Devotions

 

NOVENA to St. Teresa of Avila

VIRGIN AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

         Born at Avila, Spain, 28 March, 1515; St. Teresa died at Alba de Tormes, 4 October, 1582. Her mother died when the saint was only 14 years old. Teresa was brought up by her saintly father. After the marriage of her eldest sister, Teresa was sent for education to the Augustinian nuns at Avila. Despite the opposition of her father, she entered the Carmelite monastery. After her profession in the following year she became seriously ill. At the age of 39, she started to reform the Carmelite Order, establishing new houses, and receiving special graces of visions and dialogue with Jesus himself. Her long list of spiritual directors included St. Francis Xavier and other saints, but her most favorite was St. John of the Cross. St. Teresa of Avila is remembered for her holy and mystical books which made her a doctor of the Church. Her most repeated writings are the following:

Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, all things are passing away:

God never changes

Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God,

Lacks nothing; God alone suffices.

FIRST DAY

         O most amiable Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the great gift of faith and of devotion to the Holy Sacrament, which you granted to your beloved Teresa. We pray to you, by your merits and by those of your faithful spouse, to grant us the gift of a lively faith and of a fervent devotion toward the most Holy Sacrament where you, O infinite Majesty abide with us until the end of time. We come here to celebrate this novena, hoping to obtain the intercession of St. Teresa for the following intention/s (mention them here).

(1)     Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

SECOND DAY

         O most merciful Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the great gift of hope which you granted to your beloved Teresa. We pray to you, by your merits, and by those of your holy spouse, to trust your goodness, by reason of your most Precious Blood, which you shed for our salvation. Amen.

(1)     Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

THIRD DAY

         O most loving Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the great gift of love which you granted to your beloved Teresa. We pray to you, by your merits, and by those of your most loving spouse, to love as you loved and give ourselves in the service of God and our fellowmen. Amen.

(1)     Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

FOURTH DAY

         O most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the gift of desire and resolution which you granted to your beloved Teresa, that she might love you perfectly. We pray to you, by your merits, and by those of your most generous spouse, to give us an authentic desire, and a true resolution of pleasing you to the best of our abilities and disposition. Amen.

(1)     Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers

FIFTH DAY

                   O most kind Jesus Christ, we thank you for the gift of humility which you granted to your beloved Teresa; we pray to you, by your merits, and by those of your spouse, to grant us the grace of true humility, which would enable us to find joy in humbling situations, and to prefer contempt before honor. Amen.

(1)     Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

                                                                                                           SIXTH DAY

         O most bountiful Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the gift of devotion towards your sweet mother, Mary and her holy spouse, Joseph, which you granted to your beloved Teresa. We pray to you, by your merits and by those of your most dear spouse, to give us the grace of tender devotion towards your most holy mother, Mary, and towards your beloved foster-father, Joseph. Amen.

(1)      Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

SEVENTH DAY

         O most loving Lord Jesus Christ! We thank you for the wonderful gift of the wound in the heart which you granted to your beloved Teresa. We pray to you, by your merits and by those of your seraphic spouse, to grant us also this wound of love, that, henceforth we may love you above anything else. Amen.

(1)     Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

 

EIGHTH DAY

 

         O most beloved Lord Jesus Christ! We thank you for the gift of the desire for death which you granted to your beloved Teresa. This desire enabled her to die happily. We pray to you, by your merits, and by those of your holy spouse, to grant us the grace of welcoming death, in order that we may be with you eternally in the home of the blessed. Amen.

(1)       Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

NINTH DAY

         O dearest Lord Jesus Christ! We thank you for the gift of a happy death which you granted to your beloved Teresa. We pray to you, by your merits and by those of your most affectionate spouse, to grant us a happy death. Let us die in love, and if this is not possible, we may at least die burning with love for you. We long to love you eternally in heaven. Amen.

(1) Our Father, (1) Hail Mary, (1) Glory Be, and the Concluding Prayers.

CONCLUDING PRAYERS

 

V. St. Teresa, pray for us:

R. That we may become worthy of the promises of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:  Graciously hear us, God of our salvation! As we rejoice in the memory of the blessed virgin Teresa, so we may be nourished by her holy teachings, and draw from her example the fervor of loving you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.  

 

 

 

ST. JOHN OF THECROSS

 

            JUAN DE Yepes y Alvarez was born in Fontiveros, as a few miles from Teresa’s Avila. His father had been disinherited for marrying a peasant woman and Juan was raised in poverty, and learning prayer and compassion for the sick from his mother. As a young man he studied the humanities at the Jesuit College at Medina del Campo and worked in a hospital where he was noted for his solicitude. At the age of 20 he entered the Carmelites, hoping to find the life of contemplation and penance to which his ideals drew him. He continued his advanced studies at he University of Salamanca where he was both student and teacher.

              In 1567 Friar John celebrated his first Mass in his hometown. Here he met Madre Teresa de Jesus, who was about to establish her second foundation of the Carmelite Reform. Teresa was 52, John was 25. Their meeting enkindled an enduring friendship, altered the character of the Order to which they belonged and set the young priest at odds with many of his confreres. When he wanted to go off and joined the hermetic Carthusians, Teresa convinced him that he could find all his solicitude and austerity he required in the Discalced Carmelites.

            He served as confessor to the nuns at Valladolid and later at the reformed convent of the Incarnation, where he was Madre Teresa’s spiritual director. She called him the angelic friar and father if her soul.

            As the Reform spread to new foundations, John’s troubles multiplied. The Calced Carmelites didn't take kindly to the implied criticisms of the reformers. Affronted and perhaps envious, they kidnapped John in1575 and imprisoned him at Medina del Campo. John survived in prison on the unlikely diet of sardines, bread and water. He was scourged and humiliated by the friars for his refusal to renounce the Discalced. Suffering repeated abuse that would have broken a lesser man, John turned his solitary hours to prayer and poetry. He composed the poems “The Spiritual Canticle,” “The Dark Night of the Soul” and several lesser works before his escape.

            Although he then enjoyed several productive years as a leader of the Reform, a sought-after confessor and writer, John’s troubles were not yet over. Later disputes among the Discalced led to his downfall. Ironically, many of the friars wanted to expel him for being too moderate.  He was defamed by those who should have lauded him. Deprived of his administration offices, Juan was still under attack when an infection ended his life at the age of 49.

 

 

PRAYER:

                   O my God, you who dwell in the cloud of unknowing, draw out of my carefully-wrought security, from the protective fictions I weave around myself. Through the guidance of the mystic-mountaineer, St. John of the Cross led me to the spring of living waters where I may I drink of your delight. I will, by your grace, pour out the murky waters of selfish preoccupations. Because of your constant love for me, grant me the virtue of detachment from all that stands between us. Amen.

 

 

ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX

1873-1897

 

            Therese of Lisieux was as militaristic as Joan of Arc and a nonviolent as Dorothy Day. She loved a good fight, but the battleground had to be interior.

            She entered the Carmel of Lisieux at 15; Therese armed herself with prayer and sacrifice for the struggle against hypocrisy, indulgence, pride, laxity, intolerance and possessiveness. Love was, to her, more a war cry than sentimental affections. “God wanted me to make me conquer the fortress of Carmel at sword’s point,” she said. That sword of the Spirit was the Word of God.  

            Her military strategist was the luminous Carmelite, St. John of the Cross. She translated his complex doctrine of detachment into a deceptively simple path to sanctity which she called “the Little Way.” We are inclined to picture Therese making her way to heaven by picking up dropped pins and cheerfully scrubbing dirty laundry. But there was a bit more to the Little Way than that.

            To keep to the Way, he had to practice humility as powerful as Martin Luther King’s courage. Day after trying day, she welcomed unjust criticism, asked for the menial jobs no one else wanted, befriended those who most annoyed her, helped those who returned no gratitude, endured the cloister’s stinging cold without complaint, shared her time and her inspired ideas as though they belonged to all, and bore pain and physical incapacity as gracefully as others bear. Good fortune.

            Her life was short, but she wasted none of it. At an age when most young ladies were taken up with flirtations and fancy wardrobes, Therese was besieging religious authorities-including the Pope himself- to allow her early entrance into Carmel. She dedicated herself to the Little Way and followed it ever deeper into the dark regions of self-annihilation.

            Therese died in an agony of suffocation caused by advanced tuberculosis when she was 24. For a year and a half she had suffered hemorrhages, coughing spells, fevers and debilitating weakness. She had prayed for a martyrdom of body and soul; she received both. Her physical decline was matched by a withering of spiritual health. Bombarded by temptations against faith, she lost for the first time her vital intuition of heaven.

            The woman warrior shielded herself with the gospel, observing, To be really brave means asking for the cross when one’s heart is full of fear, and withstanding this fear like Our Lord in the Garden of Olives”.

 

EVERYTHING IS A GRACE

Everything is a grace; everything is the direct effect of our Father’s love-difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul’s miseries, her burdens, her needs everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God’s gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events to the heart that loves, all is well.

St. Therese, pray for us.

 

MY NOVENA ROSE PRAYER

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please peck me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me as a message of love.

O Little Flower of Jesus, asks God today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands…..

(Mention specific requests)

St. Therese, help me to always believe as you did, in Gods great love for me, so that I might imitate your “Little Way” each day.

Amen.

 

OUR LADY OF MT. CARMEL

O Beautiful Flower of Carmel, most faithful vine, Splendor of Heaven, who brought forth the Son of God, still remaining a Pure Virgin, assist me this necessity.

O star of the Sea help and protect me! Show me that you are my mother.

O Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us who have recourse to you!

Mother and Ornament of Carmel,

Pray for us.

Virgin flower of Carmel,

Pray for us.

Patroness of all who wear the Scapular,

Pray for us.

Hope of all who die wearing the Scapular,

Pray for us.

St. Joseph, Friend of the Sacred Heart,

Pray for us.

St. Joseph, Chaste Spouse of Mary,

Pray for us.

St. Joseph, Our Patron,

Pray for us.

O sweet Heart of Mary,

Be our Salvation.

Amen.