Today is the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, also known as the "Little Flower of Jesus".
She was very young when she entered religious life - only fifteen. She had to fight to be accepted into the convent. She even traveled to Rome and personally petitioned the Pope.
She died very young, but in her short life, and in her writings, she influenced many people. She is honored as a Doctor of the Church, along with Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom and other great thinkers and theologians.
Pretty impressive for a young woman who died at the age of twenty-four, and who never left her convent for the nine years that she was in religious life!
Therese is the patroness of Alaska, and the patroness of our Shrine of St. Therese, one of my favorite places. Bishop Crimont S.J., the founder of the Shrine was personally acquainted with Therese's parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, and had a great devotion to her.
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| The Shrine Chapel |
Today, all of the diocesan and parish staff are gathering in Wrangell for their Full Time Ministers meeting. They will be there for four days to plan the upoming Year Of Faith. It is wonderful that they are starting their meeting on this feast day!
St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!
I am going to share this with our pastor emeritus, a priest who I believe spent about 10 years stationed in Alaska. His name is Fr. Tom Connery and he tells us such stories from that time. I am sure that he will have an appreciation of this.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course I do - I love St. Therese!
So interesting! Thanks for sharing the info.
ReplyDeletewonderful. THank you for sharing this Paula.
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