September with St. Therese - September 23

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.

'Oh! how much I owe you!...Also, how I love you!...but I don't want ot talk about it anymore because I would cry...'
"(It caused her great pain when she cried.)"

"Tomorrow is the anniversary of your reception of the Veil, and it will undoubtedly be the day of your death," I said:
'I don't know when; I expect it always, but I do know it won't be very long from now.'

"She often smiled at us, but sometimes we didn't notice it, and she said:"
'Very often I give beautiful smiles that are lost on 'Bonbonne' and the others.'

"In the evening we heard the cooing of a bird at the closed window, and we asked what this could mean. One said: "It's a turtledove," another: "It's probably a bird of prey."
'Well, it it's a bird of prey, so much the better! Birds of prey come to eat the flesh of the martyrs.'

"With reference to an unimportant confidence a Sister had made to her, when she was asked about it:"
'If the Sisters forbid it, it's a secred trust...Even when this is for the least thing, we must not tell it.'

"After a very long silence, when gazing upon Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart and myself, who were alone with her:"
'Little sisters, it's you who raised me!...'
"And her eyes filled with tears." Excerpted from Her Last Conversations.

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