Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!

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 us the favors
We now place with confidence in your hands . . . 

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

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Happiest Feast of our little sister, St. Therese!!!

I'm delighted to announce that roses are on sale at Costco! This might help you to help St. Therese to shower roses on those around you today in honor of her feast, and especially in honor of the tenderly solicitous love of Jesus shown to us in and through her life. But if these Costco-Therese roses in the photo above are the only roses that cross your path today, consider yourself showered!

I've had the pleasure lately of speaking a lot (more than usual!) about St. Therese because I'm helping Angelico Press get the word out about a glorious book, also pictured above. Written by Camille Burette, lay archivist of the Lisieux Carmel (yes, she has my dream job, but yes, the Holy Spirit not having yet infused French into my sieve-like brain, I'm a bit underqualified to take her place), A Shower of Roses: The Most Beautiful Miracles of Saint Therese of Lisieux is a very easy book to talk about because it is MARVELOUS! - Literally full of marvels taken from the over 13, 500 miracles catalogued and accounted for in the Lisieux Carmel. That's a lot of roses! No wonder I have so much to say!

Then there's rock-star Therese's Jubilee US tour of hope that starts today at her National Shrine in Royal Oak, Michigan and continues on until December 8, Our Lady's day, taking Therese to 11 states (maybe yours!!!) including my own, with a special stop at my alma mater down the street, Thomas Aquinas College.

I hope you can meet her at one of her 40 stops, but if not, know that I am asking my angel to bring you with us when we get to spend 24 hours in her august if sleepy presence. Which one of us will be sleepy? Well, she promised not really to rest in Heaven since she planned to do good on earth until the end of time, so I guess I'll be the one snoozing in the front pew! This is good because I'll give her full access to my heart, where she'll find YOU and then she can get to work while I dream.

I've been talking so much about St. Therese because there are something like a million awesome Catholic radio hosts and podcasters out there, and they all know that Therese is a saint ready to befriend us and lead us straight into the arms of Jesus. I am so edified!!!

And what have I been saying? Let's boil it down to three main ingredients:

1. Therese's whole raison d'etre (that's her reason for being) is JESUS, our Brother, our True Love, our Best Friend, and the Spouse of our souls. She wants us to know Him like she did so that we can love Him like she does. And what exactly does she want us to know? His infinite love for us, and the absolute safety, comfort, and relief of abandoning ourselves into His arms like a child asleep in its Father's arms. This is her Little Way and why she is a Doctor of the Church. The book to read to find out more is her Story of a Soul.

2. She promised, "I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses!" And she has! And she does! And she will! If you need encouragement, I highly recommend reading A Shower of Roses, as well as asking for some!

3. Relics are powerful witnesses to God's love because they connect us physically to one (a saint) whom the Church has assured us in Heaven and thus wholly integrated with Christ. As St. Thomas, our big Doctor says: 

"Now it is manifest that we should show honor to the saints of God, as being members of Christ, the children and friends of God, and our intercessors. Wherefore in memory of them we ought to honor any relics of theirs in a fitting manner: principally their bodies, which were temples, and organs of the Holy Ghost dwelling and operating in them, and are destined to be likened to the body of Christ by the glory of the Resurrection. Hence God Himself fittingly honors such relics by working miracles at their presence."

Which means that St. Therese, fulfilling her dream to bring the Gospel, that is, Jesus, to the ends of the earth, is touring the USA now in order that she might obtain for us many and sundry miracles! So if you can go to visit her relics (see SCHEDULE HERE), please do go! And if, alas, you cannot, then don't mope, just repeat after me: Little Flower in this hour show your power!!!

The one thing I remember best from Pope Francis' pontificate is his amazing Apostolic Exhortation on St. Therese, "C'est le Confiance." And in particular, I like to return to the beginning: 

“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.” 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.

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If you, like most of us, feel sometimes bereft of confidence, then do what I do: ask the little Queen of Confidence, our sister St. Therese, to give you hers. Remind her: She doesn't need it anymore because she's right there with God who is Love, and she KNOWS His infinite mercy even more than ever! Therefore, she can spare her confidence, giving it to us so that we too might throw ourselves without fear into our Father's arms, sure of His delight in having us there.

Before I fall asleep in my chair (practicing for the relics visit), let me close by wishing you again the happiest feast ever of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face! And don't forget that after we take a happy frolic and respite with the guardian angels tomorrow on their feast, the old (extraordinary form) calendar gives us St. Therese again the next day! May she take every possible opportunity in these festive days to shower you with roses and leave you in no doubt of God's absolutely limitless love for you and all those you love!

We've finished our triple novena, but just to conclude on a high note, let's throw in one last prayer:

Our Lady of Joyful Surprises, pray for us!
St. Padre Pio, pray for us!
St. Therese, the Little Flower, pray for us!
Little Servant of God Marcel Van, pray for us!

Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints!

Draw me, we will run!

P.S. For more Therese, you can go to my article on Catholic Exchange today, "The Twofold Secret of St. Therese of Lisieux." There are many fun links to more Therese-stuff there, but best of all is the photo of her that tops the article. It isn't this one (below), but I can't resist giving her the parting gaze. She is so wise and so wonderful! We love you, little Therese!