- St Therese Lisieux - "Doctor of Merciful Love"

Also known as the “Little Flower” and “Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus” and was declared by St John Paul II, a Doctor of the Church. She was born in France in 1873 and overcame many obstacles to become a nun at only 15. She lived a short life, dying of tuberculosis at age 24. However, her legacy has been far reaching and her roses continued to fall after her death. Her autobiography “The Story of a Soul” became one of the bestselling books of the twentieth century. We could write so much about Saint Therese, her life and writings are full of many treasures and are widely available and we encourage you to read them.

Given current world events, we will focus on her love.

In last Sunday's Gospel we heard Jesus tell us "that the love of many will grow cold." (Matt 24:1-14) However, St Therese's love never grew cold.  She wrote - "My vocation is love!" and on the day of her profession of vows she prayed:

"Jesus, I ask You for nothing but peace, and also love, infinite love without any limits other than Yourself, love which is no longer I, but you,"

Her mission was "to make Love loved," and her pledge was;

"to work for Your Love alone, with the one purpose of pleasing you, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally."

Even her last words were, "My God, I love you!"

In these challenging times, inspired by St Therese, let us all turn our back on hate and remember as Christians that our vocation is always to work for love and to love as God loved us first. Let us work towards sainthood through little deeds and prayers and we pray that St Therese may continue to shower her beautiful roses on us always.

Amen