On the feast of this
great saint, patroness of the missions, doctor of the Church and inspired
writer, I offer for your meditation a letter she wrote offering her life to God.
May we all consider consecrating our own lives in such a manner. St. Therese, pray
for us.
Oh My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and
make You Loved, to work for the glory
of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in
purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of
glory You have prepared for me in Your kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a
saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Sanctity!
Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as
my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer
them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of
Jesus and in His heart burning with Love.
I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints (in heaven
and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I
offer You, O Blessed Trinity! the
Love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my
dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it
to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of His
mortal life: “Whatsoever you ask the
Father in my name he will give it to you!” I am certain, then, that You
will grant my desires: I know, O my God! that
the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart
immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession
of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but,
Lord, are you not all-powerful?
Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little
victim.
I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked,
and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness
I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance
cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that
transforms everything into itself.
I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have
granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of
suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the
scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious
Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body
the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.
After earth’s Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the
Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for
Your Love alone with the one purpose
of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love
You eternally.
In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You
with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our
justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no
other Crown but You, my Beloved!
Time is nothing Your eyes, and a single day is like a
thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.
In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I
OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, asking You to
consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within you to overflow into my soul,
and that thus I may become a martyr
of Your Love, O my God!
May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear
before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any
delay into the eternal embrace of Your
Merciful Love.
I want, O my Beloved,
at each beat of my heart, to renew this offering to You an infinite number of
times, until the shadows having disappeared, I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face! (emphasis in original, Story of a Soul, the
Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux).
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