Thursday, October 1, 2009

Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church


Saint Therese of Lisieux

Today the Church honors Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, also popularly known as "the little flower." She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II.


Saint Therese portraying Saint Joan of Arc

From THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS: "Saint Theresa was born at Alencon in France in 1873. While still a young girl, she entered the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux. There she lived a life of humility, evangelical simplicity and trust in God. By word and example she taught these virtues to the novices of the community. Offering her life for the salvation of souls and the growth of the Church, she died September 30, 1897.



The "Little Flower" in death.

PRAYER: God our Father, You designed Your Kingdom for Your children who are humble. Help us to imitate the way of Saint Theresa, so that, by her intercession, we may attain the eternal glory which You promised. Amen.

2 comments:

  1. Good work. See comments below about you and Chucky. Did I just type "Chucky"? YIKES! I better watch out for stray lightning bolts.

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  2. Speaking of this unique use of the word doctor, the word as a Latin adjective is doctus, meaning learned or skilled, and the verb is docere, which means to teach - just that simple. Doctor, meaning teacher, is also a Latin noun, spelled exactly as our word doctor (although it's declined, as you know - I think it's a 3rd declension noun, definitely masculine, of course). All this reminds me how that profession has...DECLINED. I am sure that WAAAAAY back when, the doctor would sit down w/ the patient and say, "Now look here, Mrs. Werblegeister, the reason you have indigestion is because you are eating too much pig fat right before bedtime...." Now the doctor is so worried somebody is going to sue him/her, they say something like, "Ummmmmm, we better refer you to specialist X." It's all about money nowadays - fear of losing it, and making more. A little bit like the legal profession, I'm sure. I was joking w/ my live-in lover (the one I'm married to) about how ludicrous it is that a certain lawyer TV commercial EVEN IMPLIES that the firm gives a sh*t about your "personal injury." It would be fun to experiment with this, you know, like call 'em up and say, "My Mama was run over by a truck...." and make up a realistic story, then right while the guy is drooling tell them that your religion won't allow you to sue anybody but is there ANY POSSIBLE way they could help you deal with the grief of losing poor Mama, who got run over by that Coca-Cola truck driver while he was text-messaging his girlfriend?

    We could have some fun w/ that one.

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