The Vatican has published in Italian a worship aid for the Vigil of Prayer for Peace that is going to be conducted in Rome on September 7, 2013.  The vigil will include the five joyful mysteries of the rosary, and, after each decade, the stanza of St. Therese's poem "Why I Love You, O Mary" that corresponds to that mystery will be read.  See Deborah Thurston's English translation of the vigil worship aid at her blog, Karmalight.   You may download the Italian booklet here.  Be aware the download may be slow.

Therese wrote "Why I Love You, O Mary," her last poem, in May 1897.  It is a long meditation on Mary in the gospels: Mary's humble, hidden, ordinary life; Mary's union with Jesus; Mary, our mother.  It is impossible to exhaust the poem's riches here.  Please read the twenty-five verses and see the handwritten manuscript of "Why I Love You, O Mary" here.

To explore the riches of all Therese's poetry, please see The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux, translated by Donald Kinney, O.C.D.  Washington, D.C.: Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Fathers, 1995.  The introductions and notes to each poem are invaluable in setting each poem in the context of Therese's life and community. 

One of Therese's most extraordinary assertions is "Mary, you love us as Jesus loves us."  May we place our prayer for peace in the hands of St. Therese and in the hands of Mary, and may they obtain for us the gift of peace in the world. 

August 29, 2013. 

The Pontifical Mission Societies announced today that the wooden writing-case (the “écritoire”) that belonged to St. Thérèse of Lisieux began a tour of the United States this week.  The tour is sponsored by the Pontifical Mission Societies in collaboration with the Carmel of Lisieux, which has generously lent the writing-case.

Father Andrew Small, OMI, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, traveled to Lisieux to pick up the writing-case, which has never before been outside the monastery.  The United States is blessed to be the first country to welcome this important possession of St. Thérèse.  Except for the manuscripts themselves, no souvenir of St. Thérèseis closer to her extraordinary memoirs, published in book form as Story of a Soul in 1898, than the écritoire. All three manuscripts of this great spiritual classic, which has transformed so many lives, were written on this little wooden writing-desk.
   

The tour opened on Wednesday, August 28, the anniversary of the death of St. Thérèse’s mother, Blessed Zélie Martin.  The first stop was Las Vegas, where several Catholic Hispanic organizations had been meeting.  The writing-case is scheduled to be venerated in about twenty dioceses between now and late October, when the tour is scheduled to end on the East Coast.

The first event of the tour was a prayer service at St. Joseph, Husband of Mary parish in Las Vegas.  During the prayer service, which began at 5:30 p.m., each person present was invited to write her or his name on a piece of paper and place it on the writing-case.  “This simple act is a way for pilgrims to unite their hearts with the heart of St. Thérèse and to place all their hopes and sorrows in heaven with her,” said Father Andrew.  “Returning the writing case to Lisieux, I will also carry with me the many names of those who have entrusted their cares and hopes to the intercession of St. Thérèse.”

See the current tour schedule, which is constantly being updated.

For more about the role of the écritoire in St. Thérèse’s life, please watch "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway."  You will learn when and where she used it; why she used this writing-case only after 1894; what happened to her first writing-case; and which of her writings she composed using this little writing-desk.  I will also write about the links between the Pontifical Mission Societies and St. Therese, both during her lifetime and after her death. For more about the mission tour, please watch www.OneFamilyinMission.org, where you can learn more about the Pontifical Mission Societies.

 by Maureen O’Riordan for “Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway”

  When Pope Francis boarded the plane in Rome on Monday, July 22 to travel to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, he was carrying a black leather bag. Since no recent Popes have carried their own bags, the story was widely reported (see the Catholic News Agency story).

 [photo credit: ANSA/Telenews]

A week later, on Monday, July 29, when Pope Francis held a press conference on the plane that was returning to Rome, the black bag was still of such interest that journalist Andrea Tornielli asked him:

 Holy Father, I have a question that is, perhaps, somewhat indiscreet: the photograph has gone around the world of you, when we left, going up the steps of the plane carrying a black bag, and there were articles throughout the world that commented on this novelty: yes, of the Pope going up ... it never happened, we said, that the Pope went up with his baggage in hand. So, there were even theories about what the black bag contained. Now, my questions are: one, why did you carry the black bag and why was it not carried by a collaborator, and two, can you tell us what was inside? Thank you.

Pope Francis:

It didn’t have the key of the atomic bomb! Alas! I carried it because I’ve always done so: when I travel, I carry it. What is inside? There is my razor, there is the Breviary, there is the agenda, there is a book to read – I took one on Saint Teresina to whom I am devoted. I have always carried the bag when I travel: it’s normal. But we must be normal … I don’t know .. what you are saying is a bit strange to me, that that photo has gone around the world. But we must get used to being normal, the normality of life.

[Courtesy of www.zenit.org]. 

 How inspiring that Pope Francis took a book about St. Therese with him to World Youth Day, of which she is patron.  Interestingly, in 1887, when Therese herself arrived in Rome on Sunday, November 13, 1887 for an audience with the Pope, and when she left Rome on  Thursday, November 24, she was carrying a black bag, a traveling-bag which belonged to her father.  She used it as hand luggage during the pilgrimage to Rome.  See the image below.  I wonder what it contained?

Louis Martin's traveling-bag; St. Therese used as hand luggage in Rome

  Please visit the site "la petite Thérèse" to see its latest and most beautiful offering: a panoramic view of Alencon and Lisieux and of the sites associated with Therese in each.  This opportunity to see the sites associated with Thérèse as they appear in the surrounding landscape is not to be missed.  See Les Buissonnets, St. Pierre's Cathedral, the Lisieux Carmel, and the basilica in Lisieux; see Therese's birthplace in Alencon and the village of Semallè, where she was nursed.

This panoramic visit is the work of those who have created a beautiful "virtual museum" out of the house at Saint-Ouen-le-Pin where Thérèse spent several summer vacations.  Their work is exquisite; I cannot presume to praise it.  A webcam allows you to visit the house and garden 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  See more about this pilgrimage site and about Therese's time at Saint-Ouen-le-Pin.   What a beautiful way to create a pilgrimage site!  How wonderful it would be if other places Therese visited could be similarly made available.

The exhibit "St. Therese of Lisieux, or burning with love" will be part of the Youth Festival of World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro.  This exposition, organized by the Carmel of Lisieux and the Association of the Friends of Therese and of the Carmel of Lisieux, drew seven million visitors at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris last summer.  The trip to Brazil for World Youth Day, of which St. Therese is co-patron, is its first visit to the New World.

See the exhibit (set up at Notre Dame) in the film below:

The exposition consists of 36 photographic panels designed to show the different kinds of love Therese experienced:

• love for her family (her environment, family, the Blessed Virgin, the Carmelite Order, the saints, and, of course, Jesus – child, suffering, and risen);
• love for the people of her time;
• love for people beyond this earthly life.

The goal of the exposition, as translated from the Web site of Notre-Dame Cathedral:

The exhibition is designed to be shown in places of solitude and of distress – prisons, hospitals, retreat houses, public places … to show the extraordinary fruitfulness of the life of Thérèse with her double message of hope. The exposition wants to tell us, on the one hand, that Thérèse is a source of graces and of abundant consolation to all who suffer and who call upon her; and, on the other hand, that no life, however poor and limited it may be, is necessarily wasted – that is the life of Thérèse herself, who had always suffered, and who died at the age of 24 years (1873-1897), in the Carmel where she had withdrawn.

Please see the PowerPoint of this exposition created by World Youth Day (with thanks to www.rio2013.com).

Where to see the exposition:

The exposition will be held in the Praça do Conhecimento at Morro do Alemão.  World Youth Day reports that more information may be available at the WYD Media Center.