St Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) was a French Catholic who became a Carmelite nun. However, this early childhood idyll was broken by the early death of her Mother (from breast cancer). Aged only four years old, she felt the pain of separation and instinctively turned to the Virgin Mary for comfort and reassurance. The next couple of years of St Therese’s’ life was a period of inner turmoil. She was unhappy at school, where her natural precociousness and piety made other school children jealous. Eventually, her father agreed for Therese to return home and be taught by her elder sister, Celine. She enjoyed being taught at home; however, after a while, her eldest sister decided to leave home and enter the local Carmel Convent at Lisieux. This made Therese feel like she had lost her second mother. Shortly afterwards Therese experienced a painful illness, in which she suffered delusions. Therese felt completely healed after her sister’s placed a statue of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the bed. Therese felt her health and mental state returned to normal very quickly. St Therese died tragically early at the age of 24 from tuberculosis. However after her death, the writings became avidly read by, first other nuns, and then the wider Catholic community. St Therese was declared one of the only three female Doctors of the Catholic Church (there are 33 doctors of the church in total). Thus after her death, she was able to achieve her intuitive feeling that she would be able to do something great and help save souls. St Therese was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925, only 26 years after her death.
St Therese Lisieux 9-day Novena 4p Smc 8.5 X 11 R1r 20220902
My Novena Rose Prayer
O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me as a message of love.
O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands . .
(mention in silence here)
St. Therese, help me to always believe as you did in God’s great love for me, so that I might imitate your “Little Way” each day.
Amen.
Miraculous Invocation to St. Therese
O Glorious St. Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and inspire the human family, I implore your Miraculous Intercession.
You are so powerful in obtaining every need of body and spirit from the Heart of God. Holy Mother Church proclaims you “Prodigy of Miracles… the greatest saint of Modern Times.”
Now I fervently beseech you to answer my petition (mention in silence here) and to carry out your promises of spending heaven doing good on earth… of letting fall from Heaven a Shower of Roses.
Little Flower, give me your childlike faith, to see the Face of God in the people and experiences of my life, and to love God with full confidence.
St. Therese, my Carmelite Sister, I will fulfill your plea “to be made known everywhere” and I will continue to lead others to Jesus through you.
Amen.
A Prayer to St. Therese of Lisieux
O little St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own – speak a word for me to our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were – to that Queen of heaven ‘who smiled on you at the dawn of life. ‘ Beg her as the Queen of the heart of Jesus to obtain for me by her powerful intercession, the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment, and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life. Defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity.
Amen.
Prayer in honour of St. Therese
O Saint Therese of the Child Jesus,
seeing what confidence I have in God,
kindly present my intentions before the merciful Lord,
whom you behold face to face.
Intercede for me with the Blessed Virgin Mary,
who came to smile on you when you were suffering.
Looking on those who pray to you,
and on all those undergoing distress and trials,
I unite myself to them as my brothers and sisters.
Show yourself to be our sister, and pour on us a shower of roses.
Ask the Lord to grant the graces we desire, if it be his will,
and make us stronger in faith, hope and love on the road to life.
Help us to follow your “Little Way of Spiritual Childhood”,
trusting in the mercy and love of God like a little child,
as you learned from Jesus himself.
Give us a thirst for Holy Scripture,
a hunger for the Sacraments of the Church,
and passionate self-giving love for our neighbours,
that like you we may be love in the heart of the Church.
May we be assisted at the moment of death
so that we pass from this world into the peace of God our Father,
and know the eternal joy of the children of God.
Amen.
A Morning Prayer Written by St. Therese:
O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.
O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfil perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity.
Amen.
St. Therese of Lisieux’s Prayer for Priests
O Jesus, eternal Priest,
keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,
where none may touch them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Your Sacred Body.
Keep unsullied their lips,
daily purpled with your Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,
sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.
Let Your holy love surround them and
shield them from the world’s contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant fruit and
may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and
everlasting crown.
