“Our Lord’s love shines out just as much through a little soul who yields completely to His Grace as it does through the greatest . . . Just as the sun shines equally on the cedar and the little flower, so the Divine Sun shines equally on everyone, great and small. Everything is ordered for their good, just as in nature the seasons are so ordered that the smallest daisy comes to bloom at its appointed time.”
— St. Therese of Lisieux
Tag Archives: Little Flower
The Divine Mercy
Divine Mercy 101
- DM 101: Week 1 – What is Divine Mercy?
- DM 101: Week 2 – Mercy is God’s Greatest Attribute
- DM 101: Week 3 – The Genesis Story of Divine Mercy
- DM 101: Week 4 – Moses and the God of Mercy
- DM 101: Week 5 – Divine Mercy in the Psalms
- DM 101: Week 6 – Divine Mercy in the Prophets
- DM 101: Week 7 – Divine Mercy in the New Testament
- DM 101: Week 8 – St. Luke: The Gospel of Mercy
- DM 101: Week 9 – The Parables of Divine Mercy
- DM 101: Week 10 – The Good Shepherd Rejoices!
- DM 101: Week 11 – The Father of the Prodigal Son
- DM 101: Week 12 – Mercy is for Everyone!
- DM 101: Week 13 – The Cross and The Resurrection
- DM 101: Week 14 – The Mercy Message of St. Peter and St. Paul
- DM 101: Week 15 – The Life of St. Augustine
- DM 101: Week 16 – St. Augustine on Divine Mercy
- DM 101: Week 17 – The God of Both Justice and Mercy
- DM 101: Week 18 – St. Thomas Aquinas on the Virtue of Mercy
- DM 101: Week 19 – Aquinas Defines Divine Mercy
- DM 101: Week 20 – The Saving Work of the Son of God
- DM 101: Week 21 – A Superabundant Satisfaction for Sin
- DM 101: Week 22 – Aquinas on Mercy, Judgment, and Mary
- DM 101: Week 23 – St. Thomas Aquinas — St. Catherine of Siena
- DM 101: Week 24 – The Spirituality of St. Catherine of Siena
- DM 101: Week 25 – The Bridge of Mercy — and Canticle of Mercy
- DM 101: Week 26 – Divine Mercy Greater Than Sin and Despair
- DM 101: Week 27 – St. Bonaventure on St. Francis of Assisi
- DM 101: Week 28 – The Little Flowers of St. Francis
- DM 101: Week 29 – St. Bonaventure and The Tree of Life
- DM 101: Week 30 – St. John Eudes and The Merciful Heart of Jesus
- DM 101: Week 31 – The Sacred Heart and The Divine Mercy
- DM 101: Week 32 – St. Margaret Mary and The Sacred Heart
- DM 101: Week 33 – The Spirituality of St. Alphonsus Liguori
- DM 101: Week 34 – St. Alphonsus Liguori’s
- DM 101: Week 35 – The Life of St. Therese of Lisieux:
- DM 101: Week 36 – Stop to Appreciate the ‘Little Flower’
- DM 101: Week 37 – Divine Mercy in the Autobiography of St. Therese
- DM 101: Week 38 – The Early Life of Bl. Dina Belanger of Quebec
- DM 101: Week 39 – The Spiritual Formation of Bl. Dina
- DM 101: Week 40 – Kindred Spirits in the Eucharist
- DM 101: Week 41 – Compare the Teachings of St. Faustina and Bl. Dina
- DM 101: Week 42 – Jesus Enables Us to Trust in Him!
- DM 101: Week 43 – The Life of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Apostle of Divine Mercy
- DM 101: Week 44 – The Message of Mercy in the Diary of St. Faustina
- DM 101: Week 45 – The Mercy Devotion Spreads — is Banned — and Spreads Again!
- DM 101: Week 46 – The Chaplet Sets the Philippines Free! — and the First Papal Visit to St. Faustina’s Tomb
- DM 101: Week 47 – Image, Feast, and a New Millenium of Mercy!
- DM 101: Week 48 – The Divine Mercy Legacy of Pope John Paul II
- DM 101: Week 49 – The Pope and St. Faustina’s Prophetic Revelations for our Time
- DM 101: Week 50 – Divine Mercy: A Personal Encounter with Our Savior Himself
- DM 101: Week 51 – Divine Mercy in Catholic Tradition: Conclusion
- The Image of The Divine Mercy (Part One) – Divine Mercy 101: Elements of the Devotion
- The Image of The Divine Mercy (Part Two) – Divine Mercy 101: Elements of the Devotion
- The Image of The Divine Mercy (Part Three) – Divine Mercy 101: Elements of the Devotion
- The Image of The Divine Mercy (Part Four) – Divine Mercy 101: Elements of the Devotion
- – Divine Mercy Sunday: What’s This Feast All About, Anyway?
Holy Thursday – Agony
How are we to understand the Agony in the Garden? Sweating drops of blood is beyond the ordinary experience of the sinner or saint. Look at those who suffer well for a glimpse into the mystery.
St. Therese of Lisieux experienced her first hemorrhage on Holy Thursday 1896. In her Story of a Soul we read something of her agony:
For several days, during the month of August, Therese remained, so to speak, beside herself, and implored that prayers might be offered for her. She had never before been seen in this state, and in her inexpressible anguish she kept repeating: “Oh! how necessary it is to pray for the agonising! If one only knew!” One night she entreated the Infirmarian to sprinkle her bed with Holy Water, saying: “I am besieged by the devil. I do not see him, but I feel him; he torments me and holds me with a grip of iron, that I may not find one crumb of comfort; he augments my woes, that I may be driven to despair. . . . And I cannot pray. I can only look at Our Blessed Lady and say: ‘Jesus!’ How needful is that prayer we use at Compline: ‘Procul recedant somnia et noctium phantasmata!’ (‘Free us from the phantoms of the night.’) Something mysterious is happening within me. I am not suffering for myself, but for some other soul, and satan is angry.” The Infirmarian, startled, lighted a blessed candle, and the spirit of darkness fled, never to return; but the sufferer remained to the end in a state of extreme anguish. One day, while she was contemplating the beautiful heavens, some one said to her: “soon your home will be there, beyond the blue sky. How lovingly you gaze at it!” She only smiled, but afterwards she said to the Mother Prioress: “Dear Mother, the Sisters do not realise my sufferings. Just now, when looking at the sky, I merely admired the beauty of the material heaven–the true Heaven seems more than ever closed against me. At first their words troubled me, but an interior voice whispered: ‘Yes, you were looking to Heaven out of love. Since your soul is entirely delivered up to love, all your actions, even the most indifferent, are marked with this divine seal.’ At once I was consoled.”
Be Holy! 