Online novena
Enter into Hope with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Day 9
Spiritual Motherhood: “I want to be a missionary”
Listen to this novena
Word of God
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (28:16-20)
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Listening to Saint Thérèse
A Saint said it: The greatest honor that God can do to a soul is not to give it a lot, it is to ask a lot of it! Jesus therefore treats you as privileged. He wants you to begin your mission already and to save souls through suffering. Was it not by suffering, by dying that He Himself redeemed the world?… I know that you aspire to the happiness of sacrificing your life for the divine Master, but the martyrdom of the heart is no less fruitful than the shedding of blood and from now on this martyrdom is yours; I am therefore quite right to say that your part is beautiful, that it is worthy of an apostle of Christ.
Father, you come to seek consolation from the one Jesus gave you as a sister and you have the right to do so. Since our Reverend Mother allows me to write to you, I would like to respond to the sweet mission entrusted to me, but I feel that the surest way to reach my goal is to pray and suffer.…
Let us work together for the salvation of souls, we only have the one day in this life to save them and thus give the Lord proof of our love. The day after this day will be eternity, then Jesus will return to you a hundredfold the joys so sweet and so legitimate that you sacrifice to him, he knows the extent of your sacrifice, he knows that the suffering of those who are dear to you increases even more yours but He too suffered this martyrdom; to save our souls he left his Mother, he saw the Immaculate Virgin, standing at the foot of the cross, her heart pierced with a sword of pain, so I hope that our Divine Savior will console your good Mother, and I urge him. Ah! if the divine Master allowed those you are going to leave for his love to glimpse the glory he has in store for you, the multitude of souls who will form your procession in heaven, they would already be rewarded for the great sacrifice that your estrangement will cause them.
Letter 213 to Abbé Bellière, December 26, 1896
Translation: © Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux
Reflection
A doctor in the “science of love,” as Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI put it, Thérèse is also, in Pope Francis’ eyes, a doctor “of synthesis,” “for her genius consists in leading us to what is central, essential, and indispensable,” that is, to love. And one of the most eminent places for putting into practice the love of God that made Thérèse live is the mission. And if it sometimes seems paradoxical that a young woman who died at the age of twenty-four in a Carmelite convent in Normandy should have been proclaimed patron saint of the missions—as early as 1927, two years after her canonization—it should be remembered that, in addition to her role as spiritual director and her prayers for the missionaries, in particular for her correspondents Fathers Roulland and Bellière, Thérèse herself applied in 1896 to the Saigon Carmelite convent, which needed reinforcements in Indochina. Her illness and the doctors did not allow her to leave. But her missionary influence, through her prayers and writings, was no less great until after her death. Saint Thérèse always managed to touch hearts with her moving life, the simplicity and depth of her message, and her unshakeable hope. As Bernanos wrote, she always had “her incomprehensible smile” on her lips. This smile is perhaps that of her knowledge of God’s love, the smile of one whose happiness, through all her suffering, is not entirely of this world. But it’s also the smile of a little missionary who continues to proclaim God’s love to us every day, to lift us out of despair. Just before she died, she told us: “I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make the good God loved as I love him, to give my little way to souls. If the good Lord grants my desires, my heaven will happen on earth until the end of the world.”
By Jean de Saint-Cheron
Prayers
Psalm
Psalm 33:13-22
From heaven the Lord looks down
and observes the children of Adam,
From his dwelling place he surveys
all who dwell on earth.
The One who fashioned together their hearts
is the One who knows all their works.
A king is not saved by a great army,
nor a warrior delivered by great strength.
Useless is the horse for safety;
despite its great strength, it cannot be saved.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him,
upon those who count on his mercy,
To deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive through famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord,
he is our help and shield.
For in him our hearts rejoice;
in his holy name we trust.
May your mercy, Lord, be upon us;
as we put our hope in you.
Hail Mary
Our Father
Intercessions
Loving Father, you sent your Son into the world to proclaim the good news to the poor and to heal all wounds. Today you have established us in the world to follow in his footsteps:
R/ Lord, send us your Spirit!
You filled Saint Thérèse with the desire to proclaim you throughout the earth; grant us, through her prayer and example, to burn with the same missionary fire. R/
You have called us to be the salt of the earth; following in the footsteps of Saint Thérèse, grant us to be leaven of growth and light for our world. R/
You wanted Thérèse to be a great missionary, not through encounters with foreign peoples, but through prayer; grant all your children in prayer the same fruitfulness. R/
Lord, just as Saint Thérèse, amid the backdrop of growing atheism, desired to bring multitudes of souls back to you, make us attentive to the spiritual needs of our time, so that we may be witnesses of your love in our day. Through Jesus Christ, your Son.
Painting: Amédée Buffet (1869–1934), Christ showering roses on the body of Saint Thérèse, Saint Joseph des Carmes Church, Paris. © City of Paris, COARC / Jean-Marc Moser.
Photo of Saint Thérèse: © Office central de Lisieux.
Flower paintings: © Alamy.
