The "Little Flower" comes to America Catholics in the Archdiocese of Newark will be among the many Americans who will be able to show their devotion to one of the Catholic Church’s most popular modern saints. The reliquary of St. Therese of Lisieux, the "Little Flower," will visit three parishes in the Archdiocese of Newark in October during its 1999 - 2000 tour of the United States. The reliquary, which contains some of her bones, will be at St. Cecilia Parish, Englewood, from noon Wednesday, October 13 to noon Thursday, October 14, 1999. It will then be at St. Therese Parish, Cresskill, for a 7pm Mass on Thursday, October 14, 1999. Its final stop in the Archdiocese will be at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Friday, October 15, 1999 where Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick will preside over Mass at 8pm. Rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Msgr. Richard F. Groncki, said that the reliquary’s October 15 visit to the Cathedral will be a great occasion for those who are devoted to St. Therese. "The miracles that have been performed through her intercession have been called a shower of roses," he said. St. Therese of Lisieux was 24 years old when she died on September 30, 1897, she never went on a mission, founded a religious order, or performed great works. Instead, her road to sainthood began when, at the age of 9, she saw the Virgin Mary and was cured of a life threatening fever. By the time she reached the age of eleven she had developed a habit of mental prayer. Later, she began to make small sacrifices because "the only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love." St. Therese of Lisieux was canonized in 1925 and Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the Church, with the relics at his side, on October 19, 1997. She is the patroness of florists, the missions and of France.
|
