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I am writing these thoughts on the Feast Day of St. Therese of Lisieux, who is the patron saint of the missions even though she entered a Carmelite monastery at the age of fifteen and died at there at the very early age of twenty four. She talked of a great desire to be a missionary 'I would want to preach the Gospel on all five continents simultaneously and even to the remotest isles. I would be a missionary ...from the beginning of Creation until the consummation of the ages.' This would seem a strange, even sad desire which remained unfulfilled for someone who lived her life in an enclosed order and yet... And yet next year her relics are being brought to this country to allow people to venerate them and be inspired by her holy life. And this is not the first country where this has taken place.
The relics of Saint Therese have been taken to over forty different countries around the world and in each place they have inspired people in their own journey of faith. There is something quite extraordinary about this phenomenon that reminds us that the seeds we sow in this life can continue to grow and blossom after we die, perhaps even more so, and that God will take our desires and use them in His own way if we allow Him to. It may be that there is something that we have always wanted to do or be and we have come to the realisation now that this can never be. Well, following the example of St Therese, we should place that into God's hands and allow Him to work with our desire trusting our lives to Him. And remember her words 'One can never have too much confidence in the good God. After all St Therese of Lisieux is the patron saint of the missions!
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Holy Saviour RC Church - Nelson