St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun called the “Little Flower,” who lived a cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of Lisieux, France. And her preference for hidden sacrifice did indeed convert souls. Few saints of God are more popular than this young nun. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, is read and loved throughout the world. Thérèse Martin entered the convent at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age of 24.

I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.

Life in a Carmelite convent is indeed uneventful and consists mainly of prayer and hard domestic work. But Thérèse possessed that holy insight that redeems the time, however dull that time may be. She saw in quiet suffering a redemptive suffering, suffering that was indeed her apostolate. Thérèse said she came to the Carmel convent “to save souls and pray for priests.” And shortly before she died, she wrote: “I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.”

Thérèse was canonized in 1925. On October 19, 1997, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, the third woman to be so recognized in light of her holiness and the influence of her teaching on spirituality in the Church.

The Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that order.

— Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The Rosary is THE WEAPON.

— St. Padre Pio

The rosary is the scourge of the devil

— Pope Adrian VI

The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection.

— Pope John XXIII

The rosary is a treasure of graces.

— Pope Paul V

Among all the devotions approved by the Church none has been favored by so many miracles as the devotion of the most Holy Rosary.

— Pope Pius IX

If there were one million families praying the Rosary every day, the entire world would be saved.

— Pope St. Pius X

If our age in its pride laughs at and rejects Our Lady’s Rosary, a countless legion of the most saintly men of every age and of every condition have not only held it most dear and have most piously recited it but have also used it at all times as a most powerful weapon to overcome the devil, to preserve the purity of their lives, to acquire virtue more zealously, in a word, to promote peace among men.

— Pope Pius XI

There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessing upon the family than the daily recitation of the Rosary.

— Pope Pius XII

The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.

— St. Francis de Sales

The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our redeemer, who loves His Mother.

— St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort