Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

Scroll presenting the reliquary of St. Therese and her parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, to the United States

With his generous gift of the relics of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin (and the gracious gift of the Carmelites of Lisieux of the relics of their daughter St. Therese), Mgr. Bernard Lagoutte, former rector of the Shrine at Lisieux, presented the above scroll to mark the occasion of the arrival of the reliquary in Philadelphia.  I reproduce the text in typewriting below. 

Msgr. Lagoutte visited the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia on Sunday, November 10, the day after Magnificat Day, and offered Mass for the nuns and their guests together with the new rector, Father Olivier Ruffray.  He had the joy of seeing the shrine where the reliquary will be venerated and of speaking to the Carmelites about continuing their mission of communicating the spirituality of St. Therese and of the Martin family.  The nuns welcomed both rectors with great happiness.

The reliquary was transferred to the Carmelite Monastery this afternoon, where a beautiful evening Mass celebrated this great joy.  Children, lay persons, religious sisters, deacons, and priests joined the Carmelites in thanking God.  Visitors drove from as far away as Maryland and Virginia to venerate the relics, and the chapel was adorned with two hundred roses sent by a friend of the community.  We rejoiced especially in the presence of a delegation of schoolchildren and young people from Regina Coeli Academy in Abington.  The reliquary now rests in the shrine of St. Therese in the chapel, not many yards from the tombs of the four foundresses of Carmel in Philadelphia who did so much to make Sister Therese known early in this century.  Public veneration resumes at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow and continues until 8:00 p.m., interrupted only for Benediction at 3:00 p.m. and a conference by Fr. Frederick Miller at 3:30 p.m.  We welcome everyone to come, share our happiness and pray for your intentions.

In September 1896, one year before being called back to God, Thérèse had an intuition of the celestial mission that Jesus was going to entrust to her until the end of time:  “I wish to travel the world proclaiming your name throughout the earth!” she cried to Jesus.  The reality of this mission would be verified almost immediately after her death by the incredible universality of her spiritual experience and the innumerable graces obtained through her intercession.

Today the Little Flower, Thérèse, proclaimed Doctor of the Church and Patron of Missions, still travels the world proclaiming the Flame of Jesus!  She does this notably through the tangible sign of her relics.  And when joined by those of her cherished parents, Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, this sign is all the more meaningful for the men and women of our time who are engaged in the vocation of marriage.   In inviting veneration of these relics brought together for the first time in a unique ‘family’ reliquary, I hope that all of America—spouses, parents, and children—will give thanks to God for their love lived in the humility of everyday life and will pray that their family life may be a road to sanctity.  Yes, that all may confide their family joys, anxieties, and distresses to the Lord, through the intercession of Thérèse, Louis, and Zélie!  I also hope that on the occasion of the veneration of these relics, my brother priests may revitalize their zeal for pastoral initiatives for families.  I wanted to entrust these precious relics to the Magnificat Foundation because, in their work of evangelization through the good, the true, and the beautiful, I am certain that they will know how to share and make known the spirituality of the Martin family in the U.S.  Happy and moved to see this reliquary arrive here in Philadelphia on this magnificent continent where the faith burns with ardor.  I give it my benediction.

Msgr. Bernard Lagoutte
Rector of the Sanctuary of Lisieux
July 2013