HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE FLOWER!

 

148 years ago today, St Thérèse was born in a windswept, chilly corner of northwestern France. Thérèse was born on a Thursday, January 2nd, 1873. 

This January babe came into the world in the town of Alençon, but after the death of her mother, she and her family moved to Lisieux where at age 15 she entered Carmel. In time Lisieux and Thérèse became inseparably linked.  Some years back I visited both places, Alençon and Lisieux, and while Lisieux bustles with pilgrims, the more modest Alençon is comparatively empty, and even on her feast day has few souls congregating outside the medium sized home where she was born. I was not allowed see inside the house where Thérèse was born (visitors are not permitted entry) but I saw the streets where she toddled as a tot. 

On this day, we celebrate her birthday, but relying on the insights Padre Pio had of her, she had a holy indifference as to whether she lived or died, and she gave her desire to live or die entirely to Jesus as she had given all rights to herself to Him. Padre Pio wrote of her, "St Thérèse of the Child Jesus used to say that she did not want to make the choice of living or dying but wanted Jesus to do whatever he wanted with her...This is a depiction of all the souls that have emptied themselves and are filled up with God." Pio held Thérèse as his better because she had emptied herself of her own will, and planted God's will in its place. 

Pio exclaimed in a letter to Father Agostino (Pio's spiritual father), "How far my soul is from being emptied that way!" Pio was 28 at the time and found it exceedingly hard to rid himself of his desire to die, Pio's will was to go to Heaven then, but it was God's will that he live 'til he was 81 years old. At this tme of Pio's impetuousness and impatience to be free of his body, he tried to take his example from Thérèse, "I do try, my father, to conform myself to what Sr Thérèse said which is actually what every soul passionately in love with God should say."

*  *  *

The letter of Padre Pio's that I quote from was written October 17, 1915, and an excerpt of it is available in Gianluigi Pasquale's Padre Pio's Spiritual Direction for Every Day.