I remember some years ago asking one of the inmates in our Catholic prison ministry to name for me his favorite saint. I knew that he had read a lot about the saints and was very interested in them. I was quite surprised that he said that without a doubt it was Therese of Lisieux, not that answer I expected from him. I did not expect a young man who had served in the Middle East in the army and who was serving a life sentence in prison for murder to name a cloistered Carmelite nun as his favorite saint.
Born in 1873, Terese entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux in Normandy in France at the age of 15 and died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. She was unknown to most of the world when she died, but her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, became an international best-seller. She became affectionately known to the faithful as the Little Flower. Her insight, her holiness, her honesty, the simplicity of her spirituality, and her passion in living out the vocation of a cloistered nun touched the souls of the faithful in a special way. Before she died, she knew that her work up in heaven would be the work of saving souls. She was named by Pope John Paul II as a patron saint of the missions, due to her love of missionaries and the spread of the Gospel message. John Paul II also named her as a Doctor of the Church, only the third woman to receive such a distinction.
Our psalmists states today: Let my prayer come before you, Lord. We have such a great example of prayer and holiness with Therese of Lisieux. We unite our prayers with her prayers today.
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