A Welcome to County Meath, Ireland

It was thirteen years ago that we first set foot in the little abandoned Monastery that was to become our home. Though we had prayed a novena to St Thérèse to find us a home, we did not know until arriving that this former Visitandine Monastery was dedicated to St Thérèse and once had a privileged altar in her honour. It is pleasant to imagine that our coming here  was a cooperative venture between St Thérèse and her Visitandine sister, the Servant of God Sister Françoise-Thérèse, also known as Léonie Martin. However it happened, though, we were given a warm welcome by His Lordship of Meath and invited this very day to make our home in his diocese, a fact for which we are filled with unceasing gratitude and praise to Almighty God.

A Coincidence of Days

Though it was not known till later in the day, that day was the 14th anniversary of St Thérèse’s declaration as a Doctor of the Church, and the 3th anniversary of the beatitification of her parents.

Honouring St Thérèse

Since then, we have recognized her intercession on this special day. For us, it is almost like a secondary feast in her honour, and whenever possible, we celebrate her votive Mass.

A Saint with Our Charism — or Vice Versa?

The more one studies St Thérèse, the more plentiful the parallels seem between our own vocation and hers. Let us look at one aspect especially, her prayer for priests. It was especially the need of priests for prayer and reparation that inspired the expansion of the charism of Mother Mectilde to monks, and each monk, on the day of his perpetual vows, promises to represent priests before the Most Blessed Sacrament, something very close to St Thérèse’s heart.

Bulk Buying

St Thérèse devoted herself tirelessly to prayer for priests. This she references frequently in her correspondence and sayings. It was on her mind throughout all the day. For her it, was tied up with her desire to save souls. She had both seen in Rome how fragile priests are and knew that “the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Mt 9:37). She thought of prayer for priests as the way to save many souls. Let us look at what her blood sister, Céline, testified when interviewed for St Thérèse’s cause of beatification:

[W]hen she entered Carmel, she had as her very special purpose to pray for priests and to offer herself for the needs of the Church. She called this kind of apostolate “bulk buying”, because if she got the head, she would get the members too. Here is how she declared her intentions in the canonical examination that preceded her profession: “I have come to save souls, and especially to pray for priests.” This answer was her own, as everyone answers as they wish on that occasion.

A Letter to her sister Céline

Céline recounts what St Thérèse wrote to her before Céline joined her sister in Carmel.

During the time she spent in the convent, she bore the sanctification of priests in a special way in her intentions. On 14 July, 1889 she wrote to me: “Dear Céline, let’s live for souls, let’s be apostles… and save especially the souls of priests: these souls ought to be more transparent than glass. Alas, how many bad priests and priests who are not as holy as they should be there are! Let us pray and suffer for them…. Céline, do you understand this cry from my heart?” This idea recurs frequently in her letters, as well as in the autobiography and in her poems.

An Expression of Her Deep Compassion

Céline continues, after speaking of Thérèse’s prayer for priests, to place this in the context of her deep compassion, which also was the motivating force of her prayers for priests:

Her charity was not found wanting, either, towards those who gave her cause for complaint. But then, of course, she never complained about anybody. At school, when those older pupils were jealous of her success, she cried silently and would say nothing to me. […]

While she was ill, she drew a lesson for me from the fact that the infirmarian always chose the softest linen for her, in an effort to give her some relief. “You see,” she said, “people must be treated with the same care… How often one hurts them without realising it!… So many are sick, others are weak, and all of them are suffering. We ought to be very gentle with them.” She told me too that “One should always treat others charitably, for very often what we think is negligence is heroic in God’s eyes. A sister who is suffering from migraine, or is troubled internally, does more when she does half of what is required of her than another who does it all, but is sound in mind and body.”

May St Thérèse obtain for us the grace to follow her little way in compassion, and especially in prayer for priests.
Quotations from St Thérèse of Lisieux by those who knew her, translated by Christopher O Mahony