Jesus ‘gave Himself to me in Holy Communion more frequently than I would have dared hope’
By Father Randy Stice
In previous columns, we have looked at the eucharistic devotion and teaching of St. John Chrysostom, the Doctor of the Eucharist, and St. Francis of Assisi. This month, I want to continue with the eucharistic piety of one of the most beloved saints, St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), the Little Flower who has taught us the “little way” of spiritual childhood.
St. Thérèse received her first Communion at the age of 11, months after she was freed from a serious and mysterious illness after making a novena to Our Lady of Victories. She described the day of her first Communion as the “beautiful day of days” and later wrote, “Ah! How sweet was that first kiss of Jesus! It was a kiss of love; I felt that I was loved, and I said: ‘I love You, and I give myself to You forever!’…it was a fusion; they were no longer two, Thérèse had vanished as a drop of water is lost in the immensity of the ocean. Jesus alone remained; He was the Master, the King.”1
During St. Thérèse’s life, France was still influenced by the Jansenist heresy that emphasized human sinfulness and our unworthiness to receive Communion, so that most Catholics, including cloistered religious, received Communion only a few times a year. Even after Pope Leo XIII gave confessors the authority to determine the frequency of Communion, St. Thérèse’s confessor, influenced by the superior, kept them infrequent.2 She wrote that she received “the Communions my confessor permitted, allowing him to regulate the number and not asking.”3
However, Jesus “gave Himself to me in Holy Communion more frequently than I would have dared hope.”4 She observed, “It appeared to be Jesus Himself who desired to give Himself to me, for I went to confession only a few times, and never spoke about my interior sentiments.”5 Pope Francis wrote that “her gaze remained fixed not on herself and her own needs, but on Christ, who loves, seeks, desires, and dwells within.”6
St. Thérèse prepared carefully for each Communion. “I picture my soul as a piece of land and I beg the Blessed Virgin to remove from it any rubbish that would prevent it from being free; then I ask her to set up a huge tent worthy of heaven, adorning it with her own jewelry; finally, I invite all the angels and saints to come and conduct a magnificent concert there. It seems to me that when Jesus descends into my heart He is content to find Himself so well received and I, too, am content.” This careful preparation did “not prevent both distractions and sleepiness from visiting me, but at the end of the thanksgiving when I see that I’ve made it so badly I make a resolution to be thankful all through the rest of the day….no doubt this does not displease Jesus since He seems to encourage me on this road.”7
Surprisingly, St. Thérèse did not often receive consolations after Communion. In fact, she wrote, “perhaps it is the time when I receive the least.”8 This did not discourage her, though: “I find this very understandable since I have offered myself to Jesus not as one desirous of her consolation in His visit but simply to please Him who is giving Himself to me.”9
St. Thérèse’s eucharistic faith was also evident in her relationship with her spiritual brother, Adolphe Roulland, a soon-to-be ordained seminarian belonging to the Foreign Mission Society in Paris whose spiritual interests were entrusted to St. Thérèse by her superior in May of 1896. Following his ordination in June, Father Roulland left for China in August of 1896. Her letters to him reveal her deep faith in petitions made during Mass. She confided to him, “For a long time I wanted an Apostle [priest] who would pronounce my name at the holy altar on the day of his first Mass….The God of Goodness has willed to realize my dream.”10
In another letter, she asked, “promise me…to continue each morning to say at the altar: ‘My God, enkindle my sister with Your love.’”11 He also remembered at the altar her mother, who died in 1877, and her father, who died in 1894: “I am also deeply touched and grateful for your remembrance of my dear parents at Mass.”12
St. Thérèse reminds us of Jesus’ fervent desire to give Himself to us in the Eucharist. In a prayer to Christ she wrote, “Ascending once again to the Inaccessible Light, henceforth Your abode, You remain still in this ‘valley of tears,’ hidden beneath the appearances of a white host. Eternal Eagle, You desire to nourish me with Your divine substance and yet I am but a poor little thing.”13 To Jesus, we are a far more desirable abode than the most beautiful ciborium: “It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes to us each day from heaven; it’s to find another heaven, infinitely more dear to Him than the first: the heaven of our soul, made to His image, the living temple of the adorable Trinity!”14
1 Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, third edition, translated by John Clarke, OCD (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1996), 77
2 www.ncregister.com/blog/eucharist-is-big-secret-behind-litle-way (N.B.: “litle” is correct in link)
3 Story of a Soul, 104
4 Ibid, 104
5 Ibid, 105
6 Pope Francis, C’est la Confiance, 22
7 Story of a Soul, 172-173
8 Ibid, 172
9 Ibid, 172
10 Letters of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Vol. II, 956-957
11 Ibid, 1018
12 Ibid, 1094
13 Story of a Soul, 199
14 Ibid, 104
Father Randy Stice is director of the diocesan Office of Worship and Liturgy. He can be reached at frrandy@dioknox.org.