About st Thérèse of Lisieux,there is a very interesting testimony by Sr Genevieve OCD (her sister Céline),for the beatification process, (1910).
«In 1897, but before she was really ill, Sr Thérèse told me she expected to die that year. Here is the reason she gave me for this in June. When she realised that she had pulmonary tuberculosis, she said:
“You see, God is going to take me at an age when I would not have had the time to become a priest…If I could have been a priest, I would have been ordained at these June ordinations.
So what did God do? So that I would not be disappointed, he let me be sick: in that way I couldn’t have been there, and I would die before I could exercise my ministry.”
The sacrifice of not being able to be a priest was something she always felt deeply. During her illness, whenever we were cutting her hair she would ask for a tonsure, and then joyfully feel it with her hand. But her regret did not find its expression in such trifles; it was caused by a real love of God,and inspired high hopes in her.»
(St Thérèse of Lisieux By Those Who Knew Her, Christopher O’Mahony, Veritas, Dublin 1975, p.155-6)
I have never seen it mentioned in biographies of St Thérèse. Quelle surprise!
Fascinating detail, Soline, and yes, it does seem to have been buried in silence. I’m not sure how much of her mental world carries over to today, though.
@2
Yes Joe, Thérèse did live in a very different world from ours.
But that desire is still a forbidden desire for catholic women.
What is interesting is that her sister took great pains to reveal, under oath, the depth and extent of that desire, in the context of the beatification process.
And that the authorities have subsequently brushed it under the carpet… There was no mention of it when Thérèse was made a Doctor of the Church.
About st Thérèse of Lisieux,there is a very interesting testimony by Sr Genevieve OCD (her sister Céline),for the beatification process, (1910).
«In 1897, but before she was really ill, Sr Thérèse told me she expected to die that year. Here is the reason she gave me for this in June. When she realised that she had pulmonary tuberculosis, she said:
“You see, God is going to take me at an age when I would not have had the time to become a priest…If I could have been a priest, I would have been ordained at these June ordinations.
So what did God do? So that I would not be disappointed, he let me be sick: in that way I couldn’t have been there, and I would die before I could exercise my ministry.”
The sacrifice of not being able to be a priest was something she always felt deeply. During her illness, whenever we were cutting her hair she would ask for a tonsure, and then joyfully feel it with her hand. But her regret did not find its expression in such trifles; it was caused by a real love of God,and inspired high hopes in her.»
(St Thérèse of Lisieux By Those Who Knew Her, Christopher O’Mahony, Veritas, Dublin 1975, p.155-6)
I have never seen it mentioned in biographies of St Thérèse. Quelle surprise!
Fascinating detail, Soline, and yes, it does seem to have been buried in silence. I’m not sure how much of her mental world carries over to today, though.
@2
Yes Joe, Thérèse did live in a very different world from ours.
But that desire is still a forbidden desire for catholic women.
What is interesting is that her sister took great pains to reveal, under oath, the depth and extent of that desire, in the context of the beatification process.
And that the authorities have subsequently brushed it under the carpet… There was no mention of it when Thérèse was made a Doctor of the Church.