Sunday, October 2, 2016

For All the Saints: Thérèse of Lisieux

Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin (1873-1897) is one of the most popular and influential Catholic saints of modern times and was declared a Doctor of the Church by John Paul II. Her feast day was yesterday, October 1, and used to be October 3, which is still her feast day in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Also known as Theresa of the Little Flower, she became a nun when she was only 15 and died when she was 24.

The website devoted to her has this: "The world came to know Therese through her autobiography, 'Story of a Soul'. She described her life as a 'little way of spiritual childhood.' She lived each day with an unshakable confidence in God's love. 'What matters in life,' she wrote, 'is not great deeds, but great love.' Therese lived and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love. She believed that just as a child becomes enamored with what is before her, we should also have a childlike focus and totally attentive love. Therese's spirituality is of doing the ordinary, with extraordinary love. She loved flowers and saw herself as the 'little flower of Jesus,' who gave glory to God by just being her beautiful little self among all the other flowers in God's garden. Because of this beautiful analogy, the title 'little flower' remained with St. Therese."

Here is a good site that provides more about her: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105

The Living Insights Center here in St. Louis has a statue of St. Therese, to which several miracles have been attributed: http://www.livinginsights.com



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