Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

The "Crucifix of Mercy" that Henri Pranzini kissed on the scaffold

In Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis mades it clear that he did not envision  the Jubilee Year of Mercy as a frill for the righteous, but as an invitation to concrete personal and social conversion, an invitation especially for those engaged in evil deeds.  He appealed especially to members of organized crime:

May the message of mercy reach everyone, and may no one be indifferent to the call to experience mercy. I direct this invitation to conversion even more fervently to those whose behaviour distances them from the grace of God. I particularly have in mind men and women belonging to criminal organizations of any kind. For their own good, I beg them to change their lives. I ask them this in the name of the Son of God who, though rejecting sin, never rejected the sinner.

He urges persons who have committed serious crimes to return to the merciful embrace of the Father and of the Christian community.  He also invites

. . . . those who either perpetrate or participate in corruption. This festering wound is a grave sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance, because it threatens the very foundations of personal and social life. Corruption prevents us from looking to the future with hope, because its tyrannical greed shatters the plans of the weak and tramples upon the poorest of the poor. . . .  If we want to drive it out from personal and social life, we need prudence, vigilance, loyalty, transparency, together with the courage to denounce any wrongdoing. If it is not combated openly, sooner or later everyone will become an accomplice to it, and it will end up destroying our very existence.

              Especially in the face of these grave sins, Pope Francis urges us to turn to Mercy during the jubilee year:

This is the opportune moment to change our lives! This is the time to allow our hearts to be touched! When faced with evil deeds, even in the face of serious crimes, it is the time to listen to the cry of innocent people who are deprived of their property, their dignity, their feelings, and even their very lives. To stick to the way of evil will only leave one deluded and sad. True life is something entirely different. God never tires of reaching out to us. He is always ready to listen, as I am too, along with my brother bishops and priests. All one needs to do is to accept the invitation to conversion and submit oneself to justice during this special time of mercy offered by the Church. 

Clearly the Pope’s insistence on the availability of God’s mercy is grounded in a keen sense of the concrete reality of sin and its consequences.  Let’s pray that, as each of us casts ourselves into the loving arms of God, the balance between good and evil will shift so that many who have committed serious crimes will turn to God with the confidence that God’s tender mercy deserves and wants to create in us.  May the Church be a concrete sign of that mercy, and may we welcome God's returning children.

St. Therese and the Conversion of Criminals

The Cathedral of St. Pierre in Lisieux

            In July 1887, when Therese was fourteen, she experienced her vocation to participate in the Passion of Christ for the sake of others.  One Sunday in July, after Mass at St. Pierre's Cathedral, while she was closing her missal, Therese saw a holy card of the Crucified protrude from the edge of the book in such a way that only one hand of the Savior was visible.

Crucifix at St. Pierre's Cathedral, Lisieux

I was struck by the blood flowing from one of the divine hands.  I felt a great pang of sorrow when thinking this blood was falling to the ground without anyone's hastening to gather it up.  I was resolved to remain in spirit at the foot of the Cross and to gather up this divine dew.  I understood I was then to pour it out on souls.  The cry of Jesus on the Cross sounded continually in my heart:  “I thirst!” These words ignited within me an unknown and very living fire.  I wanted to give my Beloved to drink, and I felt myself consumed with a thirst for souls.  As yet, it was not the souls of priests that attracted me, but those of great sinners.  I burned with the desire to snatch them from the eternal flames.”

 That summer France was gripped with the story of Henri Pranzini, who had been convicted of murdering two women and a little girl in Paris.  He had been condemned to die at the guillotine, and the press reported that he was impenitent and had refused to see the chaplain.  Therese begged  God to allow him to repent and to give her a sign of his repentance.  Enlisting the partnership of her sister Celine, she prayed, offered sacrifices, and had a Mass offered for this intention.  She was heard to the letter: on the scaffold Pranzini suddenly turned and cried out “Chaplain, hand me that crucifix!”  Fr. Faure stretched out the crucifix, and Pranzini kissed the Savior’s wounds several times.  Therese was deeply touched by this “unspeakably sweet response” to her prayer.  Read Therese’s account of her prayer for Pranzini and her response to his repentance at the Web site of the archives of the Carmel of Lisieux. 

Therese’s own attitude to God shows how deeply she entered into solidarity with the greatest sinners.  The last lines of her memoir attest to this attitude: 

“Yes, I feel it: even if I had on my conscience all the sins one could commit, I would go, my heart broken with sorrow, and throw myself into Jesus’ arms. I know how much he loves the prodigal child who returns to Him.  It is not because God, in His anticipating mercy, has preserved my soul from mortal sin that I go to Him with confidence and love.” 

Speaking of the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis said recently:  "I believe this is the time for mercy. We are all sinners, we all carry burdens within us. I felt Jesus wants to open the door of his heart.”  He added that the opening of the Holy Doors in Rome and all over the world will be a symbol of how Jesus is opening the door of his heart. 

Question:

How can you enter into prayerful solidarity with those who are guilty of the most serious crimes? 

Does Therese's prayer for Pranzini lead you to pray for terrorists, for those who persecute and kill innocent persons?

How can you participate in the saving mission of Jesus to them?  

Time of Personal Prayer

Pray as the Holy Spirit leads you. Options:

• Pray over the lines from St. Therese above, and pause whenever your heart feels moved. Or:
  

•  Choose one of these lines from the gospel as a prayer starter:

“The Son of Man came to seek out and save what was lost.”  (Luke 19:10)

“I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to newness of life.” (Luke 5:32)  Or:

• Imagine Jesus opening the door of his heart to you.  Imagine that you enter it.  Let yourself be loved.  Now imagine persons who have been guilty of greater sins than you have also entering the heart of Jesus.  See yourself surrounded by these other sinners.  Feel yourselves surrounded by the love and mercy of the divine heart.  Notice what happens to you and to them in the crucible of that Heart burning with love. 
  

Please pray that on the feast of Saint Therese during the Jubilee of Mercy all of us, and especially “those whose behavior distances them from the grace of God” may turn to God, know ourselves as loved, and accept God’s mercy and healing.

The Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee 

Click here to read the Prayer of Pope Francis.