So you do condone Holy Communion to adulterers?
If you are so disgusted by the Catholic Church, I'm sure there's a nice little Bible church down the road that will welcome you.
We pray for the Pope, we pray for the Church, we pray for its leaders.
Why won't you?
Teresa Martin, an adolescent, shut her prayer book at the end of Mass, and suddenly she saw an image of Crucified Jesus on the margin: it was only the nailed hand of Jesus, and the drops of wine seemed to fall into emptiness…
Later on she told how much sorrow she had experienced in that moment, «at the thought that blood had fallen on the ground and nobody had paid any attention about collecting it…», and that was when she promised to spend her life at the foot of the Cross to collect the precious blood of Christ and give it to souls.
Thus began the ecclesial mission of Theresa of Lisieux.
However, there is a very interesting note, which she added to this episode: « Even the cry of Jesus on the Cross continuously echoed in my heart: «I am thirsty!» These words aroused in me a very strong burning never experienced before…I wanted to give my Lover to drink and I myself felt devoured by the thirst of souls. These were not yet the souls of priests who drew my attention, but the ones of great sinners – I was burning with the wish to pull them away from those eternal flames…» (Ms A. 45v).
When Theresa was about fourteen years of age, she thought of the great sinners, and implored for the salvation of a well-known criminal who was about to be hung.
She was not even thinking of priests at that time, because she was absolutely convinced of their holiness.
We know that as a child she simply identified them with Jesus.
Writing about her first confession, she said:
«Beloved Mother, how careful you were in preparing me by saying that I was telling my sins not to a man, but to the good Lord. I was really convinced of this. Hence I said my confession with a strong spirit of faith and even asked you whether I should say to Don Ducellier that I loved him with all my heart since I was talking to the good Lord through his person…» (Ms A 16v).
But when she took part in the pilgrimage to Rome organised by the dioceses of Coutances and Bayeux (one hundred and ninety-five pilgrims of whom seventy-three priests), her apostolic anxieties began to turn in particular towards priests.
She explained that change by simply saying the following:
«Praying for sinners fascinated me, but praying for the souls of priests, whom I thought were purer than crystal, seemed strange to me! Ah! I understood my vocation in Italy: it was not going too far to have such useful knowledge… I lived with many holy priests for one month and understood that, if their sublime dignity lifts them above the angels, this does not mean that they are not weak and fragile. If holy priests, whom Jesus calls in His Gospel «Salt of the Earth» show by their behaviour great need for prayer, then what must one say about the ones who are lukewarm? Did Jesus not also say: «If the salt lost its taste, what could one use to make it salty?» Oh Mother! How beautiful is the vocation to preserve that salt destined for souls! This is the vocation of Carmel, because the only purpose of our prayers and our sacrifices is to be an apostle of the apostles, to pray for them whilst they evangelise souls by words and above all by example…» (Ms A 56r).
Hence something deeply struck her during the pilgrimage: if even the most «holy» priests did not hide their weakness and fragility, and «showed by their behaviour to have great need of prayer»…Then what happened to the «lukewarm» people who spoilt «the salt destined for souls»? The question did not scandalise that young maiden who was going to Rome to ask Pope Leo XIII the grace to be able to enter the Carmelites at eighteen years of age. On the contrary: she threw a dazzling light on her vocation which so many people considered too immature. «Not having ever lived intimately [with priests]» – explained St. Theresa – «I could not understand the main purpose of the reform of the Carmelites». However, during that journey towards the centre of Christianity, those priests who so clearly needed prayer and contemplation made Theresa feel she was called to become «an apostle of the apostles». She was not yet fifteen years of age. And she was not yet seventeen when, from the Carmelites, she wrote greetings for 1889 to her sister with these words: «Celine, in this new year we must create many priests («que nous fassions beaucoup de prêtres…»)who know how to love Jesus» (LT 101). Hence at the right time she did not hesitate: «What I came to do at the Carmelites, I declared this at the foot of Jesus the Holy Host, at the examination which preceded my profession: «I came to save souls, and above all to pray for priests»…» (Ms A 69).