Jan. 2 is the 150th birthday of St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), one of the most popular saints in modern times. Her parents were St. Louis Martin (1823-1894) and St. Zelie Guerin (1831-1877). The saintly couple was canonized by Pope Francis on Oct. 18, 2015. St. Therese wrote, “The good God gave me a father and mother more worthy of heaven than of earth.”
Zelie died on Aug. 28, 1877, when Therese was four years old. The young Therese was a very sensitive girl, and that had become an obstacle to her growing in virtue. However, the Infant Jesus granted her a special grace on Christmas Day, 1886
That Christmas, after Midnight Mass, Therese overheard her father remark with impatience that he hoped this would be the last year for the custom of filling the children’s shoes with Christmas gifts.
Normally, Therese would have dissolved in tears, but that night, she felt a new inner strength, and in order to make her father happy, she behaved as if the Christmas custom gave her a great deal of joy. Therese said, “The work I had been unable to do in 10 years was done by Jesus in one instant.” She gained in a moment and for good a self-mastery she seemed to have lost at the death of her mother when she was four.
Therese saw the Christmas night of 1886 as her “conversion.” Soon after it, Therese heard much talk of a notorious criminal, Henri Pranzini, who was sentenced to death for several murders. Pranzini was quite impenitent, and everyone feared he would be eternally lost.
Therese did her best to pray for the conversion of Pranzini. She prayed: “My God, I am quite sure that thou wilt pardon this unhappy Pranzini. I should still think so if he did not confess his sins or give any sign of sorrow, because I have such confidence in thy unbounded mercy; but this is my first sinner, and therefore I beg for just one sign of repentance to reassure me.”
The day after the execution of Pranzini, Therese opened the newspaper. Pranzini showed signs of repentance at the last moment when he seized the crucifix a priest was offering to him and kissed Our Lord’s sacred wounds three times. After that, the desire for the salvation of souls increased in the heart of Therese day by day.
Therese entered the Carmel Order on April 9, 1888. She wrote, “At last my desires were realized, and I cannot describe the deep sweet peace which filled my soul. This peace has remained with me during the eight and a half years of my life here, and has never left me even amid the greatest trials.”
In her daily interactions with fellow nuns, Therese strove to practise mortifications. She avoided seeking consolation in purely natural affection and avoided asking questions which satisfy curiosity.
Therese admired the different vocations in the Church – priests, teachers, missionaries, and martyrs. From the writing of St. Paul, Therese realized that her vocation was love, which embraces all vocations. She prayed, “O Jesus, my Love, at last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love! Yes, I have found my place in the bosom of the Church, and this place, O my God, Thou hast Thyself given to me: in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be LOVE! … Thus I shall be all things: thus will my dream be realized …”
St. Therese of Lisieux died in 1897. She had been sick for months, and on the evening of July 8, she was taken to the infirmary, where she stayed until her death.
On July 17, she made her now famous prediction: “I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission of making others love God as I love him, my mission of teaching my little way to souls. If God answers my requests, my heaven will be spent on earth up until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.”
Please keep Father Francis Chang in your prayer. He was the pastor for St. Theresa Parish for so many years. Fr. Francis passed away on December 27 at 3:50 am. May his spirit find eternal peace in the embrace of the divine.
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聖女小德蘭
1月2日是聖女小德蘭 (1873-1897) 的生日。她是近代最受歡迎的聖人之一；她的雙親是聖類斯.馬定(1823-1894) 及聖薛妮.姬娜 (1831-1877) ，他們在2015年10月18日被教宗方濟宣聖。小德蘭曾寫下：「美善的天主，給了我媲美天地的父母。」
1877年8月28日薛妮病逝，德蘭才四歲。年幼時的小德蘭，是一名情緒非常過敏的小女孩，這也是她靈修的一大障礙。不過，1886年的聖誕日，小耶穌卻賞給了她特別的聖寵。
該聖誕日的子夜彌撒後，小德蘭無意中聽到父親對每年的聖誕都要把她的聖誕襪子堆滿禮物的習慣，感到不耐煩。一般來說，小德蘭早已因此而哭泣；這次，她卻有一股新的內在力量，使她為了讓父親快樂，故意對聖誕禮物的習慣顯得非常愉快。她說：「十年我不能做到的事情，耶穌僅需那一刻，幫我做到了。」自她四歲時母親死後，她似乎失去的自控能力，竟在那煞間完全恢復過來。
小德蘭視1886年的聖誕，是她的「皈依日」。不久，小德蘭聽得一個被判死刑、惡名昭著的謀殺犯柏齊尼，他十分固執，在獄中堅持不肯悔改，所有人都認為他會被天主處以永罰。
小德蘭為柏齊尼的皈依，努力祈禱：「吾主，我深信祢會饒恕這位不快樂的柏齊尼。縱然他未告明他的罪或顯示懊悔的跡象，我仍深信，因為我對祢的無窮慈悲充滿信心；但是他是我的第一個罪人，我求祢一個悔改的跡象來讓我放心。」
柏齊尼受刑的次日，小德蘭打開報章，看到在獄中有關他悔罪的報導：受刑前的最後一刻，柏齊尼手執神父遞給他的苦像，親吻了吾主聖傷三次。自始，小德蘭渴望救靈的心，與日俱增，更形熱切。
小德蘭於1888年4月 9日入加爾默羅修院。她寫道：「我最後的願望實現了，我的靈魂充滿著難以言寓的平安。這平安在修院陪伴了我八年半的歲月，即使在受極度的試探時，亦沒有離我而去。」
日常與同門修女的交往中，小德蘭設法從中改進自己，避免尋求感性上的安慰，亦不為滿足好奇心而咄咄追問。
小德蘭仰慕教會內不同的聖召 ── 神父、傳教士、教師、殉道者等。從聖保祿宗徒書信中，小德蘭明白她的聖召就是愛 ── 愛，擁抱著所有聖召。她祈禱說：「噢，耶穌，吾愛。我終於找到了我的聖召。我的聖召就是愛！對，我在教會的懷抱中，找到了自己的位置；而這個位置是祢親自給我的。在慈母教會的心內，我將是愛！…..故此，我將包括一切：故此，我的夢想實現了…」
聖女小德蘭於1897年去世。她病了幾個月，到六月，她不得不躺下來休息。七月八日的黃昏，她被送到病房，亦是她人世生命中最後的安所。
七月十七日，她作了著名的預言：「我感到我的使命快要開始，就是使人去愛天主，如同我愛了祂一樣。我的使命是教導靈魂關於我的神修小道。假如天主同意我的請求，我的天堂會在世界上渡過直到世界終結。對！我願意用我的天堂於世上行善。」
請為張振文神父(Fr. Francis Chang)祈禱。 他退休前擔任St. Theresa parish的主任司鐸多年。 張神父於 12 月 27 日凌晨 3:50 去世。 願他安息在天父的懷抱中．。
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