In cooperation with the Carmelite Forum, the Center for Spirituality at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana announces its annual Carmelite Summer Seminar, "Carmel at Prayer: A Surge of the Heart, A Glance Toward Heaven," a title drawn from St. Therese.  The seminar offers lectures every morning.  Steven Payne, O.C.D., author of St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, will lecture on "A Surge of the Heart: Therese of Lisieux on Prayer."  Other lectures include:

• "The Carmelite School of Prayer: A Coat of Many Colors" by Dr. Keith Egan;  
• "Rule of Carmel: A Life Structure for Today's Pilgrim"
  by John Welch, O. Carm.;
•  "Prayer of Recollection and Contemplation
  in Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross,"
  by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D.; and 
• "Journey to the Deepest Center with Edith Stein,"
  by Fran Horner, O.C.D. and Mary Fleig, O.C.D.. 

You may choose a total of four morning and afternoon workshops lasting three sessions each, each attended by a smaller group. Morning  workshops include

• "Spiritual Guidance: A Carmelite Approach"
  by Kevin Culligan, O.C.D. 
• "The Promise of Contemplative Prayer in John of the Cross" by Constance FitzGerald, O.C.D. 
• "Carmel and the Child Jesus,"
  by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. 
• "Dark Prayer: The Nights of John of the Cross,"
  by John Welch, O. Carm. and
• "Praying with John of the Cross' Poetry"
  by Dr. Keith Egan. 

Afternoon workshops:

• "John of the Cross' Spiritual Canticle and Ecospirituality," by Mary Frohlich, RSCJ
• "Touraine: Carmel's Forgotten Reform,"
  by Leopold Glueckert, O. Carm.
• "Teresa, Teach Us to Pray,"
  by Fran Horner, O.C.D. and Mary Fleig, O.C.D.
• "'All Must be Loved' - Teresa of Avila on Community,"
  by Steven Payne, O.C.D.

I have attended this seminar many times, and I recommend it.  You do not need to be a Carmelite to attend.  The group is friendly and relaxed; each year many attend for the first time, and it is not a social challenge to arrive on your own.  For details, click here.  Get a discount if your registration is received before May 23. 

The Carmel of Lisieux announced today that the exhibit "Therese: Burning with Love" is coming to the New World. This beautiful exhibit, which drew seven million visitors at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last summer, has continued its travels in Europe. After Paris, Caen, and Geneva, the beautiful city of Turin has the joy of welcoming it. But "the greatest saint of modern times" has other ideas: the exhibition will be at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro this summer. This is very natural, since St. Therese is co-patron of World Youth Day, with Pier Giorgio Frasatti.

The mission of the exhibit "Therese: Burning with Love" is to reach people in distress. The exhibit should also be displayed in a favela (a shantytown) in Brazil. If the local authorities accept it, a copy of the exhibition will stay in Rio and tour several Brazilian cities. We confide this beautiful project to your prayers.

(Translated courtesy of the Web site of the Carmel of Lisieux).

Pope Francis and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux:
“To depend solely on the tenderness of  God”

 
An excerpt and photo courtesy of the Sanctuaire de Lisieux from the story “Una rosa bianca da Santa Teresita” by Stefania Falasca, in the March 24, 2013 issue of Avvenire.  Translated from the French. 

“Do not be afraid to depend solely on the tenderness of God
 as Saint Thérèse of Lisieux did.”

 When Cardinal Bergoglio wrote a letter, he enclosed an image of St. Therese

Anyone who had the opportunity to be in contact with and establish a friendship with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio knows that he had the habit of enclosing in his letters, no matter how short, . . . a picture of the Carmelite saint, Thérèse of Lisieux.  In this way he wanted to emphasize his personal choice, full of meaning, of the spiritual bond that united them.

At the beginning of his pontificate, we saw Pope Francis give the President of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, a white rose, a sign of the “little Thérèse” to whom he prays especially.

But why and from where did this fondness for Thérèse begin?

I was wondering about this very thing in Aparecida in 2007.1   At the time, I met Cardinal Bergoglio briefly in front of the Brazilian Marian Shrine between meetings of the Preparatory Committee of the final document . . .

He said to me, “Do not be afraid to depend solely on the tenderness of God as Saint Thérèse of Lisieux did, who, for this reason, is a beloved daughter of the Blessed Mother and a great missionary saint.”

 It was [an invitation] to see the Church and her mission [as being] on the road of the “little way” given by his teacher of Spiritual Childhood, the way on which Pope Francis is beginning his Pontificate.

I learned a little later that, when he came to Rome, in between meetings Father would go to pray in front of a statue of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus in a little church run by the Franciscans in Borgo, near the Tiber.

In Buenos Aires also, his veneration of the Patroness of the Missions2  was well known by his priests, and it was spread particularly in the “villa miserias” [shantytowns, slums] of the Argentine capital [Buenos Aires].

Cardinal Bergoglio speaks in Rome about his prayer to St. Therese

But now let’s get to the roses.   Father Bergoglio had returned to Rome at the end of 2007 for the Consistory.  And with him, the figure of little Thérèse reappeared: ”When I have a problem,” he said to us, “I entrust it to her.  I don’t ask her to resolve it, but to take it into her hands and help me; almost always, I receive a rose as a sign.”

He told how one time, having made an important decision about a difficult question, he put everything in St. Thérèse’s hands.  Some time later, in the doorway of the sacristy, a woman he didn’t know gave him three white roses.

He explained that it was a Jesuit, Father Putigan, who in 19253 spread a prayer seeking the intercession of St. Thérèse.  He then recited a passage from the prayer: “Little Flower of Jesus, ask God to grant me the grace that I place with confidence in your hands.”

No roses?  "A grace greater than the one you have asked for"

In the way he spoke, one felt a sense of his modesty united to a great simplicity, a sincere trust, so much so that I, too, felt moved to imitate him.  In one particular instance, following his example, I invoked the Saint, but, to my great disappointment, I received no roses.  At the first opportunity, I said to him by telephone, “Father, you remember the story of the roses…Well, nothing! Not one rose arrived for me.  Of course, this doesn’t surprise me; I understand…these things happen to those who have already attained a certain level, like you, those who are ‘in good standing.’  No one can say that I’m a model of virtue…”  The Pope was silent.  Then, in a very calm voice, he replied, “That means that she will answer you and grant you a grace greater than the one you have asked for…”  And it was really so.

1General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, at Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida in Brazil, May 2007.

2Pope Pius XI declared St. Therese patroness of the missions, the equal of St. Francis Xavier, in 1927.

3St. Thérèse was canonized in 1925.

Thanks to the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux and the generosity of the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars, please read St. Therese's first letter to her father from Carmel  Notice that in 1888 April 29 fell on Sunday.  Saturday, April 28 had been the nineteenth birthday of Therese's sister Celine, and it seems there was a celebration in the speakroom at Carmel.  Perhaps Therese's father was not present, so the postulant was allowed to send him this letter of thanks.  Louis Martin was extraordinarily generous to the Carmel: he gave generous dowries for each of his Carmelite daughters, made many gifts of money to the monastery, and often brought fish, fruit, vegetables, and other treats to the monastery.  The "bright little pearl" is Pauline, who was nicknamed "the pearl" by her father; the "brilliant diamond" is his oldest daughter Marie, who, in the month of May, will make her vows on the same day the monastery celebrates the 50th anniversary of its foundation.