The Feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux, lovingly called the “Little Flower,” is celebrated by the Church on October 1st. This date was chosen because Therese died on September 30th. Following an ancient custom of celebrating one’s entrance into heaven the next day, October 1 was chosen to celebrate her life and her eternal birth. As the Patroness of the Missions, we celebrate with her today, the heroic lives of missionaries around the world. We give special thanks to our missionaries in the Pacific who have so abundantly shared God’s love over the years.
Mother Margarita (Pilar Maturana) had a great love for Saint Therese (Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin), and we can say that her life paralleled that of the “Little Flower” in many ways. Mother Margarita once wrote to her sister Leonor, who was a Carmelite nun, that Saint Therese had the same kind of desires that she and Leonor had– “a simple, trusting and loving life.”
Leonor was Mother Margarita’s spiritual companion all her life, just as Celine, Saint Therese’s sister was her spiritual confidant. Therese once told Celine that “she alone understood her language…that our treasure is Jesus and our hearts make one in Him. “It was no different with Mother Margarita. Because she and Leonor were twins, she said that they shared so much it was like looking in a mirror, that “Leonor’s words fell into her soul like pieces from her own heart.”
The copious letters that both Mother Margarita and Saint Therese wrote to their sisters give us great insight into their spirituality. They consoled each other, they gave each other advice, and talked about their spiritual joys and difficulties with a love that grew as they grew in Christ.
The letters of Saint Therese and Mother Margarita show common threads of spiritual development that lead ultimately to the desire to sacrifice all for the salvation of souls. For Saint Therese their mission as Carmelites was to form evangelical workers who would save thousands of souls by becoming prayer warriors. As she told Celine: “The Creator of the Universe awaits the prayer of a poor little soul to save other souls redeemed like it at the price of all, His blood.” Mother Margarita on the other hand said, “I have felt called to participate in the mission that God the Father entrusted to His Son: to announce the Kingdom of God and to save my brothers and sisters.”
Mother Margarita and Saint Therese both knew that the salvation of souls, whether in prayer or action depended on a deep interior life of personal prayer and sacrifice because, in order to accomplish these desires, they needed complete submission to the Will of God. They knew that this enormous task depended not on them but on God’s work in them. To reach the summit of that love they needed to renounce even the smallest attachments. As Saint Therese put it, “Do what you can; detach your heart from the worries of the earth, and above all from creatures, and then be sure Jesus will do the rest.” This blind hope in God’s Mercy was the fuel for her soul. Mother Margarita also said she was determined to choose the most arduous work for herself, to do God’s Will always, because she could do nothing on her own. Her resolve was to cast herself completely into God’s arms. She said: “Never think that you can put too much trust in the Lord, nor fear total surrender to His Mercy.”
Happy Feast Day to St. Therese and to the love she inspired in Mother Margarita for the salvation of souls.
Since their story is so rich, it will continue next week. . .
