Precious facts about St. Therese of Lisieux

Did you know that in Baclaran church, by the parking lot, stands a gazebo with a life-size statue of St. Therese of the Child Jesus?  The railing behind the statue is heavy with locks left by the faithful—a fairly new practice in our country, imitating the love-lock tradition in many cities in all the continents of the globe, where love-struck romantics swear undying love by fastening a lock with their initials to a bridge, and then tossing its key to be buried forever in the river below.  (Yes, like Pont des Arts over the River Seine, in Paris).

So far, love-locks on a bridge are unheard of in the Philippines, but on the railings protecting a Saint’s statue, yes. The love-lock tradition must have been brought to the Baclaran church by OFWs who have seen the practice abroad. The last time I saw it, the Baclaran locks were the most numerous behind St. Therese’s statue, and they seemed to represent wishes and petitions to this favorite Saint.  “Sana ma-approve na yung application ko to work in Dubai,” said one devotee I chatted with.  “Hiling ko ke Sta. Teresita magbalikan na yung mga parents ko, para mabuo na ulit ang pamilya namin,” said another.  A third one said after fastening her lock, “Nagtirik din ako ng kandila for my secret wish, but no, I’m not walking on my knees in the church.”

If Baclaran’s “wish-locks” indicate a fondness or a great faith in St. Therese of Lisieux, one wonders how well these devotees know the young French saint.  The following facts may spur their interest to know St. Therese more intimately: 

St. Therese was a spoiled brat. As a 22-year-old nun, Therese herself admitted, “I was far from being a perfect little girl.” Testimonies during the process of Therese’s beatification included a

 letter written by her mother, Zelie Martin (now also a Saint) which said: “I have to slap this poor baby who gets into frightening tantrums when she cannot have her own way. She rolls about on the ground in despair as if all is lost. Sometimes she is so overcome she almost chokes.  She is a very high-strung child.”  Zelie also wrote of Thérèse and her sister Celine: “My little Celine is drawn to the practice of virtue; it’s part of her nature; she is candid and has a horror of evil. As for the little imp, one doesn’t know how things will go, she is so small, so thoughtless! Her intelligence is superior to Celine’s, but she’s less gentle and has a stubborn streak in her that is almost invincible.”  Therese was to write in her mature years, as though in appreciation:  “The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.”

St. Therese’s “Little Way” began in Scriptures. St. Therese’s “petite voie” or “little way”, which was to greatly influence and inspire the faithful to this day, started as a spark she felt upon a chance reading of Proverbs 9:4, “Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me.”  She was to write later: “I will seek out a means of getting to Heaven by a little way—very short and very straight, a little way that is wholly new. We live in an age of inventions; nowadays the rich need not trouble to climb the stairs, they have lifts instead. Well, I mean to try and find a lift by which I may be raised unto God, for I am too tiny to climb the steep stairway of perfection… Thine Arms, then, O Jesus, are the lift which must raise me up even unto Heaven. To get there I need not grow; on the contrary, I must remain little, I must become still less.”   

St. Therese’s greatest desire was to become a missionary.  As a young contemplative nun, Therese desperately wanted to be a missionary in Vietnam where the Lisieux missionaries were to

found the first Carmelite Convent in the Far East.  But a painful bout against tuberculosis ended her life at age 24, leaving her dream unrealized.  On her death-bed, she is reported to have said, “I have reached the point of not being able to suffer any more, because all suffering is sweet to me.”  In all the nine years of a life of obscurity in the Carmelite Convent of Lisieux, she never went beyond its walls, and yet she came to be proclaimed Patron Saint of the Missions due to the numerous miracles in mission lands attributed to her intercession.

St. Therese inspired St. Teresa of Calcutta.  Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Macedonia, “Mother Teresa” chose for her religious name “Teresa” as the Carmelite Saint’s simplicity inspired her to be “little” and to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.  Many of Mother Teresa’s dearly remembered words echo those of the French nun who died 13 years before Mother Teresa was born.  St. Therese wrote “I’m a little brush that Jesus has chosen in order to paint His own image in the souls entrusted to my care”; Mother Teresa said, “I am a little pencil in the hand of God who is sending a love letter to the world.”  St. Therese wrote, “My vocation is love”; Mother Teresa said, “Our vocation is the love of Jesus.”

St. Therese had Saints and revered souls and celebrities among her devotees.  The long roster of devotees of St. Therese of the Child Jesus includes: St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, American journalist turned Trappist monk Thomas Merton, French singer Edith Piaf, martyr of Auschwitz St.

Maximillian Kolbe, Filipino bishop Alfredo Obviar, Nobel laureate Henry Bergson, Pope John Paul I Albino Luciani, Pope Francis Jorge Mario Bergoglio, etc.  Speaking to journalists on the plane to visit the Philippines in January 2015, Pope Francis spoke of his special devotion thus: “When I don’t know how things are going to go, I have the custom of asking St. Therese of the Child Jesus to take the problem into her hands and send me a rose.”  Enjoy this video of Jorge Bergoglio speaking about his devotion to St. Therese long before he became pope:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LTR4_4h2Xw

 St. Therese’s pilgrim relics will visit the Philippines for the fourth time.  The Saints’  relics bring us into contact with the person and remind us of their great love for God. It might delight her devotees—Baclaran lock-lovers included—to know that next year, from January 13 to May 31, 2018, her pilgrim relics will be brought for veneration to various dioceses all over the country.  The theme this time will be “Salamat,

PE Benedict XVI venerates St. Therese's relics.

St. Therese!”  Her previous visits—which were attended by kilometric queues of devotees wherever she went—were marked by a shower of graces, favors, and miracles, all attesting to the love of God; thus the theme of gratitude for next year.  In fact, everyone is invited to share their story of miracles big or small obtained through St. Therese.  Do you have a story of gratitude to share?  Go and write it, as it might even become part of a special documentary about the Little Flower that is being prepared for her forthcoming visit. Email your story to SalamatStTherese@gmail.com  We end this piece with a wish-prayer from St. Therese: “May you be content knowing you are a child of God.”  

9 facts about Fatima’s seers for us in The Age of the Selfie

October 13, 2017 marks the 100^th anniversary of the last of the six apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima to the three shepherd children Jacinta and Francisco Marto who are siblings, and their cousin, Lucia.  Much of the basic facts about Fatima –like the “Miracle of the Sun” that took place on October 13, 1917 and witnessed by 70,000 people—are by now known to so many people all around the world, but few know the young seers deeply.  Here are facts that endearingly show the seers as they are, plain unschooled children responding to a phenomena as innocent hearts do—with absolute trust.

Fact 1.  Our Lady directed the 10-year-old Lucia alone to learn to read (and write).  In those days children like Lucia grew up illiterate—they wouldn’t need reading and writing to herd sheep all their life.  Our Lady’s request, made on June 13, 1017, her second appearance, was unusual but it was to be proven later to be part of the divine plan.

Our Lady told Lucia, “Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth.”  Jacinta died at age 9, Francisco at age 11.  Having survived until age 98, Lucia accomplished her mission to spread the Fatima message to the world.  How could she have done that if she had remained illiterate?

Obedience to Our Lady made the shepherd girl Lucia, in a way, a shepherd, too—but of souls—becoming a cloistered Carmelite nun (and later even learning to use the word processor) who would author three books:  Calls from the Message of Fatima, Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words 1and Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words 2.

Fact 2.  Even as a 9-year-old, Jacinta welcomed suffering for the love of Jesus, as Our Lady had foretold her that she would greatly suffer for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, notably sins of the flesh.  When Jacinta’s tomb was opened on Sept. 13, 1935—for her remains to be transferred from a chapel in Ourem to be beside Francisco in Fatima’s cemetery—her body was found to be incorrupt, a sign of holiness in the eyes of the Church.

Because she had died of the dreaded Spanish flu epidemic, in compliance with the law then, her body was treated with quicklime for speedy decomposition, and yet, 15 years after her death, she remained intact despite the quicklime treatment.  Because of this the local bishop instructed Lucia, already a Carmelite nun by that time, to write the memoirs of Jacinta and Francisco.

Fact 3. In her Memoirs, Sr. Lucia describes Jacinta and Francisco before and after the apparitions.  Before, Jacinta was “the personification of enthusiasm and caprice.”  But after seeing Our Lady, Jacinta was never afraid to speak up and would reprimand an adult or child who would do or say inappropriate things, telling them, “Don’t do that, for you are offending the Lord our God, and He is already so much offended!”  All Jacinta’s actions after the apparitions began “seemed to reflect the presence of God in the way proper to people of mature age and great virtue,” Sr. Lucia wrote.

Fact 4. While in an institute for exceptionally ill children in Lisbon, Jacinta the young mystic received visits and insights from our Lady which were recorded at the time she spoke them.  Some of these insights as listed in Fr. John de Marchi’s book, The True Story of Fatima.

are:

"The sins which cause most souls to go to hell are the sins of the flesh."

"Fashions will much offend our Lord. People who serve God should not follow the fashions. The Church has no fashions. Our Lord is always the same."

"If men knew what eternity is, they would do everything to change their lives."

"People are lost because they do not think of the death of our Lord, and do not do penance."

"Wars are the punishments for sin."

"Penance is necessary. If people amend their lives, our Lord will even yet save the world, but if not, punishment will come.”

"You must pray much for sinners, and for priests and religious. Priests should concern themselves only with the things of the Church."

"Priests must be very, very pure."

"Disobedience of priests and religious to their superiors displeases our Lord very much."

"Fly from riches and luxury…Love poverty and silence."

"Have charity, even for bad people."

"Do not speak evil of people, and fly from evil speakers."

"Mortification and sacrifice please our Lord very much."

"Confession is a sacrament of mercy, and we must confess with joy and trust. There can be no salvation without confession."

"The Mother of God wants more virgin souls bound by a vow of chastity."

"To be pure in body means to be chaste, and to be pure in mind means not to commit sins; not to look at what one should not see, not to steal or lie, and always to speak the truth, even if it is hard."

Fact 5.  Francisco’s first and last communion took place on the day before he died, in 1919—a fulfilment of his great wish to receive Jesus in Holy Communion.  Like Jacinta, he knew that he was not going to stay long in this world.  Our Lady had assured him of heaven, although “he must recite many many rosaries.”  Sr. Lucia revealed in her memoirs the change in Francisco as a result of Our Lady’s apparitions—the young shepherd boy became a mystic of sorts, contemplating and praying in solitude, and offering sacrifices “to console Jesus who was so sad due to man’s sins”.  On the way to school he would tell Lucia to go ahead for “It’s not worth my while learning to read as I’ll be going to Heaven very soon.”  So he would walk off alone to the church “to be close to the Hidden Jesus”—to first of all console “Hidden Jesus” and then pray for the conversion of sinners.

Fact 6.  Four years ago, Brazilian boy, Lucas Batista Maeda de Mourao, sustained serious brain injury when he fell from the window of his grandfather’s home.  Taking the boy to the hospital, his father tearfully prayed to Our Lady of Fatima, Blessed Jacinta, and Blessed Francisco.  As Lucas lay unconscious in the hospital, his father and a local community of Carmelite nuns begged the intercession of the Blessed shepherd siblings to cure the boy.  A few days later, Lucas got up and walked home as if nothing happened.  This amazed the doctors, and last February, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously concluded that Lucas’s healing was a miracle as it could not be scientifically explained. This miracle which was recognized by Pope Francis led to the canonization of the shepherd children of Fatima. Now 10-years-old, Lucas was present at the canonization in Fatima, and brought up the offertory gifts during the Mass.  By this time, all the tombs of the three visionaries—Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia—are already in the basilica, side by side.

Fact 7.  Jacinta and Francisco Marto are the first child saints in the history of the Church who are not martyrs.  To date, four popes have made pilgrimages to Fatima, attesting to the importance of Our Lady’s messages handed down through these children.  On the 50^th anniversary of the apparitions, May 13, 1967, Pope Paul VI was the first pope to visit the place where Our Lady appeared to the children.  On May 13, 2000, Pope John Paul II traveled to Fatima to beatify the seers Francisco and Jacinta who became two of the youngest “Blesseds” ever.   He said, about the children’s docility to Mother Mary: “Devoting themselves with total generosity to such a good Teacher, Jacinta and Francisco soon reached the heights of perfection.”  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI went on a four-day “apostolic journey” to Fatima, on May 11-14, 2010, and in answering journalists’ questions on the plane said, “For us, Fatima is a sign of the presence of faith, of the fact that it is precisely from the little ones that faith gains new strength…” On May 13, 2017, the 100^th anniversary of Our Lady’s first apparition, Pope Francis made an overnight pilgrimage to Fatima on May 12-13, and elevated Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco to sainthood.

Fact 8:  Now let’s look at Lucia, the child seer who lived up to two years short of 100: there was a side to her that no one probably knew then, especially as the three children were being subjected to investigation by authorities and the mockery of non-believers.  Lucia, who lived to become a Discalced Carmelite nun—giving life to the words of Our Lady that Jesus would use her to make her known and loved on earth—was the incarnation of joy, according to the Carmelite nuns who lived with her at Carmel of Coimbra and who wrote A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary.  For example, she would joke even into her 90s and was seriously ill.

Sr. Lucia was described as “…as real as a plate of cookies… an absolutely normal personality… and if I were obliged to point out her outstanding natural characteristic I would say it was her gaiety. No one has been able to detect in her the least sign of morbid temperament or exclusive self-concern,” by a priest who knew her very well, Fr. John de Marchi, in his book The True Story of Fatima.

Dr. Branca Paul, who attended to Sr. Lucia during the last 15 years of her life, would be amazed that the sick and aging nun would be “great to be around…so normal, simple and humble,” despite the untold suffering she was going through for the sake of the conversion of sinners.  The physician said that Sr. Lucia showed amazing energy when talking about Fatima, the Blessed Mother’s messages and requests, in particular praying the Rosary.

Levity aside, Sr. Lucia would be frustrated when people wanted to focus on the miracles and secrets, said her doctor.  Even her fellow Carmelite nuns disclosed that it always pained Sr. Lucia when some people would insist on revealing the third part of the Secret.  Sr. Lucia reportedly would say “The miracles and secrets aren’t important. We must concentrate on Our Lady’s message.  Live the Ten Commandments. That’s what’s important… If only they’d live what is the most important thing, which has already been said…They only concern themselves with what is left to be said, instead of complying with the request that was prayer and penance!”

Fact 9.  How is all this of any concern to us, living in an age of the selfie?  If the occurrences, miracles, messages, and controversies arising from the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima were to be condensed for the modern man, it would boil down to three simple truths: 1) that man is capable of evil actions, and that these actions, from the smallest to the biggest, have dreadful consequences (as history shows, from 1917 to the present); 2) to turn the tide, we must repent, do penance, and pray.  Our Lady even recommended praying the rosary to begin with—a prayer anyone can do, not only with our lips but more so with our heart; and 3)  Mary is our loving Mother who is our bridge to Jesus.

The message of Fatima is extremely relevant in a planet endangered by greed and megalomania.  Just think ISIS, or North Korea’s nuclear tests—don’t they feel like the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads?  I don’t mean to sound like a prophet of doom but after 100 years of Fatima, perhaps it’s about time we surrendered our madness and became like the shepherd children Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia, who without question loved and obeyed Our Lady, thereby reminding the world that God is indeed alive and with us. And that’s the truth.