From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
    The Doctrine of Truth  {6}   
      
   Tell me, where now are all the masters and teachers whom you knew so   
   well in life and who were famous for their learning? Others have   
   already taken their places and I know not whether they ever think of   
   their predecessors. During life they seemed to be something; now they   
   are seldom remembered. How quickly the glory of the world passes away!   
   If only their lives had kept pace with their learning, then their   
   study and reading would have been worth while.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 3   
      
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   October 1st - St. Therese of Lisieux   
      
   St. Therese of Lisieux, fondly known in English as “The Little   
   Flower,” died on September 30, 1897.   
      
   Although Therese was born in a century--and in a civilization--now   
   passe, she has been appropriately termed “a beacon … of the atomic   
   century.” Her writings were applicable even more to the future than to   
   her own day, and she is still fulfilling her promise to “spend her   
   heaven doing good on earth.” Let us recall who she was and what   
   contribution she has made to her fellow men.   
      
   Marie-Frances-Therese Martin, youngest of the nine children and of the   
   five surviving daughters of Louis Martin (1823-1894) and Azelie Guerin   
   (1831-1877), was born at Alencon, Normandy, on January 2, 1873. Her   
   father was a prosperous watchmaker. Her mother, an expert at creating   
   Alencon lace, had a lace-making business of her own. What was more   
   important than their economic prosperity was their holiness of life: a   
   trait testified to by Pope John Paul II on March 26, 1994, when he   
   declared the Martin couple “venerable,” the first step to sainthood.   
      
   The Martin household was therefore a devout and an affectionate one.   
   Unfortunately, Azelie died in 1877. The widower thereupon moved to   
   Lisieux so as to be near his wife’s family and have their help in   
   raising his daughters. His own older daughters assisted him greatly,   
   of course. Marie, the eldest, was his housekeeper; Pauline, the   
   second, became the new “mother” of the four-year-old Therese. Therese   
   subsequently attended a convent school, but because of her shyness   
   found the classroom difficult. Thereafter she was carefully taught at   
   home by a tutoress and by her sisters.   
      
   In 1882, her “second mother,” Pauline, entered the Carmelite monastery   
   at Lisieux. Therese felt called to the same way of life when she was   
   only nine. She was not attracted to the convent for loneliness or as a   
   copycat, she always insisted. Hers was an individual vocation.   
      
   Physically and emotionally delicate in her early years, Therese at 13   
   suddenly became spiritually grown-up, strong of heart, and eager to be   
   a saint. Thereafter this junior teen, naturally bright, earnest and   
   thoughtful, devoted much time to serious reading, not only in   
   spirituality but in history and science. She set her mind on entering   
   the local Carmel at 15. Objections were raised at so early a   
   reception, but Therese was determined, and though prayer and   
   persistence she got her wish. She entered the convent on April 9,   
   1888, taking the name Therese of the Child Jesus. (Later she added the   
   words “of the Holy Face.”) Eventually, two others of her sisters,   
   Marie and Celine, joined the same community. Did the four Martins take   
   over Carmel? By no means; Carmel definitely took over the Martins, but   
   they had their impact.   
      
   Therese would live only nine years as a Carmelite, dying of a painful   
   consumption in 1897. In that brief term she had become a “perfect   
   nun;” still, nobody would have thought of her as a great saint on the   
   basis of their own observance. What disclosed her true holiness was   
   her spiritual journal or “autobiography” published posthumously. In   
   1895, on the command of her superior, Mother Agnes (who was also her   
   sister and “second mother” Pauline) she had commenced to write down   
   her reflections. After her death, Mother Agnes sent around selections   
   from this Story of a Soul to a number of Carmelite monasteries and   
   certain churchmen. The readers were captivated by it, and more copies   
   were demanded. Published formally in 1898, the book became a perennial   
   “best-seller” throughout the world. By now it has been translated into   
   over 40 languages and dialects.   
      
   What message in this book had identified the writer as a major saint?   
      
   The message communicated in Therese’s spiritual autobiography “The   
   Story of a Soul” was a plan to achieve holiness, which she called “the   
   little way of spiritual childhood”. Intent as a nun to become a saint,   
   she had long sought in prayer and the Scriptures a specific vocation.   
   She aspired to many, even contradictory apostolates: priest,   
   missionary, doctor of the Church, martyr, etc. But eventually she   
   realized that the apostolate that included and surpassed all these was   
   love. Love, therefore, would be her mission: love of God and neighbor.   
      
   With regard to love of God, it is a mistake to conclude from the title   
   “Little Flower” that Therese Martin was simply a routine votary. Quite   
   the contrary. She was a strong character, down-to-earth, and truly a   
   “valiant woman”. She did not favor heavy acts of penance, for she   
   found in constant good cheer and the little trials of everyday life   
   ample material for self-discipline. If she was physically prevented   
   from travel by the convent walls, spiritually she could tour the world   
   freely in quest of souls. She was a mere helpless child, she said, but   
   she trusted God as a loving father, and found her strength in Him.   
      
   No wonder the little Saint said of her book, “There is something there   
   for all tastes.” Its approach to holiness made it comprehensible to   
   people in every walk of life. The crowds that have hailed her and   
   still visit her shrine include saints and sinners; men, women and   
   children; philosophers and theologians; poets and novelists; Catholics   
   and Eastern Orthodox; Christians and Buddhists; cabaret entertainers;   
   prisoners and prostitutes. In her they have found an empathetic figure   
   and one eager to help.   
      
   The popes, too, have saluted Sister Therese as a gift of God. St. Pius   
   X formally introduced her cause of canonization in 1914, only 17 years   
   after her death. Benedict XV declared her “venerable” in 1921. Pius XI   
   beatified this “cherished child of the world” in 1923, and canonized   
   her in 1925. The same pope, in 1927, declared her co-patron, with St.   
   Francis Xavier, of all foreign missions. In 1944, Pius XII proclaimed   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)