SAINT AT A GLANCE: ST. THERESA OF THE CHILD JESUS (Prayers and Devotions, Pope John 2) A spirit. . . makes us cry out “Abba! Father!” It would perhaps be difficult to find words more incisive, and at the same time more gripping, to describe the particular charisma of Therese Martin, that which constituted the quite special gift of her heart and became a particular gift to the Church through her heart. A gift marvellous in its simplicity, a universal and at the same time unique gift. It may be said with conviction of Theresa of Lisieux that the Holy Spirit permitted her heart to reveal the fundamental mystery, the reality of the Gospel, directly to the people of our time. The “little way” is the way of the “holy childhood”. There is something unique in this way – the genius of St. Theresa of Lisieux. This most fundamental and most universal truth was in a certain sense rediscovered through the interior experience of her heart and the form which her whole life took, a life of only twenty-four years. She left behind her the memory of a child “trusting” even to heroism and consequently “free” even to heroism. In her Carmel, Theresa felt especially united to all the Church’s missions and missionaries throughout the world. She felt herself to be “missionary”. She has been proclaimed patroness to the missions by the Church. Abba! Father! Thanks to her, the whole Church has found again all the simplicity and all the freshness of that cry, which has its origin and source in the heart of Christ himself.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 12:48:00 +0000
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