Happy Birthday, St. Therese!!!

Two years ago our little sister had a milestone birthday  - 150 years! That means this year she is 152! My goodness she is well preserved! Except in the case of the saints, it is more than preservation, more than surviving - she is thriving and still having a party each and every day, deputed as she is to be the Head of the Ministry of Roses. Lest that sound like a grand and grown up title, picture her as a little girl strewing rose petals before the Blessed Sacrament in the Corpus Christi procession. She is wearing her First Holy Communion dress, and she looks like . . . a flower girl, like the ones we will be so grateful for this Saturday when we hope you will join us in praying for the Happily Ever After of our eldest son and his darling Catholic bride. . .

But I digress . . . and if I am going to digress, I'd better give you a health update. Therese and I have both gotten older than 50, and isn't that when we cheerfully start talking about our health to any and all who inquire?

My own health is terrific, praise God. My local community has plied me with nutritious meals, while the Mystical Body here and abroad has fed my heart and soul with the graces raining down in answer to their prayers.

More specifically, I am taking a two week break from chemo infusions (had two that went beautifully, have two more to go) in order to host the wedding of - well, if not the century, at least the wedding of the centenary (of Therese's canonization, which we celebrate in May of this year) and The Wedding of the Jubilee Year! Hooray!

All this chemo is simply so that (a) any lingering bit of cancer will be decimated (sorry cancer, but you are not meant to be my gate to heaven this time) and (b) primarily to prevent recurrence, reducing my chances of said recurrence from 16% to 8%. I am in awe of the science, but even more in awe of the God who made us all, and made some of us such smart healers and researchers and medical professionals. May He bless all working in these fields, as well as all benefiting and trying to benefit from medical expertise.

In other words, all is well with me, and on this day that we celebrate little Therese and prepare for our dear J and M's wedding this Saturday, January 4 (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us!), I am thinking about two other weddings that occurred on this day (St. Therese, Little Flower, pray for us!) some decades ago. My, the graces were flowing then - and they still are! Such happy marriages, such amazing paths along which the hand of our dear Jesus has guided these two spousal sets.

Thank You, Jesus, for the sacraments! Please fill us with Your sacramental graces, and for those who have somehow slipped out of Your loving embrace, pour down on them actual graces to bring them back into the heart of the Church where You water and refresh us so thoroughly.

Happy Anniversary JH and L! Happy anniversary COB and KBB!
Your lives have been an inspiration to me and to many - may His love draw you ever closer and may Our Lady wrap you in her starry mantle close to the infant King of the Universe!

Finally, happy birthday little Therese!
Do your thing, shower us with roses, and throw in a cupcake or a glass of wine for good measure. Oh, and since you love nothing more than a good nuptial union (whether it be of the spiritual kind with the Spouse of our souls, or the more natural kind yet doused in heavenly Charity), do help us with all these joyful last minute wedding preparations. May all the travelers be surrounded and guided here by the angels, and may the bride and groom feel the peace of Christ beyond all understanding, now and always.

Help us to live your Little Way, dear little sister. Help us to understand your words and the path you have traveled before us so successfully . . . You insisted:

"To remain little before God is to recognize one’s nothingness, to expect all things from the good God just as a little child expects all things from its father; it is not to be troubled by anything. . ..Even among poor people, a child is given all it needs, as long as it is very little, but as soon as it has grown up, the father does not want to support it any longer and says: ‘Work, now you are able to take care of yourself.’ Because I never want to hear these words I do not want to grow up, feeling that I can never earn my living, that is, eternal life in heaven. So I have stayed little, and have no other occupation than that of gathering the flowers of love and sacrifice and of offering them to the good God to please Him. Again, to stay little means not attributing the virtues we practice to ourselves, under the impression that we are capable of such things, but to recognize that the good God places this treasure of virtue in the hand of His little child for him to use as he needs it; and that it remains God’s treasure. . . It is not to become discouraged over one’s faults, for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much.”

Yes, Therese, with out angels and yours, do help us to follow your Little Way in the arms of Jesus forever!

Draw me, we will RUN!!!!!