Upcoming Lecture on St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Details below of this year's Cardinal Winning Lecture with Dr Rebekah Lamb: "Thérèse of Lisieux: A Doctor of the Church for Our Times."@StAndFoundatio1 @GUCatholic @UofGEducation @timothypomalley @TriciaCBruce @leocushley @ArchdiocGlasgow Please share.https://t.co/j8nBH7uCHD

— Reclaiming the Piazza (@PiazzaThe) October 28, 2020

Deification of Man in Christianity

Deification of Man in Christianity by Marcelle Bartolo-Abela (his website?)
Apostolate of the Divine Heart (12 Mar 2014)
ISBN: 978-0615809465



Review in Catholic Medical Quarterly.
Available from Amazon.

St. Thérèse, Pray for Us!

Rorate Caeli: #MementoMori - As her lungs failed, Therese wrote: "I am not dying, I am entering into life!"

More on Newman

Erich Przywara


Christopher M. Wojtulewicz


Cyril O'Regan

An Icon of the Little Flower

παῖς or τέκνον or υἱός

In John 1:12 it's tekna.

1 Cor. 13:11 has nēpios.

CWR: The Solemnity of All Saints and the pursuit of holiness by Peter M.J. Stravinskas

How does one get to Heaven? By being a saint on earth. And how does one become a saint? By living a life of holiness. And in what does holiness consist? Here are seven elements.

Holiness consists in being childlike
Our Lord Himself asserted – unequivocally – “unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven” [Mt 18:3]. But, as you have undoubtedly heard many times, being childlike is quite different from being childish. Saint Thérèse, for example, was devoted to the Holy Child Jesus because she found in Him all the qualities to become a saint herself. What is spiritual childhood, you ask? Her “last words” tell us:

It is to recognize one’s own nothingness, to expect everything from the good God as a child expects everything from its father. It is to be concerned about nothing, not even about making one’s living. . . . I remain a child with no other occupation than gathering flowers, the flowers of love and sacrifice, and offering them to the good God for His pleasure. Being a child means not attributing to yourself the virtues you practice or believing yourself capable of anything at all. It means recognizing that the good God places the treasure of virtue in the hands of His children to be used when there is need of it. . . . but it is still God’s treasure. Finally, it means never being discouraged by your faults, because children fall frequently, but are too small to hurt themselves much.

The pseudo-sophisticates of the two last centuries of blood and violence need to acknowledge that their programs have failed abysmally and that the human capacity for God can only be satisfied when one approaches that God as a child accepts the overtures of a loving father.

Curious if the "last words" are 100% authentic Theresian, or if they were modified by her sister. Unfortunately, in English "children" can have a negative connotation that would not appeal to a man like the word "son" would.

Found this tonight

ECHO OF THE HEART OF GOD AND STUDIES OF THE SELF-OFFERING OF ST THERESE OF LISIEUX by Giovanni Gennari

Google Books

Published in 2001; probably does not have the material contained in Teresa di Lisieux. Il fascino della santità, I segreti di una "dottrina" ritrovata.

Apparently a copy of the latter book was given to Pope Francis in 2013, who took it on his trip to Brazil.

GIANNI GENNARI. Teresa maestra di teologia

If he had had read this book, would Louis Bouyer have revised his opinion of St. Thérèse and praised her even more? Apparently he was already aware of the difference between what is found in the edited manuscripts (which were nonetheless modified by Agnes) of the saint and what was marketed in her name but perhaps he hadn't made such an extensive study as Gennari, who tells the story of Fr. Combes and Hans Urs von Balthasar (both of whose work was used by Fr. Bouyer) and of others in recovering the true teaching of the Little Flower.

Related:
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus: An Echo of the Heart of God

Again, About Women

How about the importance of men?

St. Thérèse Wasn't a Pelagian!

St. Thérèse’s “Little Way” to Sainthood through Divine Mercy

A Family of Saints

Insight Scoop: New from Ignatius Press: Definitive biography of the family of Saint Therese of Lisieux

Paris Match Interview with Pope Francis

Pope Francis gave an interview with Paris Match.

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, October 17, 2015

Related:

For those of you who speak French, Marie Duhamel, of Vatican Radio's French Section, has written a new book on Pope...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, October 17, 2015

For our French-speaking friends: Marie Duhamel, a senior journalist in Vatican Radio's French service, has just published a book on Pope Francis. You can find out more at the link below.

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Thursday, October 15, 2015

Watered-Down Adopted Sonship?

Opus Dei: Message

Divine filiation. “Divine filiation is the foundation of the spirit of Opus Dei,” said its founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá. The Christian is a child of God by virtue of baptism. Thus the formation provided by the Prelature seeks to foster among the Christian faithful a deep awareness of their being children of God, and helps them act accordingly. It fosters confidence in divine providence, simplicity in their dialogue with God, a deep awareness of the dignity of each human being and of the need for fraternity among all people, a truly Christian love for the world and for all human realities created by God, and a sense of calm and optimism.

Sounds like the watered-down version of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, rather than a robust understanding of deification.

Parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux to be Canonized

CNA: Saints in the Little Flower family grow as parents set for canonization

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Fr. Jacques Philippe - Prayer and Work

Member of the Community of the Beatitudes (FB), Fr. Jacques Philippe will be in the area next week as a speaker for Theology on Tap Silicon Valley. He will also be giving a parish mission at Our Lady of Peace Shrine the following weekend. (More details.)

Spiritual Childhood?

Or Divine Filiation? The second, or adopted sonship, is more appealing to me than "spiritual childhood." While "becoming like children" has scriptural warrant (Matthew 18:3, 19:14), it must be understood in its context, and read in conjunction with what St. Paul teaches (1 Cor 13:11). Child or children is being used equivocally with respect to both instances. We should be humble and trusting and put ourselves in the hands of God the Father, who leads us by the Holy Spirit; but we also need to take responsibility for ourselves as spiritually mature sons of God. "Child" is can be used to refer to the young and to adults but it is usually associated with the former, while "son" can refer to both equally.

Apparently, St. Thérèse herself did not use the French equivalent of "spiritual childhood" or "spiritual infancy" -- from the article by Andrea Tornielli: "Gennari explains that Thérèse’s true doctrine is not 'spiritual infancy' in a minimalist sense: according to her thinking, “Enfant de Dieu”, the Son of God, is the only model, which by divine grace, “deifies” humans by invading them with the love of his Spirit, transforming them into himself, just as Thérèse had explicitly written in a letter to her sister Celine: 'we are called to become divine ourselves.'"

Gianni Gennari, Teresa di Lisieux, il fascino della santità

Teresa maestra di teologia
Intervista a Gianni Gennari sul suo libro "Teresa di Lisieux. Il fascino della santità: i segreti di una dottrina ritrovata" (ed. Lindau)
Zenit
L'Osservatore Romano

Contemplatives in the Midst of the World by Bishop Robert W. Finn
Thoughts for January 16 from Fr Willie Doyle

St. Thérèse's True Teaching on Deification

The real Thérèse of Lisieux and those letters that were tampered with by ANDREA TORNIELLI

It is a story of true holiness and manipulated documents that told by Gianni Gennari in his new book “Teresa di Lisieux, il fascino della santità. I segreti di una “dottrina” ritrovata” (Thérèse of Lisieux, The appeal of Sainthood. The secrets of a rediscovered “doctrine” – Lindau publishers, 616 pages, 38 Euros). And one recounted in meticulous detail and inspired by documents that remained unpublished until now. The volume reconstructs the life of an extraordinary woman. Saint Thérèse of the Child of Jesus is remembered by faithful as the “little saint” and is identified with the “spiritual infancy” described in Matthew’s Gospel: “If you do not change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

And yet Thérèse Françoise Marie Martin who died in the Carmel of Lisieux at the tender age of 24 in September 1897 and was canonised by Pius XI in 1925, never used the expression “spiritual infancy” in her original writings.

The book demonstrates very clearly that the doctrine of “spiritual infancy” was the brainchild of Thérèse’s sisters who were disciples of the Jesuit, Almire Pichon. Gennari writes that for fifty years, the sisters led everyone, including the Popes, to see in her the prefect embodiment of the teachings of their spiritual director. And they managed this on their own.” They did so by spreading their faith, by presenting Thérèse’s writings, which were often altered and manipulated, and also through their testimonies and the correspondence they exchanged with the Holy See when Popes needed to prepare speeches on the saint.

Interesting - an even better Catholic spirituality, grounded in divinization or theosis.