Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

Day Two – “Merciful Like the Father”

Our Lady of Hope, by Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS
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In Misericordae Vultus, Pope Francis writes:

"It is absolutely essential for the Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify to mercy. Her language and her gestures must transmit mercy, so as to touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father."

“To touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father”—this is the mission of Therese.  She wrote “Jesus deigned to show me the only road that leads to this divine Furnace, and this road is the abandonment of the little child who sleepswithout fear in its Father’s arms.” 

Pope Francis:  “The mercy of God is not an abstract idea, but a concrete reality with which he reveals his love as of that of a father or a mother, moved to the very depths out of love for their child. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that this is a “visceral” love. It gushes forth from the depths naturally, full of tenderness and compassion, indulgence and mercy.”

Therese: Sister Marie of the Trinity, speaking of an interaction with Therese, her novice mistress: 

“One day I hurt her feelings when I would not admit the faults she reproached me with.  Just then the bell rang for evening prayer.  On the way I began to be sorry for the way I had behaved, and I whispered to her “I was very naughty just now.”  She looked at me lovingly, her eyes filled with tears.  

“If you only knew what is going on within me! No, I have never experienced so vividly with what love Jesus receives us when we ask him to forgive us after we have offended him.  Hardly had you begun to express your repentance to me than I felt for you more love than before.  If such is the case with me, poor little creature that I am, what must God experience when the sinner returns to him?” 

Therese of Lisieux and Marie of the Trinity, by Pierre Descouvement.  Staten Island, New York: Society of St. Paul, 1997, pp. 75-76.

Pope Francis: “The Spouse of Christ must pattern her behaviour after the Son of God who went out to everyone without exception. . . .  in a word, wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.”

Within the desert of Carmel, Therese herself was an oasis of mercy to the others.  She extended herself to the sisters who were older, ill, cranky, neglected, or isolated in any way, and she did so at considerable personal cost.

• At recreation, the two prized times a day when the nuns were permitted to talk, she went to sit by those who were neglected.
  
  
• Sister Marie of St. Joseph, who had a terrible temper (she was forced to leave the Carmel after the death of Therese), had been working alone in the linen room.  The nuns were so afraid of her that the prioress had not dared assign her a helper.  Therese asked to be assigned to aid her and rescued her from the isolation which had been her lot.  When Therese’s sister Marie confided how much trouble she herself had with Sister Marie of St. Joseph, Therese answered “Ah! if you only knew how necessary it is to forgive her, how much she is to be pitied!  It is not her fault if she is so poorly gifted; she is like an old clock that has to be rewound every quarter of an hour.  Yes, it is as bad as that.  Well, wouldn’t you have pity on it? Oh, how necessary it is to practice charity toward one’s neighbour!” 
  
• When her sister Pauline spoke to her of a nun who treated Therese badly, Therese replied “I assure you that I have the greatest compassion for Sister X.  If you knew her as well as I do, you would see that she is not responsible for all the things that seem so awful to us.  I remind myself that, if I had an infirmity such as hers, and so defective a temperament, I wouldn’t do any better than she does, and then I would despair; she suffers terribly from her own shortcomings.”
  
• When one of the novices said she couldn’t stand how a fussy elderly sister under whose supervision Therese worked was treating her, Therese exclaimed “You are complaining after a few words with her; what would you do if you had to listen to her all day long, as I do?  Now, you can do what I do.  It’s really easy.  All you have to do is mellow your soul with charitable thoughts; you then feel such peace that you no longer get irritated.”

St. Therese of Lisieux by those who knew her, tr. Christopher O’Mahony, O.C.D.  Dublin: Veritas Press, 1973.

Pope Francis:  We want to live this Jubilee Year in light of the Lord’s words: Merciful like the Father. The Evangelist reminds us of the teaching of Jesus who says, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). It is a programme of life as demanding as it is rich with joy and peace.

•  One day one of Therese’s blood sisters asked her “How come you always smile so sweetly when Sister X speaks to you? It can’t be because ofany attraction because she is always making you suffer.”  “That is precisely why I love her and why I show her so much affection,” Therese answered.  “How could I prove my love for Jesus if I behaved otherwise toward those who hurt me?”

Pope Francis:  Merciful like the Father, therefore, is the “motto” of this Holy Year. In mercy, we find proof of how God loves us. He gives his entire self, always, freely, asking nothing in return. He comes to our aid whenever we call upon him.

How can we be merciful like the Father?  Ask for the grace of a deeper participation in Therese's mission of mercy.

Time of Personal Prayer

Pray as the Holy Spirit leads you.  Consider reading over paragraphs 12-14 of "Misericordiae Vultus” and pausing wherever your heart feels moved.

The Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee

Click here to read the Prayer of Pope Francis.