A shower of roses

"My mission - to make God loved - will begin after my death. I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses."

St Therese

Intercessions

Click here to read stories of intercessions
with St Therese



O divine Sun!
I am happy to feel so small and weak in thy presence,
and my heart is at peace.

St Therese

Daily Offering

My God, I offer you all that I do today
for the intentions and the glory
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I want to sanctify every beat of my heart,
my thoughts and my simplest works
by uniting them to his infinite merits.
I want to repair for my faults
by casting them into the furnace of his merciful love.

O my God!
I ask you for myself and for those dear to me
the grace to fulfill perfectly your holy will
and to accept for love of you
the joys and sorrows of this passing life
so that one day we may be reunited in Heaven
for all eternity,
Amen.

The Power of Prayer

How great is the power of Prayer! One could call it a Queen who has at each instant free access to the King and who is able to obtain whatever she asks. To be heard it is not necessary to read from a book some beautiful formula composed for the occasion. If this were the case, alas, I would have to be pitied! Outside the Divine Office which I am very unworthy to recite, I do not have the courage to force myself to search out beautiful prayers in books. There are so many of them it really gives me a headache! and each prayer is more beautiful than the others. I cannot recite them all and not knowing which to choose, I do like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me. For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.

A hidden treasure

The church of the Carmel in Lisieux

Jesus is a hidden treasure, an inestimable good which few souls can find, for it is hidden, and the world loves what sparkles. Ah! if Jesus had willed to show Himself to all souls with His ineffable gifts, no doubt there is not one of them that would have that would have despised Him. However, He does not will that we love Him for His gifts. He Himself must be our reward. To find a hidden thing one must hide oneself; our life must then be a mystery. We must be like Jesus, Jesus whose face was hidden.

O Little Flower of Jesus

O Little Flower of Jesus,
From the very first moment of your religious life you thought only of denying yourself in all things so as to follow Jesus perfectly; help me to bear patiently the trials of my daily life. Teach me to make use of the trials, the sufferings, the humiliations, that come my way, to learn to know myself better and to love God more. Amen.

A Vocation

At the age of 15, Therese tells her father of her vocation and asks him for permission to enter Carmel. This statue can be found in the garden of Les Buissonnets, Lisieux.

* * * * *

I was to pass through many trials but the divine call was so strong that had I been forced to pass through flames, I would have done it out of love for Jesus.

O Heart of Jesus, treasure of tenderness,
You Yourself are my happiness, my only hope.
You who knew how to charm my tender youth,
Stay near me till the last night.
Lord, to you alone I've given my life,
And all my desires are well-known to you.
It's in your ever-infinite goodness
That I want to lose myself, O Heart of Jesus!

Leading us to God in the New Millenium

Therese Martin was born at Alencon, France, on 2nd January, 1873. Entering the Carmelite Monastery at Lisieux at the age of 15, she took the name sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She died on 30th September 1897, loving with a heart as big as the world itself. "I'm not dying, I'm entering into Life."

Canonized in 1925, she was declared Patroness of the Missions in 1927, and a Doctor of the Church in 1997.