Posted on 09/16/2009 9:44:54 PM PDT by Steelfish
September 17, 2009
Pilgrims Queue Around Cathedral As St Thérèse Tour Hits Portsmouth
Not since the Reformation, and perhaps not even before then, has England seen a pilgrimage quite like this.
The closest comparison might be to the Middle Ages, when “pardoners”, or salesmen, would travel the countryside hawking the “relics” of dead saints to credulous Christians who believed that they could buy themselves less time in Purgatory.
But that would not do justice to the phenomenon of St Thérèse, who within hours of touching down on British soil attracted a queue of hundreds of devout Christians who snaked around the Roman Catholic cathedral in Portsmouth merely to light a candle and touch the Perspex encasing the jacaranda casket in which rest the relics of this 19th-century child-like nun.
At least 3,000 more turned out for three services, including two Masses in the cathedral for young people, the sick and the local community.
Many, such as Micheline Brady, brought yellow roses to venerate the saint known as the Little Flower of Jesus, who introduced the concept of “the little way”. St Thérèse, who was canonised in 1925, said that after her death she would “let fall a shower of roses on Earth” and at Portsmouth yesterday there was evidence that this had come true.
She is venerated as a saint for the modern era because she taught that the little things in life, the smallest good deeds, could count towards the saintly life as much as the great deeds of heroic virtue, meaning that holy life was accessible to all.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Maybe a good sign.
I have a vision too and it is The Pope firing all the vermin at Notre Dame.
Gosh, after “Bishop” V. Gene “poopshoot” Robinson dies, maybe we could turn him into a relic and ship him over.
My wifes grandmother was killed in an accident a few years ago and left me her relic of The Little Flower. I cherish it and keep it by my bedside.
How very fortunate. I did get a chance to venerate her relics when they were brought to S. California some years ago.
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