adore the other divine perfections! All of these perfections appear to be resplendent with love, even his Justice (and perhaps this even more so than the others) seems to me clothed in love”. [43] This is one of the loftiest insights of Therese, one of her major contributions to the entire People of God. In an extraordinary way, she probed the depths of divine mercy, and drew from them the light of her limitless hope.
A most firm hope
28. Before entering the Carmel, Therese had felt a remarkable spiritual closeness to one of the most unfortunate of men, the criminal Henri Pranzini, sentenced to death for a triple murder for which he was unrepentant. [44] By having Masses offered for him and praying with complete confidence for his salvation, she was convinced that she was drawing him ever closer to the blood of Jesus, and she told God that she was sure that at the last moment he would pardon him “even if he went to his death without any signs of repentance”. As the reason for her certainty, she stated: “I was absolutely confident in the mercy of Jesus”. [45] How great was her emotion when she learned that Pranzini, after mounting the scaffold, “suddenly, seized by an inspiration, turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him and kissed the sacred wounds three times!” [46] This intense experience of hoping against all hope proved fundamental for her: “After this unique grace, my desire to save souls grows each day”. [47]
29. Therese was conscious of the tragic reality of sin, yet she remained constantly immersed in the mystery of Christ, certain that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” ( Rom 5:20). The sin of the world is great but not infinite, whereas the merciful love of the Redeemer is indeed infinite. Therese testifies to the definitive victory of Jesus, through his passion, death and resurrection, over all the powers of evil. Filled with confidence, she dared to explain: “Jesus, allow me to save very many souls; let no soul be lost today… Jesus, pardon me if I say anything I should not say. I only want to give you joy and to console you”. [48] This now leads us to consider another aspect of the breath of fresh air that is the message of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
3. I will be love
30. As “greater” than faith and hope, charity will never pass away (cf. 1 Cor 13:8-13). It is the supreme gift of the Holy Spirit and “the mother and the root of all the virtues”. [49]
Charity as a personal attitude of love
31. The Story of a Soul is a testimonial to charity, in which Therese offers us a commentary on Jesus’ new commandment: “that you love one another as I have loved you” ( Jn 15:12). [50] Jesus thirsts for this response to his love. Indeed, he “did not fear to beg for a little water from the Samaritan woman. He was thirsty. But when he said ‘Give me to drink’, it was the love of his poor creature that the Creator of the universe was seeking. He was thirsty for love”. [51] Therese wished to respond to the love of Jesus, to offer him love in return for love. [52]
32. The symbolism of spousal love emphasizes the mutual self-gift of the bridegroom and the bride. Thus, inspired by the Song of Songs (2:16), Therese writes, “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”. [53] Although the Lord loves us together as a people, at the same time charity works in a most personal way: “heart to heart”.
33. Therese possessed complete certainty that Jesus loved her and knew her personally at the time of his Passion: “He loved me and gave himself for me” ( Gal 2:20). As she contemplated Jesus in his agony, she told him: “You saw me”. [54] In the same way, she said to the Child Jesus in the arms of his Mother: “With your little hand that caressed Mary, you upheld the world and gave it life, and you thought of me”. [55] So too, at the beginning of the Story of a Soul, she contemplated the love of Jesus for all humanity and for each individual, as if he or she were the only one in the world. [56]
34. The act of love – repeating the words, “Jesus I love you” – which became as natural to Therese as breathing, is the key to her understanding of the Gospel. With that love, she immersed herself in all the mysteries of the life of Christ, making herself his contemporary and placing herself within the Gospel together with Mary and Joseph, Mary Magdalene and the apostles. Together with them, she penetrated to the depths of the love of the Heart of Jesus. Let us take one example: “When I see 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 not only disposed to pardon her, but to lavish on her the blessings of divine intimacy, to lift her to the highest summits of contemplation”. [57]
The greatest love in supreme simplicity
35. At the end of the Story of a Soul, Therese presents us with her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love. [58] Once she surrendered completely to the working of the Spirit, she received, quietly and unobtrusively, an abundant outpouring of living water: “rivers, or better, the oceans of graces that flooded my soul”. [59] This is the mystical life that, apart from any extraordinary phenomena, offers itself to all the faithful as a daily experience of love.
36. Therese practised charity in littleness, in the simplest things of daily life, and she did so in the company of the Virgin Mary, from whom she learned that “to love is to give everything. It’s to give oneself”. [60] While preachers in those days often celebrated Mary’s grandeur in ways that made her seem far removed from us, Therese showed, starting with the Gospel, that Mary is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven because she is the least (cf. Mt 18:4), the one closest to Jesus in his abasement. She saw that, if the apocrypha are full of striking and amazing feats, the Gospels show us a lowly and poor life lived in the simplicity of faith. Jesus himself wanted Mary to be the example of a soul that seeks him with a simple faith. [61] Mary was the first to experience the “little way” in pure faith and humility. Consequently, Therese did not hesitate to write:
“Mother full of grace, I know that in Nazareth
You live in poverty, wanting nothing more.
No rapture, miracle or ecstasy
Embellish your life, O Queen of the Elect!…
The number of little ones on earth is truly great.
They can raise their eyes to you without trembling.
It’s by the ordinary way, incomparable Mother,
That you like to walk to guide them to heaven”. [62]
37. Therese does tell us of certain moments of grace experienced amid the simplicity of daily life, like the sudden insight she had when accompanying a sick and somewhat irascible sister. Even so, those experiences of a more intense charity came about in the most ordinary ways. “One winter night I was carrying out my little duty as usual; it was cold, it was night. Suddenly I heard off in the distance the harmonious sound of a musical instrument. I then pictured a well-lighted drawing room, brilliantly gilded, filled with elegantly dressed young ladies conversing together and conferring upon each other all sorts of compliments and other worldly remarks. Then my glance fell upon the poor invalid whom I was supporting. Instead of the beautiful strains of music I heard only her occasional complaints, and instead of the rich gildings I saw only the bricks of our austere cloister, hardly visible in the glimmering light. I cannot express in words what happened in my soul; what I know is that the Lord illumined it with rays of truth, which so far surpassed the dark brilliance of earthly feasts that I could not believe my happiness. Ah! I would not have exchanged the ten minutes employed in carrying out my humble office of charity to enjoy a thousand years of worldly feasts”. [63]
In the heart of the Church
38. From Saint Teresa of Avila, Therese inherited a great love for the Church and was able to plumb the depths of this mystery. We see this in her discovery of the “heart of the Church”. In a lengthy prayer to Jesus, [64] written on 8 September 1896, the sixth anniversary of her religious profession, the saint confided to the Lord that she felt driven by an immense desire, a passion for the Gospel that no vocation, by itself, could satisfy. And so, in seeking her “place” in the Church, she turned to chapters 12 and 13 of the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.
39. There, in Chapter 12, the apostle employs the metaphor of the body and its members to explain that the Church embraces a great variety of hierarchically ordered charisms. Yet this description was not enough for Therese. She continued her search and read the “hymn to charity” in Chapter 13. There she came upon the eminent answer to her question, and wrote this memorable page: “Considering the mystical body of the Church I had not recognized myself in any of the members described by Saint Paul, or rather I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that if the Church had a body composed of different members, the most necessary and most noble of all could not be lacking to it, and so I understood that the Church had a Heart, and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood it was love alone that made the Church’s members act, that if Love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and martyrs would not shed their blood. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that love was everything, that it embraced all times and places… in a word: that it was eternal! Then, in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love... my vocation, at last I have found it… my vocation is Love! Yes, I have found my place in the Church, and it is you, O my God, who have given me this place; in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be Love. Thus I shall be everything, and thus my dream will be realized”. [65]
40. This heart was not that of a triumphalistic Church, but of a loving, humble and merciful Church. Therese never set herself above others, but took the lowest place together with the Son of God, who for our sake became a slave and humbled himself, becoming obedient, even to death on a cross (cf. Phil 2:7-8).
41. This discovery of the heart of the Church is also a great source of light for us today. It preserves us from being scandalized by the limitations and weaknesses of the ecclesiastical institution with its shadows and sins, and enables us to enter into the Church’s “heart burning with love”, which burst into flame at Pentecost thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is that heart whose fire is rekindled with each of our acts of charity. “I shall be love”. This was the radical option of Therese, her definitive synthesis and her deepest spiritual identity.
A shower of roses
42. After centuries in which countless saints expressed with great fervour and eloquence their desire to “go to heaven”, Saint Therese could acknowledge, with utter sincerity: “At the time I was having great interior trials of all kinds, even to the point of asking myself whether heaven really existed”. [66] At another time, she said: “When I sing of the happiness of heaven and of the eternal possession of God, I feel no joy in this, for I sing simply what I want to believe”. [67] What had happened? Therese was hearing God’s call to put fire into the heart of the Church more than to think of her own personal happiness.
43. The transformation that was taking place enabled her to pass from a fervent desire for heaven to a constant, burning desire for the good of all, culminating in her dream of continuing in heaven her mission of loving Jesus and making him loved. As she wrote in one of her last letters: “I really count on not remaining inactive in heaven. My desire is to work still for the Church and for souls”. [68] And in those very days she said, even more directly: “My heaven will be spent on earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth”. [69]
44. In those words, Therese expressed her most assured response to the singular gift that the Lord was granting her, the remarkable light that God was shedding upon her. In this way, she arrived at her ultimate personal synthesis of the Gospel, one that began with complete trust and ended in total abandonment for the sake of others. She had no doubt about the fruitfulness of that abandonment: “I think of all the good that I would like to do after my death”. [70] “God would not have given me the desire of doing good on earth after my death, if he didn’t will to realize it”. [71] “It will be like a shower of roses”. [72]
45. She had come full circle. “C’est la confiance”. It is trust that brings us to love and thus sets us free from fear. It is trust that helps us to stop looking to ourselves and enables us to put into God’s hands what he alone can accomplish. Doing so provides us with an immense source of love and energy for seeking the good of our brothers and sisters. And so, amid the suffering of her last days, Therese was able to say: “ I count only on love”. [73] In the end, only love counts. Trust makes roses blossom and pours them forth as an overflow of the superabundance of God’s love. Let us ask, then, for such trust as a free and precious gift of grace, so that the paths of the Gospel may open up in our lives.
4. At the heart of the Gospel
46. In Evangelii Gaudium, I urged a return to the freshness of the source, in order to emphasize what is essential and indispensable. I now consider it fitting to take up that invitation and propose it anew.
The Doctor of synthesis
47. This Exhortation on Saint Therese allows me to observe that, in a missionary Church, “the message has to concentrate on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary. The message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and convincing”. [74] The luminous core of that message is “the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead”. [75]
48. Not everything is equally central, because there is an order or hierarchy among the truths of the Church, and “this holds true as much for the dogmas of faith as for the whole corpus of the Church’s teaching, including her moral teaching”. [76] The centre of Christian morality is charity, as our response to the unconditional love of the Trinity. Consequently, “works of love directed towards one’s neighbour are the most perfect manifestation of the interior grace of the Spirit”. [77] In the end, only love counts.
49. The specific contribution that Therese offers us as a saint and a Doctor of the Church is not analytical, along the lines, for example, of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Her contribution is more synthetic, for her genius consists in leading us to what is central, essential and indispensable. By her words and her personal experience she shows that, while it is true that all the Church’s teachings and rules have their importance, their value, their clarity, some are more urgent and more foundational for the Christian life. That is where Therese directed her eyes and her heart.
50. As theologians, moralists and spiritual writers, as pastors and as believers, wherever we find ourselves, we need constantly to appropriate this insight of Therese and to draw from it consequences both theoretical and practical, doctrinal and pastoral, personal and communal. We need boldness and interior freedom to do so.
51. At times, the only quotes we find cited from this saint are secondary to her message, or deal with things she has in common with any other saint, such as prayer, sacrifice, Eucharistic piety, and any number of other beautiful testimonies. Yet in this way, we could be depriving ourselves of what is most specific about her gift to the Church. We forget that “each saint is a mission, planned by the Father to reflect and embody, at a specific moment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel”. [78] Indeed, “to recognize the word that the Lord wishes to speak to us through one of his saints, we do not need to get caught up in details… What we need to contemplate is the totality of their life, their entire journey of growth in holiness, the reflection of Jesus Christ that emerges when we grasp their overall meaning as a person”. [79] This is all the more true in the case of Saint Therese, since we are dealing with a “Doctor of synthesis”.
52. From heaven to earth, the timely witness of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face endures in all the grandeur of her little way.
In an age that urges us to focus on our ourselves and our own interests, Therese shows us the beauty of making our lives a gift.
At a time when the most superficial needs and desires are glorified, she testifies to the radicalism of the Gospel.
In an age of individualism, she makes us discover the value of a love that becomes intercession for others.
At a time when human beings are obsessed with grandeur and new forms of power, she points out to us the little way.
In an age that casts aside so many of our brothers and sisters, she teaches us the beauty of concern and responsibility for one another.
At a time of great complexity, she can help us rediscover the importance of simplicity, the absolute primacy of love, trust and abandonment, and thus move beyond a legalistic or moralistic mindset that would fill the Christian life with rules and regulations, and cause the joy of the Gospel to grow cold.
In an age of indifference and self-absorption, Therese inspires us to be missionary disciples, captivated by the attractiveness of Jesus and the Gospel.
53. A century and a half after her birth, Therese is more alive than ever in the pilgrim Church, in the heart of God’s people. She accompanies us on our pilgrim way, doing good on earth, as she had so greatly desired. The most lovely signs of her spiritual vitality are the innumerable “roses” that Therese continues to strew: the graces God grants us through her loving intercession in order to sustain us on our journey through life.
Dear Saint Therese,
the Church needs to radiate the brightness,
the fragrance and the joy of the Gospel.
Send us your roses!
Help us to be, like yourself,
ever confident in God’s immense love for us,
so that we may imitate each day
your “little way” of holiness.
Amen.
Given in Rome, in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, on 15 October, the Memorial of Saint Teresa of Avila, in the year 2023, the eleventh of my Pontificate.


FRANCIS



[1] SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS AND THE HOLY FACE, Letter 197 to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (17 September 1896): Letters II, p. 1000. The English citations of the Saint’s writings are taken from the translations of her works published by the Institute of Carmelite Studies (ICS), Washington, D.C.: Story of a Soul (1996); Letters I: 1877-1890 (1996); Letters II: 1890-1897 (1988); Prayers (1997); Poetry (1996); Her Last Conversations (1977).
[2] Prayer 6, Act of Oblation to Merciful Love (9 June 1895): Prayers, p. 54; Story of a Soul, pp. 276-277.
[3] For the two-year period 2022-2023, UNESCO recognized Saint Therese as a person to be celebrated on the 150th anniversary of her birth.
[4] 29 April 1923.
[5] Cf. Decretum super Virtutibus (14 August 1921): AAS 13 (1921), 449-452.
[6] Homily for the Canonization (17 May 1925): AAS 17 (1925), 211.
[7] Cf. AAS 20 (1928), 147-148.
[8] Cf. AAS 36 (1944), 329-330.
[9] Cf. PIUS XII, Letter to Mgr François-Marie Picaud, Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux (7 August 1947); Radio Message for the Consecration of the Basilica of Lisieux (11 July 1954): AAS 46 (1954), 404-407.
[10] Cf. Letter to Mgr Jean-Marie-Clément Badré, Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux on the occasion of the Centenary of the Birth of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (2 January 1973): AAS 65 (1973), 12-15.
[11] Cf. AAS 90 (1998), 409-413, 930-944.
[12] Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 42: AAS 93 (2001), 296.
[13] Catechesis (6 April 2011), L’Osservatore Romano (7 April 2011), 8.
[14] Catechesis (7 June 2023): L’Osservatore Romano (7 June 2023), 2-3.
[15] Letter 220 to l’Abbé Bellière (24 February 1897), Letters II, p. 1060.
[16] Ms A, 69v: Story of a Soul, p. 149.
[17] Cf. Ms C, 33v-37r: Story of a Soul, pp. 253-259.
[18] Cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 14, 264: AAS 105 (2013), 1025-1026.
[19] Ms C, 34r: Story of a Soul, p. 254.
[20] Ibid., 36r:, Story of a Soul, p. 257.
[21] Last Conversations, Yellow Notebook (9 June 1897, 3), p. 62.
[22] Cf. Ms C, 2v-3r: Story of a Soul, pp. 207-208.
[23] Ibid., 2v: p. 207.
[24] Ibid., 3r: p. 208.
[25] Cf. Ms A, 84v: p. 181.
[26] Cf. Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (19 March 2018), 47-62: AAS 110 (2018), 1124-1129.
[27] Ms A, 32r: Story of a Soul, p. 72.
[28] This was explained by the Council of Trent: “Whoever considers himself, his personal weakness, and his lack of disposition may fear and tremble about his own grace” ( Decree on Justification, IX: DS 1534). It is taken up by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that it is not possible to have certitude by looking to ourselves or our own actions (cf. No. 2005). The certitude born of trust does not come from ourselves, nor can our own consciousness ground that security, which is not based on introspection. In the words of Saint Paul: “I do not judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me” ( 1 Cor 4:3-4). Saint Thomas Aquinas explains it in the following way: since grace “does not perfectly heal man” (ST I-II, q. 109, art. 9, ad 1), “in the intellect there remains the darkness of ignorance” ( ibid., resp.)
[29] Prayer 6 (9 June 1895): Prayers, p. 54.
[30] Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2011.
[31] This was also clearly stated by the Council of Trent: “No devout man should doubt God’s mercy” ( Decree on Justification, IX: DS 1534); “All should place their firmest hope in God’s help” ( ibid., XIII: DS 1541).
[32] Ms B, 1v: Story of a Soul, p. 188.
[33] Cf. Ms A, 48v: Story of a Soul, pp. 104-105; Letter 92 to Marie Guérin (30 May 1889): Letters I, pp. 567-569.
[34] Prayer 6 (9 June 1895): Story of a Soul, p. 276.
[35] Last Conversations, Yellow Notebook (23 July 1897, 3): p. 106.
[36] Ms C, 31r: Story of a Soul, p. 250.
[37] Cf. Ms C, 5r-7v: Story of a Soul, pp. 211-214.
[38] Cf. ibid, 5v: Story of a Soul, p. 211.
[39] Cf. ibid., 6v: Story of a Soul, p. 213.
[40] Cf. Encyclical Letter Lumen Fidei (29 June 2013), 17: AAS 105 (2013), 564-565.
[41] Ms C, 7r: Story of a Soul, pp. 213-214.
[42] Cf. Letter 197 to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (17 September 1896): Letters II, p. 1000.
[43] Ms A, 83v: Story of a Soul, p. 180.
[44] Cf. Ms A, 45v-46v: Story of a Soul, pp. 98-101.
[45] Ibid., 46r: Story of a Soul, p. 100.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Ibid., 46v: Story of a Soul, p. 100.
[48] Prayer 2 (8 September 1890): Prayers, p. 38.
[49] Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 62, art. 4.
[50] Cf. Ms C, 11v-31r: Story of a Soul, pp. 219-250.
[51] Ms B, 1v: Story of a Soul, p. 189.
[52] Cf. Ms B, 4r: Story of a Soul, p. 195.
[53] Letter 122 to Céline (14 October 1890): Letters II, p. 709.
[54] PN 24, 21: Poetry, p. 128.
[55] PN 24, 6: ibid., p. 124.
[56] Cf. Ms A, 3r: Story of a Soul, pp. 14-15.
[57] Letter 247 to l’Abbé Bellière (21 June 1897): Letters II, p. 1133.
[58] Cf. Prayer 6 (9 June 1895): Prayers, pp. 53-55; Story of a Soul, pp. 276-277.
[59] Ms A, 84r: Story of a Soul, p. 181.
[60] PN 54, 22: Poetry, p. 219.
[61] PN 54, 15: ibid., p. 218.
[62] PN 54, 17: ibid., p. 218.
[63] Ms C, 29v-30r: Story of a Soul, pp. 248-249.
[64] Cf. Ms B, 2r-5v: Story of a Soul, pp. 190-200.
[65] Ms B, 3v: ibid., p. 194.
[66] Ms A, 80v: Story of a Soul, p. 173. This was not a lack of faith. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that in faith, both the intelligence and the will are operative. The adherence of the will can be very solid and well rooted, while the intelligence can be darkened. Cf. De Veritate 14,1.
[67] Ms C, 7v: Story of a Soul, p. 214.
[68] Letter 254 to Père Adolphe Roulland (14 July 1897): Letters II, p. 1142.
[69] Last Conversations, Yellow Notebook (17 July 1897), p. 102.
[70] Ibid. (13 July 1897, 17), p. 102.
[71] Ibid. (18 July 1897, 1), p. 102.
[72] Last Conversations, Yellow Notebook (9 June 1897, 3), p. 62.
[73] Letter 242 to Sister Marie of the Trinity (6 June 1897): Letters II, p. 1121.
[74] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 35: AAS 105 (2013), 1034.
[75] Ibid., 36: AAS 105 (2013), 1035.
[76] Ibid.
[77] Ibid., 37: AAS 105 (2013), 1035.
[78] Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (19 March 2018), 19: AAS 110 (2018), 1117.
[79] Ibid., 22: AAS 110 (2018), 1117.


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And from one dear Holy Father back to a previously beloved Holy Father, let's continue our novena to St. John Paul II:

Dear Holy Father, please obtain for us from our Heavenly Father the grace of your and Padre Pio's love for Mary and for the Rosary!
Padre Pio - you help get us this stuff too!
Amen.

Draw me, we will run!

"We know St. Teresa's love and devotion to St. Joseph, whom she called the great teacher of prayer. And rightly so, for who can teach us to speak and listen to Jesus better than St. Joseph who lived and conversed with Him? God Himself commands us to go to Joseph and do all that he will say to us."
 -Mother Aloysius of the Blessed Sacrament (Feb. 18, 1880 - April 16, 1961)

"Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us."  - St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila

"You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him." - St. Teresa, Doctor of Prayer

"Because of this assiduous familiarity with God, it is said that something radiant seemed to shine on her face that caused wonder and joy in everyone." - Pope St. Paul VI

*    *    *

Last time we spoke, we were starting a novena to our little brother, Servant of God Marcel Van, to end on the vigil of the feast of Blessed Carlo Acutis. I wrote, "I am praying especially for the passing of the bar (doesn't that sound fun too?) by a dear in-law of mine, so let's add today: St. Thomas More, pray for us!"

Thanks so much for joining me in prayer - which you've done again just by reading, "St Thomas More, pray for us!" And guess what? Your prayers are so powerful that the nephew in law in question DID pass the bar, and he found out (much to the joy of his wife and 6 children and whole extended family) on the very feast of dear Carlo this past week! Praise God, and may He be blessed in His angels and in His saints!

Just by the by, since we didn't get around to posting on Blessed Carlo's day, October 12, I need to mention that a friend sent me a photo of Carlo, whom he had just visited in Assisi while visiting, too, good St. Francis.

A photo? How in the world....? 

Well, it goes like this: in preparation for his beatification, Carlo's body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt, so on October 1, 2020 (feast of our Little Flower Therese), the powers that be kindly put this beautiful young man, wearing his usual teen outfit of a sweat suit and tennis shoes, where we could all see him and glory in God's power. Usually 15 year olds who die of leukemia don't look quite this good 14 years later!

So thanks, Carlo and Marcel, and you who have prayed with us last week and/or right now as you read! God is so good, and as St. Therese teaches us, He is "so mighty and so merciful, we obtain from Him as much as we hope for." So not only, as the first woman Doctor, our Holy Mother Teresa said, do we pay a big compliment to God when we ask for a lot, but equally delightful, He answers our prayers and gives us a lot!

Which brings me, happily, to our latest novena! Yes, they are absolutely addicting because who doesn't love gaining great favors and treats from our loving Heavenly Father? And how can He resist these adorable children of His whom we know as the Saints, and who, thankfully, love us so much they can't help but persistently intercede for us when we invoke them even a little?

It turns out that if we had started a novena yesterday, on the Vigil of St. Teresa (the Big Teresa, our saint of today, who hails from Spain and reformed the Carmelites thus accidentally becoming something of a foundress of the Discalced Carmelites) it would end on the feast of Pope St. John Paul II . . . and lest you fear that we didn't start a novena yesterday, I'm here to tell you that there's nothing more fun than to double up the prayers on the first day of a novena you've started one day late! Especially if the prayers are SHORT!

So . . . I remember several years ago asking Pope St. John Paul II to share with me his love of Mary, Our Blessed Mother, and his love of the Rosary. Wow, did he respond with great graces for me! This was in October of 2014, and before I knew what hit me, he had me and some friends doing the 33 Days to Morning Glory consecration to Our Lady (that was a blast! Please press "contact me" if you want me to do this again, perhaps on the blog this year, and we can do it together), then asking Padre Pio to be my spiritual father (and of course the good Padre said yes, but he also sent back the $5 I had sent in for a donation - what a cutie pie!), and finally he had me ask Padre Pio too for his love of the Rosary (and Mary) - and the consequence was that I really did begin to love the rosary like crazy!

So how about it? Let's ask St. John Paul II for his love of Mary and for the Rosary, and while we're at it, let's save him the trouble of getting Padre Pio involved by involving him ourselves from the outset, which is a day late and $5 short this year, but who's counting? If it's Jesus, we're in luck! Therese, our little sister and little Doctor explains that Jesus is very bad at math, always giving us more than we've earned or deserve!

And speaking of short, how can we keep our prayer short so as not to tire ourselves, each other, or God?

(Just kidding about tiring God! Especially on this day of Holy Mother Teresa we need to remember that He loves us so much, and nutter that He is, He loves to spend time with us always and listen to our stories for as long as we are able to chatter before falling safely asleep in His arms.)

For our sake, then, let's try this: first we'll say our prayer twice to make up for missing yesterday, then hopefully our guardian angels will help us say it every day till October 22nd, feast of our dear Papa John Paul II, and just 8 days away.

Novena Prayer to JPII:

Dear Holy Father, please obtain for us from our Heavenly Father the grace of your and Padre Pio's love for Mary and for the Rosary!
Padre Pio - you help get us this stuff too!
Amen.

You can use your own words, and if you forget, let's blame our angels. Sure they've got their angelic hands full trying to keep us out of trouble, but we need some really huge graces to make life more fun (as well as their prevention of our driving off cliffs, literally or metaphorically). 

Lest you think I'm making up this business of the necessity of fun (which the saints like to call joy, and I'm all for that too), listen to what St. Teresa of Jesus, Doctor, said in the Book of her Life:

"My soul was in a very bad way until the Lord gave it light. All its joys came in little sips; and once these were over, it never found any companionship, as it did later . . ." (Chapter 22, an amazing chapter in St. Teresa's autobiography, rivalling Chapter 12 which is also marvelous. "Read it but be careful - you might have a conversion! Like Edith!" as Carmelite Father Stephen Watson once warned me.)

Come on then, angels, please give us light to remember to say our prayer - or feel free to say it for us, and when you do please give big loud smacking kisses (like Therese used to request) to our dear Papa John Paul, our gentle giant Padre Pio, our dear sister and brother Therese and Marcel, and most of all to Jesus and Mary and Joseph! Oh, and to St. Thomas Aquinas, too!

That seems like plenty of praying and pleasantry for a feast, except that we'll go to Mass (don't forget to do that if you're reading this on a Sunday!), and if you need a little pick me up, here is the talk I gave recently on St. Thomas and St. Therese. I asked a lot of people to pray that the talk and the evening would go well, and thanks to modern technological advances, I have proof for you (of fun and joy and a lot of laughter) right here:

"The Dumb Ox, the Little Flower, and the Rest of Us" - a talk by Suzie Andres at St. Therese dorm, Thomas Aquinas College, on the feast of St. Therese, October 1, 2023

Draw me, we will run!

I have an idea . . .
Let's become Saints!

Today is the feast of St. Faustina, who entered eternal life on October 5, 1938 at age 33, and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, who entered eternal life on October 4, 1867, at the age of 48.

​Our novena to Servant of God Marcel Van turns out to end on the Vigil of Blessed Carlo Acutis, who entered eternal life on October 12, 2006 at age 16.

Blessed Chiara Luce entered eternal life on October 7, 1990, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as Our Lady of Victory, on which day we celebrate the Holy League's defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 . . . and so her feast is transferred to her birthday on earth, October 29. She was 18 when she zipped off to Heaven.

I know, I know, it's like reading about Mozart writing his first piano concerto at age 11 . . . Well, no matter, there's a lot of fun to be had on earth before Jesus finds Himself unable to resist taking us to Heaven for a second longer . . . I just find such huge inspiration in these photos above, these smiles, these loving faces and glances. I could write forever about the gifts of our saints, but let me be brief and tell one story about St. Faustina, and then we'll say our prayer to Marcel. Or better yet, let's start with our novena prayer that encompasses all these saints in its 9 day merry little way:

O little Marcel Van 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 Vietnam, ask your Little Jesus today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands . . . (mention your petitions here).

Little Marcel Van, spiritual brother of St. Therese, intercede for me all the days of my life, but especially during this Novena, and obtain for me from God the graces and favors I ask through your intercession. Amen!

I am praying especially for the passing of the bar (doesn't that sound fun too?) by a dear in-law of mine, so let's add today, "St. Thomas More, pray for us!"

And now, to our anecdote from the life of St. Faustina. She writes in her Diary:

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

“On the fifth day of the novena, I dreamed of Saint Therese, but it was as if she were still living on earth. She hid from me the fact that she was a saint and began to comfort me, saying that I should not be worried about this matter, but should trust more in God. She said, “I suffered greatly, too,” but I did not quite believe her and said, “It seems to me that you have not suffered at all.” But Saint Therese answered me in a convincing manner that she had suffered very much indeed and said to me, “Sister, know that in three days the difficulty will come to a happy conclusion.” When I was not very willing to believe her, she revealed to me that she was a saint.

"At that moment, a great joy filled my soul, and I said to her, “You are a saint?” “Yes,” she answered, “I am a saint. Trust that this matter will be resolved in three days:” And I said, “Dear sweet Therese, tell me, shall I go to heaven?” And she answered, “Yes, you will go to heaven, Sister.” “And will I be a saint?” To which she replied, “Yes, you will be a saint.” “But, little Therese, shall I be a saint as you are, raised to the altar?” And she answered, “Yes, you will be a saint just as I am, but you must trust in the Lord Jesus.” 

"I then asked her if my mother and father would go to heaven, will [unfinished sentence] And she replied that they would. I further asked, “And will my brothers and sisters go to heaven?” She told me to pray hard for them, but gave me no definite answer. I understood that they were in need of much prayer.


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

Hooray! "Yes, you will be a saint just as I am, but you must trust in the Lord Jesus."

Jesus, I trust in You!
And I'm trying to trust more with all my little might, and then I fall off the wagon and start worrying again, but as Mother Mary taught Marcel, I want to remember to say in those (99 out of 100) moments of worrying:

Jesus, I offer You this worry as a sacrifice!

At this moment I'm worried that I can't say all I wish about the saints above or even about Faustina's dream. But really and truly I send my angel and Pio's, Marcel's, Therese's, Faustina's, Chiara's, Carlo's, Thomas More's, and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos' to YOU, dear reader, to help enlighten and illumine your mind and heart to know WE TOO CAN BE SAINTS. Or as good Fr. Buckley once told me, we can't become saints . . . but Jesus can make us saints!

Jesus, we trust in You!
Draw me; we will run!

Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!

Yes, those are real roses - I mean not just a photo of roses but a photo of roses that were briefly in my grasp until I relaxed and let Therese do her thing - and wow did they disappear fast! I'd say she's let me be part of the showering of 333 roses this week - and that is an almost exact count! Wowza, this is addictive! I hope they don't have 12 step programs in Heaven because I like to think that Therese will never be cured of her own addiction - she passes me roses, I pass them along to her clients and those in need of a little glory on a stem, and it's all good. Thankfully her expectations are low and I haven't been doing much but play the middle man, and my gracious, it's been so much fun!

So we've reached the end of our triple-almost-quadruple novena, and what's next?
Well, speaking of addictive . . . 

I'm thinking that although the roses may have gone to my head (and oh, if you could just smell the John Paul II hybrid tea roses I've been lucky enough to have come into and out of my life this past week - they'd go to your head too!) . . . but the most wonderful thing happened this morning, and I know it's a nudge into the next - dare I say it? - um, nine or so days of prayer! Or rather the next nine or so days of an octave and a day! How can we not keep celebrating when we've got St. Francis of Assisi tomorrow (October 4), St. Faustina and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos the next (October 5), St. Bruno the following day (October 6), and then on October 7, the magnificent feast of Our Lady of the Rosary!?

Well, and then there's that little occasion of the 40th anniversary of my meeting St. Therese! It happened on October 7, 1983, and the rest has been (or at least is now) history! 

So what is this about the second St. Therese feast that I mention in the title of this post?
I'm finding the fruits of Vatican II to be utterly delightful because when you have a saint you're just crazy about and that saint gets a new feast day, you suddenly have two opportunities to feast! And as St. Thomas says, feasting also can consist in saying extra prayers. But before you panic (and for anyone who really does panic, a word from our sponsor: Have you ever read Hope and Help for Your Nerves by Dr. Claire Weekes? It is excellent for helping with panic attacks, and though we discovered and made use of this info about 30 years ago, the book is still helping those we share it with. And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming . . .) Now where were we . . .?

Ah, yes. Just a little prayer for a feast!
So the second Therese feast is today because the extraordinary form of the liturgy (i.e. the old Mass) which is happily among us again uses the old calendar, and on that calendar Therese's feast is October 3. Her new calendar feast is October 1, which I find charming since it follows the huge Doctor St. Jerome (on whose day she entered eternal life but she hasn't managed to budge him off the date yet) and precedes the guardian angels. Perfect! And yet just when I'm wishing I could keep thinking of Therese and expecting more miracles, along comes October 3 and we can celebrate her again! Brilliant!

But since I'm calling it the second Therese feast, it brings to mind the second Therese, who is Marcel Van, also known as the Little Flower of Vietnam and her little spiritual brother, our inspiration and her twin star that guides us especially marvelously through his Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese herself. 

So there I am in the middle of the night putting vases in my car (what else would you do on a vigil of St. Therese, first or second?), and I check my email to see that THIS NEWS IS JUST IN - our little brother in India who also loves Marcel and Therese has composed a novena in Marcel's honor!

Yes, you should be afraid - what if this novena has long and difficult prayers invovled?

No, wait! Strike that! Reverse it! Absolutely you should not be afraid!  We forgot what those John Paul II roses are really all about, but I'm sure if you could just smell the one at my side (I accidentally broke its stem way too short so it's with me resting until it heals: no showers allowed for now), I'm sure you'd never be afraid again for at least a minute or two! I'm going to ask Therese and Padre Pio, both specialists in the art of bringing miraculous fragrances, such as this one, to their children at unexpected moments, to bring this scent of joy to you soon . . . but meanwhile trust me a little, and then find out for yourself: far from being scary, our new novena to little brother Marcel the second St. Therese (on the second Therese feast) is a wondrous novena for it has that familiar ring about it. Thank you little brother in India! We send you a holy kiss with our angel and may you find joy in the joy you are bringing the whole world on this happy day!

Here it is, then, and in pure Miss Marcel style I beg you read it now and consider it prayed! Return to it as you will, and on our part we'll keep saying it as well as we can and as often as we remember for the next nine days. Only this time it will be Therese helping us pray to Marcel instead of Marcel helping us pray to Therese! What fun - turn about is fair play, and these guys love to play!

Novena to our Little Brother the second Therese - Marcel Van:

O little Marcel Van 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 Vietnam, ask your Little Jesus today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands . . . (mention your petitions here).

Little Marcel Van, spiritual brother of St. Therese, intercede for me all the days of my life, but especially during this Novena, and obtain for me from God the graces and favors I ask through your intercession. Amen!

If you find yourself so inclined, you can add an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be at the end. That way, if you don't have the prayer at hand and want to pray it tomorrow, you can ask your guardian angel to recite it while you say the Pater, Ave, and Gloria! Hooray for the angels and the saints, and all fellow little flowers!

And now, I leave you to the feast - may our sister and brother continue to shower you with roses!!

Draw me, we will run!

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light, to guard, to rule, and guide.

​Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!

*   *   *

We're in the home stretch of our triple novena! We were originally scheduled to end yesterday on the feast of St. Therese, but Marcel and I couldn't resist thanking our angels (and begging them to continue helping us) by adding in the Angel of God prayer to our Therese prayer and adding two more days. This way we get angelic help and an extra feast of St. Therese since she is celebrated tomorrow in the old calendar (which is now the extraordinary form calendar, and it is extraordinary how many feasts this double calendar set-up can yield). I LOVE IT!

Wait, though. Why would Marcel still need his angel's help? He went to eternal life in 1959, and God willing, he's been in Heaven ever since. But here's what has me thinking . . . That picture above is my Favorite Place in the World picture - it's a photo of the main altar in the Crypt of the Basilica of St. Therese in Lisieux. And what I especially love (of the 733 or so things I LOVE about the Crypt) is that there is a Byzantine-Vegas mosaic behind Therese (kind of classical mixed with sparkly), and Therese is presented in statuesque form with arms raised ready to drop down roses on us, as she promised. 

But the angels! The angels are supplying her with the heavenly roses she'll shower upon priests, missions, the Church, and the whole world (she promised, and she fulfills!) - but who are those angels? I am wondering if they are the guardian angels of her and her little army of victims of love . . .

More to muse on for Miss Marcel . . . but now I have a new holy hour thanks to your prayers. Remember that first miracle of our triple novena? It's the restoration of perpetual adoration at St. Francis of Assisi in Fillmore, and we were going to keep praying till St. Francis Day if we had to. Well! We of little faith! We don't have to keep praying! Except we do, since we obtained our goal, perpetual adoration was restored, and I have a new holy hour on Mondays . . . and although it's entirely possible that I will forget to pray there (even if I remember to go there), I'm confident that today of all days my angel will supply for my weaknesses, as he has been doing for my whole life so far. It's the guardian angels feast, and I wonder what you get the angel who has everything? Ooooh, maybe let's say a Hail Mary in thanks and praise and joy for our angels. They love Our Lady so much that I bet they'll wonder how we suddenly got so good!

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.

Day after tomorrow's 2nd Therese day is St. Francis of Assisi's feast - what a week of joy! Keep piling in those intentions and we'll stir them up and present them to Jesus at our new holy hour - and I mean "our" to include you because without you I may not have signed up. Thank you!

Thank you too for your little prayer (if you remembered to say one, and now that I bring it up, I'm sure you wish you had, so that counts as well!) for my talk last night. It was an absolute joy, and I hope to tell you more about it soon. 

Meanwhile. . .
Get ready for roses! We're going to do our level best to supply plenty tomorrow, and we hope you find them in your mailbox before the day is through.

Draw me, we will run!

"I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth . . .
   I will let fall a shower of roses . . .
       I will come down!"       - St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face
                                                                              The Little Flower

Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light, to guard, to rule, and guide!

*   *    *

Because St. Therese's feast falls hidden behind the Sunday this year, we will continue celebrating through guardian angel day tomorrow and into her feast on the old calendar, October 3!

Which means that any excuse at all will serve us to serve her - the mistress of roses and mistress of our hearts. She is so serious, and at the same time so very funny, about Coming Down. We have stories, but we can't tell them now or we'll be late for Sunday Mass!

Stay tuned because we will be posting more roses - real roses that are crowding my house and bringing great joy on their way to being showered by Therese onto her next victims (of love)!!!

I also hope to be posting a recording of a talk I'm giving tonight on the Dumb Ox (our dear big brother St. Thomas) and the Little Flower (his little sister Therese) - please say a prayer like, "Holy Spirit, inspire Suzie and her listeners when she speaks for St. Therese!" - There! That was easy! Thank you so much!

Until we meet again, may she shower you too with roses and may her Little Way be sweet and full of sunshine for you and all your dear ones.

Draw me, we will run!