Today is the feastday of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
St. Therese is the Patroness of the Missions; St. Francis Xavier is the Patron of the Missions.
Whereas St. Francis Xavier went far and wide all around Asia and as far as China to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ and baptized many, St. Therese did none of the above.
She spent her religious life cloistered in a Carmelite convent in Lisieux. As much as she wanted to go to Asia to help set up a foundation there, ill health was her obstacle.
Yet, within the four walls of the convent in Lisieux, she developed a missionary spirit by doing little deeds with great love.
As her union with Jesus grew deeper, she offered all her sufferings to Jesus as an act of union with Him on the Cross.
She had the desire to be a missionary, a martyr, a saint. In the end she found what her true vocation was.
She discovered this when she read 1 Cor 12:39 "Strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way" – the way of love.
St. Thèrése wrote: "I understood that the Church had a heart and that this heart was burning with love." In delirious joy she cried out, "O Jesus, my love, my vocation, at last I have found it. My vocation is love!"
With that she began to see what her mission was as she wrote: I feel especially that my mission is about to begin, my mission of making God loved as I love him, of giving my little way to souls. If God answers my desires, my heaven will be spent on earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.
We often think that when one gets to heaven, one will enjoy eternal light and eternal rest from labour.
Yet, St. Therese tells us that her mission continues in a greater extent in heaven, and she even promised: I will let fall from Heaven a shower of roses.
Let us pick up the blessings of roses from heaven and follow St. Therese in her missionary spirit of doing little deeds with great love for God and others.
St. Therese is the Patroness of the Missions; St. Francis Xavier is the Patron of the Missions.
Whereas St. Francis Xavier went far and wide all around Asia and as far as China to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ and baptized many, St. Therese did none of the above.
She spent her religious life cloistered in a Carmelite convent in Lisieux. As much as she wanted to go to Asia to help set up a foundation there, ill health was her obstacle.
Yet, within the four walls of the convent in Lisieux, she developed a missionary spirit by doing little deeds with great love.
As her union with Jesus grew deeper, she offered all her sufferings to Jesus as an act of union with Him on the Cross.
She had the desire to be a missionary, a martyr, a saint. In the end she found what her true vocation was.
She discovered this when she read 1 Cor 12:39 "Strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way" – the way of love.
St. Thèrése wrote: "I understood that the Church had a heart and that this heart was burning with love." In delirious joy she cried out, "O Jesus, my love, my vocation, at last I have found it. My vocation is love!"
With that she began to see what her mission was as she wrote: I feel especially that my mission is about to begin, my mission of making God loved as I love him, of giving my little way to souls. If God answers my desires, my heaven will be spent on earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.
We often think that when one gets to heaven, one will enjoy eternal light and eternal rest from labour.
Yet, St. Therese tells us that her mission continues in a greater extent in heaven, and she even promised: I will let fall from Heaven a shower of roses.
Let us pick up the blessings of roses from heaven and follow St. Therese in her missionary spirit of doing little deeds with great love for God and others.