I Cry Out to You

October 1, 2008
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

By Melanie Rigney


… But how can a man be justified before God? Should one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times. God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed? (Job 9:2-4)


But I cry out to you, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why do you reject me, LORD? Why hide your face from me? (Psalms 14-15)

"No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62)

Piety
Eternal Father, since Thou hast given me for my inheritance the adorable Face of Thy Divine Son, I offer that face to Thee and I beg Thee, in exchange for this coin of infinite value, to forget the ingratitude of souls dedicated to Thee and to pardon all poor sinners. (Saint Thérèse’s Holy Face Prayer for Sinners from Catholic Online)

Study
We don’t associate Saint Thérèse with the cries of Psalm 14 or with the resignation to suffering described by Job in today’s readings. And she certainly didn’t longingly leave anything behind as Christ orders in Luke’s Gospel; rather, she battled to rush into becoming a nun and joining two of her sisters. Thérèse was so determined that when she was just fourteen and visiting the Vatican, she asked Pope Leo XIII for permission to enter the Carmel of Lisieux the following year. He told her to do what her superiors directed, and she was allowed to enter a few months after her fifteenth birthday.

Rather than suffering spiritual doubt, we think of Thérèse as she’s so often portrayed—cheerfully doing community tasks, instructing novices in her simple, childlike ways of loving Christ.

But within that simplicity, we can also find wisdom that befits her recognition as one of only thirty-three Doctors of the Church. In The Story of a Soul, a collection of in essence three autobiographies she was told to write, Saint Thérèse explains how with God’s help she opened herself to her work:

At first sight, it appears easy to do good to souls, to make them love God more, and mould them according to one’s own ideas, but in practice one finds that one can no more do good to souls without God’s help, than make the sun shine in the night.

One realizes that one must completely forget one’s own ideas and tastes, and guide souls along the particular path indicated for them by Jesus, not along one’s own.

Call it resignation, fatigue, or acceptance. But somehow, Job, Saint Thérèse, and the Apostles grew to understand the Lord’s call amid their own desires. He expects no less from us.

Action
Buy (or download for free) a copy of The Story of a Soul. After reading Chapter X, resolve to do good for a soul in your life the way Jesus desires, not the way you desire.