St Therese promised to send the rain of roses (graces) on earth Where could I spend the day of St Therese of the Child Jesus if not in her shrine? Today as the Church honors the Little Flower I went to this little church in Kew, Melbourne, which is the national shrine of St Therese here in Australia. I must confess I took with me some issues I wanted to ask her to take care of. It is a beautiful little church, it looks like a taste of heaven. As I was praying an elderly Carmelite nun was watering flowers there. Then she disappeared and some tie later out of blue she was tapping me on the shoulder and said: “St Therese wants you to have this.” She was holding a little book “Praying with Therese of Lisieux” I always knew that my dear friend in heave, St Therese is very efficiient when it comes to answering prayers but I was taken aback by how quickly she does it. I am confident that the issues I took to the shrine to pray for are in good hands now. It hasn’t been the first time when the Little Flower helped an Oblate. In 1912 two Oblate Priests were sent to the Inuit of Hudson Bay in the Northern Canada. They worked very hard to establish a new mission but there was no interest among the Natives To make things more difficult at that time two other Oblates were brutally murdered by another group of the Inuit. Friends tried to convince the Oblates to leave the mission. However Bishop Charlebois who was an Oblate himself decided to give one more year to the mission. It was 1915. In Autumn 1916, two envelopes arrived addressed to the Oblate working in the mission. However there was no return address on either of them.
The first enveloped contained a booklet: The Little Flower of Lisieux. The booklet tells that she prayed for missionaries and that she promised to spend her heaven doing good things for the earth. Could she possibly bring about the conversion of the Inuit? The second envelope contained a bit of soil, along with this note: “Soil taken from under the first coffin of the Little Flower of Lisieux. With this she performs miracles.” Both Oblates spent the evening praying to the nun who wasn’t yet canonized. Next day when one of them was playing an organ when a group of the Inuit approached him and listened to his performance. The other Oblate came from behind and dropped the soil form the grave of Therese in the hair.
Following Sunday, at the sound of the bell, the Inuit arrived. They said “We knew that you were speaking the truth, but we didn’t want to listen. Right now, our sins frighten us. Could you remove them?” Father Turquetil answered: “Yes. Come in and I’ll explain it to you.” His sermon was on Baptism. Then he turned his thoughts to the Little Flower: “Therese, you made this possible… keep on inspiring them, and guide them towards Baptism.” That night, one of th elders, came to the Father: “We are three who want to be baptized, with our wives and children.” “Fine,” answered the Oblate, “but first I must instruct you. This could take time. And you will be leaving soon to hunt” “We will not be hunting, we’ll stay here to be instructed and baptized.” answered the man. The Oblate asked: “How will you nourish yourselves?” The answer was: “It’s very simple, the one you call Our Father, he loves us… he will help us, we will not die of hunger and we will be baptized” They then agreed that the catechumenate would begin on the following day, for two hours each day.
For the next eight and a half months, all of them persevered faithfully. On July 2, 1917, this date, Father Turquetil had the joy of baptizing his first Inuits. It was a grand day for him and for the Oblate missions of the Far North. Saint Theresa had saved themission.
Bishop Charlebois was so impressed with the development that he sent a request to Rome, signed by 226 missionary bishops from all over the world, asking for the grace to declare Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus patroness of all the missions in the world. In 1927, Pope Pius XI responded favorably to this request. Now the Catholic Church has got two patron for her missions: St Francis Xavier who spend his life as a missionary and a Carmelite nun who died in her little convent in France but who has been very busy now interceding and supporting missionaries around the world.
The first enveloped contained a booklet: The Little Flower of Lisieux. The booklet tells that she prayed for missionaries and that she promised to spend her heaven doing good things for the earth. Could she possibly bring about the conversion of the Inuit? The second envelope contained a bit of soil, along with this note: “Soil taken from under the first coffin of the Little Flower of Lisieux. With this she performs miracles.” Both Oblates spent the evening praying to the nun who wasn’t yet canonized. Next day when one of them was playing an organ when a group of the Inuit approached him and listened to his performance. The other Oblate came from behind and dropped the soil form the grave of Therese in the hair.
Following Sunday, at the sound of the bell, the Inuit arrived. They said “We knew that you were speaking the truth, but we didn’t want to listen. Right now, our sins frighten us. Could you remove them?” Father Turquetil answered: “Yes. Come in and I’ll explain it to you.” His sermon was on Baptism. Then he turned his thoughts to the Little Flower: “Therese, you made this possible… keep on inspiring them, and guide them towards Baptism.” That night, one of th elders, came to the Father: “We are three who want to be baptized, with our wives and children.” “Fine,” answered the Oblate, “but first I must instruct you. This could take time. And you will be leaving soon to hunt” “We will not be hunting, we’ll stay here to be instructed and baptized.” answered the man. The Oblate asked: “How will you nourish yourselves?” The answer was: “It’s very simple, the one you call Our Father, he loves us… he will help us, we will not die of hunger and we will be baptized” They then agreed that the catechumenate would begin on the following day, for two hours each day.
For the next eight and a half months, all of them persevered faithfully. On July 2, 1917, this date, Father Turquetil had the joy of baptizing his first Inuits. It was a grand day for him and for the Oblate missions of the Far North. Saint Theresa had saved themission.
Bishop Charlebois was so impressed with the development that he sent a request to Rome, signed by 226 missionary bishops from all over the world, asking for the grace to declare Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus patroness of all the missions in the world. In 1927, Pope Pius XI responded favorably to this request. Now the Catholic Church has got two patron for her missions: St Francis Xavier who spend his life as a missionary and a Carmelite nun who died in her little convent in France but who has been very busy now interceding and supporting missionaries around the world.
Shrine of the Little Flower, Melbourne
Altar of the Little Flower in the Shrine
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