Submit your intentions for the Little Flower Novena
Dear friends in Carmel,
In the Discalced Carmelite calendar, the month of October is special. In October we celebrate the solemnities of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and of our Holy Mother, St. Teresa of Jesus. Today, I’m inviting you to join us in praying the Novena of St. Thérèse, the “Little Flower,” the patroness of our Semi-Province. Every year as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of St. Thérèse we have the opportunity to learn something new about her. This year as we begin the Novena of St. Thérèse, let me teach you how she lived the theological virtue of Hope. In her autobiography and many of her writings she expresses how much she loves our Lord, and how much she trusts in His merciful love for her and all His creation. Trusting in the love of God helped St. Thérèse to give herself to Him. Her surrender was done in hope.
The virtue of Hope was present all her life, we can see that in her writings. St. Thérèse can teach us how to Hope in God and can help us find the inspiration needed to find hope in life. The Little Flower, being a good Christian and Carmelite, learned and practiced what our church teaches about hope. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read:
1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” “The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life."
St. Thérèse learned from the early years of her life to trust in God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. As she was maturing in her spiritual life, she realized that everything she had came from God. Only in Him can one have the strength needed in the trials of life. The Little Flower had a clear understanding that her hope could not be based on her merits, nor on her virtues, nor on her efforts, but on God alone, who is the foundation of her life. In the Catechism we see:
1818 The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.
What we read in 1818 is expressed by St. Thérèse in her poem “Living on Love.” The great love that St. Thérèse has for our Lord led her to comprehend that the Divine Love was so present in her life that she needed to surrender herself to our Lord like a little child. Yet, a child who hopes in all the promises of our Lord.
Living on Love, when Jesus is sleeping,
Is rest on stormy seas.
Oh! Lord, don’t fear that I’ll wake you.
I’m waiting in peace for Heaven’s shore…
Faith will soon tear its veil.
My hope is to see you one day.
Charity swells and pushes my sail:
I Live on Love!...
Living on Love, Stanza 9
In another poem, “He Who Has Jesus Has Everything,” she speaks about wanting nothing because all her hope is in the Lord, because who has him has everything. One more time she expresses how she places her hope in the mercy and love of our Lord because there is nothing else that one should want.
Jesus you are the Lamb I love.
You are all I need, O supreme good!
In you I have everything, the earth and even Heaven.
The Flower that I pick. O my King!
Is You!...”
He Who has Jesus Has Everything, Stanza 4
Her trust and hope in the love of God were always present in the process of her conversion. Her daily experience of life in Carmel helped her learn to live the virtue of Hope. Moreover, her familiarity with the Holy Scripture helped her to find that Gospel of hope. The virtue of hope and the other theological virtues helped her to know how to relate with others. The fidelity of her hope was never diminished in the slightest, even during her greatest trials. She did not fear last battles or the suffering of her disease, no matter how great they were. She experienced how much God helped her all her life until the end. She was willing to suffer, but in hope.
Let us pray this Novena of St. Thérèse, hoping that all who are facing despair will find hope in their lives, and that all of us will continue placing all our hope in the merciful love of God.
Very. Rev. Luis Joaquin Castañeda, OCD
Provincial