The month of October begin with the Feast of our beloved St. Therese of Lisieux and this month is also dedicated to the Holy Rosary of Our Blessed Mother. So deemed it quite fitting to write about St. Therese’s love for Mother Mary.
“There is still one thing I have to do before I die,” Therese, who was already very sick, confided to her sister Celine: “I have already dreamed of saying in a song to the Blessed Virgin everything I think about her.” Therese wrote this swan song, “Why I Love You O Mary” to express her love for Mary. In it she wrote Mary’s role as a mother, how Mary loves us as Jesus loves us, about Mary’s sufferings, Mary’s story: Therese says that the Eternal Word will tell Mary’s story in heaven to charm the souls of her children. About Mary’s smile: Therese says that Mary came to smile on her at the beginning of life, and she asks her to come and smile on her again.
One day Therese was heard to exclaim: “How I love the Blessed Virgin! If I had been a priest, how I should have spoken of her. She is sometimes described as unapproachable, whereas she should be represented as easy of imitation. She is more Mother than Queen. I have heard it said that her splendour eclipses that of all the Saints as the rising sun makes all the stars disappear. It sounds so strange. That a Mother should take away the glory of her children! I think quite the reverse. I believe that she will greatly increase the splendour of the Elect….Our Mother Mary….How simple her life must have been.” (Autobiography, 208) Else where she expressed her desire to know the original language in which the Bible was written so that she would know the exact meaning of every word written in it, especially about the Blessed Virgin Mary.
At the Annunciation in one sentence history was forever changed. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” At Mary’s assent to the Angel, the Word of God became Man. But her acceptance of God’s Will—her “yes” —didn’t stop at the end of her sentence. Her “yes” was a daily one. And she helps us give our daily “yes” to God, too. As a matter of fact, our Church honours thousands of Saints who imitated Mary’s ongoing “yes” in their own lives – people who remained faithful to God, virtuous, and peace-filled even amidst severe trials.
Though St. Thérèse of Lisieux lived 151 years ago—and in a cloistered monastery in France—she shows us how we can live with peace and virtue in the 21st century. It’s called the “little way,” and it imitates Mary’s continual “yes” to God, regardless of what is going on around us. Don’t let the name fool us, though. Her “way” may be “little,” but it’s definitely not easy—because saying “yes” to God often means saying “no” to ourselves.
The Immaculate Conception sets Mary apart from all God’s creatures. Thus, we may be tempted to feel estranged from her. Not so St. Therese. She would say that she was more blessed being Therese than Mary, because then she could love and admire Mary, whom she recognized as “more Mother than Queen.” Therese seems to “borrow” from the theology of how Mary could be immaculately conceived and still be redeemed. Unlike the rest of the men who are conceived in original sin, Mary received the greatest possible mercy, perfect redemption, and freedom from sin at the moment of her conception in anticipation of her Son’s redemptive death. However, unlike Mary, Therese was born with Original Sin. When speaking of herself, Therese writes, “… Jesus has forgiven me more than St. Mary Magdalene since He forgave me in advance by preventing me from falling. I was preserved from it only through God’s mercy!” Like Mary, Therese considered this preventive mercy a precious gift. When she made a general confession of her whole life in her first months in Carmel, her confessor “spoke the most consoling words I ever heard in my life’’: ‘In the presence of God, the Blessed Virgin, and all the Saints, I DECLARE THAT YOU HAVE NEVER COMMITTED A MORTAL SIN. . . Thank God for what He has done for you.’ … and gratitude flooded my soul.” St. Therese especially loved the mystery of the Annunciation and celebrated it every year. At the first inquiry into Therese’s sanctity in 1910, her sister Celine testified:
She had a particular devotion for the mystery of the Incarnation, which she would observe devotedly every 25th March. She loved to contemplate Jesus in his childhood. She once said, “I should like to die on 25th March, because it was on that day that Jesus was the smallest.
In 1888, the feast of the Annunciation was celebrated on April 9, because of Lent, the day Therese entered the Lisieux Carmel. God must have understood that her “yes” to her Carmelite vocation would be a profound echo of Mary’s “yes.”
Therese’s understanding of what happened when the angel Gabriel came to Mary is remarkably realistic and down-to-earth. In July 1915, her Sister Pauline, Mother Agnes of Jesus, testified at the second process:
She was very simple and had little experience of evil. Fearful of discovering it, as she acknowledges in her autobiography, she entrusted the protection of her purity to the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph. Later on, she came to understand that everything is pure for the pure of heart. Seeing that she knew about the realities of life, I asked her who had enlightened her. She said that she had discovered them without even looking, from observing nature, the flowers and birds. She added, “The Blessed Virgin knew all these things. For she said to the Angel, on the day of the Annunciation, “How will this be, since I know not a man?” Knowing things is not evil. All that God has made is very good and very noble. Marriage is a beautiful state for those whom God has called to it; it is sin which distorts and soils it.”
Therese, the wise and innocent child of God’s mercy, understands with Mary that God has made nothing that is not very good. Therese emphasized that Mary, who was purity itself, knew the facts of life when the Angel came to her, and that there was nothing wrong with her having that knowledge.
She begged the Blessed Virgin to remind her Divine Son of the title of “Thief” which He gave Himself in the Gospels that He might not forget to come and steal her soul. But two months of martyrdom still separated her from that liberation. Eagerly looking forward to death, she complained, “It might be said that the angels were given orders to hide from me the light of my approaching end.” When asked if her Mother Mary also concealed this knowledge from her, she answered, “She would never hide that from me because I love her too much.”
Love for God and love for others motivated her “little way” of spiritual childhood, which is the way of complete trust and self-surrender. This is Thérèse’s secret—the secret to discovering great interior peace—the secret to imitating Mary’s love and wholehearted “yes” to God.
Oh! I would like to sing, Mary, Why I Love You,
Why your sweet name thrills my heart,
And why the thoughts of your supreme greatness
Inspire no fear within my soul, so dear and sweet thou art.
-From her poem “Why I love you, O Mary.”
So, let’s imitate our Blessed Mother and St. Thérèse by saying, “yes” to God every day: by humbly and quietly accepting annoyances and difficulties, by seeking—and loving people who are difficult to be around, and by giving ourselves to others through small acts of charity. And, over the course of years, we will discover the secret to peace, joy, and love.
Sr Mary Elma CCR
