"In Praise of Lay Saints"

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"In Praise of Lay Saints" is a superb five-minute video by Fr. James Martin, S.J., the culture editor of America Magazine.  Fr. Jim, the author of "My Life with the Saints," speaks lucidly about why the Vatican needs to recognize more lay saints (and what has prevented it from doing so).  He mentions Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin and displays their portrait.

The first release of fragments of Zelie's letters in French in 1958 is said greatly to have advanced her cause for beatification.  I hope that the recent publication of her letters in English, "A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885," will make Louis and Zelie even more deeply loved among the people and will lead to a devotion so powerful that the miracle necessary for their canonization will be forthcoming.  

 

Dr. Frances Renda speaks about the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux and her family. July 16-22, 2011 for the Santa Fe Institute for Spirituality in New Mexico

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In this 30-minute video, Dr. Frances Renda speaks about the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux.  I recommend it highly.  She is interviewed by Bill O'Donnell for SpiritualityTV

Dr. Frances Renda will speak about the spirituality of Saint Therese and of her family from July 16-22, 2011 for the Santa Fe Institute for Spirituality in New Mexico.  Dr. Renda, a psychoanalyst, understands just where the depths of the spirituality of St. Therese and of Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin come to meet the hungers of the human psyche and of the contemporary world.  She has been fascinated with St. Therese throughout her life and has done marvels to share Therese with the world.  Dr. Renda is the editor of the recently published A Call to a Deeper Love: Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885. She is now editing the eagerly awaited English translation of Sainte Therese de Lisieux 1873-1897: Biographie, the comprehensive biography of St. Therese by Bishop Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.  

I recommend this unique chance to deepen your understanding of the spirituality of St. Therese and her family.  Dr. Renda's schedule is as follows:

 Saturday, July 16, after the 5:30 p.m. Mass at San Juan Pueblo

Sunday, July 17, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Michael's High School in Santa Fe.

Monday, July 18 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Michael's High School in Santa Fe

Monday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m., at St. Michael's HIgh School in Santa Fe

Monday, July 18 at 6:30 p.m. at St. Theresa's Parish in Albuquerque

Tuesday, July 19 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Michael's High School in Santa Fe

Tuesday, July 19 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Michael's High Schoolin Santa Fe.

Wednesday, July 20 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Michael's High Schoolin Santa Fe

Wednesday, July 20 at 11:00 a.m. atSt. Michael's High School in Santa Fe

Wednesday, July 20 at 6:30 p.m. at Holy Innocents in Albuquerque.  This conference is for Third Order Carmelites.

Thursday, July 21 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Michael's High School in Santa Fe.

Thursday, July 21 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Michael's High School in Santa Fe

Friday, July 22 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Michael's High School in Santa Fe

Friday, July 22 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Michael's High School in Santa Fe

If you do not live near Santa Fe, travel there for the week.  Dr. Renda knows the Martin family completely, loves them authentically, and communicates her intimate and delicate understanding of their spirituality in a way that speaks to the deepest hunger of the human heart. 

 

he letters of Blessed Zélie and Louis Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, are now available in English!

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$29.95.  Paperback, 464 pages. 

Click on the image to order.

      Welcome to the world of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin of Alençon, the parents of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face.  In these 219 letters, Zélie, writing between the ages of 31 and 45, writes the story of the family that gave birth to Story of a Soul, the memoir of her daughter, the saint.  Here Zélie shares herself unreservedly: happy as a wife and mother, overwhelmed with responsibility as a business owner, saddened by the deaths of her parents and four of her children, sensitive to slights and indifference, concerned for her surviving daughters, longing to become holy.  When she is diagnosed with breast cancer, in the midst of a very human desire to live, she shows us how to abandon ourselves to God in the face of death.

     Only 16 letters from her husband survive, but Zélie introduces us to the younger Louis Martin in the years before he suffered from Alzheimer's disease, was interned in a psychiatric hospital, and died.  We see him here as never before as husband, father, and friend in the years before his martyrdom.

     In beatifying Zélie and Louis in 2008, the Church recognized a fundamental reality: that each one experienced severe traumas, but the effects of these traumas were no obstacle to sanctity.  Louis and Zélie accepted their own powerlessness, that God might be all-powerful in their lives.  The transforming influence of their daughter Thérèse on human history was the fruit of that acceptance.  Reading about their profound love for each other and for their children and the deep faith they lived painfully in the midst of many ordeals is a source of liberation and healing.  Zélie and Louis offer us a personal experience of the motherhood and fatherhood of God.  The book is a mirror of the human face of holiness. 

     A Call to a Deeper Love is a translation of Correspondance familiale, the definitive edition of these letters published in French by Editions du Cerf in 2004.  The preface, the notes, and the presentation are the work of Bishop Guy Gaucher, O.C.D., retired auxiliary bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux and distinguished scholar of St. Therese, and of the Carmelites of Lisieux.  The text is exquisitely translated by Ann Hess.  Dr. Frances Renda added jewels unique to this English edition, including an introduction that reflects her intimate and delicate understanding of the depths of the marital spirituality of Louis and Zélie; background on 19th-century France that helps the reader put these letters in context; a chronology of Thérèse’s family that will be a classic reference; and many new and expanded footnotes. 

     In Story of a Soul Thérèse wrote a new chapter in the history of the human response to divine love.  Before that, Zélie and Louis wrote with their lives a new chapter in the history of marriage: the extraordinary response of two spouses to the call to create a family that was a crucible of sainthood.  A Call to a Deeper Love offers a unique understanding of a couple who became holy in and through their marriage, and it immeasurably deepens our understanding of the influences that surrounded St. Thérèse.  Order your copy now, and may this story of grace and steadfast faith fill you with inspiration, hope, and joy.

$29.95.  Paperback, 464 pages.  

Advent with St. Therese - December 3, feast of St. Francis Xavier

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On the feast of St. Francis Xavier, co-patron of the missions with St. Therese, I present a short dialogue Therese wrote between the Blessed Virgin and the young Polish Jesuit, St. Stanislaus Kostka. 

The last "pious recreation" St. Therese wrote, performed at the Carmel's recreation on February 8, 1897, was "Saint Stanislaus Kostka."  Therese placed on the lips of Stanislaus words that expressed her desire to continue her mission after her death:

Saint Stanislaus:

My Well-Beloved Mother . . . . I regret nothing on earth, still I have one desire . . . a desire so great that I'm not sure I could be happy in Heaven if it were not fulfilled . . . . Ah! my dear Mother, tell me that the blessed can still work for the salvation of souls . . . if I can't work for the glory of Jesus when I'm in heaven, I'd prefer to stay in exile, still fighting for Him!

The Blessed Virgin:

You would like to increase the glories
Of Jesus, your only Love.
For Him, in the Heavenly Court,
You will win victories . . .
Yes, my child, the Blessed
Can still save souls. 
By their love, sweet flames
Draw hearts to heaven.

Saint Stanislaus:

Oh! how happy I am . . . Sweet Queen of heaven, I beg you, when I am with you in the Fatherland, let me come back to earth, to watch over holy souls, souls whose long career on earth will complete my own; then, through them, I'll be able to bring the Lord an abundant harvest of merit.

The Blessed Virgin:

Dear Child, you'll protect
Souls struggling in the world.
The more fruitful their harvest,
The more in Heaven you will shine.

from The Plays of St. Therese of Lisieux, tr. Susan Conroy and David J. Dwyer.  Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 2008, pp. 353-354.

Therese told Sister Marie of the Trinity:  "What pleased me in composing this play is that I explained my certitude that, after death, one can still work for the salvation of souls on earth.  St. Stanislaus, who died so young, has served me very well to express my thoughts and hopes on this subject."  Plays, p. 332.

St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Francis Xavier, co-patrons of all missions, are also co-patrons of the Apostleship of Prayer, which was founded on the feast of St. Francis Xavier in 1844 and of which Therese became a member at age twelve in 1885. May these two saints, brother and sister on fire with love for God, watch over us and allow us to complete their mission.