Goals for the month, according to my Twitter (NellskaC):
#OctoberGoals Blog like mad, run, love, dance, killer budget, look cute, pray, write, plan #Camino13, go2 #easternmkt
Sooooo: yeah! Also: monthly photo challenge found on Pinterest deems today’s theme “fall.” Here are my cousin and little bro’s gf petting a super friendly cat on a fall hike taken yesterday.
Today is also the feast day of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
I have two things to say about that.
The first: this epic prayer which I can’t figure out how to format in a call-out box. I have this printed out at my work, and I think about it often. Even today I don’t know if I am exactly where I am meant to be. Sweet Jesus, be with me.
Thérèse de Lisieux
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
Secondly: I have an incredible priest-friend named Father Ryan who gave me a very good reflection on St. Therese a few weeks ago.
At that time mission-work in El Salvador looked like it was closing off, and I was hurt and thinking about St. Therese. St. Therese had a dream to do mission work. Today she is patroness of the missions. But…she never made it overseas, she died from illness when she was twenty-four.
I asked Father Ryan, “What was that like for her? How did she work through that?”
He wrote back that she saw the world differently than we see it. Therese was only interested in loving Jesus and making Him happy, and her actions sprung from that.
I’ll give an exerpt of what else he said: “I think, ultimately, Jesus just wanted to love Therese and be loved by her, nothing else; no missionary work, no miracles, no academic writings, no reputation. She even said herself, ‘My vocation is to be LOVE in the heart of my Mother the Church’.”
St. Therese, pray for us, that we too might be love in the heart of the Church!