Happy Feast of St. Therese!

The night before Therese's profession, her name written in Heaven...

Hello everyone!

You may be thinking this post is a little late, but actually Therese's feast in the Traditional Mass calendar is today, September, 3rd!

When I was confirmed this last spring I chose St. Therese, along with St. Mary of Jesus Crucified, as my Confirmation Saint.  She is such a lovely Saint and beautiful friend.  I believe I chose her because I've known her for a long time and loved her so much.  She has always been such a wonderful example to me of childlike confidence in our Sweet Jesus.  She too had a special relationship with the infant Jesus, as I do.  I wanted her to pray for me in a special way as my patron Saint and for her to help me in my journey to Heaven.  She is also a Carmelite, and I've known and loved them for a long time, so that is a wonderful bonus! ;)

I celebrated St. Therese's feast day on the 1st with a trip to California to sing at a Mass with the FSSP.LA schola! 

The night before, during dinner at family's house, I was given a rose by one of the sweet "little flowers" girls!  It was only the next day during the Mass that my friend realized we received rose buds on the eve of Therese's feast!!!

My special rose bud with the book I'm currently reading (not about Therese, but about a Carmelite and the life of Carmel in letter format.)

 It was an absolutely beautiful, Tridentine Mass at Our Savior Catholic Church at USC.

I was so excited to see an absolutely gorgeous stained glass window of St. Therese above the altar on her feast!!!  (She's the second one on the left in the above picture.)

Beautiful stained glass windows of the beatitudes.

Many people have read or heard of Therese's autobiography, The Story of a Soul, but I would like to share with you a few other books and movie about her which are so beautiful.

The first one is a book I was given by my parents for my 16th birthday.

The Plays of Saint Therese of Liseux

It's a wonderful book of all the plays St. Therese wrote and performed with her sisters in Carmel.  Each has a brief introduction and then is written in parts.  I would absolutely love to put on one of her plays someday!

I knew for a while she had written plays, especially the one about St. Joan of Arc, but what I didn't know until this summer was that she also wrote poems too!

The Poetry of Saint Therese of Liseux

I found this book in the Carmelite bookstore at the Sacred Heart Retreat House and had to get it!  I love her poems because they are sweet and short, yet so full of meaning and devotion.  I read To the sacred Heart of Jesus at the enthronement of a friend's house to the Sacred Heart.  These poems are great for meditating on in front of the Blessed Sacrament, to get to know Therese and her sisters better, or just for some fun pleasure reading!

Another great book not only about Therese, but her family, home, convent, and sisters as well, is Therese and Liseux.

Therese and Liseux

This coffee-table size book is filled with facts, stories, pictures, and illustrations of Therese, her family and friends.  It gives an in depth look into her life with lots of 'extras'!  I love how many images there are of her convent in it.  Another thing I really like about it is that it has images of holy cards Therese made for other sisters or received.  It also has a lot of her artwork.  I'm still in the process of reading this book, but you can easily sit down for a short time and flip through the book and read here and there!

Therese movie

I've watched this movie years ago, and we watched it last night (although I'm writing this post before seeing it ;) haha!)  I remember it being beautiful, and can't wait to watch it again for her feast!

I pray you have a beautiful feast day!!!  If you already celebrated on the 1st, you can celebrate again! :D  

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus guide you and may St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy face lead you to His most precious heart!