The Lesser Feast of Thérèse of Lisieux, Monastic
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Page numbers listed are from The Book of Common Prayer.
Opening Sentence, page 103
Officiant: O God, make speed to save us.
People: O Lord, make haste to help us.
All: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Psalm 119:57-64, page 768
57 You only are my portion, O Lord; *
I have promised to keep your words.
58 I entreat you with all my heart, *
be merciful to me according to your promise.
59 I have considered my ways *
and turned my feet toward your decrees.
60 I hasten and do not tarry *
to keep your commandments.
61 Though the cords of the wicked entangle me, *
I do not forget your law.
62 At midnight I will rise to give you thanks, *
because of your righteous judgments.
63 I am a companion of all who fear you; *
and of those who keep your commandments.
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your love; *
instruct me in your statutes.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Reading: Luke 21:1–4
Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
Reflection: Thérèse of Lisieux, Monastic
Called “the greatest saint in modern times” by Pope Pius X, canonized by Pope Pius XI just twenty-eight years after her death, and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II, Thérèse of Lisieux has become one of the most beloved saints of the Roman Catholic Church.
From an early age, Thérèse felt called to the religious life; even as a little girl she played at being a nun. On Christmas Eve 1886, at age fourteen, she experienced a vision of the infant Christ and what she called a “complete conversion.” Thereafter she understood her vocation to be prayer for priests, and she began seeking admittance to the Carmelite convent in Lisieux. When she entered the order at age 17 as a Discalced Carmelite, she assumed the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
Dedicated to what she called her “little way,” she led a simple, quiet life of prayer—in particular for priests—and small acts of charity. She struggled with illness throughout her life and suffered greatly from tuberculosis before her death in 1897 at age twenty-four. At age twentytwo, just two years before her death, her prioress instructed her to write her memoirs. The Story of a Soul, as it came to be called, commended a life of “great love” rather than “great deeds,” echoing the insight of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, a book that had helped her to discover her vocation and develop her spiritual life. She corresponded with Roman Catholic missionaries to China and Indonesia as well as with young priests, pursuing what she saw as the mission of the Carmelites, “to form evangelical workers who will save thousands of souls whose mothers we shall be.”
Toward the end of her short life, Thérèse experienced a profound sense of abandonment by God, but even this did not shake her love for God. On the verge of death, Thérèse confessed that she had “lost her faith” and all her certainty, and was now “only capable of loving.” She experienced her sense of separation from God as something to be borne in solidarity with unbelievers. She “no longer saw” God in the light of faith, but nevertheless responded to him with a passionate love. In this experience, her youthful decision that her vocation was “to be love in the heart of the church” lost all hint of sentimentality. Her last words epitomize her “little way”: “My God, I love you.”
Source: Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2024
The Prayers, pages 106-107
Officiant: Lord have mercy.
People: Christ have mercy.
Officiant: Lord have mercy.
All:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Officiant: Lord, hear our prayer;
People: And let our cry come to you.
Officiant: Let us pray.
Gracious Father, who called your servant Thérèse to a life of fervent prayer: Give to us that spirit of prayer and zeal for the ministry of the Gospel, that the love of Christ may be known throughout all the world; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Intercessions and Thanksgivings
Dismissal, page 107
Officiant: Let us bless the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God.
Officiant: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.