🔥Suscipe Sancte Pater.. Receive, O holy Father, almighty and eternal God..
My reasons for reading Story of a Soul are pretty basic: I am a distracted Daughter of the Church who is semi-distraught about the goings-on of Holy Mother Church1and I need an anchor to continue living a sacred life — not for me, but for my family. Therese is also my friend. Moreso, Therese is my Carmelite sister.2
Notice how I call her Therese, not St. Therese. Please accept this as a sign of close she is to me, my level of intimacy with her, my profession of love and devotion to her, because such was not always the case.
I used to dislike St. Therese. There was a time when I very, very jealous of her. We were both the youngest children of our respective families (the baby of the family), but at that, our similarities diverged when I first knew her, or when she first stepped into my consciousness. I’d seen her on posters and on holy cards while growing up, for sure.. she is the patron of my my little hometown parish, in fact.. but like any typical Catholic, she was just another dead person sanctified, proclaimed to have risen to the heights of Glory by the Church. I was to respect her like I respect my elders. The end. Around the time when the desire struck for me to learn to pray better, she came into my purview because of her connection with the Discalced Carmelites. St. Teresa de Jesus I understood, St. John of the Cross, I liked.. St. There, not so much. What gave her the right to have such a blissful, blessed childhood adored by her sisters, while I grew up like a bastard child of a drunken father, forgotten by siblings who couldn’t wait to escape the family home? Wounds, you see.. What I’d suffered in my life impacted my connection with this little saint, regardless of what the Church told me. And then Therese was a writer? I was jealous of her for years.
One day God gave me the grace to try to pray to get over this resistance over St. Therese. Trying to get over my jealousy and hate to begin to pray to her took many more years. Then came actually praying to her for one of her millions of miracles, then came bonds of sisterhood through the Carmelites by becoming a part of Our Lady’s Order. Then, came healing & completely getting over whatever, like children of any family getting over a silly spat. Then came devotion and intimacy — devotion as in, I am devoted to my sister.. intimacy as in, I stay close to her, crying over her as I do, so close to her am I.
In my little life, Therese stands at the ready. She has my back, standing watch over me, those I love, those I know. I also know she watches over us. And as a member of Christ’s Mystical Body, Therese tells me I’m to do what I’m supposed to do, little stone I am in the holy construction of His Church. I’m to focus, continue my formation as a saint, push aside distractions of the world — which are very, very typical for anyone working on their interior lives — to better live a sacrificial life like Jesus did. I can’t do it if I’m entrenched and immersed in the daily to-and-fro of the political and church world, Therese is showing me this. If I’m to help my Church, really, really help my Church, the sacrifice of a pure heart is needed.
Therese offers me a gift through her Story of a Soul. She simply wants me to read her work and read the movement of her heart, instead of reading the movements of the world, that I may imitate her intimate love for Jesus.
Reading the works of a saint is a pathway sure and secure, one that can help lead us to heaven. It’s model of Holy Communion, really, one where we achieve union with the mind of Christ’s saints glorified. What an easy way to abide in Christ!
Therese.. little mistress of my heart, my sister, what else do you want to learn?
—
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam, 7.26.2021
in Love,
veronica
Semi-distraught because, although I weep over the troubles of the Church, 1) I know God is in charge, and I trust in Him completely: I myself can do no good without Him & neither can the Church, the Church is not solely being directed by corrupt men, there are those who have it worse than us, she has withstood apostatical times before, and I believe Jesus when He said the gates of hell will not prevail, 2) ultimately, I must only fulfill my Father’s Holy Will for me through my vocation to reach heaven. I have only to worry about the salvation of my soul & those under my immediate charge — my husband & children. As for discourse.. must I really partake? Am I a theologian? Am I a priest? No, I’m just a little, weak soul who must rely on God’s Great Love & Mercy. Suscipe, Lord, Your Love & Grace are all that I need..
see Wed, Jul 21.. it begins here.. from Begin St. Thersese