St. Therese of Lisieux - Mornings with Saint Therese

M ORNINGS
WITH
S AINT
T HRSE

120 Daily Readings

Compiled by
Patricia Treece

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS

Manchester, New Hampshire

Mornings with Saint Thrse was originally published in 1997 by Servant Publications, Ann Arbor, Michigan. This 2015 edition by Sophia Institute Press contains editorial revisions and A Thrse Story by compiler Patricia Treece.

Copyright 1997, 2015 by Patricia Treece

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover and interior design by Perceptions Design Studio
Cover art: St. Thrse of Lisieux, 2008 Leonard Porter MMVIII

All scripture quotes marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All other Scripture quotes are St. Thrses paraphrases translated from the original French.

From The Autobiography of St. Thrse of Lisieux , translated by John Beevers. Translation 1957 by Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Used by permission.

From General Correspondence I 1982 and from General Correspondence II 1988. Both translated by John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars, Inc. 1982, 1988, ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press, Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344; www.SophiaInstitute.com

Sophia Institute Press is a registered trademark of Sophia Institute.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thrse, de Lisieux, Saint, 1873-1897.

[Works. Selections. English. 2015]

Mornings with Saint Thrse : 120 daily readings / compiled by Patricia Treece.

pages cm

Rev. ed. of: c1997.

ISBN 978-1-62282-248-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 978-1-622822-492

1. Catholic Church Prayers and devotions. I. Treece, Patricia, compiler. II. Title.

BX2179.T49E5 2015

282.092 dc23

2014038774

This book is for Thrse, my sister and friend,

and for great-hearted John Butler

C ONTENTS

Contents

T HE F AMILY

Father
Louis Martin

Mother
Zlie Guerin Martin

Children

Marie (February 1860January 1940)

Pauline (September 1862July 1951)

Lonie (June 1863June 1941)

Hlne (October 1864February 1870)

Joseph Louis (September 1866February 1867)

Joseph Jean Baptist (December 1867August 1868)

Cline (April 1869February 1959)

Melanie Thrse (August 1870October 1870)

Franoise Thrse (January 1873September 1897)

Uncle
Isidore Guerin

Aunt
Cline Guerin

Cousins

Jeanne and Marie

Prioress of Carmel : Mother Marie de Gonzague

Missionaries who become Thrses adopted brothers after her prioress asks her to support their apostolic work with prayer :

Abb Maurice Belliere

Pre Adolphe Roulland

I NTRODUCTION

Mystic, comic, everything! She can make you weep with devotion and just as easily split your sides with laughter. So wrote Sister Marie of the Angels, novice mistress at the Lisieux Carmelite cloister in 1893, describing the buoyant, twenty-year-old Thrse Martin. Thrse had come to the Carmel at age fifteen, with a head full of mischief and a burning zeal to please God. More than once her clumsiness earned her a rebuke from her superiors about how she swept the cloister. But one day, Pope Pius X would call this pure, simple girl the greatest saint of modern times. As her novice mistress then noted, Thrse had hiding within her a wisdom, a perfection. It would, in time, mark her for sainthood.

A century has passed since the twenty-four-year-old nun died in the remote Normandy cloister, virtually unknown. But since that day she has been credited with hundreds of astounding works for God bringing cures to the dying, rescuing men on battlefields, appearing in mission lands where conversions have increased dramatically. Today, millions love St. Thrse of Lisieux, not only for her wisdom, but for her unwavering passion to serve God, both in life and in death.

How did so brief a life yield such a prodigious legacy? St. Thrses story of love and self-sacrifice has its beginnings in memorable childhood, as the treasured youngest sister in a large and loving Norman family.

My earliest recollections are of tender caresses and smiles, she wrote. I was always cherished with the most loving care.... She was the ninth child of Louis and Zlie Martin, extraordinarily gifted parents more worthy of Heaven than of earth, as Thrse put it, because they loved God, each other, and their children at the very heights of charity. Thrses birth was awaited eagerly by her mother, who had lost four children before her to death when they were infants or toddlers. I was born to be a mother! Zlie once wrote.

Thrse also experienced the cherishing of a foster mother, Rose Taille, who saved the baby with the milk of her breasts for fifteen months when her own mother could not feed her. Rose nourished the baby with smiles and love, trundling her in a hay-filled wheelbarrow into the fields and tying Thrse onto the back of a placid cow at milking time.

When Thrse was four-and-a-half, Zlie died of breast cancer. The second oldest of her five daughters, sixteen-year-old Pauline, took over the mothering of Thrse as seventeen-year-old Marie occupied herself with eight-year-old Cline. Pauline nurtured Thrse, who affectionately would call her big sister little Mother. Thrse would always have an intimate, loving relationship with Pauline, who sowed joy all her life and proved worthy of Zlies dying words to her: I know youll become a nun and a saint.

When Pauline entered the Lisieux Carmelite cloister, Thrses godmother, Marie, a generous-hearted young woman, took over mothering Thrse. Marie cared for Thrse for the rest of her childhood, until she, too, became a Carmelite. Thrse later wrote that she knew all about the depths of tenderness in more than one mothers heart. And not only had she known four outstanding mothers; she had a saintly, loving aunt-by-marriage, Cline Guerin, who participated so closely in Thrses upbringing that Thrse, in later letters, frequently called herself Clines daughter.

Thrse also had a tender relationship with her father. Like Zlie, Louis firmly demanded good behavior but gave his five daughters plenty of love and attention. At sixteen, Thrse wrote to Louis, The longer I live, my dearest Father, the more I love you.... When I think of you, I naturally think of God, for I cannot believe it possible to find anyone holier than you. Thrses assessment of her father was accurate. Both of her parents, as well as her sister Lonie, are candidates for beatification.

Thrses early environment was so drenched in wholesome spirituality that she could readily grasp God as Love, Truth, and Mercy. Her upbringing made Thrse Martin a person who loved generously, rejoiced in intimacy, practiced great self-discipline, and was capable of honesty and humor about herself and others.

Her response to the things of God went higher and deeper than that of most souls. Even as a child she was concerned over the apparent injustice that some in Heaven have more glory than others. Pauline comforted her by filling a small and a large glass. See, they both have all they can hold.

In spite of her many advantages, Thrse began to know suffering at an early age. Zlies death caused her youngest childs ebullient personality to wither into timidity and oversensitiveness for years. Paulines departure for Carmel weakened Thrses immune system and opened the door to a sort of breakdown and mysterious illness: the ten-year-old almost died until a vision of Mary cured her instantaneously. When Thrse herself entered Carmel at the age of fifteen, she suffered having to leave Louis and her sister closest in age, Cline, whom she called the sweet echo of my soul.