"Supper with the Martin Family" - Tuesday, October 3, 2023 - Center for Carmelite Studies - Catholic University of America

On Tuesday, October 3, 2023, at 6:00 p.m., I will have the honor of speaking on Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, St. Therese's parents, and on the Martin family for the Center for Carmelite Studies at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. This is part of a series of events the Center is sponsoring in honor of the 150th jubilee of St. Therese's birth and her recognition by UNESCO. Everyone is welcome.

The event will be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SIbdaFH2Os

Supper begins at 5:45 p.m. This same information is available on the University's Web site at https://cua.campuslabs.com/engage/event/9362223

"The World of Saint Therese and Her Family," a photo show

In honor of the pilgrimage of the relics of St. Therese and of her parents, Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, and if the visit of Pope Francis o Ireland in connection with the World Meeting of Families, I have created a photo gallery, "The World of Saint Therese and Her Family," to offer you a visual experience of the concrete reality of their lives on earth, during which they became holy. It contains more than 350 photos, many, from my visit to France in May, never published before.  Arranged in chronological order, these images illustrate the story of their lives from the birth of St. Louis in 1823 until the canonization of the Martin spouses in 2015.  I thank the Shrine at Alencon and the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.  If you enjoy it, please help me spread the word. Thank you.  The above shows highlights of the first part of the photo gallery.  To see the gallery, click the photo below:

In French, an online retreat for Advent with Saints Louis and Zelie Martin offered by the Carmelite friars of Paris - November 28, 2015

Photo Credit: Carmelite Friars of Paris

Photo Credit: Carmelite Friars of Paris

If you read French, subscribe to a new online retreat to prepare for Christmas with Saints Louis and Zelie Martin.  It is the work of the Carmelite friars of Paris and includes reflections on the Sunday readings, meditations from the life of Louis and Zelie, suggested practices, and an Advent calendar for daily prayer.  See more information and register at the site of the Carmelite friars of Paris.   The friars have prepared online retreats for Lent and Advent for the past four years, and more than 10,000 persons have participated.  

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin are "Married Saints of the Month" - February 2015

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Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin have been chosen as "Married Saints of the Month" by "For Your Marriage," an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in February 2015.  The reflection remarks that "Louis and Zelie Martin show how a marriage not only benefits the couple, but their children, the Church and society."

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin and the Year for Consecrated Life: How Can Laypersons Support Religious?

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Paradoxically, Louis and Zelie Martin each at first believed themselves called to the consecrated life, then entered into a marriage that was extraordinarily fruitful for souls, next gave birth to five daughters, all of whom embraced the consecrated life, and finally, thanks be to God, gave the world their youngest daughter, St. Therese of Lisieux, the consecrated virgin who has inspired countless women and men in every state of life "to love Jesus and to make Him loved."  

As the Year for Consecrated Life begins today, note that, while Louis and Zelie entered wholeheartedly into their lives as lay persons, they continued to esteem the religious life highly.  Zelie retained a keen affection for her sister Marie-Louise, a nun of the Visitation, and had a close friendship with the Poor Clares in Alencon.  She belonged to an association of Christian mothers that met at their monastery, met with the secular Franciscans there, and confided in the nuns when she and her family needed prayers for a special intention: when her brother needed to pass the test for his pharmacist's license, or when one of her children was ill.  Zelie also worked closely with the nuns of the Refuge and the local priests to free little Armandine V. from an abusive situation.

Louis held priests in such high regard that he would not presume to socialize with them casually, but he entertained his parish priest formally once a year and gave a dinner for the clergy when one of his daughters received the habit or made her religious vows.  Priests were often his companions when he went on pilgrimage, and, when he went fishing, he usually gave his catch to one of the local communities of nuns.  

In addition to showing their respect for religious and offering their friendship, Louis and Zelie supported various congregations generously.  Louis (followed later by his brother-in-law, Isidore Guerin) was the chief benefactor of the Lisieux Carmel, offering his daughters with generous dowries, giving large sums of money at other times, giving food, flowers, fish, religious artefacts . . . It is evident that the life of the Martin family was enriched by the relationships Louis and Zelie maintained with priests and religious, and that the  religious communities, too, were enriched.  Pope Francis's Letter for the Year of Consecrated Life makes an appeal to the whole church that reminds me of the gift Louis and Zelie were to religious:

So I invite every Christian community to experience this Year above all as a moment of thanksgiving to the Lord and grateful remembrance for all the gifts we continue to receive, thanks to the sanctity of founders and foundresses, and from the fidelity to their charism shown by so many consecrated men and women.  I ask all of you to draw close to these men and women, to rejoice with them, to share their difficulties and to assist them, to whatever degree possible, in their ministries and works, for the latter are, in the end, those of the entire Church.  Let them know the affection and the warmth which the entire Christian people feels for them.

In the Western world especially, where the numbers of women and men in religious life have diminished and the population of religious is aging, religious communities are in speical need of the partnership of the lay persons they have served.  Thinking, on the First Sunday of Advent, of how we can imitate Blessed Louis and Zelie in the friendship, confidence, and generosity they showed to the religious of their time, it struck me that, when purchasing gifts (and items for ourselves), we can select items that support religious communities in the contemplative witness of their lives of prayer and in their service to the poor.  If the Spirit leads you to explore that option, please see my page of gifts that support religious communities.

Please also see "How Can Louis and Zelie Martin Help Us in Our Prayer for Vocations Today?" - a conference by Mgr Jacques Habert, bishop of Seez, the diocese in which Louis and Zelie spent their marriage.