October 3
Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus
Virgin of our Order
2nd class
The feast of St. Therese is currently observed on October 1st.
Let those who believe and love The holy gifts of the Divine Child Join in praising the name and beauty Of the tender virgin Therese. Her foster mother chooses The high peaks of Carmel; There Therese hastens, following In the footsteps of her Spouse. Inspired by the command of Jesus She lays bare secrets of grace. Teacher to the world, she instructs In the simple way of childhood. Her tenderest years breathed fragrance Of the little flowers of virtue Which this chaste virgin, like an angel Sent from heaven, cultivated. But joy does not exhaust All the impulses of love. Nor can cloister avail to repress Her tremendous desires. Glory be to you, O Jesus, Who reveal yourself to little ones. Glory to the Father and the loving Spirit For all ages to come. Amen.
Lord, you have said, “Unless you become like little children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Give us the grace to follow the little way of St. Therese in humility and simplicity of heart, that we may win an eternal reward. This we ask of you, Lord Jesus...
Therese of the Child Jesus was born in Alencon, in France. Her parents were reputable, well-known for their extraordinary and constant reverence for God. From her earliest childhood, by a special grace of the Holy Spirit, she had a great desire to enter the religious life. She promised God with the utmost sincerity that she would deny Him nothing he might ask of her. She was faithful to this promise to the end of her life, in spite of much suffering. When she was five, her mother died and from that time she entrusted herself completely to the Providence of God, under the watchful care of a most loving father and her elder sisters. Under their instruction, Therese, like a giant, joyfully ran the course of the way of perfection. At the age of nine she was sent to school at Lisieux to the Benedictine nuns and there she excelled in her knowledge of divine things. In her tenth year, she suffered from a serious and mysterious illness from which, as she herself tells us, she was delivered only by the power of God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin to whom she had made a fervent novena under the title of Our Lady of Victories. Then, filled with angelic fervor, she carefully prepared herself for the sacred banquet, in which Christ is received.
R.) The Lord has become my support:
he brought me out into a wide place.
* He has delivered me because I pleased him.
V.) God, who has girded me with strength and made my way perfect.
* He has delivered me because I pleased him.
After she was refreshed for the first time with the Eucharistic Bread, Therese seemed to develop an insatiable hunger for this celestial food. From this desire, she asked Jesus to turn all earthly consolations into bitterness. Afte that, she burned with a most tender love for Christ the Lord and for His Church; and to satisfy this love she desired nothing more than to enter the Order of Discalced Carmelites so that, by self-denial and self-sacrffice, she might assist priests, missionaries, and the whole Church, and gain innumenable souls for Jesus Christ. This, when at the point of death, she promised she would do in God. Because of her youth, many obstacles arose to prevent hen entering the religious life, but with incredible fortitude she overcame them and, at the age of fifteen, she entered happily the Carmel of Lisieux. There God led her step by step in a marvelous way. She took as her pattern the hidden life of the Virgin Mary and, like a watered garden, brought forth flowers of all virtues, especially a great love for God and neighbor.
R.) Hear, O daughter, and see:
turn your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house.
* The King shall desire your beauty, for he is the Lord your God.
V.) He shall put on your head a graceful diadem;
a glorious crown will he bestow on you.
* The King shall desire your beauty, for he is the Lord your God.
To please the most high God even more, when she read in Sacred Scripture the reminder: “Whoever is a little one, let him come to me,” she determined to be a little one in spirit. With childlike confidence, she consecrated herself forever to God, her most loving Father. This way of spiritual childhood, according to the teachings of the Gospel, she taught to others, especially to the novices whose training in religious virtues she undertook in obedience to her superiors. Overflowing with apostolic zeal, she opened up to a world filled with pride and craving inanities, the way of evangelical simplicity. At the same time, Jesus, her Spouse, inflamed her with a desire to suffer both in soul and in body. Perceiving that the love of God was everywhere disregarded, she was filled with grief and two years before her death, offered herself as a victim to the merciful love of God. Then, as she herself relates, she was wounded by a flame of fire from heaven. Consumed by love, rapt in ecstacy, murmuring: “My God, I love you,” she passed to her heavenly Spouse on September 30, 1897, at the age of twenty-four. As she was dying, she promised that she would let fall on earth a continual shower of roses from heaven. This promise she has indeed fulfilled from the time she was received into heaven and continues to fulfill to this day. The sovereign Pontiff Pius XI added her name to the list of holy Virgins, and two years later, in the year of the great jubilee, added her name to the list of saints and appointed and declared her Patroness of all missions.
R.) Lord, whom else have I in heaven?
and apart from you, what have I desired on earth?
Though my flesh and my heart waste away:
* God is the Rock of my heart and my portion forever.
V.) I love you, O Lord, my strength:
because you have given me the protection of your salvation,
and your right hand has upheld me.
* God is the Rock of my heart and my portion forever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
* God is the Rock of my heart and my portion forever.
Loving Christ without measure, She sets herself to greater things. To the crown of virgins, she adds The crown of Martyrs and Apostles. Yearning to be the victim of love, Aglow with mystical fire, She begs her Spouse to let its flames Consume her wholly. The herald of eternity — death, So long desired, is now at hand. Murmuring, “I love you,” Therese Takes her departure to Christ. From the starry mansions on high, Where you now enjoy heavenly delights, Remember to send that shower of roses, So generously promised. Do you, O meekest of kings, a kingdom for littie ones, Grant that we, by following her, May enter these holy gates. Glory be to you, O Jesus, Who reveal yourself to little ones. Glory to the Father and the loving Spirit For all ages to come. Amen.
From the mansions of that shining place Where you are enjoying the light of God, Furthering our petitions, send us, we beg, The promised shower of roses. Send us roses of supernatural faith, Shedding light; roses of hope, strengthening us Against obstacles; roses of tender love, Empowering us with living strength. Send us roses of your trust in the Lord, That childlike openness that finds Every turn of our lives, sweet or bitter, Charged with the Father’s loving will. May the blessed Godhead grant us this, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May his glory resound Through all the world. Amen.
Taken from the 1966 Discalced Carmelite Proper.