Novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Novena to St. Therese

Eighth Day-Prayer

When St. Therese was a little girl she used to go fishing with her father. She states in her writings that she would go off on her own during these trips to sit alone amid the flowers in the field, and that she became absorbed in deep prayer. We can see that at this early age she is exhibiting the heart of a contemplative.

When forming those in Carmelite spirituality, I stress the point that our goal in prayer is to become simple. Many times people get caught up in studying St. Teresa's mansions, or St. John of the Cross's transforming union (spiritual marriage), wondering what level they are at and so forth. This can be a great obstacle to simple prayer. We must keep in mind, too, that simple (contemplative) prayer is a total gift from God.

In the writings of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross they teach us that in deep prayer there is usually no mystical phenomena that is sometimes associated in the prayer life of beginners. God uses these experiences sometimes to attract the soul.

The Great Command of Our Lord was for us to love God and our neighbor. St. Teresa of Jesus also teaches this. She said, "You know you are loving God if you are loving your neighbor."

St. Therese is a good example of a Saint who has reached the heights in prayer. It is not a life of obvious mystical phenomena but a condition of the heart: a pure heart that can see and adore God as his child.

Novena Prayer

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

O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands (mention your request)

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

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

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Novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Novena to St. Therese

Seventh Day-Love of the Gospels

The Kingdom of God is within you. It is especially the Gospels which sustain me during my hours of prayer, for in them I find what is necessary for me. I am constantly discovering in them, new lights, hidden and mysterious meanings. St. Therese

It is well-known that St. Therese loved holy scripture and also the Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis. The saints heard the Word of God and like Mary treasured it in their hearts. The lives of the saints become an open book of the gospels in which we can read chapter after chapter their call to love God and neighbor and their heroic response.

Let us pray that as Lay Carmelites we strive to imitate the saints and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel who pondered the Word in her heart. May our light shine, the word of God, residing in our hearts, so that others may see it and give glory to God the Father.

Novena Prayer

Loving God, open our eyes to the light of faith and truth. May your light and love sustain us at all times. May St. Therese guide us on her Little Way and teach us to receive everything as a grace. We want to say with her: Each moment brings an opportunity to choose your will in love. In joy, in sorrow, in every circumstance oflife, may our hearts rest in Yours.

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

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Novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Novena to St. Therese

Sixth Day-Suffering

"For Love's sake I wish to suffer and to rejoice: so shall I strew my flowers. Not one that I see but, singing all the while, I will scatter its petals before thee. 
Should my roses be gathered from amid thorns, I will sing notwithstanding, and the longer and sharper the thorns, the sweeter will grow my song."

A common expression is used today when describing a person one looks up to with admiration, people say, "He's my hero." "She's my hero." The Catholic Church is full of saintly "heroes." The Church does not canonize people because of extra-ordinary mystical graces, or because they suffered, or because they had the gift of healing or prophecy. No, the Church canonizes members of the faithful who have lived a life of heroic virtue. Saint Therese is a perfect example of doing what St. Paul exhorts us to do: "do everything with love."
We know that St. Therese wanted to be love in the heart of the Church. And God gave her the grace to live, suffer and die with great love. The Church has proclaimed her, "Doctor of Love." A fitting title indeed for one who abandoned herself completely to the merciful love of God.
As lay Carmelites, let us pray to our sister and Saint, Therese, to obtain for us the grace to live, to suffer, and to die with God's holy love firmly rooted in our heart.

Novena Prayer
St Therese Flower of fervor and love, please intercede for me. Fill my heart with your pure love of God. Make me more aware of the goodness of God and how well He tends His garden. instill in me your "little way" or doing ordinary things with extra-ordinary love. Give me the heart of a child who wonders at life and embraces everything with loving enthusiasm. Teach me your delight in God's ways so that divine charity may blossom in my heart.
Little Flower of Jesus, bring my petitions (mention here) before God our Father. With your confidence, I come before Jesus as God's child, because you are my heavenly friend.

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
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Stained Glass Flowers-Little Accounts of the Miraculous

From the life of Brother Lawrence:

Today I saw Brother Lawrence for the first time. He told me: That God had granted him an exceptional grace in his conversion which took place, while he was still in the world, when he was eighteen. He told me that one day while looking at a tree stripped of its leaves, and reflecting that before long its leaves would appear anew, then its flowers and fruits would bloom, he received an insight into the providence and power of God which was never erased from his soul; that this insight had completely detached him from the world, and gave him a love for God so great that it had not increased at all in the forty-odd years that had passed since he had received this grace.
(From the Practice of the Presence of God, translated by John J. Delaney)

If you have read the life of Brother Lawrence you know that he found holiness in the ordinary tasks of everyday life. In the monastery he was assigned to the kitchen, cleaning pots and pans. Although he never left the monastery, his holiness became known throughout the region, and now today, throughout the world. We can see similarities in his life and that of St. Therese who taught us the "little way" of spiritual childhood. Although she never left the monastery she became the Patron saint of foreign missions.

Let us remember when we are doing the dishes or sweeping the floor, or doing any simple task around the house, to offer our humble work to the Father out of pure love for him. As St. Paul tells us, whatever you do, whether eating or drinking...do all for the glory of God.

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
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Sunday in the Year for Priests

As a child, he always kept with him the statuette of the Blessed Virgin given him by his mother. Having discovered an ancient willow tree with a hollow trunk, he placed the wooden figurine inside and knelt before it to pray. The willow now took the place of the barricaded church. But in order to decorate the improvised chapel, he had to leave his flock for a moment to the care of Margaret, and set down the woolen sock that little shepherds knitted as they watched their flock.


In the vicinity there were several other shepherd boys. John Mary gathered these boys around him, called them "my children, " gave them sermons, and taught them their catechism. He also organized processions. The children would march behind a homely cross made of two sticks, reciting the rosary and singing hymns.

(The Remarkable Cure of Ars by Michel de Saint Pierre)


"How beautiful it is, how great it is to know, love and serve God! That is all we really have to do in this world. Beyond that, everyhing we do is just a waste of time."
St. John Vianney


Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
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Novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Novena to St. Therese

Fifth Day-Humility

Answering one day the question of Mother Agnes of Jesus-her sister Pauline-: "What do you mean by remaining little before God? What is your Little Way?" She replied: It is to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from God as a little child expects everything from its father; it is to be disquieted about nothing, and not to be set on gaining our living...To be little is not attributing to oneself the virtues that one practises, believing oneself capable of anything, but to recognise that God places this treasure in the hands of His little child to be used where necessary; but it remains always God's treasure. Finally, it means not to become discouraged over one's faults, for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much."

(From the Little Way Association)

Did you read between the lines of St. Therese's response? She is describing humility in her unique way, in light of a child of God. St. Teresa of Jesus teaches us that humility is truth, and St. Therese has spelled out for us this truth. We are God's children, and all the graces and virtue we receive are His through the Holy Spirit who gifts us with grace.

Pride is one of the greatest death sentences to the spiritual life. When we try to do our own will with our "own power" we run into obstacles and lose the precious gift of humility in which we see ourselves as mere creatures before the All Mighty God who created us.

St. Therese's Little Way is a fast-track if you will to holiness. It is simple and uncomplicated. You don't need to have the stigmata, perform healing, or read hearts, you simply choose to love in every circumstance of life.

Here are some qualities of spiritual childhood exhibited by St. Therese
(Again, courtesy of the Little Way Association):

*Total Confidence in the heavenly Father

*Abandonment and self-surrender to the Father

*Simplicity

*Love

*Joy

*Humility

*Value of little things

*Docility

*Weakness

*Simple prayer

*Openness

*Living in the moment

Novena Prayer

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

O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands...(mention your request)

St. Therese, help me to always believe as you did, in god's great love for me, so that I might imitate your "Little Way" each day. Amen.
Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

Saturday of Our Lady

"Mary kept in mind all these things pondering them in her heart"(Luke 2:19). Like the Virgin Mary's, Therese's very life was a profound prayer, a continual dialogue of love with her Lord and God. She prayed without ceasing and saw God's providential hand in every aspect of her life. For her "prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to Heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trials as well as joy; finally it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus." Mary, the Mystical Rose, and Therese, the Little Flower, each strove for an ever deeper union with Jesus corresponding to the grace bestowed on each of them.

(Excerpt from Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, by Fr. Maximilian Mary, F.I.)

NOVENA TO ST. THERESE-DAY 4

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

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