This of course, is a beautiful photo of St. Therese of Lisieux; it's a favorite of mine and comes from the Mary Evans Picture Library. We have this photo in a saint book at home where it appears in sepia tones and is very striking. Just as striking here, St. Therese's beauty in the simplicity of black and white.
While we are focused on St. Therese, I'd like to suggest a personal retreat based on her teachings. As a busy homeschooling mother, I really appreciate things of a spiritual nature that can be easily achieved in the home and fit into an ordinary day (or series of days).
There is a wonderful book for just this purpose: I Believe in Love, by Father Jean C. J. d' Elbee, published by Sophia Institute Press. I originally received this book as a gift from a friend who knew I had devotion to St. Therese and didn't have a lot of "mom time" to spend outside of the home. This book is a special find for a St. Therese devotee, but certainly anyone can benefit from it. Fr. d' Elbee captures Therese's teachings as meditations in ten "conferences" that take you through the retreat. Here is a short description from the backcover:
"Fr. Jean C. J. d' Elbee, a French priest deeply imbued with St. Therese's spirit, brings you St. Therese's teachings on God's love and the confidence in Him that it should inspire in your soul; humility, peace and fraternal charity; the apostolate; the Cross; and what it means truly to abandon yourself to Divine Providence."
While we are focused on St. Therese, I'd like to suggest a personal retreat based on her teachings. As a busy homeschooling mother, I really appreciate things of a spiritual nature that can be easily achieved in the home and fit into an ordinary day (or series of days).
There is a wonderful book for just this purpose: I Believe in Love, by Father Jean C. J. d' Elbee, published by Sophia Institute Press. I originally received this book as a gift from a friend who knew I had devotion to St. Therese and didn't have a lot of "mom time" to spend outside of the home. This book is a special find for a St. Therese devotee, but certainly anyone can benefit from it. Fr. d' Elbee captures Therese's teachings as meditations in ten "conferences" that take you through the retreat. Here is a short description from the backcover:
"Fr. Jean C. J. d' Elbee, a French priest deeply imbued with St. Therese's spirit, brings you St. Therese's teachings on God's love and the confidence in Him that it should inspire in your soul; humility, peace and fraternal charity; the apostolate; the Cross; and what it means truly to abandon yourself to Divine Providence."
Here is a short excerpt from the first conference, Love for Love:
"My principal aim in this retreat is to give some answers to your personal problems; those, in short, which preoccupy you most, sometimes to the point of anguish, because they have to do with the eternal life of your soul and because on your sanctity depends the light that will radiate through you upon your neighbor and the world." Fr. Jean C. J. d' Elbee
Later, Fr. d' Elbee states: "Oh how I would love it if at the end of this conference, and even more, at the end of this retreat you were able to cry out with the psalmist, 'Lord You have opened my heart, and I run in the way of Your commandments.'"
"This book comes like heavenly music, saving music, to fill with hope the emptiness of man's heart and to fill it to overflowing." (from: Preface of the American Edition; H. Lyman Stebbins)
"Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be - and becoming that person." Saint Therese of Lisieux, from Story of a Soul
St. Therese, Pray for Us!
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