Once in a great while, in researching St. Thérèse, I find and am permitted to share online a real treasure.  Today is such an occasion.  In my next blog entry, I will publish the first of a series of four jewels containing eyewitness testimony about St. Therese's First Communion and school life, but first please let me tell you joyfully how I discovered it.

Because I feel that my mission is to communicate St. Thérèse’s spirituality, and because, since I have a “day job,” my time for the mission is limited,  I have focused on understanding the events that happened between the birth of the baby Thérèse Martin in 1873 and the death of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face in 1897 and what those events mean for us today.  So I've had comparatively little time to study the rise of her cult and influence from 1897 until today.  The digitizing and publishing online of newspapers and magazines from the 20^th century is making available a wealth of material about the public interest in St. Therese, but for me to discover fresh eyewitness testimony about her in English is extraordinary. 

Several weeks ago, for the 70^th anniversary of D-day, I was searching for articles about the bombing of Lisieux in 1944 and about how the Carmelites of Lisieux and other townspeople had lived in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Therese from shortly after D-day until Lisieux was liberated at the end of August 1944.  On Facebook alone these stories were viewed by more than a thousand people.  During that research, I found the article below, which appeared in the Catholic Freeman’s Journal in Sydney in 1934.

"Little Flower's First Communion Recalled." (1934, July 12).
Catholic Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1932 - 1942), p. 31.
Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page17319356

For a moment my heart stopped.  Then I began to consider how to find these articles, if, indeed, they still existed 80 years later.  I knew that Mother Saint-Lèon Loutrel of the Benedictine Abbey of Notre Dame du Pré in Lisieux had written La petite Thérèse à l’Abbaye, a little book about Thérèse’s five years as a day student at the Abbey.  In 1929 it appeared in English as The Little Flower at the Benedictine Convent.  Years ago I visited a university library to read this little work, which has been out of print for aeons.  Now I was amazed to learn that an unnamed Benedictine, who’d been a senior student when Thérèse had started school,  later become a Benedictine nun, and then taught Thérèse in class, had published four articles about Thérèse’s school days.  Imagine my joy at discovering through the Internet that The Far East is still being published by the Missionary Society of St. Columban!  I wrote them at once to ask whether they still had the articles, and, if so, whether I might republish them online in honor of the 130^th annniversary in 2014 of Thérèse ‘s First Communion in 1884.  They answered at once, promising to search their archives.  After only a few days of suspense, I received on Friday, July 4 the kindest answer saying that their archivists in Ireland had unearthed the very issues I needed, and sending them to me with permission to publish them!  All four articles appeared in the United States in 1934. Three appeared in Ireland, but, for some unknown reason, article 3, which gives a moment-by-moment description of the day of St. Thérèse’s First Communion, was never published in Ireland.  So I’m especially happy to be able to transmit it to the people of Ireland, many of whom love Thérèse and her parents, Louis and Zélie, deeply.  The United States has received much from the many diligent missionaries, Carmelites and others, born in Ireland who have preached St. Thérèse in our country.  The late Fr. J. Linus Ryan, director of the National Office for St. Thérèse  in Ireland, was one of the most generous supporters of my work.  And Mgr Bernard Lagoutte, rector of the Shrine at Lisieux in 2008, when Louis and Zélie Martin were beatified, said “Ireland has led the world in the promotion of the Cause of the Parents of Saint Thérèse  of Lisieux.”  I remember, at the Mass of Beatification in Lisieux, the Irish contingent in places of honor, each delegate waving a small Irish flag. I am happy to be part of this international collaboration between Ireland, Australia, and the United States to give this testimony about St. Thérèse's childhood back to the world.

The next step was to type the text of the articles so that they’d be easy to read and searchable online.  The very day before I received them, Thérèse’s great friend, Bishop Guy Gaucher, O.C.D., had died in France.  I had learned of his death the same day and immediately began to pray that he might obtain for us the grace to continue his mission.  (Clearly he lost no time in answering!).  Arranging the translation into English of the announcement of his death and funeral and the various tributes to him, as well as preparing to celebrate online the feast of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin on July 12, prevented my typing these articles, but God went before me.  Two days after the permission came, I spoke on “The Eucharist as Source and Summit of the Martin Family” at the monthly day of prayer in the presence of the reliquary of the Martin family at the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia.  Linda Smith, who was present, volunteered to work with me in evangelizing about St. Therese, and offered to type the articles.  Her husband, Scott, decided to join her in the apostolate, and he formatted the first article expertly.  Patricia Taussig of North Carolina prepared for publication the original images of the pages that appeared in The Far East and  the photographs contributed by the Benedictine nuns.  Please see the fruits of their work: "The Little Flower at School," Part I.  I know you join me in thanking them.  

Please join me also in thanking the Missionary Society of St. Columban (often colloquially known as the "Columban Fathers" and "Columban Sisters," together with their lay missioners), who elicited and published these historic articles in 1934, granted me permission to share them with you, and continue to work in solidarity with God's beloved poor in Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America.  To learn more about their work, or to send a thank-offering, please visit:

• in the United States, www.columban.org
• in Ireland, www.columban.com; and
• in the United Kingdom, www.columbans.co.uk

Therese Martin, the 11-year-old girl who would become St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, received her First Communion on May 8, 1884 at the Benedictine Abbey of Notre Dame du Pre in Lisieux, where she was a student.

Therese's preparation for her First Communion

Therese's careful preparation was aided by her family as well as by the Abbey.  Every night her oldest sister and godmother, Marie, instructed her in the spiritual life.  Pauline, who was already in formation as a Carmelite nun, wrote Therese a little letter every week to encourage her to be as generous as possible to prepare for the great day. Pauline also prepared a notebook which compared Therese's soul to a garden, and Therese used the notebook to record her sacrifices, prayers, and acts of love every day. 

  The Carmelite friars of Verona in Italy have prepared in English a booklet, "40 Days of Preparation for First Communion with St. Therese of Lisieux," which may be ordered in the United States.  Please click on the image for more information.

Thanks to the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, you can read online Therese's memories, written eleven years later, of these months of preparation. 

Therese receives Jesus

About the experience of receiving her First Communion, Therese wrote famously: 

Ah! how sweet was that first kiss of Jesus.  It was a kiss of love; I felt that I was loved, and I said: "I love You, and I give myself to You forever!"  There were no demands made, no struggles, no sacrifices; for a long time now, Jesus and poor little Therese had looked at and understood each other.  That day, it was no longer simply a look, it was a fusion.  Therese had vanished as a drop of water is lost in the immensity of the ocean.  Jesus alone remained; He was the Master, the King."  Read more.

Another page of the Web site of the Archives of the Lisieux Carmel gives details of the first communions of each of the Martin daughters.  Visit it and, in the far right column, about Therese's first communion, follow the links to:

• period photos of the Benedictine Abbey, including one photo of a First Communion Mass and one of a catechism class like Therese's;
• a photo of the copy of the Imitation of Christ Therese received for her First Communion;
• at the very bottom of the page, a photo (from the 1930s) of the First Communion class gathered before the statue of Mary while one child recites, in the name of all her classmates, the Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin.  

The Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin

Therese writes

In the afternoon, it was I who made the Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin.  It was only right that I speak in the name of my companions to my Mother in heaven, I who had been deprived at such an early age of my earthly mother.  I put all my heart into speaking to her, into consecrating myself to her as a child throwing itself into the arms of its mother, asking her to watch over her.

        In fact, Celine, at her First Communion four years earlier, had been chosen to make this Act of Consecration.  But in Therese's First Communion class were two young girls, Marie and Alexandrine Domin, the nieces of Father Louis Domin, the chaplain of the Benedictine Abbey.  Father Domin taught the students catechism and prepared them for their First Communion. As a compliment to him, the teachers had planned to confer this honor on one of his nieces.  Therese was so distressed at the prospect that her aunt, Mme. Guerin, who was a distant cousin of Father Domin, and Marie visited Mother Saint-Placid to ask her to reverse the decision.  In the end the whole family went to visit Father Domin, who yielded.  Celine wrote years later that she could still see the place in his reception room where she sat, could see Therese's suppliant air and pale face.  (Manuscrits autobiographiques de Sainte-Therese de l'Enfant Jesus by Father Francois de Sainte-Marie, O.C.D. Office Central de Lisieux, 1956, Volume II, p. 23). 

   We no longer have to wait till we're eleven to receive the Eucharist, and many of us have the joy of receiving much more often than Therese did.  She wrote prophetically "We are also the hosts whom Jesus wants to transform into Himself."  May she obtain that grace for us on this anniversary.