You’re St. Melito of Sardis! You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers! |
At a young age, this precocious child wanted everything. She would get more than she bargained for. Sick physically and emotionally, she was healed by Our Lady of the Smile at the age of 11. She experienced a profound conversion on Christmas eve, 1886, at the age of 13. She felt a call to enter Carmel as a contemplative Nun, so that she could give herself totally to Jesus. But she was too young. Appeals to the Mother Superior and Priest Chaplain yielded: "when you are old enough -16". Not content, Therese and her father appealed to the Bishop. Not getting the response she wanted, she appealed directly and personally to the Pope while on a parish pilgrimage to Rome. Therese had always said: "I want everything" - and she usually got it.
Persistence paid off. Therese was allowed to enter the Lisieux Carmel at the age of 15 - her father lived to see her professed a Carmelite Nun. She took the religious name of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. God's spirit worked powerfully in Therese, so open was she to Divine Love. Still dreaming of taking on the world as a priest and missionary, she wrestled with her vocation and place in the Church. Finally she came to realize that her "vocation is love" - the love of God was the energy source for the Church - and fulfillment of the human heart and longing.
Despite her desire for the dramatic and expansive, Therese developed a simple spirituality, based on childlike trust and confidence in God. The spirituality of her "little way" was not about extraordinary things - but rather about doing simple things of life well and with extraordinary love. She believed and taught that "everything is grace" - God's face and presence could be experienced in every person and situation of our lives, if we just attend with love and expectancy. Her struggle, like ours, is to be where God places us in the real life situations of our lives. Therese's is a hands-on, challenging and focused spirituality. This is what made Therese shine, and why she has been declared a Doctor of the Church. Her spirituality is simple, childlike, profound and human - it is refreshing in our confusing and complicated age.
Experiencing the dark night of the senses and spirit refined the power and energy of this young, precocious Carmelite. Her poems and plays reflect her struggle to give all to God. Her love became surrender, as she slowly died of tuberculosis. Her superior asked her to write down her reflections, which became her autobiography, "Story of a Soul." She died at the age of 24, believing that her life was really just beginning for God, promising to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Her promised "shower of roses" began and have become a torrent in the Church ever since.
Hey Katie!
If you guys have time, could you guys please pray for Reparition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, because this one proffesor abused the Eucharist... A friend told me that this is what he did; "First, he punctured the Host with a rusty nail, then proceeded to throw Him in the garbage. Then he put coffee grounds and banana peels and some other garbage on top of the Host, and then he put a few pages of the Koran and a few pages from Richard Dawkins' God Delusion in as well. Apparently, there are pictures posted on his blog proving that he has done it. Ironically, he also said that religious instruction is a greater evil than what he has done, because it creates ignorant and hateful people. "
It is so devastating, so if you could pray for his soul in atonement for this devastating sin... It is so heartbreaking :( So if you could find some time in your busy day to say at least a quick prayer, that would be awesome.
