Devotion to St. Thérèse of Lisieux

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I’ve loved St. Thérèse of Lisieux since I first read Story of a Soul. However, she gave me a rose miracle over the weekend, and I want to increase my devotion to her. So, my question is, what do you all do? What is your devotion to her like? Any help would be appreciated.
 
Just talk to her. 😉

She is one of my favorites, too. St. Therese holy cards were our wedding favors. 🙂 I have a mini statue of her on my desk at work. I have a big statue in the living room at home. I have a picture of her in my office, in our dining room, in the hallway—can’t go long without running into her. 😄

If you want to increase your devotion to her, I think the best way is to make an intentional effort to live out her “little way.” One helpful tool for this is the St. Therese sacrifice beads. It’s like a one decade rosary, but the beads slide back and forth. You use them to keep track of good deeds during the day. Each time you make a small act of love or sacrifice for someone else, you slide a bead towards the Cross. And you make a goal to get ten in each day. And at the start of each day, you reset the beads and begin again. Following the little way doesn’t mean that each sacrifice has to be some huge thing. It could simply be offering a prayer for the person who cut you off in traffic. Or deciding not to eat that Snickers bar in the office candy bowl, but instead offering it up for the soul most in need of prayer.

I think the sacrifice beads are a good concrete reminder to live for others and ask for St. Therese’s help daily.
 
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St. Therese is very close to my heart and had sent me a rose via a little boy after my brother died. There is a little novena I say and would like to share with you, keep St. Therese close, she is a good friend 🌹. O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me with a message of love. O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands…{Here mention specific requests} St. Therese help me always believe as you did, in God’s great love for me, so that I may imitate your “Little Way” each day.
 
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I’ve never heard of the sacrifice beads. That’s really lovely, and a nice way to stay close to not just St. Therese, but to our faith as well. Such a beautiful idea, and practice! ❤️
 
I like the sacrifice beads too. I do not have a big devotion to St. Therese right now, but my mother did, St. Therese was her name saint (mom was named Rosemary Therese by her mom) and was canonized 6 months before Mom was born. Also, one of my favorite persons on the road to canonization, Rhoda Wise, had a big devotion to her and reported that she saw apparitions of her. I have been thinking of praying to St. Therese more because I would like to ask her something relating to my mom who is deceased now.

Here is the St. Therese prayer that Rhoda Wise used to give out to the pilgrims who wrote to her or visited her home.

O beautiful Rose of Carmel, Saint Therese of the infant Jesus, deign according to your promise to descend from Heaven to visit those who implore you, to pour down on us in profusion those Celestial Graces that are symbolized by the shower of roses that Jesus, your Spouse, has put at your disposal. Your Power is great with Jesus, assist me in this need (say your intention here). Speak for me to Jesus and to Mary and obtain for me the grace to live a holy life and die a happy death.

St Therese, hear my prayer. Show your power with God and help me, if it be for the honor of God and the good of my soul. Amen.
 
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I was just thinking about her last night and today. I’m probably a really messed up person for this but every time I have set out to read her autobiography, it has annoyed me so much that I just can’t go on. I feel really bad about it but I dunno.
 
You’re not messed up 🙂
Maybe this website will help you…
Society of the Little Flower
You could read little bits of the website instead of her whole book at once. It’s a very informative site. You don’t have to read her autobiography to have her as a great friend!
 
You are not the first to feel that way. Not every saint resonates with everyone. That’s okay. I do think her autobiography gets better later on into it. I stalled a few chapters in when I was reading it, but I’m very glad I went back to it as the later chapters really hit me in a profound way.
 
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Thanks to you both for the answers. 🙂 now if I can only stop being afraid of Padre Pio… 😛
 
Mollymultiple160 said:
now if I can only stop being afraid of Padre Pio… 😛
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He scared me too. 😃 I decided to try to be his friend, so I went to his relic tour twice and made an effort to pray to him. We are getting along better now although I tell him that I hope now in Heaven he sees that his skirt-only dress code is not practical for us women today.
 
What got me is how he said that women who smoke are disgusting. Apparently for men it wasn’t…still, I think he’s a good one to have on your side for sure…
 
He told a man that smoking was disgusting too. But he and a lot of saints used snuff. File under “saints aren’t perfect”, I guess.
 
Oh, cool, I didn’t know that. I mean he wasn’t wrong there. Thanks for the info.
 
The more I read about Padre Pio the more I think he was in a lot of physical and spiritual pain for his lifetime. And a lot of people treated him like a carnival act. People who were Communists and Masons and generally not good Catholics would go see him or go to confession to him just to see what would happen or see if he could read their minds. I can see it making a holy person very grouchy.
 
Because he could and did tell people God was angry with them or they were going to Hell. Because sometimes he got mad at people who came to him, probably justified, but I have difficulty with someone being angry with me or yelling. Because he made me concerned that people I loved might somehow be in purgatory (I would hope not Hell) and I had just assumed they were in heaven. And Padre Pio is not here now to ask, though I can ask him where he is, I know, but if I’m to ask questions of someone we should be friends first. So I’m working on it.
I’m not so scared of him now as I was. And he has had a good effect on my life.
 
Padre Pio is my favourite saint. I have been to his shrine.
 
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Molly have you read a modern translation of the French?
Her sister in her affection for her, made the autobiography more flowery than Therese had done. Therese had left it to her sister to edit.
The more faithful translation from French of the original manuscripts is much easier to read, more natural and acceptable.
 
Thanks for the tip. Once I have a place to live and an income and a church to go to I might remember to check it out. 😛
 
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