“In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not. I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not. The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth? When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that bore me. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved, till she please.” Canticle of Canticles 3:1-5
Happy birthday to the Little Flower of Jesus, born on this day in the year of Our Lord 1873, one-hundred and forty-two years ago. Two particular quotes and a passage in The Story of a Soul in the eighth chapter, “Profession and Oblation to Merciful Love,” stand out for me in my reading of her today. Here is a small, simple, human girl completely and utterly and profoundly in love with Our Lord. No earthly lover can ever compare to the one and only Lover. He has taken her heart and placed it besides His Own. St. Therese tells us, “No one shall say that a woman in the world does more for her husband who is merely mortal than I for my Beloved Jesus.” She teaches us that “the glory of earthly unions cannot compare with the glory of being the Spouse of Jesus.”
What a truly beautiful vocation is this, the call to be a Bride of Christ. He is the one Bridegroom who will never abandon His Spouse. He is the one Bridegroom His Spouse can always rely upon and have complete faith and hope in. He is the one Bridegroom worthy of all the love a woman’s heart is capable of giving to another.
I will end this post with a wedding invitation which Therese wrote and read out loud to the novices at Carmel. It is breathtaking beyond what mere human words can describe.
ALMIGHTY GOD
The Creator of Heaven & Earth
and Ruler of the World
and
THE MOST GLORIOUS VIRGIN MARY
Queen of the Court of Heaven
Invite you to the Spiritual Marriage of Their
August Son
JESUS, KING OF KINGS,
and LORD OF LORDS
with
Little Thérèse Martin,
now Lady and Princess of the Kingdoms of the Childhood and Passion of Jesus, given in dowry by her Divine Spouse, from whom she holds her titles of nobility: OF THE CHILD JESUS and OF THE HOLY FACE.
It was not possible to invite you to the Wedding Feast celebrated on Mount Carmel on September 8, 1890, only the Celestial Choir being admitted.
You are nevertheless invited to the Bride’s RECEPTION tomorrow, the Day of Eternity, when Jesus, the Son of God, will come in splendor on the clouds of Heaven to judge the Living and the Dead.
The hour being uncertain, please hold yourself in readiness and watch.
The Flower of Jesse 