St Therese Shows Us The Science Of Divine Love

MANILA: Today, 01 October 2016, after the 0900 hours mass and the free lunch, here's looking up to St Therese of Lisieux inside the Adoration Chapel, photo taken by my daughter Ela and posterized by me, the stained glass depicting the time when Pope John Paul II issued an Apostolic Letter declaring her Doctor of the Universal Church on 19 October 1997. In the Letter, the Pope said that she received from God the gift of "The Science of Divine Love" (Divini Amoris Scientia), "which she then expressed with particular originality in her writings" (littleflower.org).

Triple blessed. Today, we were witness to triple historical celebrations all at the same time. One, today is her feastday and a mass was celebrated by many priests with Rev Msgr Jerry V Bitoon presiding as celebrator at the St Therese of the Child Jesus Parish Church at UP Los Baños. Two, today is the canonical declaration to Diocesan Shrinehood of this Church. St Therese is now a Shrine. Three, the one declaring it such, the Diocese of San Pablo, is celebrating its Golden Anniversary.

I call this saint from France "St Therese of the Little Way" because that points to the science of divine love that Pope John Paul II was referring to. Nobody has really been paying attention to Divini Amoris Scientia, that's why I'm writing this.

When I was studying for my BS degree at UP Los Baños (then the Cow College called "College of Agriculture") starting in June 1959, being a Roman Catholic I attended mass at the nearby St Therese of the Child Jesus Chapel, but I did not pay attention to the saint. I don't remember the phrase "of the Child Jesus" being explained either. Now that I am a man, I find I cannot put away childish things!

Or childlike. The little story of St Therese of Lisieux is full of little things that can attributed only to a child, as you will see. Hence the reference "St Therese of the Child Jesus."

She was born in Alencon, France on 02 January 1872 and died 30 September 1897; she was 24 years old. She was a miracle that nobody learned about when she was still alive.

Writes sttherese.com of Dublin, Ireland:

The spirituality and message of St Therese of Lisieux became known to millions through the publication of her autobiography Story of a Soul a year after her death. Here we hope you will find some insight to the intensity of her love for God, her prayerfulness and knowledge of Scripture and the simplicity of her life.

Having read her book and some commentaries, I ascribed her holiness to the simplicity of her love for God in the person of the Child Jesus. It was a simple life, as she entered the nunnery at a very young age of 15.

I bought a copy of the pocketbook The Autobiography Of St Therese Of Lisieux with the subtitle The Story Of A Soul, at the chapel's bookstore on 17 April 2015, and I find that the Editor in me was at work when I read the book last year. I noted that her own title of her manuscript was, The Story Of The Springtime Of A Little White Flower. I think that is a lovely title that should have been honored by being used as the title of her book.

The copy I have is the translation by John Beevers, rolled off the press by Sinagtala Publishers via an arrangement with Doubleday & Company, which published it in 1957. It's a slim volume of 201 pages. On the title page, I wrote "Unabridged." The whole collected manuscript is there as she wrote it.

I remember that I read the book thoroughly. And the Editor in me worked thoroughly too, so that I crossed out with my pen each of the chapter titles, because St Therese was not thinking of chapters when she was writing. So I have these:

Unquestioning Obedience (instead of the empty words Chapter One)
Our Mother's Illness (instead of the empty words Chapter Two)
Top Of The Class (instead of the empty words Chapter Three)
My Name (instead of the empty words Chapter Four)
Graces (instead of the empty words Chapter Five)
To Rome (instead of the empty words Chapter Six)
Entry Into Carmel (instead of the empty words Chapter Seven)
Retreat (instead of the empty words Chapter Eight)
Humiliation (instead of the empty words Chapter Nine)
Depths Of Charity (instead of the empty words Chapter Ten)
A Souvenir (instead of the empty words Chapter Eleven).

Yet, while my titles are descriptive and indicative and not mechanical or literal, they only hint at the story written by Marie Francoise Therese Martin herself when she was a nun at Carmelite convent of Lisieux, a town in Normandy, France.

Catholic Online describes her and her influence well with these words (catholic.org):

Generations of Catholics have admired this young saint, called her the "Little Flower," and found in her short life more inspiration for their own lives than in volumes by theologians. ¶ Yet Therese died when she was 24, after having lived as cloistered Carmelite for less than ten years. She never went on missions, never founded a religious order, never performed great works. The only book of hers, published after her death, was (a) brief edited version of her journal called "Story of a Soul." ... But within 28 years of her death, the public demand was so great that she was canonized.

(Catholic Onlinehas this slogan: "Inform. Inspire. Ignite." I love those 3 words, all action words, and I have been trying to do them on my own, whether the subject is faith or fact, whether scientific or spiritual. This is part of that.)

Before St Therese died, she said, as quoted by the Society of the Little Flower (littleflower.org):

After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will raise up a mighty host of little saints. My mission is to make God loved."

Did the shower of roses come? The Society says:

Shortly after her death, the rain of roses began. Sometimes roses literally appeared, and sometimes just the fragrance of them. Cures of painful and fatal diseases and many other miraculous experiences were attributed to her intercession.

As a writer, I do not take "a shower of roses" literally. By way of doing good on earth, she said, "I will raise up a mighty host of little saints." She meant children and childlike adults who show love to others in little ways that speaks of God's huge love. She gave us the Science of Divine Love – she defined it in such a way that it can be practiced here on Earth by anyone.

Guided by God, St Therese married divine love with science. Yes! Science is defined thus: "Knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation" (Merriam-Webster, merriam-webster.com). "Systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation" (Dictionary.com, dictionary.com). "A systematic method or body of knowledge in a given area" (American Heritage Dictionary, thefreedictionary.com). Divinely inspired, St Therese thought, tried and triumphed, resulting in the knowledge she wrote as a manuscript, published as Story Of A Soul.

For example, she tells this story of one of the nuns in Carmel that involves her:

Formerly one of our nuns managed to irritate me whatever she did or said. The devil was mixed up in it, for it was certainly he who made me see so many disagreeable traits in her. As I did not want to give way to my natural dislike for her, I told myself that charity should not only be a matter of feeling but should show itself in deeds.so I set myself to do for this sister just what I should have done, for someone I loved most dearly. (page 157)

She is using the concept of charity as the concept of Christian love. So, what did she do to practice love? She wrote, "Every time I met her, I prayed for her and offered God all her virtues and her merits." Did she stop there? No. She wrote:

I did not remain content with praying a lot for this nun who caused me so much disturbance. I tried to do as many things for her as I could, and whenever I was tempted to speak unpleasantly to her, I made myself give her a pleasant smile and tried to change the subject. (page 158)

A smile is a little act of love. A smile while hurting is a little act of great love!

St Mother Teresa said, "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." That is from St Therese of Lisieux.

As I have cited above, in his Apostolic Letter, Pope John Paul II said that the gift of The Science of Divine Love was expressed with particular originality in her writings." That is half-correct. The other half is that, first of all, she expressed it with particular originality in her real life, at the Carmelite convent.

Let me continue the story of the nun and St Therese:

When I was violently tempted by the devil and if I could slip away without her seeing my inner struggle, I would flee like a soldier deserting the battlefield. And after all this she asked me one day with a beaming face, "Sister Therese, will you please tell me what attracts you so much to me? You give me such a charming smile whenever we meet." Ah! It was Jesus hidden in the depth of her soul who attracted me, Jesus who makes the bitterest things sweet! (page 158)

You must hate the sin but you must love the sinner!

For me, it is such little acts of love by little angels on earth, whatever physical size they have, that she meant when she said, "I will raise up a mighty host of little saints." Millions of those little saints doing little acts of love would be her true shower of flowers.

Fr Bitoon exhorted the parishioners of UP Los Baños, of which the St Therese parish is mostly made of, to do more and elevate this Shrine of a vibrant Catholic community to the level of a National Shrine. St Therese's message is Love; you should work for Love, he said.

St Therese of Lisieux said, "You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them" (bostoncatholic.org). That is the Science of Divine Love. Whatever you do for others, if you do it with love, you're a saint; if you do it with great love, you're a great saint – even if you're very much alive.

If I may add, the more little acts borne out of love that you do, the more you are blessed. The opposite of my old slogan, HATE HATES HATERS, is my new slogan, LOVE LOVES LOVERS. Nothing beats love! @

01 October 2016. Essay word count, excluding this line: 1872