Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Therese of Lisieux, on Deeds and Love)

“Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.” —French Carmelite nun—and “Doctor of the Church”—St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), The Thoughts of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (1915)

This Thursday, the feast day of “The Little Flower”—a saint of unsurpassed humility and devotion to God—will be celebrated.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Therese of Lisieux, on ‘The God of Peace and of Love’)

“Remember…that this sweet Jesus is there in the Tabernacle expressly for you and you alone. Remember that He burns with the desire to enter your heart. Do not listen to Satan. Laugh him to scorn, and go without fear to receive Jesus, the God of peace and of love.”— French Carmelite nun St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux (1898)

Quote of the Day (St. Therese of Lisieux, on Prayer)

“I have not the courage to force myself to seek beautiful prayers in books; not knowing which to choose I act as children do who cannot read; I say quite simply to the good God what I want to tell Him, and He always understands me.”--St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux (1898)

Quote of the Day (St. Therese, on Prayer as a “Cry of Gratitude and of Love”)

“Prayer is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple glance darted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of love in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy! In a word, it is something exalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and unites it to God. Sometimes when I find myself, spiritually, in dryness so great that I cannot produce a single good thought, I recite very slowly a Pater or an Ave Maria; these prayers alone console me, they suffice, they nourish my soul.”--St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux

Quote of the Day (Fr. Martin, on Canonization)

“Certainly there have been as many saintly wives and husbands as there have been holy priests and nuns. But religious orders and dioceses know how to navigate the canonization procedures on behalf of bishops, priests, brothers and sisters. By contrast, how many families have the resources to embark on the decades-long process on behalf of even the holiest mother or father?”—James Martin, S.J., “His Wife’s a Saint, So Is Her Husband,” The Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2008

(At Mass this weekend, the pastor of my church, St. Cecilia of Englewood, N.J., Fr. Hilary Milton, drew our attention to the beautification occurring in Lisieux, France, today for Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. The ceremony has particular interest for my church, which is the Eastern Shrine of St. Therese the Little Flower. Fr. Hilary pointed out how unusual it was that the parents of a saint are themselves now on the road to canonization.

Fr. Martin’s excellent article, which I’ve linked above, underscores another unusual aspect of this process: the short roster of saints who have been married, and the even briefer list of those married to each other. It’s an inspiring piece about the persistence of faith even amid the multiple difficulties and tragedies of life.)

Quote of the Day (St. Therese of Lisieux)

"You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them."—St. Therese of Lisieux

(The Feast Day of “The Little Flower” is on October 1.)