[american colleen]

"Wasn't until I was an adult, however, I read enough to know that she did indeed put bones in the face of Christ."

Can you explain what you mean by this?

Thanks! And thanks to you h_m for posting this and pinging me on it.

[history_matters]

EWTN has a really nice mini-site that they put on the web in 1997 -- it is still there>>
St. Therese of Lisieux.

[ventana]

"what does that mean?"

Ditto, Askel5. Say that again, please.

Beautiful post h_m. Thank you.

[Askel5]

Well, particularly as a child, I thought only of her exuberant desire to love God. I'd forgotten she ended up suffering terribly and enduring a trial of faith only a saint could endure.

I'll see if I can't dig up the passage of which I'm thinking but it's possible my book's still out on loan to a 3rd order friend of mine. In the meantime ... a particularly timely quote from her when, on her pilgrimage to Rome she understood that her vocation would be to pray for priests:

I understood my vocation in Italy and that’s not going too far in search of such useful knowledge. I lived in the company of many saintly priests for a month and I learned that, though their dignity raises them above the angels, they are nevertheless weak and fragile men.

If holy priests, whom Jesus in his Gospel calls the “salt of the earth” show in their conduct their extreme need for prayers, what is to be said of those who are tepid? Didn’t Jesus say too: “If the salt loses its savour, wherewith will it be salted?” (Matt 5:13).

How beautiful is the vocation …
which has as its aim the preservation of the salt destined for souls!

This is Carmel’s vocation since the sole purpose of our prayers and sacrifices is to be the apostle of the apostles. We are to pray for them while they are preaching to souls through their words and especially their example.