Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

 The Return of the Prodigal - an icon by Julie Lonneman

 The Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Year of Mercy

During his first years in office, Pope Francis called for the renewed celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation: the sacrament of joy, mercy, and healing.  Now he finds this sacrament important to the celebration of the Jubilee of Mercy.  “Let us place the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the centre once more in such a way that it will enable people to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands.” 

In Misericordiae Vultus Pope Francis sets forth his teaching about this sacrament of mercy by speaking of the mission of confessors:

Confessors must be “ authentic signs of the Father’s mercy. . . . We become good confessors when, above all, we allow ourselves to be penitents in search of his mercy. . . . to be confessors means to participate in the very mission of Jesus to be a concrete sign of the constancy of divine love that pardons and saves . . . . None of us wields power over this Sacrament; rather, we are faithful servants of God’s mercy through it. Every confessor must accept the faithful as the father in the parable of the prodigal son: a father who runs out to meet his son despite the fact that he has squandered away his inheritance. Confessors are called to embrace the repentant son who comes back home and to express the joy of having him back again. . . . In short, confessors are called to be a sign of the primacy of mercy always, everywhere, and in every situation, no matter what.

How beautiful are Luke's words about the response of the father:  "While he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran to meet him."

Missionaries of Mercy

During Lent in this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis sent out Missionaries of Mercy as “a sign of the Church’s maternal solicitude for the People of God,” priests authorized to grant absolution even for sins usually reserved to the Holy See, “living signs of the Father’s readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon . . . facilitators of a truly human encounter, a source of liberation, rich with responsibility for overcoming obstacles and taking up the new life of Baptism again.”

Question:

• Where and how have I experienced God’s mercy?
  
• Have I experienced liberation through and healing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
  
• Who are the people who have been sacraments of mercy in my life?
  

St. Therese and the Sacrament of Reconciliation

St. Therese made her first confession in the Cathedral of St. Pierre in Lisieux near the date of her seventh birthday. Her radiant words show how joyful and liberating she found the sacrament:

"What a sweet memory for me! . . . Father encouraged me to be devout to the Blessed Virgin and I promised myself to redouble my tenderness for her.  Coming out of the confessional I was so happy and light-hearted that I had never felt so much joy in my soul.  Since then I've gone to confession on all the great feasts, and it was truly a feast for me each time." 

The priest who heard her first confession, Fr. Ducellier, testified later that the little girl impressed him as a pure and pious soul and “very fearful of offending God in the smallest of things.”

Various guarded statements suggest that, as a Carmelite, Therese did not find much consolation from the monastery’s confessor or from many of the extraordinary confessors who visited from time to time. But in October 1891, less than three months before her 19^th birthday, Therese met a priest who understood her. Fr. Alexis Prou, a Franciscan who “was supposed to do good to great sinners but not to religious souls,” was assigned at the last moment as a substitute to preach the community’s annual retreat.  Therese said he was “appreciated only by me in the community.”  Fr. Prou preached in factories (as was customary in France at that time), and it is significant that this priest who spoke to the heart of working-women also spoke to the heart of the young cloistered Carmelite who would become patron of missions.  Therese writes that she had not planned to say much in the confessional about her interior trials, but “ "Hardly had I entered the confessional than I felt my soul expand.  After speaking only a few words, I was understood in a marvelous way.  My soul was like a book in which this priest read better than I did myself.  He launched me full sail upon the waves of confidence and love which so attracted me, but upon which I had not yet dared to set out."   She goes on to say that she had been worried that her faults caused God pain, but Fr. Prou did her much good by assuring her that her faults caused God no sorrow.  Throughout her life she was grateful to him. See a photo of Fr. Alexis Prou and a few lines about his life.

Question:

Have you ever been ‘understood in a marvelous way?’ How was your life different after that?

What would it be like to be “launched full sail upon the waves of confidence and love?”

Time of Personal Prayer

Pray as the Holy Spirit leads you.  Perhaps pray over the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), and pause wherever you feel your heart moved.

The Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee

Click here to read the Prayer of Pope Francis.