Yummm! Peaches, Prunes, Milk and Rum

I can't say that I've ever had milk and rum. Nor can I say that it sounds appetizing, but apparently St. Therese of Lisieux seemed to enjoy it. In fact, she even seemed to enjoy it so much that she wanted to give some to Joe. This is an account given by one of her sisters (taken from St. Therese of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations, "The Yellow Notebook", July 24).

She [St Therese] had been sent some beautiful fruit but was unable to eat any of it. She took each one in her hands, one after the other, as though offering them to someone, and then she said:
"The Holy Family has been well served. St. Joseph and the little Jesus have each received a peach and two prunes." Then she asked in a low tone of voice: "I've touched them with pleasure, and perhaps that's not good? I get so much pleasure out of touching fruit, especially peaches, and I like to see them near me." 
After I had reassured her, she continued: "The Blessed Virgin had her share, too. When I'm given milk with rum, I offer it to St. Joseph; I say to myself: Oh, how much good this will do to St. Joseph!
In the refectory, I always considered to whom I should offer the food. Sweets were for little Jesus; strong foods were for St. Joseph, and I didn't forget the Blessed Virgin either. But when I missed anything, for example, when they forgot to give me sauce or salad, I was very happy, for then I could really offer it to the Holy Family, being really deprived of what I was offering."

Returning Home and the Eucharist

In the Roman Rite, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) either tomorrow or this coming Sunday. A couple months ago, I had a post (House of Loreto) about the House of Loreto in Italy--the house of the Holy Family that was miraculously transported from Israel to Italy. St. Therese of Lisieux stopped at the House of Loreto on her pilgrimage to Rome. She wrote about this stop in her autobiography, particularly on receiving the Holy Eucharist there, A Story of a Soul (Chapter 6):

On to Loreto with my heart full of joy; Our Lady certainly chose an ideal setting for the Holy House, everything poor and simple and primitive, the women still in their charming national costumes, not as elsewhere in the latest Paris fashions, and I was enchanted. But what of the Holy House itself! This very roof had once sheltered the Holy Family; Our Lord's divine eyes had gazed upon these walls; the earth had known the sweat of Joseph's toil, and Mary had here borne Jesus in her womb, then in her arms; how deeply I was moved! I saw the little room where the Annunciation took place and put my Rosary in the bowl once used by Jesus as a child. What enchanting memories these are!

The greatest joy of all was to receive Jesus in His own house and become His living temple in the very place where He had dwelt on earth. According to the Roman custom, the Blessed Eucharist is only reserved at one altar in each church, and the priest only gives Communion to the faithful from there; in Loreto this Altar is in the Basilica which enshrines the Holy House like a priceless diamond in a casket of white marble. This would not do for us; it was in the diamond, not merely in its casket, that we wished to be given the Bread of Angels. Father, docile as ever, followed the rest, but his daughters, who were more independent, made for the Santa Casa itself. A priest with special dispensation was saying Mass there, and we told him what we wished so much to do. This considerate priest at once asked for two small hosts and placed them on the paten. You can guess what a joy that Communion was, a joy beyond words. So what will an eternal Communion be like in the House of the King of Heaven?

The joy of that will never be clouded by the sadness of farewell; there will be no need to steal fragments from the walls which His presence sanctified, for His house will be all our own forever and ever. It is not His earthly house He wants to give us. He shows us that only to make poverty and the bidden life dear to us. It is His palace of glory that He is keeping for us, and we shall see Him then, not in the guise of a child or under the form of bread, but as He is, radiant in His infinite beauty.

Do you have a friend named Joe?

Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Indeed, he is risen!

When someone is our friend, we normally expect that they would help us in our times of need. We, in turn, should find it easy to do favors for them without expecting anything in return. Friends simply do good things for friends. Do you consider Joe to be a friend? If so, do you only expect things from Joe, or do you things for his honor as well?

Today, I want to share a story related by one of the sisters (both biological and Carmelite) of St. Therese of Lisieux that demonstrates this point:
She [Therese] had cast some flowers at a statue of St. Joseph which was in the garden at the end of the chestnut walk, saying in a childish tone of voice:  "Take them!"

I asked: "Why are you throwing flowers at St. Joseph? To obtain a special favor?"

"Ah, no! It's just to please him; I don't want to give in order to receive."
(Taken from: St. Therese of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations, "The Yellow Notebook" June 11)

Fasting and Hardship with the Holy Family

Only a more than a month before she died (on August 20, 1897), St. Therese of Lisieux shared this little reflection on the Holy Family:

"How charming it will be in heaven to know everything that took place in the Holy Family! When little Jesus began to grow up, perhaps when He saw the Blessed Virgin fasting, He said to her: 'I would really like to fast, too.' And the Blessed Virgin answered: 'No, little Jesus, You are still too little, You haven't the strength.' Or else perhaps she didn't dare hinder Him from doing this.

And good St. Joseph! Oh, how I love him! He wan't able to fast because of his work. I can see him planing, then drying his forehead from time to time. Oh, how I pity him! It seems to me that their life was simple...

What does me a lot of good when I think of the Holy Family is to imagine a life that was very ordinary. For example, [the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, 3 says] that the Child Jesus, after having formed some birds out of clay, breathed upon them and gave them life. Ah, no! little Jesus didn't perform useless miracles like that, even to please His Mother. Why weren't they transported into Egypt by a miracle which would have been necessary and so easy for God. In the twinkling of an eye, they could have been brought there. No, everything in their life was done just as in our own.

How many troubles, disappointments! How many times did others make complaints to good St.  Joseph! How many times did they refuse to pay him for his work! Oh, how astonished we would be if we only knew ho much they had to suffer!"

(Taken from St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations, ICS Publications, 1977, page 159)