Who is the visit for?
‘I have a special heart, entirely for everybody.’
St Thérèse
Thérèse has an extraordinary gift of connecting with people. She has been described as a ‘universal sister’. Her unique appeal reaches across all kinds of boundaries to people from different cultural, social and religious backgrounds. Her relics have already been to such places as Iraq, Lebanon and Bosnia as well as to USA, Russia, and Australia. Her influence is worldwide and widespread. Mother Teresa took her name from Thérèse; her photo was found on Edith Piaf’s bedside table; she was a special inspiration to the Muslim Olympian athlete Alain Mimoun; Princess Diana was known on occasion to light a candle at her statue. She seems to have something to say to everyone, whether we are Catholic, belong to another Christian church or are of another faith; whether we are a believer or not, or are searching for a meaning to life, or for our place in God’s plan.
She speaks to Christians of all denominations who find inspiration in her passionate, personal relationship with Jesus and her radical simplicity in living out the Gospel: ‘This is my only ambition...to love Jesus and to make him loved.’
She speaks to young people who relate to her as she was only 24 when she died. She brings encouragement and clarity to those seeking to discover what God is calling them to do with their lives: ‘My vocation, at last I have found it! My vocation is Love.’
She speaks to the sick with whom she has a special affinity. She was afflicted as a child with a psychological illness from which she was cured. Later as a sister in the Carmel she suffered from tuberculosis from which she died: ‘If you only knew what a state of powerlessness illness reduces you…love your powerlessness.’
She speaks to people of other faiths who are moved by her profound surrender to God in prayer and identify with her desire to do his will in loving others: ‘Love alone matters...to love is to give everything and to give oneself.’
She speaks to agnostics and atheists with whom she experienced a special solidarity during the last eighteen months of her life. During this time she went through a period of darkness and doubt in which she said she understood how atheists felt: ‘One must have passed through the tunnel to understand how black its darkness is.’
She speaks to the weak and sinful with her assertion that what might seem to be stumbling-blocks can be turned into stepping-stones when surrendered to God’s grace and mercy: ‘If only everyone weak and imperfect like me felt as I do, no one would ever despair of reaching the heights of love.’
She speaks to those hungry for holiness and who sense in her ‘Little Way’ of confidence and love a path to the depths of Christian discipleship which is available to anyone: ‘I want to be a saint!...God doesn’t inspire unrealisable desires.’
In others words this visit of the relics of St Thérèse to England is intended for everyone without exception. From her to us all is extended this personal invitation: ‘I am your sister and your friend…Jesus will not disappoint you…Trust triggers miracles.’