St Thérèse

I was disappointed to realize that, while in the Traditional Calendar, to-day is the feast of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, "the Little Flower", Discalced Carmelite, Virgin, Patroness of the Missions, Doctor of the Church, in the modern rite, her feast was celebrated on Thursday, so I missed the chance to attend Mass in her honour.

If only I lived in a decent diocese, where Summorum Pontificum was implemented: then I could hear Mass in the form I far prefer; as it is, I can only do so when in Rome itself, or in the capital cities of mainland Australia, or in New Zealand! How annoying.

St Thérèse, pray for us.

Heavens Above - The Flying Nun

This is just too good to be true...

Apparently one of the astronauts currently at the International Space Station is a friend of some dear Carmelite nuns; when he asked them what to bring on his voyage, they replied, "A relic of St Thérèse!"  So, while her soul exalts forever in the Beatific Vision in heaven, even her sacred relics are not just travelling from country to country to edify the faithful, as continues year by year (I was able to venerate her relics in Melbourne during their Australian tour), but some part of them is at this moment whizzing round the earth in a low orbit: so in a most ingenue manner, and yet one prays so fruitfully (those nuns and the good Saint herself interceding), fulfilling the dream of this cloistered religious to preach the Gospel on all continents until the end of time.  May she shower down roses as signs of graces won!

(See the full article provided by Zenit.)

Relics - V - and Abuses Thereof

Having just said Vespers of the feria in our (still intact) chapel, I suddenly realized that atop the empty tabernacle we keep both two third-class relics (of St Pio of Pietrelcina and St Rita of Cascia) and a first class relic, a tiny fragment of the body (of the bones, I suppose) of St Paul of the Cross, Founder of the Passionists.  This I kissed and venerated in particular, calling to mind how earthly and low I am in all truth, compared to such a saint, glorified unspeakably by God in heaven.  How far it is from earth to heaven!  Only by the Ladder of the Man-God, Christ, can we hope to ascend so high.

Having returned to my room, I have just toted up my own very minor collection of third-class relics:

• a cloth touched to the relics of St Dominic;
  
• ditto, of St Pio of Pietrelcina;
  
• ditto, of St Faustina;
  
• ditto, of St Thérèse (and rose petals blessed in her honour, a sort of quasi-relic given her dying words);
  
• ditto, of Bl Maria Sagrario of St Aloysius Gonzaga, Carmelite nun, virgin and martyr of the Spanish Civil War;
  
• a piece of the religious habit of Bl Columba Marmion.
  

Unfortunately, while I used to have a third-class relic of St Martin de Porres, I left it in my pocket once and it got lost in the washing machine, mea maxima culpa...

(Which reminds me of a certain priest, zealously orthodox, who had amassed quite a collection of relics, including those of all the apostles; which he kept in a shoebox under his bed.

(Other friends of mine, both seminarians at one time, had during their time in Rome obtained far too many relics from, in their own words, "a corrupt nun at the Relics Office", who ran a roaring trade until her overgenerosity was detected and she was exiled to Iran - as happened to a certain reputed freemason...

(And of course there was the former student at the North American College within the past decade, who funded his Roman idyll by purveying for a due consideration "relics" to gullible fellow-countrymen, "relics" which it transpired he forged by grinding up animal bones!

(Indeed, along similar lines, for a lark, one of those ex-seminarian mates of mine and I invited a lecturer of ours at the John Paul II Institute to attend a Dry Mass that my friend would pretend to offer up, with elevation of such a relic - an abomination, as Fortescue averred! - but of course  this was only a joke.

(So, in answer to the unspoken question, Are the well-known abuses of the veneration of relics still about, Yes, of course, men are still fallen and sinners, but abusus non tollit usus.)

St Thérèse

Tonight (being a First Friday) there was a Holy Hour with Benediction at the Pro., followed by Low Mass of the incomparable St Thérèse of Lisieux, of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, Discalced Carmelite Religious, Virgin, Patroness of France and of the Missions, Doctor of the Church, whose wish to be a missionary preachng the Gospel on all continents to the end of time has been marvellously fulfilled by the continual progress of her sacred relics through all nations.

We had Low Mass tonight, for Fr Rowe, having just returned from the ACCC Conference, was unfortunately too tired, as he admitted, to sing Mass for the feast, as he would otherwise have liked to have done.  In any case, I was glad of his return and of his ghostly counsel in the confessional before Mass.  It is a consolation to know that one of the Promises of the Sacred Heart is that Our Lord will touch the heart of sinners, as He indeed avers in His very Gospels.

And what a feast!  The great St Thérèse: let us apply to her what is in the first place placed on the lips of the Virgin of Virgins by Holy Church: Congratulamini mihi, omnes qui diligitis Dominum: quia, cum essem parvula, placui Altissimo... (Rejoice together with me, all ye who love the Lord: for, when I was little, I pleased the Most High...) - for her way of spiritual childhood is indeed the distillation of the Gospel; and as the Offertory is for to-day's feast, repeating in Thérèse's name the glad cry of the Mother of God, Magnificat anima mea Dominum: et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo: quia respexit humilitatem ancillæ suæ: fecit mihi magna qui potens est.

And as the hagiographical passages for her at Matins of nine lessons say, echoing Psalm 18:6, Teresia ad currendam perfectionis viam ut gigas exsultavit (Thérèse rejoiced as a giant to run the way of perfection); and further, referring to Psalm 83:6, Ibi mirabiles Deus in Teresiæ corde ascensiones disposuit (There [in Carmel] God disposed the heart of Thérèse to ascend to Him by steps).

I can personally testify that she has ceased not to pour down a shower of roses from heaven in response to prayer; she is indeed a great saint.  Would that her example move us, and me especially, to run the way of perfection and come nigh unto the Lord.