SLF Parish - Our Patron St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Therese of the Child Jesus,...

...popularly known as the "Little Flower" was born in Normandy, France, on January 2, 1873, the ninth and last child of Louis and Zelie Martin. She was baptized Marie Frances Therese Martin.

Three months after her fifteenth birthday, she followed several of her sisters into the Carmelite Convent of Lisieux. She took for her motto in life the words "Love is repaid by love alone." She had a great devotion to God as Father and to the Child Jesus and His Mother. Her great patience under severe suffering and her constant trust in her loving Father in heaven were her outstanding virtues.

Because of her evident holiness, she was commanded by her sister, who was then prioress for the Carmel, to write her autobiography. This famous book, "The Story of her Soul", has been read by millions of people in the years following her death. Her "Little Way" of spiritual childhood complete surrender to the love and power of God was the key to her own holiness and to her spiritual influence in the lives of countless others searching for the secret of sanctity. After only eight years of cloistered religious life, she died at the age of twenty-four, on September 30, 1897.

The Little Flower was canonized on May 17, 1925.
A year later our parish was established under her patronage. In our church, behind and above the altar, there is a magnificent mural. It is painted on Belgian canvas and depicts the Little Flower in glory, fulfilling the prophecy, she uttered, "After my death I shall let fall from heaven a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good upon the earth."

St. Therese has been declared the patron of the world-wide missions of the Church.

Her feast day is October 1st.

My Novena Rose Prayer

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me as a message of love. O Little flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favors I now place with the confidence in your hands...
(mention specific requests).
St. Therese, help me to always believe as you did, in God's great love for me, so that I might imitate your "Little Way" each day.

Miraculous Invocation To
St. Therese

O Glorious St. Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and inspire the human family, I implore your Miraculous Intercession. You are so powerful in obtaining every need of body and spirit from the Heart of God. Holy Mother Church proclaims you "Prodigy of Miracles... the Greatest Saint of Modern Times." Now I fervently beseech you to answer my petition (mention here) and to carry out your promises of spending Heaven doing good on earth... of letting fall from Heaven a Shower of Roses. Little Flower, give me your childlike faith, to see the Face of God in the people and experiences of my life, and to love God with full confidence. St. Therese, my Carmelite sister, I will fulfill your plea "to be made known everywhere" and I will continue
to lead others to Jesus through you.
Amen