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

And . . . (just to keep Our Lady in the loop) -

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

*                *                 *

And just for good measure:
Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!

I've recently been apprised of three very urgent prayer requests . . . one is for a little boy who will have an important medical appointment tomorrow. Please join me (you already have!) in praying that the angels accompany him and enlighten his caregivers and care-team to help him get well and heal from the added trauma of longtime illness and suffering and all the endless appointments and disappointments that go with this cross. Ah, Jesus, we love You, but how about some roses???

Meanwhile, my father-in-law is getting his first chemo treatment today. May the angels support him too, and strengthen him to come through in good form, allowing for more cancer-quelling chemo in the weeks to come. Ah, and may these dear angels, our guardians and guides, bring him and my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law the peace of Christ in the days and weeks to come . . . .

Finally, the last of the three intentions at the top of today's list::
please, please, please storm heaven for a little girl named Ida.
She is in critical condition, she is only four, and her parents (and older sisters) need the help of yet more angels, so that they may come through this scary moment with confidence and peace. Ah, St. Raphael, ah St. Padre Pio! Come to the aid of dear Ida and her family. Bring Ida back to full health and her family back to their regular round of joyful loving and cheerful service. We pray too, for all those involved in Ida's care and all those who are close to her family - may their suffering be alleviated, may their faith be strengthened, and may they see God's mercy triumph, His Love healing dear Ida as it healed so many when He walked on earth.

It is such a privilege to share these intentions with you. Please know that your intentions, even those hidden in the depths of your heart, are included here too! How good God is to encourage us to pray always, and to give us intercessors to help keep the conversation with Him going. 

Little Marcel, hidden apostle of love, we trust you to badger Little Jesus until He grants all our petitions! And in the interims of reminding Him of our needs, please help our sister Therese shower us all with heavenly and earthly roses, so that we remember how near God is, and how quickly He will come to our aid!

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

How can the cross be sweet?
                                                              It is because You were on it, my Lord!

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

Much to my amazement, we've done it! We've completed phase one of our triple novena, which expression (completing phase one) makes it sound like a building project, but in a way, so it is. 

I can't tell you how delighted I am to be hearing from people every day that they have one way or another stumbled upon or seen our triple novena and are thrilled to participate. I think I know why - why they're thrilled, at least - and it's because we all so desperately need prayer. We need to have the opportunity to pray, and we need to know others are praying for us. And then there are these great feasts, and how could it not be God's intention that we link them together in this way. He's the one who placed them roughly 9 days apart! So we are building something - we're building a house of love. Okay, in a way it already has existed for centuries, call it the Church, call it the Mystical Body, but I love the way St. Peter and St. Paul both make us feel the immediacy of our participation.

St. Peter says in the second chapter of his first letter:

"Come to Him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and he who believes in Him will not be put to shame.'
To you therefore who believe, He is precious . . . "

And St. Paul says, equally wonderfully, in the second chapter of his glorious letter to the Ephesians:

"So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

+         +         +

In order to keep us on track, then (and if you're just joining us or jumped in somewhere after the first post, this will be a nice refresher - or even if you started at the beginning but are wondering, as a friend asked me today, "Now which two of the three novenas cross over?") let's review the terms of our deal.

We said a novena that began on September 6 and ends today, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We've been praying to Our Lady in the words of the beautiful "Old French Prayer for Friends" posted above.

Tomorrow, we begin our second novena (of three back to back), which will go from September 15, feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (hidden behind the Sunday) to the 23rd of September, feast of our dear friend and father, Padre Pio.

Here is the prayer we have planned (but feel free to substitute your own, and the shorter, sometimes the better! So "Jesus, help!" will work, or "St. Padre Pio, pray for us!") for the next nine days, starting tomorrow (but practicing now won't hurt, if you're just giving it a trial run) -

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

+           +           +

Finally, not to confuse you needlessly but just to give you a head's up, on Padre Pio's day when we finish his novena, we'll dive straight into our 3rd novena, which leads into (....drum roll please......) THE FEAST OF ST. THERESE of Lisieux, the Little Flower, on October 1st. Hooray! Roses for everybody!!!

But before we get carried away, let's start tomorrow on phase two of our project to save the whole world. And yes, that means it's going to be a really, really big spiritual edifice we're building, because after all, it needs to be roomy enough to include all those we love, and our enemies too! 

If I don't manage to get up a new post tomorrow to start the middle of our triple novena with a splash, let this count for your reminder, and above all - have fun! I don't think all novenas should be serious and solemn and so long that they exclude little souls like ours with attention spans the size of a gnat's (though come to think of it, those pesky gnats sometimes do have an awfully impressive one track mind as expressed by their persistence in simply hanging around your face no matter how many times you wave them away)! 

Remember our mottoes: It's a perfect little novena if you miss a day! Failure is the new success! Our weakness is the perfect stage for His power! And . . . Oh darling Jesus who loved us so much that You suffered for us and changed the cross into our hope:

Draw us, we will run!!!

p.s. What if you've missed the whole first novena? What if you said some of it and then forgot? What if you're reading this now but don't think you can remember to say a single one of these prayers ever again in your whole life??????? Well hey, that's the beauty of our Little Way Triple Novena - if you are reading this, you are IN and we have you covered! After all, Our Lady is Mother to us all, Jesus died to save us all, Padre Pio is hankering to be the spiritual father or every one of us, and St. Therese - well don't even get me started on the Heavenly Mission of St. Therese and her little brother Marcel. We'll talk about that later, and meanwhile, relax because their confidence is enough to make up for our lack thereof, and you can be sure MIRACLES ARE IN THE WORKS for all those people in your life (including you) who need them. Ah, that is a happy thought!!!

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

There! You're in! You just said today's prayer for our triple novena, and how happy Our Lady is to answer that prayer!

The super exciting thing is that it turns out that the first part of our tri-partate novena passes through this day of September 12th (on our way to September 14, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross). And that means, since 2002, the re-instated Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary! Thank you, beloved Holy Father St. John Paul II!!!

Turns out this was the day in 1683 when the Polish king, John Sobieski, pushed back the Ottoman/Turks and kept them from overtaking Vienna. I've been to Vienna, so I can see why it was a place everyone wanted, but thanks to good King John's putting everything into Mary's hands that morning at Mass (offered by a priest who is now a Blessed!), the Christians carried the day and didn't lose the West to the bad guys. Whew! That was a close one, and yet . . . and yet how could Mary not, as always, respond when her children called?

So now what shall we say on September 12, 2019 about the Most Holy Name of Mary? I came across a book called Virgin Wholly Marvelous, and in it the editor, one kind Peter Brookby, has pulled together quotes on Mary, including a section on her Holy Name. How about that!! Sort of a "give us this day our daily bread" moment when I spied the book on a shelf in my home this morning, and so, for your joy on this feast, here are some of my favorite quotes:

The name of Mary is the key of the gates of Heaven. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, Doctor of the Church 

Your name, O Mary, is a precious ointment, which breathes forth the odor of Divine grace. Let this ointment of salvation enter the inmost recesses of our souls. - St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church

O name of Mary! Joy in the heart, honey in the mouth, melody to the ear of her devout clients! - St. Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church

Mary means star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary's maternal intercession. - St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

O Mary, what must you yourself be, since your very name is so loving and gracious? - Blessed Henry Suso

After the most  holy and adorable Name of Jesus, there is no name more glorious or more powerful than the name of Mary. At the mention of this name, the angels rejoice and the devils tremble; through this invocation of this name, sinners obtain grace and pardon. - St. Peter Canisius, Doctor of the Church

When I pronounce the name of Mary, I feel myself inflamed with such love and joy, that between the tears and happiness with which I pronounce this beautiful name, I feel as though my heart might leave my breast! For this sweet name is like a honeycomb dissolving in the innermost recesses of my soul. - Blessed Henry Suso

Ah, good Blessed Henry! You weren't the only one to feel this way! Little Jacinta of Fatima used to ask her cousin Lucia, "Don't you feel your heart on fire when you say the sweet name of Mary?"

I don't know what Lucia answered, but I think it may have been just like we might answer. "No, Jacinta, we are not as blessed as you . . . and yet we are more blessed, for just as Jesus said to Thomas on that first Divine Mercy Sunday, 'Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe,' so we can take Him to mean also, 'Blessed are those who have not felt, and yet believe!'"

What a privilege that we can - even without our hearts set on fire - utter, shout, sing, pray, say, and mentally pronounce the Holy Name of Mary!!! Thank You, Jesus, for giving Your Mother to be ours too! And thank you, Mary, for always hearing us when we call you. Please heed our prayers and attend to all our intentions in this novena. You are our Mother, and as we trust in Jesus' infinitely solicitous love, so too we trust in your tenderly maternal compassion!

Ah, little Jesus on the lap of Mary, You who daily heard good St. Joseph call Mary by her Most Holy Name:
Draw me, we will run!!!

p.s. If you want more info or a reminder on how our triple novena will proceed, feel free to mosey on down to the post below this one! And remember, little one, your prayers and intentions, your heart's desires and the needs of all those you love are totally covered even if you miss a day or 26! God is really that good, and if you don't believe me, get out a copy of Marcel Van's Conversations (the reason for every season over here at Miss Marcel's Musings) and let Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese fill you in on all the good stuff!
​

I talked to a friend with a child who is suffering, another friend with a friend whose family is suffering, and then in my family circle, my father-in-law is suffering. If you have been here before, you know how I am one with Marcel (at least the Marcel of Conversations) in wishing for just about anything in life but suffering! And so, it occurred to me yesterday that I'd like to start a triple novena. Are you game?

Fortunately, we have ten fingers (yes, yes, eight fingers and two thumbs, but for the purpose of counting, they all work like fingers), which means I can figure this out by leaving one pinky finger out. Let's see. . . If we start tomorrow, on September 6, and count up to the 14th, that's nine fingers - or days - and we'll end on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. That's good because then God can't say, "Hey, get used to suffering, and stop being such a ninny." He can't say it because instead He'll have to say, "Thank you, little ones, for acknowledging our Trinitarian Limitless Love as poured out on the Holy Cross!" Which will spur Him on to answer our prayers, don't you think?

And then, if we start again the next day, September 15, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, then (one moment while I count on my fingers, please), nine more fingers of days lands us on September 23rd, the feast of St. Padre Pio! Oh my heavens, there is no one ever (besides Jesus and Mary) who wanted more to alleviate suffering than our dear Padre! He even started a not-really-but-practically-a-hospital called The Home for the Relief of Suffering, funded (in its building which was a decades long process I think) by small donations - and perhaps large too - from around the world, given by his spiritual children. We are happy to call ourselves his spiritual children too, and we could sure use his help to relieve our suffering!

Finally, the great thing about Padre Pio's feast on September 23rd is that if we start novena #3 that day - just moments, perhaps, after we finish novena #2 - guess where it ends? Haha - the Feast of Feasts for little ones! No, not Christmas silly. Count with me.

September 23 (I'm starting on the thumb of my left hand), 24 (index finger), 25 (middle finger) 26 (ring finger), 27 (pinky), 28 (thumb of right hand) 29 (index finger), September 30 (middle finger and last day of September because "30 days hath September"), and then - this is where we end on the ring finger when there's only one pinky left, signifying we've counted nine fingers for nine days: OCTOBER 1st!!!!!!!

You know, the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, aka, the first St. Therese (Marcel being the second), the Little Flower!

And if you don't know yet, you'll find out soon that this means ROSES and answered prayers. You'll find out even if you don't join in the triple novena (though how can you resist?) because we'll include your intentions!

Watch this (I love doing prayer intentions!) -

Dear Jesus,
We are very little, but we want to pray very big. We ask our guardian angels, Marcel, and the Holy Innocents (and all of heaven) to join us in begging you to bring relief and healing to my friend's son, my other friend's friend and family, and my father-in-law Paul. Oh, and to all those who are reading this, whether or not they pray this triple novena with us, and to all those whom they love who need relief and hope. Thank You Little Jesus!

Now, the big question before a novena is always (for me at least) how little can we make our prayer so that it will actually be said? And what should it be?

Here is my suggestion for the first novena. I probably won't remember to say this prayer each day. I hope I remember to say, "Help, Jesus! Remember our novena!" and that could be my contribution, but I love this prayer so much that I'll suggest it as an option for our first novena, which starts tomorrow and ends on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross:

​An Old French Prayer for Friends

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

*            *             *
Isn't that perfect?
And for prayer #2, ending on Padre Pio's feast day, again don't be shy about joining me in praying some heartfelt (or tired-before-you-drop-into-bed) prayer like, "Jesus, help! We all need You so much!" but also feel free to say this lovely prayer to Padre Pio (because then you get an added bonus from the novena - you'll see what as you read on) -

Prayer to Saint Padre Pio

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

*    *     *
Even if you only read it once (you just did!) isn't that a spectacular prayer?! But now we must quickly move into the third novena prayer, the one for those days from Padre Pio's feast to St. Therese's special day. And here I give you my favorite prayer to her, or (come to think of it) two favorite prayers. The reason they're my faves is because I know them by heart, which makes them much easier for me to remember to say . . . 

First, the short version, which is so fun and goofy that I thought it originated in the 1960's, but which I found (after having learned it from a dear friend who had used it since the 70's, I imagine) in a letter from Bishop Benziger of India way back in the 1920's or 30's, not long after little Sister Therese became St. Therese! Here it is:

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

(The three exclamation points are part of the prayer, in my estimation!)

Or for the longer St. Therese novena prayer (but not too long):

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

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

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

*      *      *

Even as I write this, I'm thinking of more friends I want to include in our triple novena: the cancer-suffering mom of some students we know, the grandsons of friends in our Carmelite community, a dear godson, and ever so many more! But I will know these intentions can be added and added until they reach all the way to heaven - especially when stacked on top of your special intentions too! That's the great thing about even a single novena (let alone a triple one) - lots of days to remember more intentions and commend them to God, even if one's prayers are little, just like us.

The smile and the glance - ah, the smile and the glance, on Mother Teresa's feast day, are great prayers to remember. A dear Padre sent me this quote in her honor today:

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile."

And then (now that we are in blue, you can tell we're getting to the very beautiful part of this post!) remember too not to be discouraged if you miss the opportunity of the smile and the glance at those around you - sometimes we are tired, or hungry, or sleepy (did I encompass that in tired? I don't think so!) - or all of the above! - and what was supposed to be a smile is a scowl, what we would like to have been a glance is a glare! Oops! That's the little way - we get to start over, and why not smile or glance at an image of Jesus or Mary, or Therese or Marcel. They understand, and if you open up Conversations, you will find that Marcel really really understands! Or rather that Jesus really really understands and keeps telling Marcel and us too not to worry about our weakness. It is only all the more reason for our confidence in Him! Since we're too little to be all we'd like to be, let's trust Him to carry us in His arms and bless those we love (as well as blessing us).

Now what was that other prayer.
The smile.
The glance.
Ah, the kiss!

Let's begin our novena now, on the vigil of the day we'll really start (tomorrow), by asking Jesus for His kiss to help us be His delight and the delight of those He has put in our hearts and lives. 

Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!
Draw me, we will run!!!!!

"Was it not in prayer that St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. John of the Cross, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and so many other famous Friends of God have drawn out this divine science which delights the greatest geniuses? A scholar has said: Give me a lever and a fulcrum and I will lift the world. What Archimedes was not able to obtain, for his request was not directed by God and was only made from a material viewpoint, the saints have obtained in all its fullness. The Almighty has given them as fulcrum: HIMSELF ALONE; as lever: PRAYER which burns with a fire of love. And it is in this way that they have lifted the world; it is in this way that the saints still militant lift it, and that, until the end of time, the saints to come will lift it."  -St. Therese, final page of Story of a Soul

*       *       *

I can't remember how many times I've heard friends going through great trials say, "I feel the prayers. They are carrying us through."

I know usually I can't remember because I'm Miss Marcel, and Marcels don't remember anything! But this time I remember well the reality, but merely can't remember the number of times it's happened, because it has happened so many, many times. And now, I rejoice to say, it is happening to me.

If you are reading very carefully (between the lines), you might immediately see what I saw just now while writing this (between the lines). If I'm rejoicing that this is happening to me (and God is so good that I must rejoice, not merely to say it but to live this experience of being buoyed up and carried along by prayer), that means I, too, must be going through a great trial. And rejoicing? 

Before we get carried away, let me say that someone dear to me is going through a great trial, and so don't worry that I'm suddenly a big fan of suffering! But the amazing thing is that what I have seen and felt in the last 24 hours is an outpouring of grace that rivals the crossing of the Red Sea.

Okay, the image seems wrong - the parting of the Red Sea was not an outpouring but a holding back of waters . . . Those were salty tearful waters of a bitter, harsh sea, and these are floodwaters of grace, like rain during a drought or, better still, like the water Therese and Marcel are pouring on the little flower pots in the photo above. But in both cases, the result is the same: the irresistible urge to sing a new song in praise of God's mercy.

My father-in-law Paul is in great need of prayer. He had surgery a few months ago, and has been in a kind of decline of health and energy since then. In fact, to put his name in a sentence that includes the word "energy" is so unfitting that I'll say instead that my wonderful and good father-in-law has been utterly exhausted and weak, and thus in increasing stages of being cared for.

To speak for myself, I just love being cared for! I discovered this when I was pregnant with our first son. It was so natural for me to ask others to do for me what I could have done for myself. Just give me an easy chair and a good book, and I'm ready to stay there indefinitely, if you would just please bring me a glass of cold water, yes with ice please, but not too much. Oh, and a butterscotch sucker from See's. We don't have one in the house? Would you mind going to get me one? They'll even give you one as your free sample if you ask . . .

As another MIss Marcel told me recently, some of us are born princesses (think the Princess and the Pea). 

And then there are the Pauls of this world. You know, those with gumption who don't want to be waited on hand and foot. Go figure!

But truth be told, it cannot be fun to have all your power and self-control, all your surroundings and even when you can get out of bed or back into it, and most of all when you can go home (ah, even in exile, a home is so dear and basic to happiness) dictated by others. And for me to say "it cannot be fun" is even to add too much humor to the situation. Humor is not added by the recognition of this great suffering, but only - odd as it sounds - by prayer.

Yes, we're back to prayer! Yesterday morning (or perhaps it was the night before) I sent out a prayer request for Paul. I sent it to friends near and far, and God bless the Internet! In a short time (which was all the time I had free because we are now near Paul for a week, and every moment is full), I had sent out my pleading request to four groups of friends. Can you guess what happened next?

My friends prayed.

Some of them are dear friends I've known for decades, friends I grew up with, you might say. Others are friends I'm still trying to grow up with, but God seems to prefer me little, and they kindly put up with me as I am these days. Some I haven't seen in far too long, others I've never met face to face . . . and yet the replies to my request poured in as my friends' kindness poured out. Just like the water Therese and Marcel are pouring out above - and how cute! I just took a closer look at the photo topping this post and Therese has a watering can, but what in the world is Marcel using? He always makes me laugh!

Meanwhile, the prayers. How mysterious. They've poured out grace on Paul and his situation and those of us who so love him and are trying to figure out what comes next, even as these same prayers have flown to heaven, carried by the angels - really, I know it's true because I recently read this in a quote from one of the saints, and not just any saint, but Marcel's (and therefore our) dear spiritual father, St. Alphonsus de Ligouri (and wow, he knew a thing or two about prayer)!

St. Alphonsus says: “Our prayers are so dear to God, that He has appointed the angels to present them to Him as soon as they come forth from our mouths.” 

Let me tell you from my experience of the last 24 hours - not only is what St. Alphonsus says true, but also what St. Thomas says: the angels can act immediately (being pure spirits and not slowed down, like Paul has been so much lately, by these silly bodies of ours). That means our prayers don't take any time at all to waft to God! Even besides the good news that He's holding us in His arms close to Himself so that our prayers go quickly from our mouths to His ears and our hearts to His, those angels make sure there's not a second's delay.

I know this because the effect of my friends' prayers (oh my goodness, I am so very, very grateful!) has been as visible as the smiles on the faces of the many kind people who have been helping Paul (and us) where he's currently staying.

To get down to particulars, in the last 24 hours these prayers have brought for Paul a resurgence of health. These prayers have brought for us the gift of counsel and a clarity regarding what comes next. And what comes next is (by God's goodness, the power of prayer, and the kindness of friends) what Paul was been asking for repeatedly - for a very tired man, quite tirelessly, I might add! - namely that he COME HOME!

If I might trouble you who are now reading this - or rather if I might entice you - to join this dear crowd of friends and cloud of witnesses who are praying for Paul and us: will you please say a prayer too that we now find the right home health aide to assist us when, hopefully quite soon, we bring Paul home? It is a bewildering array of possibilities that await our novice attempt to choose among them!

Marcel's favorite prayers were of the simplest nature. After our sister Therese and our mother Mary taught him, and Jesus taught him too, Marcel loved the prayer of the sigh, the prayer of the glance, the prayer of the smile. You might try any of these! The sigh which sometimes starts out as a regular old sigh can become a sigh of love! The glance, which happens to fall on a picture of Mary or Jesus, or someone else you love, becomes a glance of love! And the smile? Ah, the smile is spectacular, and while we're on the subject, I have to tell you about a smile of exquisite beauty, and another little prayer request.

On our visits to Paul in his beautiful (but not home!) room at the rehab place, we keep passing another room with an open door. Just inside the door is a bed, and in the bed is a kind looking blonde woman with a smile that lights up the place. Every time we walk by, there she is, confined to bed, but smiling at us when she sees us. I'm not talking a kind of fake, sad smile, but a real, genuine, friendly and contagious smile!

Each time our eyes met, I wanted to stop in and say hello, but I know myself, and I knew if I stopped in to talk with the smiling lady, I might never leave. You can see, then, the power of a smile! I'd forget to rejoin the others in Paul's room, which was, after all, why we were here . . .

But just like my mother-in-law accidentally turned into Dunkin Donuts the other day (that was a rewarding accident!), so I accidentally turned into Jean's room (for yes, her name is Jean!) two days ago, not looking where I was going and thinking it was the place where they have the coffee maker and such.

I had turned and just about stepped over the threshold of her room, when I looked up and laughed. There I was, Miss Marcel, right where Marcel himself wanted me to be! And Jean didn't miss a beat, but said, "You're from California, aren't you?"

What a great opening line!

I told her yes, though we all wondered later how she knew.
I think it must just be obvious, for although it's a big state, many people when they think of California immediately think of Hollywood, and then Valley Girls are just a step away: ditzy, air-headed, and oh so happy - Yep, I'm from California! How did you guess???

I told her, with a smile matching her own, that I had to go but would love to stop in soon.

And so last night I finally had the chance. I got to stop in and visit, and I got to ask Jean why she was in rehab (my brilliant opening line), and she told me.

Jean is in rehab while she waits for a new hip. Her old one is gone. I mean really gone: she only has one hip. And yesterday they told her that after her 6-8 weeks of antibiotics are up, the insurance won't pay for her to stay the 2 more weeks before she gets a new hip. So, as it turns out, she's supposed to go home in another few weeks alone, with no medical help, and without a hip.

I'm not very medically savvy, but I picked up that the hip is the thing you need two of so you can do things like stand and walk! But do you know what? Jean was still able to smile, though she had a worry crease over her brow and admitted she had asked God earlier that day what in the world He was thinking!

I figure sometimes God likes to pretend He needs us to help Him think.

There He is, running the universe, and perfectly I might add, but somehow it doesn't look that way from our perspective. So we have the opportunity to tell Him how He can do better, and that's what we call prayer. Like this:

"Dear God, I know You love Jean. How could You not? She's so lovely and so full of love, smiling like that from her bed, even when all this time she has only one hip! You would love her tons even if You weren't God! But You are. So how about shortening that two week gap between the end of rehab facility and her hip surgery? Jean would be so grateful, and if You could let her know soon that everything will be okay, that would be really kind. Though if You want her to trust in You while this scary thing looms, then please give her the confidence and joy and peace to know You're on it. Though just for the record, and because You're so good and indulgent, I'll say frankly that I think You ought to fix this soon. I love You!"

See? He just needed me to tell Him what to do!

And getting back to Paul in his bed in rehab, since that's why I'm here, I'll tell you what happened next.

It looked like he was stuck in that bed. The best we could do was move him to another bed in another room that wasn't home, in another place that wasn't home . . . 

And I asked for prayers. And friends prayed. Their generosity in itself was enough to pour balm into our hearts - we received so many emails with so many reports of loving prayers for Paul and us from all over the country and the world!

How could God resist? He doesn't even want to resist, and then when we turn to Him - wow! Therese is so right! The saints of these days are doing infinitely more than you might suspect! And the bar is so low - just a sigh, a glance, a smile! But then there were chaplets and rosaries and Masses and Communions and hours of adoration! If you have only a sigh or a glance at your disposal, don't feel it doesn't count beside those rosaries and Communions - every smallest movement toward Him delights His Heart beyond measure!

So by last night, the whole scene had changed.
We went to visit Paul, and we all told jokes and laughed! 
Because thanks to an afternoon visit with his case worker, the wonderful Cecilia, it looks like he will be coming home!
He's still in need of loving care, and that's where our next prayer comes in, that we might find the right home-health-aides to help care for him at home. But to go from complete confusion and looming depression to a clear vision of what is next, with joy and hope - that is the power of prayer!

Our deepest, widest, highest prayers have yet to be answered. Isn't that always the way? Always another need, another hope, another important request to the Man Upstairs. But I'm okay with letting God take His sweet time, since His timing is always perfect. When Therese and Marcel had their first conversation (as recorded in his Autobiography), she assured him that God has it down pat: not a moment too soon, not a moment too late, that's how His timing works.

Since I don't have that passage (and that book) at hand, I will offer another passage from another book - my very favorite book, Marcel's Conversations - because I can't close without giving back a gift in thanks for all the graces that are coming our way, thanks to the prayers of the saints, on earth and in heaven.

I love this passage because it sums up my life, and contains such good advice too! These are words of St. Therese to Marcel and us, and though I can't remember what his question was, if we substitute any of our own recent questions, the answer fits like a glove! Our sister St. Therese says:

"My dear little brother, your question does not really make any sense. You must admit, first of all, that you demonstrate a profound ignorance. If you are incapable of making a judgment on something so minuscule, then what are you capable of? However, little brother, the greater your ignorance and the more you give that impression in the eyes of your brothers and sisters (the saints in heaven), the more it will be given to you to understand clearly and with certitude. Supposing even that you know something or other, pretend to know nothing so as to understand more clearly." (218)

When it comes to most things, I don't have to pretend to know nothing! So I thank you most sincerely for joining your prayers to mine, and know that I'll be joining mine to yours so your intentions and needs are covered too. We're so lucky to be able to pour God's limitless love over one another, and I'm so grateful for the floods of it that have been poured out around us these last 24 hours!

Almighty Father, Little Jesus, Holy Spirit of Love:
​Draw me, we will run!!!

The roses pictured above are called "Fragrant Cloud," and they are - I wish I could give you a scent, as well as a photo! - fragrant indeed! I know this because I have many of them blooming in my little Therese garden of 4 rose bushes behind the house, and they never cease to delight me, Marcel, and Therese who sends them (not to mention the many recipients of her largess to whom I pass them along, although I confess that lately they're all clustering in our living room around our Russian icon of Mary and a statue of St. Therese that sits beside her).

Enough about the history of these roses in my life, though. What do they mean for us at Miss Marcel's Musings? By picturing them above in a beautiful couplet, I'm thinking of today's great feast:

Happy St. Alphonsus Day!

The smaller rose to the left is our own Marcel, and the bigger more blooming rose represents St. Alphonsus. He is Marcel's holy father in the Redemptorist Order he - St. Alphonsus, that is, founded, and since Marcel is our brother, St. Alphonsus is our holy father too! Furthermore, as well as being our dad, he's a Doctor of the Church, author of a gazillion marvelous books, and the merciful theologian who made moral theology a thing of beauty: or in other words, the one whose teaching has the power to knock out the bullies of Srupples in this fallen world. (If you still find those bullies knocking on your door instead of lying down knocked out, call on St. Alphonsus and maybe even google "Scruples Anonymous" - you'll find there his Redemptorist sons at your service.)

But if we take one more glance at our roses, there's something more they represent, something more personal to you! Just as Marcel was like a little flower under the overarching bloom of his father St. Alphonsus, so we are now the little flower under the overarching bloom of Marcel himself! So ultimately that flower on the left is YOU, dear reader, not merely in bud, but thanks to Jesus and Marcel, blossoming nicely, while the more full blown bloom kissing you from the right of the photo is our brother Marcel himself, who's mighty happy now that he's received the Real Kiss of Jesus that whisked him straight to Heaven!

A year or two ago on this very day, St. Alphonsus Day, I found the most wonderful quote from one of his books, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection - which "means," incidentally, is prayer (she revealed, in order to save countless readers the trouble of procuring the book for themselves). Well, this particular book, I mean the actual copy I have, belonged to my dear cousin Charlie, who LOVED St. Alphonsus as perhaps no other has done in the history of post-Alphonsus-time. You can bet, then, that what Charlie underlined in this book is REALLY BIG - and fortunately for us, Charlie didn't underline everything (as I tend to do in my favorite book), so we can see that what he underlined wasn't just really big, but even The Most Important Thing. Or, at the very least, what I found that Charlie had underlined was, and still is, exactly what the Holy Spirit wants us to take away from this great book in our super-short-perusal-of-it-because-we-have-to-get-back-to-Conversations, our favorite book.

As you might guess, this morning I returned to Charlie's St. Alphonsus book and re-found the wonderful quote to share with you. St. Therese said that for simple souls there must be no complicated ways. Given my penchant for complicating things, I've decided this quote is SUPER important for saving my soul, or saving some remnant of simplicity, anyhow. You'll see what I mean when I tell you what the quote is, and so, if you're sitting down, here it is:

"One single holy maxim, well ruminated, is sufficient to make a saint."

It suddenly strikes me that St. Alphonsus' maxim above, you know about one single holy maxim, could be mine. But I think today's guest, our holy father, is rolling his eyes and shaking his head, and Marcel whispers, "No, no, choose another one, silly!" so I have no recourse but to give you my own favorite and most necessary maxim, while at the same time I encourage you to choose one of your own, with the help of the Holy Spirit who breathes where He wills, and your guardian angel who knows exactly what you need to become a saint. And don't worry if you want to borrow mine until you find your own - though I'm biased, I think it's the best ever and you can keep it as long as you like, especially since Jesus meant it for all of us.

Unsurprisingly to those of you who know me or this blog (and to know this blog is to know me!), my maxim comes from Marcel's Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese, and in particular, from a conversation our little brother had with Jesus. And the way my maxim (you know, the one that well ruminated will make me a saint) appears in Conversations is both delightful and quite appropriate for today: Delightful because it comes straight from Jesus our adorable Savior and Spouse, and appropriate because Jesus even explains to Marcel (and us) that St. Alphonsus himself endorses it!

We find our maxim in a conversation Jesus had with Marcel on April 13, 1946 at around (438) in Marcel's pages, and happily this holy maxim comes straight from Jesus' sweet mouth when He says:

"Do not worry any more, ever."

That's it! Isn't it terrific?

Besides being a single holy maxim, I think "Do not worry any more, ever" has to its advantage (and ours) that it's quite short, and therefore possibly memorable even for those of us blessed with Marcellian memories. And then, as I mentioned, it's got St. Alphonsus' endorsement, but even better, not only his, as Jesus explains:

"Besides, everybody repeats the same thing to you: your Mother Mary, your sister Therese and, if Saint Alphonsus spoke to you, he would only tell you not to worry . . ."

Isn't that fabulous? But there is, as you may suspect, even more.

What I love about this holy maxim is that although Jesus waited until relatively recently (about 3 years ago) to bowl me over and draw me closer to Him with this saying in Marcel's Conversations (and after all, He had to give good Jack Keogan a chance to translate Convos into English from bearded Jesus' - Father Boucher's - French from Marcel's Vietnamese), our loving Savior could not restrain Himself for those long centuries from giving us all the kiss contained in "Do not worry any more, ever," and so, we find, He actually said it long ago on the night before He died!

You can find it more than once in St. John's record of the Last Supper in chapter 14 of his gospel. There Jesus tells us straight off in verse one, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." And again, a bit later, "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid."

Wow! God is so good! And to think the night before He died wasn't by far the first time that He told us these words. They're scattered over the New and Old Testaments, as if He really, really, really wants us to get this message!

I love, too, that our Heavenly Father sent Pope Saint John Paul II in more recent years to remind us frequently of this holy maxim. "Be not afraid!" the Vicar of Christ would say in his lovely Polish accent. And he meant it!

We have, then, a well chosen single holy maxim. We are ready to be saints! Except - not to make you worry, but isn't there always a catch?

It struck me this morning that I was forgetting something important about St. Alphonsus' holy maxim that got us started on holy maxims. He says, and again I quote, "ONE SINGLE HOLY MAXIM, well ruminated, IS SUFFICIENT TO MAKE A SAINT."

Did you read the small print? We've got to ruminate? And "well"? Ack! We're sunk!

Except don't forget that Jesus told us not to worry any more, ever, and that includes now, which means there must be a way around "well ruminated," and thankfully, I have that little way handy. (You see, then, that Miss Marcel sometimes muses before she starts writing. Not often, but it happened today, thanks to St. Alphonsus who, believe it or not, himself tended to be a worrier, which is why he was and is so concerned that we learn from his mistakes.)

Recently I came across a book by the famous English Dominican of a hundred years or so ago, Fr. Vincent McNabb. He was a friend of G.K. Chesterton, and I'd heard of him, this Fr. McNabb (that's why I call him famous) but I'd never read anything by him that I recall. Thankfully, this book called God's Way of Mercy jumped off a library shelf into my arms and rectified the situation. (Now don't go popping over to amazon to order the book - you can trust Jesus and me; we're about to give you the best part right here.) 

So there I was in the stacks, attacked by a great book, and when I gathered my wits (and the book), what words did Fr. McNabb speak to us? For surely they were not meant solely for Miss Marcel. Why would God have set up a blog especially for my musings, if not because just as every word He gave to Marcel was meant for us, so every word He gives me is for you too?

The touching solicitude of our loving Little Jesus guarantees that He will give us everything we need. He was well aware that it would dawn on me this morning that while I love to muse, I'm rather terrible at ruminating. And so, He had previously sent me Fr. McNabb, a Dominican, and thus a practically professional ruminator! (What with the vow of poverty, I'm not sure he's technically a professional, but you know what I mean.) This is a son of St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas, a lover of wisdom, a contemplative sharing the fruits of his contemplation with the rest of us, and none too soon! Here is what pages opened before me, and here is what Fr. McNabb tells us in his gentle rumination prepared for us 85 years ago, originally given as a retreat talk on "Solicitude" in Hampstead, England, but obviously meant for you and me today. I will border his thoughts with flowers here at the beginning and later at the end, so you might recognize where his ruminations start and finish, and my musings start up again.

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From a retreat conference of Fr. Vincent McNabb

"Be not solicitous."  (Luke 12:22)
"Fear not, little flock." (Luke 12:32)

It seems almost sacrilege to add any words to the great sermon of Our Lord to the poor human heart so constantly solicitous for the tomorrow it may never see. And Our Dear Lord says so simply: "After all these things the nations seek" - those nations now seem out upon the dark, all seeking; but not seeking what is first and realizing that all the other things will come, and come in due order. One of the paradoxes is that we seem to preen ourselves on being so much superior to other centuries in intellectual culture. Yet never was there such a century when men were thinking so much of what they should eat and put on. No wonder things are getting worse . . . 

So often human life seems in rags because something is denied it. I will give up all that has ever been written for this passage! "Fear not, little flock." God says to me: "Don't be afraid, Father Vincent." I'd tear up all the works of St. Thomas for that! I'd put them all on the fire!

"You're frightened. Don't be frightened. Poor little soul, you're frightened." I wonder how many of you remember, as I remember, waking up from the sleep of sickness in childish terror, to find a mother's arms round me. "Don't be frightened, my child. What are you frightened of? Dear child, don't be frightened. It's your Mother."

You know, we must be in a terrible state when Our Dear Lord tells us to be of good heart by thinking of the ravens. Catholics will always love natural science. We shall always be interested in animals; even in the grass. Perhaps that is why there were dovecots in the old steeples, and grass about the feet of the church. When you and I are almost laying violent hands on ourselves, let us accept Our Lord's invitation to go out to the birds and the grass. Let us just sit and look at the sparrows . . . Our Dear Lord tells us of the sparrows, just to teach the world not to be solicitous. There are times, you know, when we are overwhelmed with sorrow and disappointment. We just look at something, almost unable to think - the swirl of the dry autumn leaves; or a fly crawling up the window-pane, or the sparrows.

Oh, my Beloved Master, how Thou didst know the human heart! Thou didst make the sparrows and the grass for Thyself and for the poor fear-overwhelmed heart of man.

Our Dear Lord speaks here of solicitude about what we shall eat and what we shall put on. That is a great solicitude in modern times. But there is also a kind of spiritual solicitude He is trying to allay, and He meets it with terms of endearment. "Little flock. Little lamb; My lamb, be not afraid. Little flock." Now as the hour of separation comes and He has made these reeds almost into rocks, endearment is on His lips. "Be not afraid." This is to great stalwart fishermen, who hardly knew what fear was. We can have a kind of spiritual solicitude; the soul is almost terrified about tomorrow. St. Peter, the expert in all these sudden fears, says: "Be not afraid of their fear, and be not troubled" (1 Peter 3:14). Even in spiritual things we must not be solicitous for the morrow. We must not think our strength will give out.

"Your Father knoweth you have need of these things." How often I have heard that from my Mother's lips! "Your Father is looking after all that, child. Your Father is seeing to that." Sometimes even in spiritual things we are over-solicitous, even about our sin.

Ah! A Son of St. Dominic can never forget the prayer of his own spiritual Father. He used to pray to be a stone in the mouth of hell to keep souls from falling in. Perhaps that was the most daring of prayers. But there was no solicitude about it, only a solicitude to help others. There is no over-care about tomorrow; just a love of God, a love of souls, and trust that God would keep him against any final loss.

So, dear children in Jesus Christ, may our thoughts tonight be just the memory, I almost said the murmuring, of these words of Our Lord.

Oh, dear children, think how privileged you and I are to close our ears after the music of these words of Our Lord.

Each night, as darkness draws on, I seem to remember the awful terror the darkness was to my boyish mind. Now God is so good He has penned all those terrors; and from time to time, before one dares to give oneself to sleep, the music of these words is sung into our ears.

Whatever, then, the cause of our solicitude today or tonight, we must not yield to it. We must yield to Our Lord. No one loves us as He does, nor so unselfishly. No one has bought us at such great price. We are of great value to Him even if of little value to ourselves. Who of us could value ourselves highly? To Him, even heaven seemed well lost for love of us; and with desire He desired to prove His Love by death.

So let us be lulled and at peace with the sweetness of these exquisite words of Divine Love. 

"Your Father knoweth that you have need of these things." Yes, dear Lord, Thou sayest that as if Thou Thyself didst know. But Thou, too, knowest, My Brother, Thou knowest the depth of my sorrow and of my over-solicitude. And with sweet words from Thy most Sacred Heart, Thou dost bid me, "Fear not, little lamb of My Love."

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Sigh.

To borrow Fr. McNabb's opening, it seems almost sacrilege to add any words to the great sermon he preached on the great sermon of Our Lord to the poor human heart . . . and so I will only repeat Jesus' more recent words - twelve years after Fr. McNabb's, and almost two thousand words after His own original, "Fear not, little flock" - 

Do not worry any more, ever!

Ah, He is so gentle, so kind, so merciful, so tenderly solicitous in reminding us not to be solicitous! He even gives us a remedy for our inability to not worry, when He sends us Mother Mary's words to us through Marcel in a later conversation (596):

"Each time that you are troubled, even if only for the span of a breath, say this: 'Little Jesus, I offer You this worry as a sacrifice.' Then, remain in peace."

Lots of good advice, but it all comes down to one holy maxim, however many different words we end up using, in imitation of Our Dear Lord (as Fr. McNabb so sweetly calls our True Love!), who never tired of trying to convince us in every possible way: Don't worry! Don't be afraid! Don't be solicitous! Fear not!

What love, what love!
I, for one, am now starting to worry about what I have to do next after finishing this post. Bad me! But let's not be discouraged. Our good father St. Alphonsus told us that one holy maxim, well ruminated, would do the job and make us saints, that is, make us one with Jesus.

If ruminating hasn't worked it's magic on us very little flowers, let's try something else. How about marinating?! Maybe it was a bad translation and that's what St. Alphonsus really said!?

One holy maxim, well marinated, is sufficient to make a saint. 

If you're like me, whenever a recipe calls for marinating, you have about ten minutes tops before everyone expects dinner on the table. Oops! But this time it's different. This time our time is - who knows? - well, actually, exactly like when we're making supper: this time our time is just however much time our Heavenly Father deems perfect, so no worries! Let's marinate in Jesus' words; let's not give up, but let's follow our holy maxim till the sweet end when Jesus gives us that Kiss of kisses and takes us to Himself.

Fear not, little flock.
Be not solicitous . . . 
Be not afraid.
Let not your hearts be troubled or afraid.
Do not worry any more, ever!

And finally, "Little Jesus, I offer You this worry as a sacrifice!"

St. Alphonsus, pray for us!
Fr. McNabb, pray for us!
Blessed Mother, pray for us!
St. Therese, pray for us!
And Marcel, come play with us, and make us laugh, as you always do! It's hard to be afraid when we're laughing, and so we thank you for all your help!

Little Jesus, kind Jesus, our dear Lord, our True Love:
Draw me, we will run!

This is the Little Jesus of Therese, also known as the "Rose Child Jesus" on account of his rose colored tunic. Our adorable Savior is in the Lisieux Carmel, but no, I didn't take this picture - He's in the cloister, where we weren't allowed!

Today we get back to our monthly book club reading, our little paradise project, our one chapter-a-month of St. Therese's Story of a Soul, and with her, since it's July and we're on Chapter 7, we finally get into that coveted Carmelite cloister! Marcel and I thought it fitting, then, to begin with this darling Little Jesus cameo - and do you know that I'm wearing practically a replica of Him on my wrist as we speak? A dear Miss Marcel couldn't resist His loving demeanor on a faux silver charm, and so now He goes with me everywhere. God is so good! 

If you wonder what place this particular Little Jesus had in Therese's life, you'll find out in our July reading that He was the first to greet her in the cloister after she received the Carmelite habit - and He was surrounded by snow, which He, her divine bridegroom, had provided per Therese's desire!

But there's another lovely part this statue played in Therese's Carmelite life. I just read in a Lisieuxian book (i.e. one I got in Lisieux) that our sister loved to "fleurir" - to adorn with flowers - this Little Jesus. 

How do you like that? French is such a wonderful and romantic language that it has a verb for "adorning with flowers!" I like that very much and it encourages me to keep learning the language, even if my progress is simply one beautiful word at a time!

But now, let's see what else we can find in Chapter 7 of Story of a Soul.

Several things struck Marcel and me as we did our reading, and we have to start first with an acknowledgment of our gratitude to Mother Agnes, Therese's sister Pauline, to whom Therese gave the task of editing her writings. Mother Agnes did a marvelous job - so marvelous that even after much laborious work by others in the 1950's, work restoring Therese's original manuscripts for Story of a Soul (taking out all Mother Agnes' changes and additions), later scholars, editors, and publishers have felt the need to add copious footnotes in order to restore all of the anecdotes Mother Agnes had originally inserted! If you're reading the ICS edition, you'll see what I mean; if not, you're most likely reading the Mother Agnes-ified version, so you've got it all in the text. Hooray for Mother Agnes!

Secondly, we want to thank our Heavenly Father and my husband Tony for providing such a happy visit to Lisieux earlier this summer. Thanks too to the Holy Spirit's inspiration, our pilgrimage there has made so much of this chapter come alive for me. I love to encourage readers of Miss Marcel's Musings to get a copy of Marcel's Conversations (or a second copy if you possess only one so far!), but I'd like to add the suggestion that you also go on a trip to Lisieux! Until you do, please believe me that Les Buissonnets, to which Therese says good-bye in the opening paragraphs of Chapter 7, and the Carmel, to which she says hello in the subsequent action of our Story, and the main altar of St. Pierre's, which she notes her father donated - all of these are there still in Lisieux, testifying to the existence of St. Therese and validating the particulars of her memoir. And they are all so exquisite!

Then there's the crazy secret which Marcel and I feel privileged to know, and which we'll gladly share with you. 

In Chapter 7, Therese receives her Carmelite habit, as we mentioned above. She writes, "At the termination of the ceremony the Bishop intoned the Te Deum. One of the priests remarked to him that this hymn of thanksgiving was usually sung only at Professions, but, once begun, it was continued to the end. And indeed it was fitting that the feast be thus completed since in it were united all the others."

Well Marcel and I read that and scratched our respective heads. (Please rid your interior landscape of the image of Marcel and I scratching each other's heads, like two little monkeys!) It rang a bell; we'd heard something like it somewhere before . . . 

Aha! It was in that favorite tome, Fr. Thomas Taylor's "Green Book" - the early English language edition of Story of a Soul that includes the story of her beatification and canonization, and so much more. Opening it up, we found a description of Therese's beatification by Pope Pius XI (April 29, 1923), and this fun fact: "No one who took part in the ceremony could forget the enthusiasm of the multitude, or the great Te Deum, reserved solely for a Canonization, and intoned on this occasion by a happy mistake."

Yes, God is good indeed! And He loves to pour out His goodness on little us! How delightful that there's something about our sister Therese that evokes not only our gratitude, but His glory, even when not scripted or expected. We shouldn't be surprised, it's her very refrain, sung boldly and taught to Marcel to teach us: How littleness sets in relief Infinite Greatness, how weakness is a foil for unlimited Strength, how utmost poverty provides the perfect setting for Limitless Mercy and Love!

But beyond our feelings of gratitude, Marcel and I felt great interest in the comments St. Therese makes in this chapter about peace and about suffering.

Regarding peace, she tells us that after her desires were accomplished (of entering Carmel and giving her life to God), "My soul experienced a PEACE so sweet, so deep, it would be impossible to express it. For seven years and a half [from her entrance to her writing these pages] that inner peace has remained my lot, and has not abandoned me in the midst of the greatest trials."

One might regret that even amid the peace, Therese had trials. And yet we prefer to consider, as Therese put it, that even amid the trials, she had peace.

Just this morning I read  Jesus explaining to us in His Conversations with Marcel, "As you still remain on this transient earth, you will still have to suffer many times; but do not worry: I remain always with you, yes, always, always. It is impossible for me to leave you, even for half a second" (404).

But what shall we say about these trials that Therese experienced?

Marcel and I loved that when Therese speaks of suffering in this chapter, she always connects it with desire. This seems strange - Marcel didn't desire suffering in his little life, and neither do we! But at least it reassures us that Jesus wasn't pulling a fast one on our spiritual sister. She had no complaints, as we shall see. 

Therese tells us that when she entered Carmel, she could already articulate her purpose: she had come to save souls, and especially to pray for priests. This is right in line with the Carmelite vocation, the reason St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila had reformed Carmel three hundred years earlier: to save souls, and especially to pray for priests, as well as being a good friend to Jesus who is too often abandoned by His erstwhile friends. But little Therese continues, "When one wishes to attain a goal, one must use the means: Jesus made me understand that it was through suffering that He wanted to give me souls, and my attraction to suffering grew in proportion to its increase."

A few pages later, speaking of her love for Jesus' adorable Face, she writes, "Ah! I desired that, like the Face of Jesus, 'my face be truly hidden, that to no one on earth would know me.' I thirsted after suffering and I longed to be forgotten." And then she adds, "How merciful is the way God has guided me. Never has He given me the desire for anything which He has not given me, and even His bitter chalice seemed delightful to me."

A little later, when Therese is recounting the great suffering she and her sisters experienced at the illness of their beloved father, she explains, "My desire for suffering was answered, and yet my attraction for it did not diminish." 

This last statement ought to have been enough to frighten the daylights out of me and Marcel, but thankfully, we kept reading. For then, Therese hands us the key to understanding her seemingly odd appreciation for suffering: "I was still the happiest of creatures since all my desires had been satisfied." 

We apologize if we've scared the living daylights out of you! Before we go any further, Marcel and I must admit - we aren't suggesting that every Mr. and Miss Marcel should hanker after suffering!

Au contraire! We aren't hankering after suffering - at least I'm not! - but we were somehow reassured because we noted the connection for Therese between suffering and the desire Jesus gave her for it.

Let's be honest, suffering is in itself an evil (and no fun!), so it wouldn't be natural to desire it or love it. Rather, Jesus must give the soul a desire and gratitude for it - which gift is not natural but supernatural - if He wants the soul to love suffering.

Speaking for myself, as I think I mentioned about a paragraph ago, I still have absolutely no desire or love - natural or supernatural! - for suffering. And I take great consolation from Marcel's similar attitude, as recorded in every other page (if not every single page) of Conversations. I can't say I know his attitude has stayed the same - presumably the Beatific Vision does things to a soul, and I don't begrudge our dear brother the insights and increased charity the Vision of our Beloved has given him. 

No, but I do cherish his constant and reassuring disgust and aversion to suffering as expressed in his Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese. "Me too!" I often scribble in the margins. Down with suffering! Down with bitter chocolate! Up with happiness! Up with treats and sugared sweets!

What Marcel and I both love, though, about Therese's comments on suffering in this chapter is that she repeatedly insists that God is doing no more nor less than granting her desires. He was the One who, mysteriously, gave her a desire to suffer in order to save souls, and He was the one who satisfied her desire by then giving her the suffering she desired.

As for those of us who have not this desire for suffering, I offer the good news that Jesus constantly insists on to Marcel - and thus to us through him - that JOY is what He asks, what pleases Him in us, whether amidst consolation (YAY!) or suffering (boo and boo hoo, but still, that He wants us to be joyful even here is something I love).

And now that we've mentioned consolation (it's right up there before the parenthetical "YAY!"), Marcel and I would like to note another part of Chapter 7 that we loved beyond measure: Therese says the coolest thing ever about our consolations in this life!

I've often had the feeling that our attitude toward consolation ought to be: "Thank You Jesus, but I know this won't last. I'm going to cling to it while I can, but wow, I'm not looking forward to what comes next."

Far from being such a Debby Downer, our sister Therese has the opposite to say: she can't wait for what comes next, because after this life comes Heaven, and our consolations here are just a tiny taste of the Feast our Heavenly Father has prepared for us there. 

She writes:

"The Bishop came into the cloister after the ceremony [of her clothing with the Carmelite habit] and was very kind to me. I believe he was very proud I had succeeded and told everyone I was 'his little girl.' He was always kind to me on his return trips to the Carmel. I remember especially his visit on the occasion of our Father St. John of the Cross's Centenary. He took my head in his hands and gave me a thousand caresses; never was I so honored! At the same time, God reminded me of the caresses He will bestow on me in the presence of the angels and saints, and now He was giving me only a faint image of this. The consolation I experienced at this thought was very great indeed!"

Isn't that wonderful?

I've never had a Bishop make much of me, but I do remember way, way back into my almost pre-history when a loving Great Uncle Paul held my young face in his hands and stroked my hair, repeating in sweet accents, "Leenda, leenda!" - that is, "Linda, linda!" which in Spanish means, "Beautiful, beautiful!" I felt so loved - I was so loved - and according to Therese's understanding, those caresses I felt, the love they expressed and the way I felt so loved - all of it was just the tiniest reflection and anticipation of the love the Father will bestow on each of us, His beloved children, in Heaven. Isn't that awesome? And the same is true of all our experiences of love on this earth - just shadows of the Luminous Love to come!

Finally, there's one last thing Marcel and I would like to mention from this dear Chapter 7 (which we hope you'll read soon if you haven't yet). 

Therese mentions in a parenthetical aside:

"(At the beginning of my spiritual life when I was thirteen or fourteen, I used to ask myself what I would have to strive for later on because I believed it was quite impossible for me to understand perfection better. I learned very quickly since then that the more one advances, the more one sees the goal is still far off. And now I am simply resigned to see myself always imperfect and in this I find my joy.)"

That last line slays us!

"I am simply resigned to see myself always imperfect and in this I find my joy."

Isn't this the essence of Therese's Little Way? We think so! And, too, the essence of Jesus' message in Conversations, where He forever reminds Marcel (and us) that it's our very weakness and imperfection that calls to Him, and obtains for us His merciful Love in abundance.

As Jesus said to our brother (and us) on April 7, 1946:

"Your weaknesses, Marcel, far from reducing my value of you, only make it increase further, since they are, for you, grounds for much greater confidence in me, which makes our union firmer still . . . " (386).

And knowing this very weakness includes a hefty dose of forgetfulness, Our Lord kindly repeats Himself on May 10, 1946 (as in the gospels He never tires of reminding us not to be afraid):

"Nevertheless, little brother, your weakness has not disappeared for all that; it will remain in you until the time when you receive from me the first kiss of your life . . . Little brother, always remember that you are a truly poor and destitute soul. Do not worry about your weaknesses, as your sister Therese has told you, and as I, myself, have told you many times. It is in knowing your nothingness that your confidence in me will be truly firm" (652).

I don't think we could take away anything more valuable than this from our reading of St. Therese! And yet, our post cannot finish without a random invocation of the Te Deum - it's just too sweet that the Holy Spirit and our angels helped us make the connection between Therese's clothing and her beatification - the one preparatory to her profession, the other to her canonization, and yet both first steps proving perfect occasions for singing this glorious hymn of the Church.

In my Divine Office, before the Te Deum itself, there is a small note: "For Sundays, solemnities, and feasts . . . " Exactly! Oh, and also days on which we meet with Marcel and Therese - for these become feasts de facto, in virtue of the great grace of our being together! 

Ready, then? Here goes, our hymn of gratitude and praise:

You are God: we praise You.
You are the Lord: we acclaim You;
You are the eternal Father: all creation worships You.

To You all angels, all the powers of heaven, Cherubim and Seraphim,
sing in endless praise:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.

The glorious company of apostles praise You.
The noble fellowship of prophets praise You.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise You.

Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims You:
Father of majesty unbounded, 
Your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,
and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.

You, Christ, are the King of glory,
the Eternal Son of the Father.

When You became man to set us free
You did not spurn the Virgin's womb.

You overcame the sting of death,
and opened the kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

You are seated at God's right hand in glory,
We believe that You will come, and be our judge.

Come, then, Lord, and help Your people,
bought with the price of Your own blood,
and bring us with Your saints
to glory everlasting.

Save Your people, Lord, and bless Your inheritance.
     - Govern and uphold them now and always.
Day by day we bless You.
     - We praise Your name forever.
Keep us today, Lord, from all sin.
     - Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
Lord, show us Your love and mercy;
     - For we put our trust in You.
In You, Lord, is our hope:
     - And we shall never hope in vain.

+   +   +

Marcel and I may not be little monkeys exactly, but I do feel like a monkey's uncle (as in, "Well I'll be . . . ")! I'm not so great with long prayers, since my mind fades around the third line, but here I've been revived at the ending - so Theresian that one can see how God had to invoke this hymn every time He could, not only for her to honor Him, but as if to honor her Little Way to Him. The only thing possibly missing is an exclamation point, or three, so we'll add those, and voila, the essence of the Good News:

"In You, Lord, is our hope: and we shall never hope in vain!!!"

And now, to close before the month does, let's say together with confidence unbounded:

Draw me, Little Jesus; we will run!!!

"It is right to provide some diversion for the one to whom you owe so much." - St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila, "La Madre"

I hope you haven't been worried about me! It's been nearly two weeks since our last post, and that feels (at least to me) like a very long time. But if you have been worried - about anything at all! - I'm here again to reassure you there's no need for that pesky anxious feeling.

All is well and all will be well! Our Heavenly Father is still in charge of the lovely universe He created, and although He never takes my advice ("How 'bout we get rid of suffering? And free will? Don't you think so, Papa?"), He has been full of compassionate Love and His trademark solicitous tenderness these past 13 days. If you haven't seen the signs, I'll redouble my efforts in prayer so that soon you too will be surrounded by roses.

I just came across that quote above - "It is right to provide some diversion for the one to whom you owe so much" - in the Pious Recreations (also called Plays) of St. Therese. Well not in the plays themselves, but in the Intro, to be more precise.

Although the quote is from our holy mother, St. Teresa of Jesus of Avila, the Intro (and thus the offering of the quote) is from the hand and heart of the late and sweet auxiliary bishop of Lisieux, Bishop Guy Gaucher. I'm now only one step away from knowing him, since we met those who knew him in Lisieux, and then we got to visit his grave there. Thanks, Bishop Gaucher, for all you've done for little Therese and for us! And thank you especially for this great quote!

The diversion the big St. Teresa had in mind was some verses (poetry) and songs written by one of her Carmelite daughters; verses and songs which delighted her immensely.

But oh how true it is that any wholesome and fun-filled diversion is such a gift! I know because I'm coming home after partaking in a family reunion, and it was full of diversion and delight, whether it was watching my grown nieces and nephews play "Reverse Charades" (everyone does the charade for the guessing of one, rather than one acting it out for everyone to guess) or teaching and learning snippets of Theresian French songs with my great nieces (!!!!) or shopping at Costco for the swarm of locusts we all collectively were! And I haven't even mentioned the ultimate joy of being able to share our little brother Marcel with a darling niece who laughed with me at his antics and now has his book in her hands!

Wouldn't you know I lost my camera somewhere in all the excitement? And yet, I see in this the hand of our loving Father too. At the very least, His hand is keeping St. Anthony's tied so that the camera remains lost! But more than that, He's protecting the anonymity of my dear East Coast family. They are, you see, better looking than all the most beautiful and handsome movie stars in Hollywood, and yet they enjoy their privacy, their un-discoveredness, their sans-paparazzi life. Ah, were they discovered on this blog in all their blonde, brunette, and beyond-words-beauty, the jig would be up and the work of celebrity life beginning, so I am at peace with the loss of my camera and its pics of these darlings. Their anonymity is worth such a small price!

Besides, I have two consolations: 

First, I console myself that there are pictures on others' picture-making-machines - whether it's that coveted photo of "The Ten" or that never-failing source of delight, the original Three lined up a la "the piano bench," with faces matching their childhood smiles and pouts . . . 

But second and most importantly, when I think back on our visit and the plethora of two generations of nieces and nephews, plus sisters-in-law, parents-in-law, and not least my dear husband and two wonderful sons, all of their images somehow remain vivid in my mind and heart, and that's infinitely more precious than any digital (or even printed out!) photos.

Ah, what a miracle that we were together! And God's bounty surrounded us, not only in each other, but in the gorgeous weather, the sun and surf and sand, the pool and the meals, the kitchens, the living rooms, the laughter and occasional tears. What a richness!

For years I've happily accompanied my husband to his family's home in south Florida. For decades I've loved his sisters and his parents as my own, and we've all of us gone through many a visit together over summertime or Christmas vacation. This year, though, it was with a fresh and greater anticipation that we met, for there were new spouses, new babies, new pregnancies, even new college-to-come experiences for three of the cousins, all adding up to so much more joy than ever before! 

And so, with thanks to God for this huge clan, I want to dedicate today's post to the next generations: to my East Coast nieces and nephews, and for those of you who are married, to your wonderful spouses and spectacular children as well - this one's for you! Thanks for making it to Florida, thanks for the love you shared with us and each other, and thanks most of all for the love you daily share with your amazing children. Thanks for the example you give to us of selfless love and patience, even when you might not feel loving and patient inside! And thanks for all the laughter!

Oh, and I've learned so much from you - oldest to youngest and everyone in between!

Just to take one small example, I found out last night (and what a terrible thought that I might have missed this, but my miracle-working sister-in-law who had gathered us all together for the reunion shared this fact with me at the eleventh hour): that one single young woman, after less than a full day at the beach, can actually empty out half the sand and shells of the Atlantic Coast into a normal sized borrowed bathtub! And when she does, much laughter ensues!!

But besides this kind of random fun fact, I learned the much more important truth that where there is love, nothing is impossible, or to put it another way: anything is possible! You, my nieces and nephews, lived this truth before my wondering eyes - in your treks south to arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's and in your treks north again; in your kindness, your sacrifices, your loving care of your children: I only have to close my eyes to see the fathers among you soothing restless or over-excited little ones, and in alternating images, I can still see mothers rocking, carrying, attending, and reassuring one overtired (but ultimately happy, thanks to your ministrations) child after another. What exquisite love!

And then there was your solicitude for each other. I hope I never forget the sound of one sister offering to another a huge sacrifice and act of kindness, then being asked, "You'd do that for me?" only to reply, "I'm your sister! I'd like to think a sister would do that for me if I needed it!"

What I love about this world is that our learning never ends. St. Therese wrote in her Story of a Soul, "My nature was such that fear made me recoil; with love not only did I advance, I actually flew." I have seen such love lately that it's a struggle to keep my feet on the ground. . . Okay, full disclosure - I am, to be honest, flying!

Flying home after our reunion, flying home after a second week in Florida where, even amidst concern for Grandpa's fatigue, I saw over each succeeding day the most magnificent joy and love shining from Grandma and Grandpa's faces when we reminisced about our week-of-everyone.

Thanks, Nick, for your dream and your persistence - it so paid off beyond our wildest hopes!

I'm posting this now from betwixt and between - way up high in the sky half way between homes - and as soon as it's up, I'm going to get comfy and say a Rosary for all of your intentions:
P & L;
C, T & N;
and the 10 and their many:
D & M (thanks for letting them come, M!), P, M, T, C & D;
B (we did it! we finally celebrated your feast day together!!!!);
C & P (with thanks to Louis and Zelie for your new job!), G, O, C & P (cuties!!!);
V & A (so glad to finally meet you, A! I love you!) & sweet M and baby;
T & M (looking forward to meeting you, M, in God's perfect timing!) & baby;
M & Z & darling N & baby;
E (you are so beautiful, E! Thanks for singing for us the last night!!);
and last but never least:
G & M & M - you guys are awesome!!!

May our beloved Jesus supply St. Therese with untold and innumerable roses to shower upon each and every one of you - and now that we know dreams come true, let's have huge hope and confidence in all our needs and desires! As little Therese never tired of repeating with St. John of the Cross: "We can never have too much confidence in the good God, He is so mighty and so merciful. We obtain from Him as much as we hope for!"

I have so much confidence in Him that I'm sure He'll answer your prayers. He doesn't want us to worry and so He sent Jesus to tell us, "Fear not, little flock; your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom!" We know, also from Jesus' words, that those who seek the Kingdom are given everything else besides, so no more worrying, about anything, ever!

We have a custom here at Miss Marcel's Musings of ending with a simple prayer. It's a line from the beginning of the Song of Songs in the Bible, and St. Therese talks about it toward the end of Story of a Soul, saying it's a way to pray for everyone we love because Jesus will draw them all with us when He draws us to Himself.

Or, as I like to say, just tell Him, "It wouldn't be Heaven for me without . . . ." and start naming away! What can He do but make Heaven a real Heaven for you by drawing in those you love right along with you!

And so, with all the love and thanksgiving a heart can hold, let's pray:

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

p.s. G in VA and D in CA: Photo at the top is specially for you! If you ever feel alone, remember your cousin-friendship that goes all the way back to twin-spiderman days! And know too that there is a whole heaven full of Saints who love you - including Pope John Paul II, who you can see is ready to receive all your secrets and prayers and take them straight to Jesus! He loves you both with Limitless Love!

Another post so soon? Well, yes, if we're going to rashly announce novenas right and left, I think it only fair to follow up with a little celebration at their culmination, though I'll be honest and tell you I've been particularly pitiful about this one!

I was so lucky and blessed to be at the relics of Sts. Louis and Zelie two months ago, and when there, I told them how grateful I was for their giving us St. Therese, and how sorry I was to have so little devotion to them.

I wanted to do more, and this past week I determined, again, to read Louis and Zelie's letters (or rather Zelie and Louis' since the vast majority are from her pen) but somehow it isn't happening.

Ah Louis and Zelie! I say it again: Forgive me!
But in honor of your feast, I need to say something, so I will say this:

I thank you, dear Saints Louis and Zelie, for loving God and your children so much, for loving our holy Faith, and for loving the priesthood and religious life as well as your own vocation to marriage.

Thank you especially for giving us little Therese, who has given us little Marcel, who has made us happier than bugs in a rug. (I just looked that idiom up, and it should be "snug as bugs in a rug," but I think snug is very happy indeed, so it still works as far as I can tell!)

Ah, Marcel!
Here is what I read in your book of Conversations today, and I want to share it so we can all, in honor of Louis and Zelie's great love, absorb Jesus' love like a pile of dry sponges absorbing the living water!

On December 27, 1945, Jesus said to you (and to us through you):

So, what is it that you were asking me, Marcel, that I replied thus? You asked to be buried in my heart. It is good, I agree to it most gladly and, even if you did not ask for it I would not neglect to bury you in it anyway.

Come on Marcel, say after me: 'Jesus, I love you.' Little Marcel, why do you not say a word of love to me? Yes, why? Is it that you have already forgotten the word Love so that I must urge you to say it? In order to prove to me your love, Marcel, you have only two things to do, to say to me: 'Dear Jesus, I love you a lot.' Then look at me. Marcel, when you enjoy my conversation, you must say to me, 'Dear Jesus, I love you greatly.' This will be one way of answering me. As for looking at me, you will do so at the times when your heart feels bitterness and is unable to say a word to me. You will use this glance to give me a sign of your love. But you must make us of it only when I am not speaking to you. When I speak to you, don't just be content to remain there, leaning forward open-mouthed listening to me speaking without deigning to reply to me.

​My little Marcel, you get younger every day, so much so that I must begin again to teach you even the first words that I have already taught you. Why do you forget so quickly? However don't be sad because you have such a short memory. Even if you forget, you please me nevertheless, on condition that you do not worry about it.

+   +   +

There is more, and it just gets better, as we just get younger!
But I don't want to tire you, dear reader, and so let me conclude by saying simply, "Don't be sad!" and too, "Don't worry!"

Louis and Zelie, pray for us!

And little Jesus: Draw me, we will run!

This photo is very deceptive, because here is little Van dancing before a statue of Mary, but in reality he's now dancing with Therese and Little Jesus before the REAL Mary, his mother and ours!

You may think I'm jumping the gun, but I can't wait any longer to rejoice with you over our brother Marcel's 60 years in Heaven! And since I found the following wonderful quote in the Church's Manual of Indulgences (which makes for spectacular reading, by the way!), I've become not only intractable, intransigent, more determined than ever, and even obstinate about the onset of a Feast, I've also become much more fun! For what is more fun than a family Feast?

The quote which has done this happy work reads as follows: 

"If a visit to a Church or an oratory is required to obtain an indulgence attached to a particular day, this may be accomplished from noon of the preceding day until midnight of the particular day."

Now doesn't that just sound like party-time to you?
I don't mean to imply there's a particular indulgence attached to July 10, but I do mean to say that it's time to indulge our joy because our little brother is THERE - with JESUS - at LAST!!!

They say Heaven can wait, but I don't believe it, and I can't wait either!

Sometimes Heaven must wait - our Father there knows exactly the right moment for everything, and consequently poor Jesus must continue on His obedient path of restraining His Limitless Love, though I bet if He had His way, He'd kiss us all right now with the Real Kiss and then - whoosh, the party in heaven would be The Party in heaven. 

But no, I don't think the Father or the Holy Spirit are letting our Jesus win us entirely just yet. Though He's certainly won our little brother for good and keeps, and it was on this day (July 10 - and if you are further East in the time zones than I am, you might be there already! but if you're not there yet, just think "from noon the preceding day"!) - it was on this day 60 years ago that Jesus just had to give our Marcel that first real kiss that landed him in everlasting bliss. I don't know about you, but I'll say it again: I can't wait.

I will, though. 
Wait, I mean.
Because like I said, the Father knows the perfect time for everything!

So now that it's the perfect time to rejoice, dance, sing, and thank the good God for Marcel, the second Therese, and the day upon which he finally got to really talk with Jesus, what shall we talk about?

First off, let me clarify. I don't mean to say that Marcel's Conversations with Jesus weren't real, but I came across something in them yesterday that delighted me - I can't be bothered with chapter and verse today (or rather with date, page, or parenthetical Marcel's-page-number), because it's a feast of the lowest order. Haha, I was going to say of the highest order, but stopped myself in time, because technically, a feast of the highest order would be a solemnity. And I'd say since our darling Marcel isn't yet beyond "Servant of God," his feast must, for the nonce, be lower than the lowest official type feast, which is an optional memorial I think, so we'll have to call his day "a very optional memorial," don't you think? And isn't that fitting for least of flowers along the Little Way?

But back to the delightful (if unreferenced) passage. Jesus was saying to our little brother that someday Marcel really would get to go to Heaven. And then, Jesus said, then they could really talk. Isn't that marvelous? And He said Marcel would be able to say everything! I love it, because I don't know about you, but my conversations with Jesus fall into two categories -

Those which consist of my trying to converse with Him, and then I start thinking about what I might eat next

and

Those which consist of my reading Conversations, and then things go much better, and if I read more than two paragraphs, Jesus usually tells me that's enough, I'm tired, time to go to bed!

It's really all good! All a grace, as Therese said, even though sometimes (often?) mingled with degout. No, that's not a new French dish, but just plain old blah-de-blah. Still, with food and sleep to look forward to, I count my blessings!

Getting back, though, to the whole question of conversations and real talk, I have something so funny to tell you! 

Just today for the very, very first time, I realized that St. Therese's Last Conversations (that her sisters wrote down for the last several months of her life - every word!) has the word Conversations in the title - just like Marcel's book Conversations! And if that isn't funny enough (first that they have the same name, and second that I never noticed til now), how about this for the coup de grace, or the icing on the cupcake: 

St. Therese's Last Conversations were most definitely not really her last conversations, since even before she started talking to Marcel she insisted on "coming down" as she foretold, and chatting it up with all kinds of people!! I just love that!

When all this occurred to me earlier today, I made myself roar with laughter (interiorly, of course, as I try not to scare those in my immediate vicinity with too many private - as in really private, just me getting the punch line - jokes!). And what was so very, very funny? 

Well when I realized that Therese's last words were not her last words by a long shot, and in fact her last conversations were not her last conversations at all because she keeps talking and talking and talking (like Marcel and Jesus, which is why I adore them so!), I thought, "Now isn't that just like a woman!"

Ha! I'm allowed to say it because I'm a woman too!

Not to change the subject, but I forgot to mention cupcakes when I was vividly painting the happy portrait of our celebratory feast. Just keep in mind that was a terrible oversight, and they're included too!

But back to Therese and Marcel, and their Convos.
What I love is that in both cases, both books (her Last Conversations and his Conversations) have dated entries, which means (I am incorrigible!) more anniversaries!!

Yesterday (July 8), was, then, the anniversary of a GREAT saying of Therese. A real doozy that explains so much of life. And the lovely part is that I didn't just see it yesterday - I found these words of hers about a month ago and I've been waiting for yesterday ever since, so I could celebrate the day she said this . . .

Ready?

On July 8, 1897, Therese said to her sister Pauline (Mother Agnes of Jesus): "In heaven, I shall obtain many graces for those who did good to me. For my little Mother, everything. You won't even be able to make use of them all, there will be so many for you to enjoy!"

(And here I think of Fran Renda, who recently joined Marcel in heaven!
And I think of Jack Keogan, who recently turned 88 and continues to brighten every heavenly and earthly day by doing good for Therese through his work of spreading Marcel's books around the globe.
And I think of Fr. Olivier, Marcel's postulator, working at his task of spreading Marcel's good news, a task which he fits into the spaces left in his life after a full day of Benedictine ora et labora (that's prayer and work) for the Church.

And oh! Smack dab between Marcel's day and Sts. Louis and Zelie's will be St. Benedict's! Holy Father St. Benedict, bless Fr. Olivier and all who share your name!

If we muse on that quote for a minute though (you know, the one that said, "In heaven, I shall obtain many graces for those who did good to me. For my little Mother, everything. You won't even be able to make use of them all, there will be so many for you to enjoy," perhaps you're thinking, "Well that's all pretty thrilling for Mother Agnes, and even Marcel and Fran and Jack and Fr. Olivier, but what about me? 

I hope you are NOT thinking that, but if you are, we can work with it.
For today, July 9, Therese said more - and I take these next words as the tenderly solicitous answer to our fears that perhaps her words weren't meant to apply to anyone but Pauline, who did even then work so very hard for her.

Ever on the lookout to stem to the tide of our fears, though, she went on to say, "Sister Genevieve" (this was her sister Celine, much more ordinary and unimpressive than Mother Agnes) "will need me. However, I will come back."
, 
Oh my stars! You have to love it!
And if you don't believe it even yet, well you simply have to go to Lisieux. There you will see, as we did, the very stones praising God reflected in this little maiden! For there in the enormous Basilica, the beautiful Basilica, the teaching Basilica, you would see the words up in the dome, the HUGE dome: our sister's own words, "I will let fall from heaven a shower of roses." But again, lest that leave you imagining her keeping her distance, around the dome in the ceiling are these four cool triangles (forgive my pathetic description; I do what I can!) which each have a picture and some words. And the words say: "I will aid priests," and "I will aid missionaries," and "I will aid the whole Church," and then - can you guess? My favorite: "I will come down!"

And you know what? She did come down - to little Van who became little Marcel who became the second St. Therese, that's how very much she didn't forget her promises!

I may seem to be talking more about the sister than the brother, but you know it's all their doing. Ah, Marcel, you would happily remain the hidden apostle of love, now that you've discovered your vocation. I even teased your postulator about this - perhaps you don't want to become BIG and famous like your erstwhile little sister Therese!? Don't worry, he just laughed and refused to worry. (Quite right of him, and showed he's been reading Conversations too!) He's not afraid because he knows how captivating you are. Who doesn't love a little child? But no more hiding today Marcel - maybe someone new is visiting here who can take this chance to get to know what beautiful things Jesus did in your life! So here, to make up for all this blog can't say (not enough time, and as I've mentioned before, not enough room on the internet to say all we could and would like to say about Vietnam's little flower) - here is a link to the incomparable Jack Keogan's website, and in particular, to the page there with a MOVIE!

Yes, for our feast, a movie! What could be more fun? Nothing I can think of, and I do like fun! Here, then, will be our link, right after we repeat our novena prayer and our signature prayer. And remember, no excuses, it's a quite optional feast on July 10th, and I'm praying you'll do it justice by smiling, laughing, and kissing little Jesus with Marcel and me! Oh, and don't forget the cupcakes too! 

Now for our novena prayer:

Along the road you have traveled,
We follow in your footsteps,
Forever committed to our sacrifice,
No matter the hardship.
Ardent peaceful blood pumps through our hearts,
With the life force that you left us.
You are no more, but you will remain forever among us.

Dear Marcel, please intercede with our Heavenly Father for Karl and his family, and for Jack and his family, and for all of us and our families and our intentions! Thank you, little brother, and please kiss Jesus and Mary and Joseph and Therese for us too!!!

and our other novena prayer (leading up to July 12, Sts. Louis and Zelie) -

Saints Louis and Zélie Martin,
after having had the desire for religious life,
you heard the Lord's call to the vocation of marriage. 
You are the "incomparable parents" 
of whom your daughter St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus speaks...

You love us as your own children, with the heart of a father and the heart of a mother, because you are the friends of God, and the parents of our sister, St. Therese. 
Listen to our prayer and our requests
and intercede for us with God our Heavenly Father,
through Little Jesus,
in the grace of the Holy Spirit who is Love!

Draw me, little Jesus . . . we will run!!!!

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I would say we've earned a movie and a cupcake, wouldn't you?
Click on the title below, click again when you get there, and enjoy!

HIDDEN APOSTLE OF LOVE