Posted on 09/27/2013 6:46:29 AM PDT by NYer
Bergoglio, who has always considered the flower a “sign” of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and of her intercession, received one out of the blue, the day after the peace vigil for Syria.
On Sunday 8 September, the day after the long prayer vigil for peace in Syria – when some passages from texts written by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux were read out – Pope Francis received a white rose as a surprise. Francis considers the flower to be a “sign” linked to the devotion of the saint. The Archbishop of Ancona and Osimo, Edoardo Menichelli broke the news, with Francis authorisation.
Bergoglio told him about the rose a day before the prelate was due to present a book in Pedaso, in the Italian region of Marche. The prelate recounted the story during the presentation. The book presented was an essay by theologian and writer Gianni Gennari entitled “Teresa di Lisieux. Il fascino della santità. I segreti di una dottrina ritrovata” (“Thérèse of Lisieux. The fascination of sainthood. Secrets of a rediscovered doctrine”) and published by Lindau. This was the book Francis took with him when he flew to Brazil last July.
“The Pope told me he received the freshly-picked white rose out of the blue from a gardener as he was taking a stroll in the Vatican Gardens on Sunday 8 September,” Mgr. Menichelli said. “The Pope sees this flower as a “sign”, a “message” from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, whom he had turned to in a moment of worry the day before.” The Archbishop passed on the Pope’s greetings to those attending the book presentation, adding that he had been authorised to tell them about the rose. The Pope did not say anything about the white rose having any connection to the peace vigil for Syria the previous evening. But it is not hard to imagine that one of the Pope’s worries at the time was the international situation, the massacres in Syria and the West’s proposed intervention in the Middle Eastern country.
What significance does the white rose have for the Pope? Bergoglio mentions it in “El Jesuita” (“The Jesuit”), a book interview written by Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti when he was still a cardinal. In a description the two journalists give of Bergoglio’s library in Buenos Aires, they write: “We pause before a vase full of white roses standing on a shelf in the library. In front of it is a photograph of Saint Thérèse. “Whenever I have a problem,” Bergoglio explained to the journalists, “I ask the saint not to solve it, but to take it into her hands and to help me accept it and I almost always receive a white rose as a sign.” Pope Francis’ devotion for the Carmelite mystic who died at the young age of 24 in 1987, was canonized by Pius XI and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by John Paul II in 1997, is common knowledge. Francis himself told journalists about it on the flight back from Rio de Janeiro after World Youth Day. When she was still alive, Thérèse had promised that when she died she would shower “rose petals” down from the sky, a sign of her intercession. "A soul inflamed with love can not remain inactive … If only you knew what I plan to do when I’m in heaven … I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.” So during the peace vigil held in St. Peter’s Square on 7 September, the mysteries of the rosary were recited along with passages from the Gospel and verses from a piece of poetry written by the saint.
The rose devotion and message did not begin with Bergoglio. On 3 December 1925 Fr. Putigan, a Jesuit, began a novena to ask for something very important. He also asked for a sign, to know whether his prayers had been heard. He asked for a rose to be sent to him. He didn’t speak to anyone about the novena or about the unusual request he made to the saint. Then, in the third day of the novena he received the rose he had asked for and his prayer was therefore answered. He then started another novena and on the fourth day of this prayer, a nurse/nun brought him a white rose and said to him: “Saint Thérèse sends you this rose.” So the Jesuit decided to spread the word about this “miraculous” novena which he named after the roses, making it famous worldwide.
"After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth. I will raise up a mighty host of little saints. My mission is to make God loved..."
St. Therese of Lisieux
Amen!
She died on September 30, 1897.
Regards,
Gotta love it. Sure is nice when it’s just beauty in an article.
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So good to hear the Pope speak of white roses. We just moved into a new rental Sept. 1-2, because our landlady, for all practical purposes, was evicting us (or was planning to; she was all lawyered-up). We had only lived there one month (we moved in December, 2012) when she told us to leave. We stretched it out to nine months, but even at that, it was a nightmare. We thought we might sue her for harassment (we had proof and it was ugly), but our priest said it's never good for a Catholic to sue another Catholic, not to mention we were exhausted enough trying to find a place for two dogs, two cats, two kids, and ourselves. So we did what we always do, and that's call upon St. Therese (along with St. Joseph, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the saint of the day), and prayed a perpetual novena to them daily for months. So when we finally got this new place (it was a horror of missed this and thats up until the day we actually moved), we wondered if there might be some roses somewhere (however we usually look for red). Oh yes, there will be lots of peace in Syria. 100,000 civilians have died, and now chemical weapons are considered okay to have used without punishment.
The Pope should do the honorable thing and resign.
Thanks for sharing that story. The roses are just gorgeous. This is the first time I have ever seen cut roses put out new growth. Can’t tell from the photo but are there also some roots?
Seriously, I have never seen a cut rose produce fresh leaves. St. Therese is watching over your daughter. I have entrusted mine, named for Christ, to His Mother. Mary never fails to lead souls home to her Son.
Seriously, I have never seen a cut rose produce fresh leaves. St. Therese is watching over your daughter. I have entrusted mine, named for Christ, to His Mother. Mary never fails to lead souls home to her Son.I haven't seen anything like it myself. I started thinking, is this normal, has it happened to others? :)
And it was so easy to accomplish that --- just by praying for peace.
What a sanguinary genius he must be!
Thank you for deliberately distorting my statement.
Pope Francis though may be responsible for millions of deaths in the future if chemical weapons not forbidden by the world and some future Hitler uses them.
You think he's AGAINST banning chemical weapons?
You seem to have mixed him up with somebody else -- oh, I don't know --- Putin, who now controls the U.N. Security Council?
Or maybe Iran's President Rouhani --- Assad's sponsor -- who Obama's negotiating on the phone with?
Amazing how the Pope can get blame, now, for future millions of people dead, just for doing what men of God do: urging us to pray for peace.
Don't we pray for the peace of Jerusalem all the time?
And don't you think that includes opposition to chemical weapons? After all, indiscriminate attacks killing civilians are expressly forbidden by the Church: they are called "crimes against God and humanity" in the Catholic Catechism. Not that anybody listens.
You have any idea what this is all about?
An interesting statement on a Catholic Caucus thread. I'm presuming you are Catholic.
If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting Pope Francis should step down because radical Islamic fundamentalists have killed 100,000 civilians in Syria and worldwide government leaders have not taken any action to punish those responsible. Is that correct?
Yeah, it did not follow. I'm not sure how it could be near enough to begin following...much less catch up = Francis resign now (?)
The White Rose was the name of a resistance movement co-founded by devout Catholics and Lutherans in Nazi Germany. Interesting coincidence?
Several years ago, a crisis pregnancy center purchased a property in a rundown part of Norristown, PA. The founder has a devotion to St. Therese. It was February, I think, and there were several inches of snow on the ground. And there, right after closing, amidst all the overgrowth in the backyard, was a beautiful, blooming rose bush. It was a sign from St. Therese.
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