The astonishing legacy of Therese

Looking forward to the Therese Summit starting tomorrow at Boars Hill Carmelite Friary outside Oxford (although unfortunately I can only attend part of it).  I am to speak about the astonishing legacy of the Saint of Lisieux.  As a historian, I am naturally attracted to the topic.  I am fascinated by how the great ones of the earth – celebrities, famous personalities – have often been attracted to the saint of littleness.  I will be speaking about the French singer Edith Piaf – one of the most famous women in the world in the postwar years, about the American politician, diplomat, magazine editor, and dramatist Clare Boothe Luce (equally high-profile in her day), about the American novelist Francis Parkinson Keyes, about Archbishop Fulton Sheen, a devotee of Therese too - and about others.  All of these and many who have lived on the public stage have found spiritual strength in the wisdom of the nun who died in obscurity after the briefest of lives spent in Enclosure.  Has there ever been a miracle like this? And today she continues to exert a fascination as powerful and mysterious as ever …

Intercessions:

Brian Davis – cancer

Cancer: Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Sue B, Theresa K

Siena, Elara – sick children

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David OCDS - housebound

Sophia – blind infant

Joy Smith OCDS – seriously ill

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)