September with St. Therese - September 5

Welcome to our series trcing 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.

"You're not sorry, then, to leave 'Mamma?" ' I asked:
'No!...If there was no eternal life, oh, yes!...but there is one perhaps...and it's even certain!'

"If someone told you that you would die suddenly, at this instant, would you be afraid?"
'...Ah! what happiness! I would love to go!'
"Then you prefer dying to living?"
'No, not at all. If I were cured, the doctors would look at me in amazement, and I would say to them: 'Sirs, I am very happy to be cured to serve God still on earth, since it is His will. I suffered as if I had to die; I will begin this another time.'

"Pointing to her glass of reddened water, with a nice little gesture, she said cheerfully:
'Something to drink, little Mother, if you please. There is ice in it, that's good!'
"After drinking:
'I drank without thirst! I'm a little 'drinker without thirst.'
"I was telling her she suffered less during the silence;
'Oh! just the opposite! I suffered very much! But it's to the Blessed Virgin that I complained.'

"A visit from Dr. La Neele, who after having told her after his last consultation that she was close to death, that she could die suddenly turning in her bed, now said: "You're like a ship that neither advances nor goes back," Surprised, she said:
'You heard, you see how it changes! But I don't want to change, I want to continue abandoning myself entirely to God.' 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.