It is a great joy to celebrate our patron saint Thérèse this weekend!  Each year we reflect on a different aspect of our patron saint that we might embrace her Little Way of trust and love.

This year, I would like to reflect on St. Thérèse’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and how it shaped her love for Jesus.  As one writer says, “The Blessed Virgin Mary was the soil in which the little flower grew, developed, and received her nourishment.”  The greatest saint of modern times, as Pope Pius X described her, had a very strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Her devotion to Mary, as we will see, can inspire us to have a deep devotion to our Blessed Mother as well.  As Mary was mother for St. Thérèse, she can be mother for us too.   Let’s look at her devotion.

First, Thérèse’s full name was Marie Francois Thérèse Martin.  Louis and Zélie Martin consecrated all seven of their daughters to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Louis and Zélie also had two boys, who were named after St. Joseph.  Both, unfortunately, died very young.

Thérèse lost her mother to breast cancer when she was just four and a half years old.  Before her mother’s passing, Thérèse was vivacious and outgoing, but afterward she became withdrawn, moody, and extremely sensitive.  Naturally, Thérèse needed a mother.  The loss and void of her earthly mother drew her instinctively towards her heavenly mother, Mary.  Mary would be a mother to St. Thérèse in a very special way.

Her father, Louis, had nicknames for all of his children.  Louis gave Thérèse the nickname, “Little Queen.”  In the eyes of Thérèse, Louis was her king and she was his little queen.  By the end of her life, Thérèse would become the “Little Queen” of Mary, the Queen of Heaven.

As a family, Louis often gathered his daughters around the Blessed Virgin Mary statue where he would lead them in their prayers.  After their prayers, each child was allowed to give some special homage to Mary’s statue, which, we are told, would often have its fingers replaced after the children scrambled all at once to kiss Our Lady’s hands.

St. Thérèse’s devotion to and love for Mary greatly increased at age 10 when she became terribly sick.  Lying in her bed, Thérèse’s sisters prayed to God to save her life.  She looked over at the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where she noticed for the very first time the ravishing smile of the statue.  Mary, her mother, healed Thérèse with her tender smile.  Approximately one year later, on the day of her first Holy Communion, Thérèse made an act of consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At age 15, Thérèse joined the Carmelites, the first order dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.   While in the order, in going to confession, her confessor told her, “I declare before God and heaven that you have never committed a mortal sin in your life.”  Although Thérèse was not immaculately conceived like the Blessed Virgin Mary, she realized that God had given her a special grace by preventing her from falling into mortal sin.

St. Thérèse’s prayers always included the rosary.   Admittedly, it wasn’t always easy for her.  However, out of a love for Mary, she prayed it.  She said concerning the rosary, “The Rosary is a long chain that links heaven and earth.  One end of it is in our hands and the other end is in the hands of the Holy Virgin…the Rosary prayer rises like incense to the feet of the Almighty.”

Toward the end of her life when Thérèse was sick with tuberculosis, the sisters brought in the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Our Lady of the Smile – to comfort her and smile upon her.   As the Blessed Virgin comforted Christ on the cross, so she comforted Thérèse in her agony.

Here are the last words Thérèse penned of Mary just three weeks before her death: “O Mary, if I were Queen of heaven and you were Thérèse, I would wish to be Thérèse, to see you Queen of Heaven.”

Three hours before her passing, she asked the Blessed Mother to prepare her for a happy death.  Just before she passed, the sisters tell us that Therese looked just above the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a gaze of love before drawing her last breath.  Mary, who was both Queen and Mother for Thérèse throughout her life, now welcomed her with open arms into the kingdom of her Son.  God’s “little queen” who had embraced a life of trust and love, now joined the Queen of heaven and earth.  

May the little queen, our patron saint, whom we celebrate this weekend, help you to have a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother Mary and to love her as she did.   In doing so, Mary, your Mother and Queen, will help you to blossom as she did for the Little Flower. 
                                                            ~St. Therese, pray for us!