My Patroness(es) - 3 of 3

St. Therese of Lisieux statue at the St. Louis Cathedral.

St. Therese of Lisieux.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Most Holy Face.
The Little Flower.

This is a recent new patroness. My roommate last semester had a picture of her hanging in our room. I loved looking at it in the morning as I got ready. During Christmas break, I bought and read a short biography on her. I fell in love. I saw myself in her and her constant desire to love in the littlest of ways. I took her on as a patroness of mine this semester, and wrote a paper on her and her spirituality for my History of the Catholic Church paper. I want to read more of her and her "little way." I want to imitate this great saint and her little way in order to ever more imitate Christ.
This semester, I prayed a novena to her, asking for roses for a few different intentions. As I prayed about praying a novena, she began to shower me with roses. Roses in front of Mary in the chapel, roses in front of the statue of St. Therese...

Fresh, beautiful roses on retreat. But this rose requires a story.

I was a few days into my novena when I went on retreat. It was the first time the Sisters had gotten fresh roses for a retreat--and they were everywhere! They weren't red, they weren't white, they weren't really pink... they were a beautiful sunset, peachy color. They were in chapel, in the dining room, in the bedrooms... St. Therese really was showering me with roses. It was beautiful. But I didn't want to completely embrace it. On Sunday, I thought about taking a rose home and drying it. I decided not to. I left the roses for the Sisters to enjoy. I drove two other beautiful women back to campus, unpacked and continued on with my week and my novena. On Thursday, the second to last day of the novena, I was packing for Spring Break. I opened my trunk and there, in the trunk of my car was a single rose from retreat. After four days, it should have been shriveled and dry. But it was fresh, just as the flowers looked on Sunday at the end of the retreat. I knew this was my rose. Now that it has dried, it looks quite red... but it wasn't at the time. It was, is, the most beautiful little rose from my patroness.

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.


In Christ through Mary.