Therese Martin was born at Alencon in France in 1873.  While still young she

entered the Carmel of Lisieux, where she lived in the greatest humility,

evangelical simplicity and confidence in God.  By her words and example she

taught the novices these same virtues.  Offering her life for the salvation

of souls and the spread of the Church.  She died on September 30. 1897, was

canonized in 1925 and declared a doctor of the Church on Mission Sunday,

October 19, 1997.

 

 

Invitatory

Come let us adore the Lord, Who reveals Himself to little ones.

 

Office of Readings

 

First Reading

1 Cor 12:27-31; 13: 1-13

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has

appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers,

then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in

various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all

teachers? Do all work miracles?  Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all

speak with tongues? Do all interpret?  But earnestly desire the higher

gifts.  And I will show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a

noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and

understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as

to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.   If I give away

all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain

nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not

arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable

or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all

things.  Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for

tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the

perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.  When I was a child, I spoke

like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became

a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then

face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I

have been fully understood.

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

 

Second Reading

A reading from the Autobiography of St. Therese of the Child Jesus

 

My desires caused me a veritable martyrdom, and I opened the Epistles of

Saint Paul to find some kind of answer.

Chapters Twelve and Thirteen of the First Epistle to the Corinthians fell

under my eyes, I read there, in the first of these chapters, that all cannot

be apostles, prophets, doctors, and so on, that the Church is composed of

different members, and that the eye cannot be the hand at one and the same

time.  The answer was clear, but it did not fulfill my desires and gave me

no peace.  Without becoming discouraged, I continued my reading, and this

sentence consoled me:  'yet strive after the better gifts, and I point out

to you a yet more excellent way.'  And the Apostle explains how all the most

perfect gifts are nothing without love.  That charity is the excellent way

that leads most surely to God.

 

I finally had rest.  Considering the mystical body of the Church, I had not

recognized myself in any of the members described by Saint Paul, or rather I

desired to see myself in them all.  Charity gave me the key to my vocation.

I understood that if the Church had a body composed of different members,

the most necessary and most noble of all could not be lacking to it, and so

I understood that the Church had a heart and that this heart was burning

with love.  I understood it was love alone that made the Church's members

act, that if love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel

and martyrs would not shed their blood.  I understood that love comprised

all vocations, that love was everything, that it embraced all times and

places ... in a word, that it was eternal!

 

Then, in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried our:  'O Jesus, my Love...

my vocation, at last I have found it...

my vocation is Love!'

 

Yes, I have found my place in the Church and it is You, O my God, Who have

given me this place:  in the heart of the Church, my mother, I shall be

love.  Thus I shall be everything, and thus my dream will be realized.

 

R/.  I will rejoice and make merry, Lord, *  on account of your mercy.

B/.  For you have had pity on my lowliness, You have had regard for my

soul's needs, *  on account of Your mercy.

 

TE DEUM

 

Prayer

God our Father,

You have promised Your kingdom

to those who are willing to become like little children.

Help us to follow the way of St. Therese with confidence so that by her

prayers we may come to know Your eternal glory.

Grant this through our Lord.

 

 

Morning Prayer

 

Invitatory

Come let us adore the Lord, Who reveals Himself to little ones.

 

Hymn

 

Psalmody

Ant. 1  My soul clings to You, Your right hand holds me fast.

 

Psalms of Sunday I

 

Ant. 2  You holy and humble of heart, O bless the Lord.

 

Ant. 3 The Lord takes delight in His people, He crowns the poor with

salvation.

 

Scripture Reading

Romans 8: 14-17

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not

receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received

the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!"  it is the Spirit

himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if

children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we

suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

 

Responsory

R/. I will pour out upon her * a river of peace.  Repeat R/.

V/. And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, * a river of

peace.  Glory....R/.

 

Canticle of Zechariah

Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He send laborers into His harvest.

 

Intercessions

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ has given St. Therese to us as a model of the

evangelical life.  Let us pray to Him and say:

R/. Hear us, O Lord.

 

Lord, You said:  'Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink;'  make

us thirsty for Your love.  R/.

 

Lord, You said, 'If you do not become as little children, you cannot enter

the kingdom of heaven; '  help us to love You in simplicity of heart.  R/.

 

Lord, You told us, 'There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents;'

help us to have a childlike trust in Your mercy.  R/.

 

Lord, You said, 'Whoever does the will of my Father will

enter the kingdom of heaven;'   give us a spirit of

faithful obedience to all Your commands.  R/.

 

Lord, You said, 'Whatsoever you do to one of the least of

my brethren you do to me;'   may we see You today

in our brothers and sisters, and love You in them.  R/.

 

Lord, You said, 'The harvest is great, but the laborers are few; pray

therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he send laborers into the

harvest;'  give to all of us the missionary spirit of St. Therese, who

longed for the salvation of souls.  R/.

 

Our Father.....

 

Prayer

(same as above)

 

Evening Prayer

 

Hymn

 

Psalmody

Ant. 1 There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's

friends.

 

psalm 112

 

Ant. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.

 

Ant. 2 For their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be consecrated

in truth.

 

psalm 130

 

Ant. For their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be consecrated

in truth.

 

Ant. 3 God chooses those the world considers weak to confound the strong.

 

Canticle:  Phil 2: 6-11

 

Ant.  God chooses those the world considers weak to confound the strong.

 

Scripture Reading  1 Tim 2: 1, 3-6

 

Responsory

R/.  I will tell of Your name to my friends:  * in the midst of the assembly

I will praise You.  Repeat R/.

V/. For You have not despised the poor in their distress; * in the midst of

the assembly I will praise You.

Glory.. R/.

 

Canticle of Mary

Father, I have made Your name known to those You have given me:  make them

holy in the truth.

 

Intercessions

Let us pray to God, our almighty Father, for His Church throughout the

world:

 

R/. Lord, remember Your covenant with us.

 

May we be inspired by the example of St. Therese of the Child Jesus;  may

Your Church give itself to You in love.  R/.

 

May all contemplatives be faithful witnesses of Your good- ness;  so that

the world may believe in You.  R/.

 

May we bear one another's burdens in a spirit of love; so that Your faithful

people may see Your face in us and imitate Your Son.  R/.

 

Fill us with a faithful missionary spirit;  for You desire all the world to

know the truth of Christ.  R/.

 

Grant to all the faithful departed the joy of seeing Your face;  for Christ

wants those You gave Him to be with Him where He reigns in glory.  R/.

 

Our Father....

 

Prayer

(see above)

 

THE MASS

 

Entrance Antiphon

The Lord nurtured and taught her; He guarded her as the apple of His eye.

As the eagle spreads its wings to carry its young, He bore her on His

shoulder.

The Lord alone was her leader.

 

Prayer

(see above)

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord,

we praise the wonder of Your grace in St. Therese.

As You were pleased with the witness she offered, be pleased also to accept

this service of ours.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

 

Communion Antiphon

Unless You change and become like little children, says the Lord, you shall

not enter the knigdom of heaven.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord,

by the power fo Your love

St. Therese offered herself completely to You and prayed for the salvation

of all mankind.

May the sacraments we have received fill us with love and bring us

forgiveness.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

 

First Reading

Isaiah 66: 10-14

"Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice

with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; That you may suck and be

satisfied with her consoling breasts; that you may drink deeply with delight

from the abundance of her glory."

For thus says the LORD:

"Behold, I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the

nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall suck, you shall be carried

upon her hip, and dandled upon her knees.

As one whom his mother comforts,

so I will comfort you;

you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like

the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the LORD is with his

servants, and his indignation is against his enemies.

 

Responsorial Psalm

R/.  As a father has compassion on his children, the Lord has pity on those

who fear Him.

 

My soul, give thanks to the Lord,

and all my being, bless His holy name.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

and never forget all His blessings.  R/.

 

The Lord is compassion and love,

slow to anger and rich in mercy.

His wrath will come to an end;

He will not be angry for ever.  R/.

 

But the love of the Lord is everlasting

upon those who hold Him in fear;

His justice reaches out to children's children when they keep His covenant

in truth, when they keep His will in their minds.  R/.

 

Second Reading

1 John 4: 7-16

Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is

born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God; for God

is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent

his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is

love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the

expiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love

one another.  No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides

in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him

and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit.  And we have seen

and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in

God.  So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he

who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

 

 

Gospel

Matthew 11:25-30

At that time Jesus declared, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and

earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding

and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son

except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to

whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy

laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;

for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."