September with St. Therese - September 11

Welcome to our series tracing the last month of St. Therese's life on this earth which was September 1897. It's called September with St. Therese and I hope you will visit here every day for an inspirational message about our dear little saint.

We will bring you excerpts from Her Last Conversations and Novissima Verba which follow her struggle the last few months of her life. On days for which there are no specific quotes, I will select a passage from one of her writings.

"Little Mother will be the last to die; we'll come looking for her with Theophane Venard, when she will have finished working for me...Unless little souls need her."

"I love you very much, but very much!"
"When I hear the door open, I always believe it's you; and when you don't come, I'm very sad.
"Give me a kiss, a kiss that makes noise; so that the lips go 'smack!'"
"Only in heaven will you know what you mean to me...For me you're a lyre, a song...much more than a music box; even when you say nothing."

"She had made two crowns for the statue of the Blessed Virgin: these were made out of cornflowers, one to placed at her feet, the other in her hands. I said:"You no doubt think she will give you the one in her hands.:
"Oh! no, It's as she herself wishes; what I give to her is only for her pleasure."

"I'm afraid I've feared death, but I won't fear it after it takes place; I'm sure of this! And I'm not sorry for having lived; oh! no. It's only when I ask myself; What is this mysterious separation of the soul from the body? It's my first experience of this, but I abandon myself to God."

"Will you hand me my Crucifix so that I can kiss it after the Act of Contrition, in order to gain the plenary indulgence for the osuls in purgatory; I can give them no more than that!
"Give me the holy water now; and bring close to me the relics of Blessed Anne of Jesus and Theophane Venard; I want to kiss them."
"Afterwards she made a little sign of affection to her picture of the Virgin Mother, first to the Child Jesus, then to the Blessed Virgin. She wasn't able to fall asleep and she told me:
"I know this, It's the devil's malice; he is furious because I didn't forget my devotions. When, for one reason or another, I don't perform them, I fall asleep and awaken a few minutes after midnight. It's as though he were making fun of me because I missed out on my plenary indulgence."

"Should I fear the devil? It seems I should not, for I am doing everything out of obedience."

"Oh! no, I don't have any desire to see God here on earth. And yet I love him! I also love the Blessed Virgin very much, and the saints, and I don't desire to see them." Excerpted from Her Last Conversations.

St. Therese, open our hearts to accept the sufferings that Jesus sends us. Teach us your little way and help us to see the graces that can come from joining our sufferings to the passion of Jesus.