MEDITATION OF THE DAY
Changed by the Mercy of Jesus
O Jesus, how happy I would be if I had been faithful, but alas, often in the evening I am sad because I feel I could have corresponded better with your graces. If I were more united to you, more charitable with my sisters, more humble and more mortified, I would feel less sorrow when I talk with you in prayer. And yet, O my God, very far from becoming discouraged at the sight of my miseries, I come to you with confidence, recalling that those who are well do not need a doctor but the sick do. I beg you, then, to cure me and to pardon me. I will keep in mind, Lord, that the soul to whom you have forgiven more should also love you more than the others! I offer you every beat of my heart as so many acts of love and reparation and I unite them to your infinite merits. I beg you, O my divine bridegroom, to be the restorer of my soul, to act in me despite my resistance; and lastly, I wish to have no other will but yours. Tomorrow, with the help of your grace, I will begin a new life in which each moment will be an act of love and renunciation.
Thus, after coming each evening to the foot of your altar, I will finally reach the last evening of my life. Then will begin for me the unending day of eternity when I will place in your divine heart the struggles of exile! Amen.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux († 1897), “the Little Flower,” was a French Carmelite nun who died at the age of twenty-four. She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997. Her feast day is October 1. / From The Prayers of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Sister Aletheia Kane,o.c.d., Tr. © 1997, ICS Publications, Washington, DC. www.icspublications.org. Used by permission.
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