01/01/2022 – St Theresa of Lisiuex 100 year Anniversary (Next year)

Next year on this day we will celebrate the 150th birthday of one of the most influential saints of modern times, St Therese de Lisieux, the Little Flower. Her great gift to the Church is her “Little Way” or “Spiritual Childhood”.

What devotees of the rosary will hopefully be aware of is that her sanity was nourished by the rosary. From her earliest days the family rosary was a daily evening ritual in the Martin home.

As an infant, Therese would have often drifted off to sleep with the gentle rhythm of the prayers in her mother’s arms. Therese’s mother always nurtured a love of Our Lady in her daughters but especially in her last year knowing she would be leaving them.

After the death of her mother, the evening rosary became an important time of connection not only with her Heavenly Mother but with her mother in heaven.

While still a teenager, Therese entered the convent and eagerly embraced the Carmelite habit girded with the rosary and covered with the full brown scapular. Every day thereafter she joined her new family in the daily rosary.Just before she died at the age of 24, Therese composed a beautiful poem,”Why I Love You, O Mary” which she reflects on some of the rosary mysteries. She ends the poem

“Soon I’ll hear that sweet harmony. Soon I’ll go to beautiful Heaven to see you. You who came to smile at me in the morning of my life,Come smile at me again … Mother… It’s evening now !…I no longer fear the splendour of your supreme glory. With you I’ve suffered and now I want To sing on your lap, Mary, why I love you,And to go on saying that I am your child !…