Saint Therese of Lisieux

Also known as St. Theresa of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux was born in 1873, and is the patron saint of missions and florists. Although she died at the young age of 24, St. Therese achieved great holiness in her ordinary life. A cloistered Carmelite nun from the age of 15, it was through obedience that she wrote her autobiography (The Story of a Soul) which has become a spiritual classic of the Catholic Church. Her “Little Way of Love and Confidence” is a spiritual path to holiness for all. Pope Pius X called her the greatest saint of modern times and in 1997 Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church, being the youngest ever to achieve such status.

St. Therese suffered for a long period of time from tuberculosis before her death on October 3rd,1897. 

The Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels

October 2nd is the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. This Feast was placed on the Roman calendar by Pope Paul V in 1607. The Council of Trent (1545 to 1563), was convened in response to the Protestant Reformation. The following quote is taken from its Catechism:

By God’s providence Angels have been entrusted with the office of guarding the human race and of accompanying every human being in order to preserve him from any serious dangers…Our heavenly Father has placed over each of us an Angel under whose protection and vigilance we may be enabled to escape the snares secretly prepared by our enemy, repel the dreadful attacks he makes on us, and under his (our Angel’s) guiding hand keep to the right road, and thus be secure against all false steps which the wiles of the evil one might cause us to make in order to draw us aside from the path that leads to Heaven.

"Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen"