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Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Prayers & Devotions
by Donal Anthony Foley
All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY publishers to the holy see
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Contents Origins and importance of the devotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 “Little Way” devotion of St Thérèse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Prayers and devotions to be said in front of the statue/icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Readings from Feast of St Thérèse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Litanies of St Thérèse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Novenas to St Thérèse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prayers by St Thérèse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prayers to St Thérèse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meditations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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All rights reserved. First published 2014 by The Incorporated Catholic Truth Society, 40-46 Harleyford Road London SE11 5AY Tel: 020 7640 0042 Fax: 020 7640 0046. © 2014 The Incorporated Catholic Truth Society.
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ISBN 978 1 86082 909 3
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Origins and importance of the devotion St Thérèse of Lisieux was born at Alençon in Normandy, in northern France, on 2nd January 1873, to Louis and Zélie Martin, the last of nine children. She lived a very hidden life in the Carmelite convent at Lisieux, entering at the early age of fifteen and dying when she was only twenty-four, in 1897. After her death, devotion to St Thérèse grew at a prodigious rate, and still, to this day, she is one of the most well-loved saints in the Church. She became posthumously famous particularly through her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, which was very influential, and also through her profound spirituality, that of the “Little Way”, which seeks divine union not through rigorous mortifications, but by offering up small sacrifices and the sufferings of life to God in a spirit of self-oblation. Many graces and miracles were obtained through her intercession, and she was beatified in 1923, and canonised by Pope Pius XI only two years later. Pope Pius X (19031914), had called her the greatest saint of modern times, an astonishing accolade for one who had lived such a hidden life.
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Thérèse’s early years Her parents were very devout, and her father, Louis Martin, had wanted to become a religious, but this was not possible due to difficulties with his learning Latin. Instead, he settled on a career as a watchmaker. Zélie too had wanted to become a religious, but finally became a lacemaker. They met early in 1858, and married only three months later. Initially, they had decided to live a celibate or continent life together, but following advice from a priest, they embraced the marital state fully and eventually had nine children, of whom five daughters survived. Apart from Thérèse, three of her elder sisters, Marie, Pauline and Céline, became Carmelite nuns while the other sister, Léonie, became a Visitandine nun. Both parents sought to pass on their strong Catholic faith to their children, who were brought up firmly, but with great love and affection. Thérèse, the youngest, was the particular favourite of her father, who called her his “little queen”. Her parents attended daily Mass very early in the morning, observed the feasts and fasts of the Church, and prayed that one of their children would become a saint. In fact Louis and Zélie exhibited all the signs of sanctity themselves in the selfless manner in which they lived, and in the way they raised their large family. They were beatified at the behest of Pope Benedict XVI by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, the papal legate, in October 2008, in the Basilica at Lisieux.
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Thérèse was close to all her sisters, but particularly to Pauline, the second daughter, especially after the early death of their mother from breast cancer, in 1877, at the age of forty-five, when Thérèse was only four years old. Ultimately, when Thérèse entered the Carmel of Lisieux, Pauline was there to welcome her as prioress of the community. After Zélie’s death, the family moved to Lisieux to be near Zélie’s brother’s family, the Guerins. Thérèse’s life after the death of her mother Thérèse was strong willed, even stubborn, as a young child, which was a cause of concern to her mother, so she was encouraged to make little sacrifices as a way of conquering self-will. After her mother’s death, however, she became somewhat shy and withdrawn. The family, though, were very close, and the eldest daughter Marie tried to take the place of her mother as head of the household, even though she was only thirteen. It became Pauline’s task to give the younger girls religious instruction, until she entered the Lisieux Carmel when Thérèse was nine. Her sisters’ vocations stimulated a strong desire to emulate them, but Thérèse continued her education at the Benedictine convent of Notre-Dame-du-Pré, where she was not particularly happy due to some harassment from fellow pupils and her reserved nature. The loss of Pauline to Carmel was a blow to Thérèse, and she became seriously ill, only recovering in May
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1883, when a statue of the Blessed Virgin smiled at her. In Thérèse’s own words, “Mary’s face radiated kindness and love”. In May 1885 Thérèse entered a period of scrupulosity for a year and a half, which was so trying that she later described it as a type of martyrdom. Marie entered Carmel in October 1886, and that Christmas, after midnight Mass, Thérèse reached a decisive turning point in her life. Thanks to a great grace, she was able to put her childhood fears behind her, and her sadness since the time of her mother’s death, and devote herself completely to loving God. She later described this moment as her “conversion”. Thérèse’s entrance into the Lisieux Carmel The next summer, in May 1887, when Thérèse was fourteen, she told her father that she too wanted to enter Carmel. He broke down in tears at this news, but recovered himself, and plucked a little white flower and gave it to her. She understood this was symbolic of her life, and how God had preserved her for himself. She applied to Lisieux Carmel for entrance, but was refused because of her age. Later that year, however, Louis took Thérèse and her sister Céline on a pilgrimage to Rome. They arrived there on 20th November 1887, and were able to take part in a general audience with Pope Leo XIII. When Thérèse’s turn came to approach the Pope, she knelt before him and asked the favour of being allowed to enter Carmel at the age of fifteen. He replied that she
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should do what the superiors decide, and that she would enter if it were God’s will. Events on the pilgrimage had taught her about the dangers of the world, from which she had hitherto been sheltered, and she returned to Lisieux more determined than ever to become a Carmelite. Finally, in April 1889, she was allowed to enter the Carmel, and became a postulant while only aged fifteen, taking the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She immediately felt a great sense of peace, a peace that in the main stayed with her to the end of her life, despite all the trials and difficulties she would have to endure. She adhered to the Carmelite rule with great exactness, and although her two eldest sisters were already installed in the Carmel, Thérèse deliberately kept her distance from them, denying herself the pleasure and support of their company, and generally only saw them during recreation. Thérèse’s spiritual life deepens She ended her postulancy in January 1889 and then became a novice, taking the brown Carmelite habit. From this point on, she tried to intensify her life of prayer, especially for priests, and to practise the virtues in numerous little ways. Thérèse also read the works of St John of the Cross, the great Carmelite reformer of the sixteenth century, deriving much benefit from them. She developed too, during her novitiate, a devotion to the Holy Face of Christ, that
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face bruised and swollen during his Passion; and at the ceremony of taking the veil, she added the words “and of the Holy Face” to her name in religion, to become Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. Here in this name we have a synthesis of the spiritual focus of her life: to be humble and little, like the Child Jesus, but also to be one with him in his sufferings. Finally, after a delay of eight months because of her youth, she was able to make her profession in September 1890, aged seventeen. During the retreat before this event she underwent a period of spiritual desolation, but afterwards regained her inner peace. Meanwhile, in 1889, her father suffered a stroke, and had to spend time in a private sanatorium. From this point on, Thérèse further deepened her inner life, expressing it outwardly in small acts and kindnesses, while accepting any criticisms and unpleasantness directed at her. She also focused more and more on the Gospels, as her spirituality became simpler but more profound. But to most of her fellow sisters, there seemed to be nothing outwardly remarkable about her. Thérèse’s last years and death In February 1893, Thérèse’s sister Pauline became prioress of the Lisieux Carmel, and made Thérèse assistant to the new novice mistress. As it happened, most of the work of guiding the new novices fell to Thérèse, and she displayed a rare talent for this.
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Her father died in July 1894, and this allowed Céline also to enter the Lisieux Carmel. She brought her camera to the house, and this is the reason why we have so many fine photographs of St Thérèse. At the end of that year, as her sisters saw her health declining, they asked to her write about her childhood. In June 1895, Thérèse wrote an Act of Oblation, which she and Céline read out before a statue of Our Lady. Later that year she began to correspond with a White Father, Fr Bellière, who asked for prayers and sacrifices to support his missionary work in Africa, and later with another priest, Fr Roulland of the Society of Foreign Missions, who made a similar request. From this point on, her health steadily declined as the tuberculosis from which she suffered took its toll. At the end of Lent in 1896 she coughed up blood, and saw this as a sign that God would soon be calling her to himself. But it was to be more than a year before she actually died, and that was to be a period of progressively worse sufferings as the disease took hold. In June 1897, her sister Pauline, now Mother Agnes of Jesus, asked Thérèse to write a further memoir focusing more on her religious life. Her sufferings, meanwhile, increased steadily, and as the end approached she said, “I would never have believed it was possible to suffer so much, never, never!” She died at the age of only twenty-four on 30th September 1897, her last words being, “My God, I love you!”
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The growth of devotion to St Thérèse after her death Thérèse’s autobiography, which included selections from some of her poems and letters, was published after her death, with 2,000 copies being printed. This work stimulated interest in her life and gradually pilgrims began to visit her grave, as the first miracles due to her intercession were reported. The local bishop initiated her cause for canonisation in 1910, and this was taken up by Rome, under Pope Pius X. His successor, Pope Benedict XV, waived the requirement for the usual fifty-year delay between death and beatification because of the tremendous devotion to Thérèse that was already being displayed among Catholics. She was beatified in April 1923, by Pope Pius XI, and canonised by him in St Peter’s Square, in May 1925, before a huge crowd. He also named her a Patroness of the Missions, and later on, in 1944, during Pope Pius XII’s pontificate, she was named co-patroness of France, with Joan of Arc. Since then, devotion to St Thérèse has continued to grow around the world, and in October 1997 Pope John Paul II, on the basis of the depth and profundity of the teaching upon which her Little Way is based, declared her a Doctor of the Church. The major shrine dedicated to St Thérèse is the large basilica built in her honour in Lisieux. Work on it began in 1929, with the fulsome support of Pope Pius XI, and having been solemnly blessed by Cardinal Pacelli,
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the future Pope Pius XII, in July 1937, it was finally consecrated in 1951. A good number of organisations devoted to spreading the message of St Thérèse, or which are under her patronage, exist in the Church, and there are also religious orders dedicated to her. The Little Way Sisters of St Thérèse was jointly founded by Archbishop Nicholas Mang Thang of Mandalay Archdiocese in Myanmar/Burma, and the late Miss Mary Doohan, the foundress of the Little Way Association, based in London. A sign of the continuing extraordinary interest which St Thérèse generates can be seen in the way that her relics have toured the world in recent years. They were brought to England and Wales in the autumn of 2009, and large crowds turned out to venerate them in many churches and cathedrals. “Little Way” devotion of St Thérèse Thérèse’s spirituality has a number of striking characteristics, the most obvious being that unlike many of the great saints of the past, she lived a life without great outward asceticism. Similarly, she did not follow any of the traditional methods of meditation, but focused rather on simplicity and closeness to Christ. In addition, unlike the great saints of old, St Thérèse was not usually the recipient of any astounding spiritual favours: rather in her spiritual life she focused on profound contemplation, on
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seeking the gift of wisdom, on humility, and on her Little Way of love. In this, she immersed herself completely in the idea that she was a child of the Heavenly Father, a child totally dependent on him for everything. She knew that little children do not try to do great things, but rather are content to do small acts for their parents, acts done with great love. One of her sayings was: “What matters in life is not great deeds, but great love.” St Thérèse also focused on the importance of humility, the virtue which makes us recognise our need for God’s grace. She offered up many little acts of love to God, all the incidents, problems and difficulties of her life, no matter how small, and we know that she took her self-offering to the point of heroic virtue and sanctity. Thérèse’s childlike spirit and acceptance of suffering The necessity of becoming like a little child in our relationship with God was strongly put by Jesus, after the disciples had asked him who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In response, he called a little child to him and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Thérèse, although she was not a child, possessed a childlike spirit, and her Little Way has also been described
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as a way of spiritual childhood, one that focuses on the simplicity and abandonment characteristic of a child who trusts its parents. Regarding suffering, Thérèse made this rather disconcerting statement: “Sanctity lies not in saying beautiful things, or even in thinking them, or feeling them; it lies in truly being willing to suffer.” As we have seen, Thérèse had much to suffer towards the end of her life, but abandoned herself completely to God saying: “I thank you, O my God, for all the graces you have bestowed on me, and particularly for having made me pass through the crucible of suffering.” Shortly before she died she said: “Ah! to suffer in my soul, yes, I can suffer much.” So while her sufferings were extremely painful, she accepted this pain in a spirit of love. Ultimately, though, we have to remember that the way of Thérèse is a way of love and devotion, and that this love was the driving force of her life, expressed in a spirit of total abandonment to the will of God.
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