Day One, Nine-Day Novena

St. Therese's feast day will soon be here.Today I want to share with you a special nine-day novena to the Little Flower. You can start today and end on September 30. Then, the next day, on her feast day, you can begin a special novena that begins October 1. Won't she be happy to hear these novenas? I smile just thinking about it.

Start with:

O St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own, speak a word for me to Our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were—to that Queen of Heaven "who smiled on you at the dawn of life." Beg her powerful intercession the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment (here is where you mention your request) and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life, defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity. Amen.

O God, who did inflame with the Spirit of Love, the soul of your servant Therese of the Child Jesus, grant that we also may love you and make you much loved. Amen.

DAY ONE

O Therese of the Child Jesus, well beloved and full of charity, in union with you, I reverently adore the majesty of God, and since I rejoice with exceeding joy in the singular gifts of grace bestowed upon you during your life, and your gifts of glory after death, I give Him deepest thanks for them; I beseech you with all my heart's devotion to be pleased to obtain for me (mention request here). But if what I ask of you so earnestly does not tend to the glory of God and the greater good of my soul, do you, I pray, obtain for me that which is more profitiable to both these ends. Amen. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us.

I'll post Day Two tomorrow.