Today is the feast day of the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux. Next to my patroness, St. Faustina, St, Therese is by far my favorite Saint in God’s Church. Both, St. Faustina and Terese are closely united in Divine Mercy and trust. Both teach total childlike abandonment to God. Full surrender and trust of the Father.
The message of St. Therese, fifty years prior to St. Faustina, was the same – “Jesus, I trust in You.”
If you haven’t read the diaries of St. Therese or St. Faustina, I highly recommend you start today.
Here are some great quotes of St. Therese:
“God does not give us a desire, He will not fulfill.”
“You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all”
“Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you, for you alone? He burns with a desire to come into your heart.”
“Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even their difficulty as at the love with which we do them.”
“One thing alone is necessary during this life, and that is to live Jesus with all our strength.”
“Jesus made me realize that simple obedience would please Him best. So I am going to begin singing what I shall sing forever, “the mercies of the Lord.” (Ps. 88:1).”
St. Faustina speaks with the Little Flower –
At one point when St. Faustina (1905 – 1938 ) was a novice, she was going through some interior struggles. She began to make novenas to various saints, but instead of getting better the situation grew worse and was affecting her exterior life. In a bit of despair, she thought to pray to St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873 – 1897) with whom she had had a deep devotion before entering the convent but had not been as fervent in her devotion since that time. See Divine Mercy in My Soul # 150.
St Faustina, the next Doctor of the Church? St. Faustina asked if she’d be a saint like St. Therese. To which this great saint replied,
“Yes, you will be a saint just as I am, but you must trust in the Lord Jesus.”