October 1, 2011 - ST> THERESE OF LISIEUX

Today is the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, also called the "Little Flower." She has been called, "The Greatest Saint of Modern Times." What a tribute to an ordinary French Carmelite nun who spent her short 24 years of life within the cloister!. Who is St. Therese of Lisieux?

St. Therese of Lisieux was born in Alencon, France on January 2, 1873. She was a pampered daughter of a mother who had wanted to be a nun and a father who had wanted to be a monk. Five daughters lived out of the nine children born into the marriage. At the age of four, her mother died and so she became close to her elder sister, Pauline. Five years later, Pauline entered the Carmelite Convent. The loss of her second mother affected her so much. She became so ill that many thought she would die. Doctors were helpless over her case. Through all her pain, she kept close to the Blessed Virgin with her rosary and other prayers. Then, one day, the statue of Mary smiled at her. Suddenly, she was cured. She tried to keep the grace of the cure to herself for a long time.

The entrance of her sisters, Pauline and Marie to the Carmelite Order inspired Therese to follow their footsteps. After sometime, she gained her father's blessing in regard to her desire. But the parish priest and the Bishop denied the request on the basis of her age. Later, she and her father went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Before the Papal Audience, the pilgrims were forbidden to speak with the Pope but that did not stop Therese. When she knelt before him, she told him of her wish to be a nun and appealed that his blessing to her prooposal be granted. The Pope assured her that God's will be done. She was carried out by two guards. But a year later at age 15, she was admitted to the Carmelite Convent in Lisiuex.

Her idea of convent life met with reality in a way she did not expected. As a cloistered nun, she could not even visit her father who suffered a series of strokes which affected him physically and mentally. She was grief-striken! She endeavored twice as hard to show love in every little work, every humiliation and untrue accusation and in every glance or smile. These little sacrifices cost her more than the big ones because they wene unrecognized by others.

Therese continued to worry how she could achieve holiness in the life she lived. She did not want to be just good. She wanted to be a saint! She said, "God would not want me to wish something impossible. So in my hidden life and countless faults, I will look for some means to go to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight.

As a Carmelite nun, she spent much time alone with God in prayer, meditation and penance. Living the cloistered existence, no one knew that she had been receiving special favors from God. With her sisters, Pauline and Marie in the convent, she used to relate vividly stories of their childhood days. So, Pauline, who was Mother Prioress at that ime "ordered" her to write her autobiography, Hesitantly at first, she wrote her aautobiography and titled it, "The Story of a Soul" especially because she revealed her "little way" to spiritual sanctity. She declared, "I understood that love is everything; that it embraces all times and places. Oh, Jesus, my love! My vocation is love!"

Then in 1896, she coughed blood. She kept working without telling anybody until her illness became worse. She envisioned the work she would do after her death: helping those on earth. She promised, " My heaven will be spent on earth. I will let go a shower of roses!"

She died on Septembeer 30, 1897 at age 24. Therese's "little way" of trusting in Jesus and his merciful love to make her holy and relying in small daily sacrifices instead of great deeds appealed to thousands of people who were trying to find holiness in ordinary lives. Generations of Catholics have admired the "Little Way" and called her "Little Flower. They found in her short life more inspiration for their own lives than in volumes by theologians.

She was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1925. She is referred to as St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face or St. Therese of Lisiuex. She was declared Doctor of the Church in 1997 by Pope john Paul II. She is one of the only three Women Doctors of the Church, along with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa of Avila.

Morning Prayer of St. Therese of Lisiuex

Oh, my God, I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works by uniting them to its infinite merits. I wish to make reparations for my sins by casting them into the furnace to its merciful love.

Oh, my God, I ask of Thee for myself and for those I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy holy will, to accept for love of Thee, the joy and sorrows of this passing life. Amen.

St. Therese of Lisieux is one of my favorite saints. As such, I have tried to influence my grandchildren to be close to her, too. So, every time a grandchild graduated from Grade VIII, I rewarded them with a trip to Paris and a visit to Our Lady of Lourdes in Southern France. During the Paris sojourn with Joshua, Christina and Tiffany Anne, we also visited the shrine of St. Therese in her hometown, Lisiuex. We all found the experience at her magnificent basilica and the Carmel Monastery where her body lies a most unforgettable experience. While I have taken Diana, Michael and Christian to Paris and Lourdes, the trip to Lisiuex was missed, so I am looking forward to taking them there in the near future....so help me, Lord!

Sept. 30, 2011 - ST. JEROME AND THE BIBLE

Today is the Feast of St. Jerome, D.octor of the Church who for thirty (30) years painstakingly translated the Bible from Greek to Latin. For this task, he lived in a cave very near the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. He was the first one to use the word "Bible" for the Word of God written by writers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

St. Jerome's most quoted words are, " Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Jesus Christ." Rightly so, because we come to know Jesus through the Word - the Bible- where His life, His Teachings and His Passion, Death and Ressurrection are explained and proclaimed by people who wrote about Him under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Sept.23, 2011 ST> PIO OF PETRELCINA

Today is the Feast of St. Padre Pio of Petrelcina, the only priest in the history of the Catholic Church who bore the stigmata ( the five wounds of Jesus) for fifty years.

September 18, 2011 - PARABLE - LANDOWNER & LABORERS

The Readings and the Gospel today center on God and the incomprenensible quality of His Mercy.

The First Reading is from Isaiah 53: 6-9 where he exclaims that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways above our ways. We know very little about Isaiah except that he was from the tribe of Judah, or royal stock and that he lived in Jerusalem. He was also married and had two sons. To distinguish him from others so named, he was called Alsaiah, son of Amos, a man of God. Sometimes, the Book of Isaiah is referred to as a "Book of Comfort" in that he assures that man seeks God Who is beyond comprehension, yet still finds Him; God is transcendant, yet near enough to help man; God is exalted, yet is required of man to worship and follow His ways.

The Second Reading is from Paul's Letter to the Philippinans 1:20; 24-27.
Phillipi is a city north of the Aegean Sea and was named after Philipp of Macedonia who was the father of Alexander,The Great. St. Paul founded the first Christian Church in Europe here around the year 51. He lived there for some years and had an affectionate relationship with the people. They loved him as much as he loved them. When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, the Philippians provided him financial help and even sent Epaphroditus to stay and help Paul. When Epaphroditus became seriously ill, Paul sent him back to Philippi with this letter around AD 61-63.

"....for me life is Christ and death is gain" in the sense that St. Paul preferred to die so as to be able to live with Christ as he envisioned. But he knew that it was necessary tfor him to live for the benefit of the faithful since their increase of the knowledge of Christ through his preaching, they will become deeply grounded in their faith and such will please the Lord.

August 22, 2011 - QUEENSHIP OF MARY

Today is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, a special Marian celebration in the liturgical calendar. It was established by Pope Pius XII on October 11, 1954. It was originally celebrated on May 31st but was moved to Ausgust 22nd by Pope Paul VI because of its logical follow-up pattern after the Assumption of Mary on August 15th.

The title, "Queen of Heaven," (Latin Regina Caeli) is one of the many Queen titles of the Blessed Virgin. For centuries, Catholics while praying the Litany of Loreto was already invoking Mary as the Queen of Heaven long before the dogma was created by the Roman Catholic Church. The first basis for the Queenship of Mary was developed at the Council of Ephesus when it defined Mary as the Mother of God. She is Queen by "divine relationship," by being the Mother of the King of Kings.

Mary is Queen of Heaven by the singular grace of God the Father Who has willed her to play an exceptional role in the work for the salvation of humanity. For this reason, many devotees refer to her as Co Redemptrist. Pope Benedict XVI writes, " Because of her humble and unconditional acceptance of God's will, God exalted her over all creatures and Christ crowned her as "Queen of Heaven."

She is Queen by "Grace." Mary is "full of grace" of the highest order!

Mary's power as Queen is "intercessory." She intercedes for us. When we say that her power in the distribution of graces extends to everyone, we do not mean that she is the "source" of those graces but that by her prayer she can obtain from her Divine Son all the graces necessary for souls. Pope Pius IX writes, " She intercedes powerfully for us with a mother's heart, obtains what she seeks and cannot be refused by her Divine Son." Jesus cannot refuse what His Mother asks because she will never ask for anything contrary to the will of God or our best interests. The feast of Mary as Queen is an affirmation of the dogma of her "Mediation. "
"
As Catholics, we say our prayers of Consecration to Mary. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines "consecration" as an act by which a person is dedicated to a sacred service or an act which separates an object or a location from a common mode to one of sacred use. The Catholic Church makes it clear that the use of the term "consecration" with regard to Mary is an "entrustment" to Mary to show their devotion and dedication to Mary as the Mother of God, though holy, is not herself a divine being. In Catholic teaching, consecration to Mary does not diminish or substitute the love of God but enhances it, for all consecration is ultimately made to God.

August 11, 2011 - ST. CLARE OF ASSISI

Today is the Feast of St. Clare of Assisi, one of my favorite saints and guardian angels. Her life reveals one of the highest and purest forms of love for God. Many people have asked questions like these :

" What kind of love can make a young, beautiful, out-going girl leave a life of ease, attention and freedom for the cloister of drab, rigid, contemplative nuns? What kind of love can make a young girl give up her noble birth and heritage in a castle for the small, lonely, materially impoverished monastery? What kind of love can make a young girl abandon the luxury of possessions and goods for daily subsistence on alms and give-aways? What kind of love can make a girl of noble birth embrace a life of absolute poverty and consider it a privilege to live without privileges?

It is a love touched by God to be in complete harmony with Him - an "imitation" of Christ - in form and substance!

August 9, 2011 - ST> TERESA BENEDICTA of the CROSS

Today is the Feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a daughter of Israel who became a Carmelite nun. She was born on October 12, 1891, the youngest of eleven children. Since her mother did not have a living faith, she easily gave up praying. Her major study was on German and History. In 1913, she went to Goettingen University where she had as mentor, Edmund Hussein who expounded a new reality that the world does not merely exist in the subjective perception. This view leld many of his students to embrace the Christian faith. She also met Max Scheller who directed her to Roman Catholicism.

After World War I, she followed Hussein in Germany where she passed her doctoral degree with a dissertation on "The Problem of Empathy." On the death of Hussein's assistant, she vted his widow who was a woman of faith. She wrote, " It was my first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who bear it. Christ began to shine on me. In Christ is the mystery of the Cross." She converted to the Catholic faith and sincerely believed that she belonged to Christ not only spiritually but also by blood since she had Jewish roots. She read the The New Testatment and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. She read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and finished it in one night. She wanted to enter the Carmelite Monastery right after conversion but was prevailed upon to teach and to accept extensive speaking engagements. In addition , she translated letters and diaries of Cardinal John Newman, wrote, "Potency", a study of the central concepts developed by St. Thomas Aquinas. Within the Carmelite walls, she wrote, "The Father of Mysteries, St. John of the Cross," "The life of a Jewish Family," "The Science of the Cross" and her own philosophical and theological beliefs in "Finite and Eternal Being."

At that time she said, "I thought leading a religuous life meant giving up all earthly things and having one's mind only on divine things. I learned that the deeper someone is drawn to God, the more he has to get "beyond himself" i e; go into the world and carry divine life into it." She successfully combined scholarship and faith in her work and in her teaching, seeking always to be a "tool of the Lord."

She joined the Carmelite Order in Cologne, Germany and had her investiture on April 19, 1934 as Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She had her Perpetual Vows on April 21, 1938.

She was arrested with her sister, Rosa, who also converted in the Carmelite chapel in August 1942 and were gassed among the 087 who came to Auschwitz on August 8, 1942.