St Therese Of Lisieux - On Charity

[BarbTherese]

http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=commentary&localdate=20131104

 

 

 

"Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you"

I have noticed (and this is very natural) that the most saintly Sisters are the most loved. We seek their company; we render them services without their asking... On the other hand, imperfect souls are not sought out. No doubt we remain within the limits of religious politeness in their regard, but we generally avoid them, fearing lest we say something which isn't too amiable...  This is the conclusion I draw from this: I must seek out in recreation, on free days, the company of the Sisters who are the least agreeable to me in order to carry out with regard to these wounded souls the office of the good Samaritan.

A word, an amiable smile, often suffice to make a sad soul bloom; but it is not principally to attain this end that I wish to practice charity, for I know I would soon become discouraged: a word I shall say with the best intention will perhaps be interpreted wrongly. Also, not to waste my time, I want to be friendly with everybody (and especially with the least amiable Sisters) to give joy to Jesus and respond to the counsel He gives in the Gospel in almost these words: “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends, or your brethren, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and a recompense be made to you. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and blessed shall you be, because they have nothing to repay you with, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (cf. Lk 14,12-14; Mt 6,4-5) What banquet could a Carmelite offer her Sisters except a spiritual banquet of loving and joyful charity?

As far as I am concerned, I know no other and I want to imitate Saint Paul who “rejoiced with those who rejoice” (Rm 12,15). It is true he wept with the afflicted and tears must sometimes appear in the feast I wish to serve, but I shall always try to change these tears into joy (Jn 16,20), since “the Lord loves a cheerful giver” (2Cor 9,7).

 

 

[Aya Sophia]

I was particularly struck by the Gospel today:  "...blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you." and now your quote from the little Doctor - wonderful.

 

Perhaps this is part of the plan of salvation, that some (the saints) receive much from God and (if they are responsive to grace) become conduits of His love and mercy for others.  Certainly seems so with St. Therese.  Deo gratias!   For the gifts of grace He gave her and for her responsiveness to these gifts.

[BarbTherese]

I am a great fan of St Therese (my Confirmation patron) and her theology - she certainly was and is a missionary of God's Loving Mercy & Understanding.  Much of our spirituality today can still suffer from 'the severes' - St Therese brings light and reason, God's Loving Mercy and Understanding into any 'attack of the severes' and this takes the emphasis off self and on to The Lord, where it rightly belongs.  It is not about what I can do, bui rather what The Lord can do in me if I only let Him and this might mean accepting a very ordinary and even mundane type of life - which can be the sure 'foundation of sanctity' if I will let The Lord do His Magnificent Part and in the light of the theology of 'Little Therese'.

[Aya Sophia]

Much of our spirituality today can still suffer from 'the severes' - St Therese brings light and reason, God's Loving Mercy and Understanding into any 'attack of the severes' and this takes the emphasis off self and on to The Lord, where it rightly belongs. 

 

Roger that.  It can take much of one's life or even all of it to find freedom from the oppression and deceit ( i.e. machinations of the evil one) inherent in a Catholic spirituality poisoned by Jansenism.  St. Therese was a great warrior in this regard.  She had a way of relentlessly ushering in the sunlight on souls trapped in the darkness of the "severes".  Again, Deo gratias for this "little" soul!

[BarbTherese]

Deo Gratius! Amen