Ave Maria Meditations
I WILL SPEND MY HEAVEN DOING GOOD ON EARTH!
LOVE IS REPAID BY LOVE ALONE…
…AND NOURISHED BY SACRIFICE.
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My Heaven on Earth
To bear my exile now, within this world of tears,
The holy tender glance of Christ, my Lord, I need.
That glance, surcharged with love, consoles me through the years;
His loveliness displays foretaste of heaven indeed.
On me my Jesus smiles, when toward Him I aspire-
The trial of my faith then weighs no more on me.
That love-glance of my God, that smile of holy fire,
Oh, this is heaven for me!
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‘Tis heaven to have the power, great grace from Christ to win
For Holy Mother Church, for all my Sisters dear,
For every soul on earth that He may enter in,
Enflame our sinful hearts, and grant us joy and cheer.
All things my love can gain when, heart to heart, I pray,
Alone with Jesus Christ in speechless ecstasy.
Beside His altar blest with Him I gladly stay,
Oh, this is heaven for me!
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My heaven within the Host safe hid and peaceful, lies,
Where Jesus Christ abides, divinest, fairest Fair.
From that great fount of love doth endless life arise;
There, day and night, my Lord doth hearken to my prayer.
When, in Thy perfect love (O moment blest and bright!)
Thou comest, Spouse most pure, me to transform in Thee,
That union of our hearts, that rapture of delight,
Oh, this is heaven for me!
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My heaven it is to feel in me some likeness blest
To Him Who made me and my soul hath reconciled;
My heaven it is always beneath His eye to rest.
To call Him Father dear, and be His loving child.
Safe shielded in His arms, no storm my soul can fear;
Complete abandonment my only law shall be.
To sleep upon His Heart, with His blest Face so near,
Oh, this is heaven for me!
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My heaven is God alone, the Trinity Divine,
Who dwells within my heart, the Prisoner of my love.
There, contemplating Thee, I tell Thee Thou art mine;
Thee will I love and serve until we meet above.
My heaven it is to smile on Thee whom I adore,
E’en when, to try my faith, from me Thou hidest Thee;
Calmly on Thee to smile, until Thou smil’st once more,
Oh, this is heaven to me!
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“After my death I will let fall a shower of roses”.
A Prayer to the Holy Face of Jesus:
O Jesus, Who in Thy cruel Passion didst become the “Reproach of men and the Man of Sorrows,” I worship Thy Divine Face. Once it shone with the beauty and sweetness of the Divinity: now for my sake it is become as the face of a leper. Yet in that disfigured Countenance I recognize Thy infinite Love, and I am consumed with the desire of loving Thee and of making Thee loved by all mankind. The tears that streamed in such abundance from Thy Eyes are to me as precious pearls which I delight to gather, that with their infinite worth I may ransom the souls of poor sinners.
O Jesus, Whose Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I may not behold here upon earth the sweetness of Thy Glance, nor feel the ineffable tenderness of Thy Kiss. I bow to Thy Will – but I pray Thee to imprint in me Thy Divine Likeness, and I implore Thee so to inflame me with Thy Love, that it may quickly consume me and I may soon reach the Vision of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.
Cured of a mysterious illness as a girl by “Our Lady of the Smile”,
St. Therese had a very tender and deep love for the Mother of God.
SONG OF GRATITUDE TO OUR LADY OF MT. CARMEL:
From the first moments of my life,
You took me in your arms.
Ever since that day, dear Mother,
You’ve protected me here below.
To preserve my innocence,
You placed me in a soft nest.
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You watched over my childhood
In the shade of a holy cloister.
Later, in the days of my youth,
I heard Jesus’ call…
In your ineffable tenderness,
You showed Carmel to me.
“Come, my child, be generous,”
You sweetly said to me.
“Near me, you’ll be happy,
Come sacrifice yourself for your Savior.”
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Close to you, 0 my loving Mother!
I’ve found rest for my heart.
I want nothing more on earth.
Jesus alone is all my happiness.
If sometimes I feel sadness
And fear coming to assail me,
Always suppor’ting me in my weakness,
Mother, you deign to bless me.
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Grant that I may be faithful
To my divine Spouse Jesus.
One day may his sweet voice call me
To flyaway among the elect.
Then, no more exile, no more suffering.
In Heaven I’ll keep repeating
The song of my gratitude,
Lovable Queen of Carmel!
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From “Why I Love You, 0 Mary!”:
Oh! I would like to sing: Mary, why I love you! Why your sweet name thrills my heart,
And why the thought of your supreme greatness Could not bring fear to my soul. If I gazed on you in your sublime glory, surpassing the splendor of all the blessed, I could not believe that I am your child. O Mary, before you I would lower my eyes!… If a child is to cherish his mother, she has to cry with him and share his sorrows. O my dearest Mother, on this foreign shore How many tears you shed to draw me to you in pondering your life in the holy Gospels. I dare look at you and come near you. It’s not difficult for me to believe I’m your child, For I see you human and suffering like me …
IN THE HEART OF THE CHURCH, I SHALL BE LOVE!
” I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places…in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love…my vocation, at last I have found it…My vocation is love!”
ACT OF OBLATION OF ST. THÉRÈSE OF THE CHILD JESUS
OF THE HOLY FACE TO THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD
J.M.J.T.
Offering of myself as a Victim of Holocaust to God’s Merciful Love. 9th June 1895
O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to love You and make You loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! To be Yourself my Sanctity!
Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Saviour and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with love.
I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints(in heaven and on earth), their acts of love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! The love and merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of His mortal life: “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you!” I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! That the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-pwerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.
I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.
I thank You, O my God! For all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.
After earth’s Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.
In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Lovee the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other throne, no other crown but You, my Beloved! Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.
In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a victim of holocause to Your Merciful Love, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!
May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.
I want O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!
Marie, Francoise, Thérèse of the Child Jesus
and the Holy Face, unworthy Carmelite religious.
This 9th day of June,
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity,
in the year of grace, 1895.
MIRACULOUS PRAYER TO THE LITTLE FLOWER
O LITTLE FLOWER OF JESUS, ever consoling troubled souls with heavenly graces, in your unfailing intercession I place my confident trust. From the heart of our divine Saviour, petition the blessings of which I stand in, greatest need, especially … (Here mention your intention.) Shower upon me your promised roses of virtue and grace, Dear St. Therese, so that swiftly advancing in sanctity and perfect love of neighbor, I may someday receive the crown of life eternal. Amen.
NOVENA ROSE PRAYER O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me as a message of love. O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands …. (Mention specific requests) St. Therese, help me to always believe as you did, in God’s great love for me, so that I might imitate your “little Way” each day. Amen.
