September with St. Therese - September 25

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 her 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 pasage from one of her writings.

"I had told her what was said in recreation regarding Father Youf (the Chaplain), who had a great fear of death. The Sisters were speaking about the responsibility of those who were in charge of souls and those who lived a long life."
'As far as little ones are concerned, they will be judged with great gentleness. And one can remain little, even in the most formidable offices, even when living for a long time. If I were to die at the age of eighty, if I were in China, anywhere, I would still die, I feel, as little as I am today. And it is written: ''At the end, the Lord will rise up to save the gentle and the humble of the earth." It doesn't say "to judge" but "to save".'

"She had said to me on one of those last days of suffering:"
'O Mother, it's very easy to write beautiful things about suffering, but writing is nothing, nothing! One must suffer in order to know!'
"I had retained a painful impression from this statement of hers, when that same day, appearing to remember what she had told me, she looked at me in a very special and solemn way, and pronounced these words:"
'I really feel now that what I've said and written is true about everything...It's true that I wanted to suffer much for God's sake, and it's true that I still desire this.'

"Someone said: 'Ah! it's frightful what you're suffering.'"
'No, it isn't frightful. A little victim of love cannot find frightful what her Spouse send her through love.' 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.