She was known as the naughty and difficult child to handle,
The one that cried even in the smallest matter,
The one that made it difficult for everyone to understand her,
The one who flies into frightful tantrums;when things don't go just right,
The one that say NO and nothing can make her change,and she can be terribly willful,
The one who was the baby of the Martin's family,
The one who had many weakness but LOVED JESUS,
That one is known as Little Therese...
Little Therese
Therese Childhood :Yes,she was a problem child in the family but it never stopped her from coming to Jesus.She believed that one cannot come to Jesus without their own weakness because it is through weakness that Jesus can make us strong by His graces.Her weakness never stopped her from being the Saint she wanted to be.
During her lifetime,she had to deal with many weakness that tormented her soul.She knew she was not like the others who became Saints.When she placed herself with the rest of the Saints in Heaven,she often saw how small she looked among them but this NEVER stopped her from desiring to be a Saint.
She often console herself by her words:
“I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance
of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen
the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy.
I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses,
nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues.
And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden.”
Therese's Life in the Carmelite Convent:
She understood that she did not have to be Great to be among them;she just have to remain being small and that will make her Great to be among them.She understood that she will be unique among the Saints and so being small was a good way of being unique.So she created her " Little Way ".Her little way that consist of little things done out of GREAT LOVE for Jesus..
Her way sounds so routine and ordinary,but it was filled with a loving commitment that knew no turning back.It was a straight way without losing hope even there will be many heartaches.It is called a little way precisely by being simple,direct,yet calling for amazing fortitude and Trust in Jesus!
Though many of the sisters in the Carmelite Convent found her little way too normal and not saintly.Many often felt that she can never be a Saint with her little way because they were all too comfortable seeing the Great Saints and could not picture Therese being great in her littleness.Some of the sisters did say harsh words that tore her apart but not her will to be a Saint.It remained with her even there were days when she saw herself doubting the existence of God and His Heavenly Homeland.
Therese's Devotions :
She believed in the Graces given from Jesus because she knew that without graces,she is not capable of doing even the little things.She often said : " Everything is Grace! " She desired graces deeply that she searched for Devotions that would able her to receive more graces and finally she found 2 Devotions that will take her to Heaven.It was the Devotion to the Child Jesus and the Devotion to the Holy Face.She found this 2 devotions simple and easy to pray.She kept faithful to this two Powerful Devotions of hers and trusted fully in its promises.She even composed a prayer to the Most Holy Face of Jesus.
These two Powerful Devotions are the effects of Therese being able to be great in her littleness because she drew close to the two devotions that many people are not familiar with or cannot seem to connect.By choosing the Devotion to the Child Jesus,she knew that the Child Jesus will help her to remain little like Him and by choosing the Devotion to the Holy Face,she knew that Jesus will imprint His Divine image on her soul so that she could be one with Him.These two devotions played a big role in Therese life because she knew even at times when she could not pray,she could still remain as a loving playmate to the Child Jesus.
Therese knew that at times of suffering,the Holy Face of Jesus will be her strength to be patience with sorrows and unjust statements by others.She was happy that she found very simple but Powerful Devotions.
There were many times when Therese had deep sorrows that caused her to weep bitterly,she would often run to the image of the Holy Face of Jesus and look upon Jesus' most sorrowful face,knowing that Jesus understand her sorrows.While feeling sorrowful,she will end up consoling Jesus by just looking upon His Divine Countenance and showering Him with her simple words :
"O Jesus, You offer me a cup so bitter that my feeble nature cannot bear it.
But I do not want to draw back my lips from the cup Your hand has prepared.
You teach me the secret of suffering in peace. The word peace does not mean joy,
at least felt joy; to suffer in peace, it is enough to will whatever You will.
To be Your spouse, Jesus, one must be like You, and You are all bloody,crowned with thorns!"
Though she had these two great devotions,it does not mean she never had problem with prayers.She struggled to pray and often fell asleep during prayer times.She did mention hating the recitation of the Rosary but loving Our Lady dearly.She just could not understand her problem and so she often said this to herself :
“I feel then that the fervor of my Sisters makes up for my lack of passion; but when alone
(I am ashamed to admit it) the recitation of the Rosary is more difficult for me than the wearing of an instrument of Penance.I feel I have said this so poorly!I force myself in vain to meditate on the mysteries of the rosary; I don’t succeed in fixing my mind on them.”
Therese Struggle during Prayer Time:
Therese was known to often sleep during prayer times due to spiritual dryness and she knew this habit became a problem to many of the sisters in the Carmelite Convent but she consoled herself to avoid discouragement by saying :
“I suffered complete spiritual dryness, almost as if I were quite forsaken.
As usual,Jesus slept in my little boat.I know that other souls rarely let him sleep peacefully,
and he is so wearied by the advances he is always making that he hastens to take
advantage of the rest I offer him.It’s likely that as far as I'm concerned, he will stay asleep
until the great final retreat of eternity. But that doesn’t upset me.It fills me with great joy….
I should be distressed that I drop off to sleep during my prayers and during my thanksgiving
after Holy Communion.But I don’t feel at all distressed. I know that children are just
as dear to their parents whether they are sleep or awake and
I know that doctors put their patients to sleep before they operate.
So I just think that God “knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
For those who find themselves sleeping during prayer time should ask Therese for help to not be discouraged but to continue praying even in the midst of sleeping for Therese trusted that Jesus is Merciful to those who seek Him.
Therese Good Humour:
Therese Good Humour:
Therese was often known for her good humour too.When she wrote about her childhood illness she described the visits of her relatives this way : "Friends of the family came to visit me.It displeased me to see people seated around my bed LIKE A ROW OF ONIONS."
Therese was like her father,a great mimic and even in Carmel she often entertained the Sisters with imitations of others.The younger sisters in the community were always disappointed when she was absent for recreation because then they said it was going to be boring without her.She joked with the sisters about being the one to try out the new cemetery plot.And when they were talking about how they would arrange her in the coffin, she said:
Therese's Deep Despair and Temptations to Suicide:
There were times where she did feel sad and felt gloomy especially during her last days on earth.She had sadness that came with temptations to suicide.Therese struggled during the intense sufferings of her last illness, temptations to despair and suicide passed before her mind.The agonizing sufferings that came from the slow death of tuberculosis and the dark night of soul that she experienced were enough to try even the strongest of souls.A month before her death, she made an urgent plea to her Mother Superior:
So remember,those who are having thoughts of suicide or feeling depressed; just take a look at Therese.She understands you well and knows these feelings very well.Draw closer to her and she will pray for you and help you to be granted the grace of extraordinary faith to fight these kind of wild temptations against the Devil.
Therese Preparing for DEATH :
Therese had a strong desire of dying young.She knew she could not do much in Carmel and wanted to do more by reaching out to others.The only way that she could achieve that was to die young ,she believed that she would do more in Heaven than on Earth.Therese writes a month before her death :
Many times during her last illness,Therese had announced that,according to her desire,after her death one would find only her bones.A novice told her shortly before her death : “You have loved God so much,
He will do wonders for you ; we will find your body incorrupt,” This idea seemed to pain her,and she answered somewhat sadly :
Therese After Death :
In the background is the statue of the "Virgin of the Smile," before which Therese and her sisters were praying when, at age 10 she was cured by the smile of the Blessed Virgin.The words that appear to be painted on the wall, the French for a quotation from Saint.John of the Cross, "In the evening of life, we will be examined in love," were painted on the negative.When the body of a Carmelite who died was prepared for burial, the custom was to use another habit, not the one the sister had worn in her lifetime.
Therese, who took poverty very seriously, used to ask the sister who was in charge of the linen room
to give her the oldest and most worn-out caps and other clothes worn next to the body.When the nuns dressed Therese's body, this sister produced for the funeral toilette an old cap worn thin.
Pauline writes that at first she was distressed by this,but later she understood that it made no difference.
The habit, cape, veils,and one pair of the sandals Therese had worn during her lifetime were due to be passed on to another nun,but Pauline asked Leonie (then the last laywoman among the Martin sisters) to offer to buy them.Mother Gonzague accepted the offer, so they were preserved.Another pair of rope-and-cloth sandals were destroyed when the nuns were cleaning up the infirmary after Therese died.
They were so patched that hardly a shred of the original cloth remained, and Sister Martha of Jesus took
them from Therese's Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, saying "You're not going to keep that rubbish,"
and threw them into the fire.At the process Sister Martha said she regretted having burned them,
for they would have shown how far Therese went in practicing poverty..
Therese was like her father,a great mimic and even in Carmel she often entertained the Sisters with imitations of others.The younger sisters in the community were always disappointed when she was absent for recreation because then they said it was going to be boring without her.She joked with the sisters about being the one to try out the new cemetery plot.And when they were talking about how they would arrange her in the coffin, she said:
"Well, put the candle in my hand but not those candlesticks--they're too ugly!"
She laughed and made others laugh but it does not mean that she never had tears.Therese's Deep Despair and Temptations to Suicide:
There were times where she did feel sad and felt gloomy especially during her last days on earth.She had sadness that came with temptations to suicide.Therese struggled during the intense sufferings of her last illness, temptations to despair and suicide passed before her mind.The agonizing sufferings that came from the slow death of tuberculosis and the dark night of soul that she experienced were enough to try even the strongest of souls.A month before her death, she made an urgent plea to her Mother Superior:
“Watch carefully, Mother, when you will have patients a prey to violent pains; don’t leave near them any medicines that are poisonous. I assure you, it needs only a second when one suffers intensely to lose one’s reason. Then one would easily poison oneself.”
Just a week before her death, one of her fellow Carmelites remarked on St. Therese's sufferings,to which she responded :
“Yes! What a grace it is to have faith! If I had not any faith,
I would have committed suicide without an instant’s hesitation.”
One thing we should know that if Therese attempted suicide at the moments of her despair she would have not been able to achieve the title which she now gained for her strong perseverance.The Devil knew that Therese will be great so he tempted her to suicide but he did not know her strength of Faith she was blessed by Jesus.
Whenever the Devil tempts us badly,we should be aware that he knows how great we can be in the future and that is why,he strives to bring us down.Do not allow him to do so,call upon Therese or just cast our eyes upon her and she will intercede for us to Mary,our Mother and Jesus,our Saviour to send us the special graces we need to ward off such temptations in moments of despair.
Therese Preparing for DEATH :
Therese had a strong desire of dying young.She knew she could not do much in Carmel and wanted to do more by reaching out to others.The only way that she could achieve that was to die young ,she believed that she would do more in Heaven than on Earth.Therese writes a month before her death :
"How happy I am to die,happy because in Heaven
far more than here I shall be able to help the souls I love."
Many times during her last illness,Therese had announced that,according to her desire,after her death one would find only her bones.A novice told her shortly before her death : “You have loved God so much,
He will do wonders for you ; we will find your body incorrupt,” This idea seemed to pain her,and she answered somewhat sadly :
“Oh, no ; not that kind of wonder!
That would be a departure from my little way of humility;
That would be a departure from my little way of humility;
little souls must find nothing to envy in me,so you can expect to find nothing but a skeleton.
Therese did not desire to have an incorrupt body,she desired to be little for everyone to trust that they can be little to achieve SAINTHOOD.She finally received her complete conversion and was away from temptations that she died a happy and peaceful death on September 30,1897 at 7.20 pm with such beauty on her face.
Therese did not desire to have an incorrupt body,she desired to be little for everyone to trust that they can be little to achieve SAINTHOOD.She finally received her complete conversion and was away from temptations that she died a happy and peaceful death on September 30,1897 at 7.20 pm with such beauty on her face.
This how Therese looked after her soul left her body to be with Jesus in Heaven :
In this photo Therese is lying on this paillasse, surrounded with artificial lilies.To prevent tuberculosis from
spreading in the monastery, this paillasse was later burned. On that same day, July 31, Sister Marie of the Eucharist (Therese's cousin Marie Guerin) wrote her parents:
"As we greatly feared she would not last the night yesterday, a blessed candle and holy water were placed in the room next to hers in preparation. She was complacently looking at these two objects out of the corner of her eye, when she said:
"See that candle? When the thief comes to take me away, place it in my hand,
but not the candlestick; it’s too ugly.”
Then she began amusing herself talking about everything that would happen after her death.She did this in such a way that where there should have been weeping, there were peals of laughter,so amusing was she.
She passes everything in review; this is her joy and she shares it with us in words that make us laugh.
She’s so cheerful I think she’ll die laughing."
She’s so cheerful I think she’ll die laughing."
Therese After Death :
In the background is the statue of the "Virgin of the Smile," before which Therese and her sisters were praying when, at age 10 she was cured by the smile of the Blessed Virgin.The words that appear to be painted on the wall, the French for a quotation from Saint.John of the Cross, "In the evening of life, we will be examined in love," were painted on the negative.When the body of a Carmelite who died was prepared for burial, the custom was to use another habit, not the one the sister had worn in her lifetime.
Therese, who took poverty very seriously, used to ask the sister who was in charge of the linen room
to give her the oldest and most worn-out caps and other clothes worn next to the body.When the nuns dressed Therese's body, this sister produced for the funeral toilette an old cap worn thin.
Pauline writes that at first she was distressed by this,but later she understood that it made no difference.
The habit, cape, veils,and one pair of the sandals Therese had worn during her lifetime were due to be passed on to another nun,but Pauline asked Leonie (then the last laywoman among the Martin sisters) to offer to buy them.Mother Gonzague accepted the offer, so they were preserved.Another pair of rope-and-cloth sandals were destroyed when the nuns were cleaning up the infirmary after Therese died.
They were so patched that hardly a shred of the original cloth remained, and Sister Martha of Jesus took
them from Therese's Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, saying "You're not going to keep that rubbish,"
and threw them into the fire.At the process Sister Martha said she regretted having burned them,
for they would have shown how far Therese went in practicing poverty..
When Therese's body was exhumed for the first time in 1910,
the Palm Branch placed in her hand (seen in this photo) was still fresh and green.
Miracles that Came Through the Intercession of Therese that made her a SAINT :
Therese became a Saint swiftly after death following the 4 Miracles attributed through her intercession.
1.)Sister Louise of St. Germain was cured of the stomach ulcers,
2.)Charles Anne, a 23-year-old seminarian who was dying from advanced pulmonary tuberculosis,
3.)Gabrielle Trimusi from Parma,Italy who suffered from arthritis of the knee and tubercular lesions
on the vertebrae,
4.)Maria Pellemans of Schaerbeck, Belgium who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis which had
spread to the intestines.
She was Beatified : 1923 and Canonized : 1925.These are the years which made Therese a happy child because her whole life,she strived to be known as Saint and finally she was known as
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.
She was declared co-patron of the Missions with Saint Francis Xavier in 1927, and named co-patron of France with Saint Joan of Arc in 1944.During her life here on earth,Saint Therese did pray to achieve the title of Doctor of the Church and a prayer was finally answered on October 19, 1997 by Pope Saint John Paul II who declared her the 33rd Doctor of the Church,to be the youngest person, and only the 3rd woman, to be so honored...
Many people who sought the intercession of Saint Therese and received miracles from her powerful intercession and many saw her appeared to them.Saint Therese has given Roses or her images to them in many ways.The life of Saint Therese shows us that she believed that Jesus would make her a Saint through her littleness and weakness.She trusted that one day,she will be great in Heaven and she never stopped believing until now.She is also known as one of the MOST MIRACULOUS SAINT in the History of the Catholic Church due to her trust in Jesus;she trusted even if others said she was never going to make it in being a Saint.
Today look at her,millions around the world seeks her intercession because of her extraordinary trust in Jesus.
Quotes of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus:
Therese became a Saint swiftly after death following the 4 Miracles attributed through her intercession.
1.)Sister Louise of St. Germain was cured of the stomach ulcers,
2.)Charles Anne, a 23-year-old seminarian who was dying from advanced pulmonary tuberculosis,
3.)Gabrielle Trimusi from Parma,Italy who suffered from arthritis of the knee and tubercular lesions
on the vertebrae,
4.)Maria Pellemans of Schaerbeck, Belgium who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis which had
spread to the intestines.
She was Beatified : 1923 and Canonized : 1925.These are the years which made Therese a happy child because her whole life,she strived to be known as Saint and finally she was known as
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.
Many people who sought the intercession of Saint Therese and received miracles from her powerful intercession and many saw her appeared to them.Saint Therese has given Roses or her images to them in many ways.The life of Saint Therese shows us that she believed that Jesus would make her a Saint through her littleness and weakness.She trusted that one day,she will be great in Heaven and she never stopped believing until now.She is also known as one of the MOST MIRACULOUS SAINT in the History of the Catholic Church due to her trust in Jesus;she trusted even if others said she was never going to make it in being a Saint.
Today look at her,millions around the world seeks her intercession because of her extraordinary trust in Jesus.
Quotes of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus:
- Should I fear the devil? It seems I should not, for I am doing everything out of obedience.
- When shall I be totally suffocated!…I can’t stand any more! Ah! pray for me! Jesus! Mary!…Yes, I will it, I really will it.
- Oh it’s pure suffering because there are no consolations! No, not one!
- Believe me, don’t wait until tomorrow to begin becoming a Saint.
- You will call me ' Little Therese'.
- When I am in heaven, you will have to fill my little hands with prayers and sacrifices to give me the pleasure of casting these as a shower of graces upon souls.
- God would not make me wish for something IMPOSSIBLE and so,in spite of my littleness,I can aim at being a Saint.
- We must not be discouraged by our faults, for children fall frequently.
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face kneeling beneath the Crucified Lord,
collecting all the Lord's sufferings that are falling upon her habit as Rose Petals.
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face kneeling beneath the Crucified Lord,
collecting all the Lord's sufferings that are falling upon her habit as Rose Petals.
PRAYERS TO SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS AND OF THE HOLY FACE :
O Little Therese,so little you were but your sufferings were greater than I can ever imagine.You knew that only through sufferings and weakness that you will able to become a Saint.Therefore,you encouraged
everyone around you to be a Saint and you knew that it was the greatest vocation that Jesus wants us to choose.You taught us that it is a must for us to live holy even in weakness for it is our call to be Saints.
Help us,O Little Therese to trust Jesus in our weakness and littleness.Give us the grace to trust that even
if we cannot do great things but by loving Jesus;we can be transformed into Saints that Jesus' wills
for us to be.Amen.
for us to be.Amen.
Saint Little Therese, Patron of All Saints, pray for us!
Little Therese,you know that many people have neglected the devotion to the Most Holy Face of Jesus.
Millions have rejected or find it difficult to trust in this holy image of Jesus.Some never casting their eyes upon the Face of Jesus and you desired deeply to make this devotion well known by venerating the Lord's Most Holy Face.You shared as much suffering as you could with the Lord and so became an imprint of His Divine Countenance.Help us poor sinners to draw closer to the Holy Face of Jesus which you knew was the most powerful devotion in your life.Help us to make reparation to His most Holy Face which is disfigured by our sins.Encourage us to console and spend time with the Lord's Most Holy Face and enlighten our souls to know that by contemplating the Holy Face of Jesus,we may be able to have a clear vision of Him in Heaven and be able achieve all the Glory that Jesus has promised to those who venerated His most Holy Face.Amen
Saint Therese, Apostle of the Most Holy Face of Jesus, pray for us!
