A (Late) Blurb About St. Therese

Okay, Okay, I am about 24 hours late with this post HOWEVER how could I wait another year to ''officially" post on this great saint's feast day?

So for now, we're back to October 1st, not only the start of a great great month (the birthday month of this great woman, month of the rosary, feast day of: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, and yes, also the birthday month of yours truly) BUT we get to kick it off remembering an AMAZING young French lady. Needless to say, October is a GREAT month.

I won't write about the biography of St. Therese, for that you can't find multiple sites and her own autobiography (which, I'll admit with guilt I have yet to read though it's one of the multiple books on my shelf), bur rather why I even remember this saint at all.

Although I have yet to read The Story of a Soul I have read another great book called Maurice and Therese: The Story of a Love (the link is a review on it) a few years ago, probably back in middle school or early high school. It was from this read that I first discovered who this great woman was and turned from an icon to a real person filled with as much grandeur and wisdom (I mean, this youngster is a Doctor of the Church!) as with vulnerability and sensitivity.

I was impressed and touched, and although it has been a few years since the read I can still recall feeling a connection with St. Therese at the moment. In this book, a collection of letters between a seminarian and the saint, I found the eagerness to be a little "Therese" for a dear Jesuit seminarian who was helping at my parish. I chuckle a bit now but such goal, for young Sofia, was so genuine, pure and quite zealous!

I, of course, can't think of St. Therese without thinking of countless memories made over a few years with an apostolic community of Carmelites back in St. Louis. They remain so dear in my heart and the icon (and statue) of St. Therese in their recreation room is still the mental image I recall when I think of this great saint.

I pray that I still seek to be a "little" Therese, morphed from my initial new and fresh zealous desire to a more complex understanding of what this saint teaches about faithfulness and deep turmoil. Ah and yet I know I have so much to begin to learn!

Well, happy (late) feast day of St. Therese! St. Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us!

Peace of Christ,