October Drinking Companion
Today October 1 is the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux. To me personally it’s the month of this great saint who like the previous month’s Padre Pio, is a modern miracle worker with millions of miracles reported since her death in 1897 at the little old age of 24.
I would like to begin with sharing one of Jesus’ parables that came quite true in this insignificant human beings life. “The first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first”. In this little woman’s life, who in her own words lived by “Little Ways” due to her realization she was so weak among the great saints in the church, became the greatest in her reliance on Jesus Christ. In the process my father had a miraculous healing 100 years after her passing and I came back to the Catholic Church reluctantly another 11 years later through these stories.
After losing her mother at the age of 4, Therese spent her life as an emotional child who loved God. A modern psychologist studied her life and felt she suffered from neurosis. A studied which he later concluded that her faith helped her over come this and serious depression she had during her dying days with tuberculosis. All this led to the psychologist conversion. This is a microcosm of her influence. At age 15 she begged the Pope and a bishop to allow her to enter a monastery before the approved age of 18. Shortly after her 16th birthday this grace was allowed. By age 22 she contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 24 a failure unknown to anyone outside of her convent in Lisieux, France……at least that’s the way we would view it in the eyes of the world.
Prior to her death, out of obedience to her superiors, and in the tradition of the Carmelite community she was asked to make an autobiography, which her sister a fellow Carmelite recorded on her behalf. After her death 2000 copies of this autobiography were made, and sent to all the convents in France, as standard practice so each nun knew of their contemporary sisters of contemplation. From the day of the funeral onward miracles were being reported on her behalf. It was becoming evident early on God’s graces were being shared through this eventual saint.
Fast forward 100 years, and lots of great stories similar to this of her “showering the earth with heavenly roses” as she promised on her death bed, a tour of her major relics came to the United States in 1999. On April 19,1999 my father had an unknown condition of AVM which ruptured, causing bleeding in his brain (an aneurysm). Miraculously he survived retaining most of his faculties on the surface. I was recently reminded that this was truly miraculous considering a 27 year old football player for the Oakland Raiders did not experience this same result. He lived out his days incapacitated in a hospital bed, sadly passing shortly after the AVM rupture. I trust he is at peace, but none the less I count my blessings.
My father was scheduled for surgery in December of that same year. Just before this appointment though, on October 19, 1999 (ironically his birthday), my step mother convinced him to take her to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC to visit her relics. My step mom felt something special might happen. December 6 my father went to the hospital for surgery, which gave him 30-50% chance of survival depending on who you spoke to, through 2 different procedures. Before any of those procedures however, they did a scan on him revealing his brain looked like he had the surgery a couple years before, and he was sent home with what doctors called spontaneous healing. My step mom knew St. Therese had helped in this moment and wrote a letter to the proper people to get her credit for this miraculous intercession. Little did she know, a book would be published called “Shower of Heavenly Roses”, which entailed the influence of Therese during her 4 months touring the U.S.A. My fathers story would make the healing section.
Fast forward to July 2010, after moving to Virginia and encountering disappointment I began reading this book that I had since its publishing in 2004. Previously I only read my dad’s story here and there. As I read the book, I began to ask Therese for my reason to believe. My exact words were “I know what you did for my father, but I don’t care, I need my own miracle and reason to believe”. As I read this book and had many prayers over the next 3 months, she made sure to answer me, but never in an expected way, since it’s how God’s will works. He doesn’t appease us like a spoiled child, but instead he answers us according to His will and in our best interest and time.
October 1 had come and gone with no miracles, and on October 2 I drove home disappointed from Bristol, Tenn. I was there helping a friend race his car at an organized event. One that we almost won in Charlotte 6 months earlier. I had hopes of winning that weekend and other amazing things like reconnecting to those I had hurt, but nothing happened and I had a nice 7 hours home to Newport News, VA to reflect on what happened. Along the way that night I stopped at exit 99 in Waynesboro, VA at a skyline drive. You could see every star in the sky. I just looked at the sky and asked God, “What’s happening? Are you listening?”
The next day I laid around the house, and my anxiety began to build. I had just quit smoking cigarettes 3 weeks prior in hopes that sacrificing my vice and taking better care of my body, which is God’s gift to me, He would begin to bless me with His presence. As I decided to go for a walk in the rain during the 3 o’clock hour, I walk about 1000 feet from my apartment and I discovered a Catholic medallion of St. Michael the Archangel. This led me St. Jerome’s Church in Newport News, and from here my life would never be the same. To spare all the details for another time, I did some research later on and come to find out, October 3rd, the day of my epiphany was actually St. Therese’s old feast before they changed the calendar in the 1950’s. It was a reminder that just because things didn’t happen on my time, didn’t mean God and the saints weren’t listening, we live on God’s time, not our own, every moment is given and blessed by Him.
In close I simply want to honor this great saint. She has countless moments of surprise and presence. In 2018 for example she had a nice way of surprising me as I honored her. I printed 1000 cards with a prayer I made for her comprised of 4 prayers merged into 1. I brought most of them to a parish in Brooklyn, NY dedicated her that I previously visited on my first anniversary in 2011. I put a small stack of these cards out at each entrance. To my surprise the ushers picked them up and began handing them out to everyone in the church. Immediately I went to my card and grabbed pretty much the rest of the box knowing I could not be greedy with them that day. As mass drew near the end, the bishop presiding said “let us now read the prayer to St. Therese together”. As I opened my program to read the prayer they had printed, the words that were being read were not the same. I quickly realized the bishop had somehow gotten my prayer card and was reading it. I was very humbled to feel the presence of Therese and that little gift of thanks on her feast day. In close I share this years tribute to her. The picture is of different images I have captured of her through my travels and the poem below I wrote for her many years ago.
Continued Blessings
