St. Therese Act of offering to Merciful Love

Saturday, 01 December 2012

Saturday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

Thérèse ----- Forwarded Message -----    From: DGO ... To:donald... Sent: Friday, 30 November 2012, 17:03 Subject: The Daily Gospel  See commentary below or click here Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus : "To stand before the Son of Man"  Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21:34-36. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man. Commentary of the day :  Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church Act of offering to Merciful Love (©Institute of Carmelite studies)  "To stand before the Son of Man" O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to love you and make you loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls... I desire to accomplish your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory you have prepared for me in your kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be yourself my sanctity! Since you loved me so much as to give me your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of his merits are mine. I offer them to you with gladness, begging you to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in his heart burning with love... I thank you, O my God! for all the graces you have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate you on the Last Day carrying the scepter of your cross. Since you deigned to give me a share in this very precious cross, I hope in heaven to resemble you and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion... After earth's exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone with the one purpose of pleasing you, consoling your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally. In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself. I want no other throne. no other crown but you, my beloved! Time is nothing in your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years (Ps 90[89],4). You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before you.

Offering to merciful love

... On June 9, 1895, during a mass celebrating the feast of the Holy Trinity, Thérèse had a sudden inspiration that she must offer herself as a sacrificial victim to merciful love. At this time some nuns offered themselves as a victim to God's justice. In her cell she drew up an 'Act of Oblation' for herself and for Céline, and on June 11, the two of them knelt before the miraculous Virgin and Thérèse read the document she had written and signed. In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask you lord to count my works.. According to biographer Ida Gorres the document echoed the happiness she had felt when Father Alexis Prou, the Franciscan preacher, had assured her that her faults did not cause God sorrow. In the Oblation she wrote, "If through weakness I should chance to fall, may a glance from Your Eyes straightway cleanse my soul, and consume all my imperfections-as fire transforms all things into itself."

Thérèse of Lisieux

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

_________________________