Daily Prayers for October 1

Therese of Lisieux (1873 – 1897)

Therese was born to a middle-class family in Lisieux, France. When she was fifteen, she got special permission to join her two older sisters at the Carmelite monastery in their hometown. When she died of tuberculosis nine years later at the age of twenty-four, she was little known outside her community. At the request of her spiritual director, however, Therese had written a memoir of her spiritual journey, titled The Story of a Soul. It became a spiritual classic almost immediately for its powerfully clear articulation of one ordinary person’s desire to give her whole life to Christ by following every moment in the “Little Way” of love and ser-vice to one’s neighbors. “After my death,” Therese wrote, “I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven in doing good upon earth.”

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you

as the day rises to meet the sun.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Come, let us bow down and bend the knee : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Song “Ubi Caritas”

I am only a very little soul : bringing little things to you, O Lord.

Psalm 4:4 – 8

Tremble, then, and do not sin : speak to your heart in silence upon your bed.

Offer the appointed sacrifices : and put your trust in the Lord.

Many are saying, “Oh, that we might see better times!” : Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord.

You have put gladness in my heart : more than when grain and wine and oil increase.

I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep : for only you, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

I am only a very little soul : bringing little things to you, O Lord.

Jeremiah 35:1 – 19 James 1:1 – 15

I am only a very little soul : bringing little things to you, O Lord.

Therese of Lisieux wrote, “My vocation is love! In the heart of the Church, who is my Mother, I will be love. So I shall be everything and so my dreams will be fulfilled — ​to make Love loved.”

Prayers for Others

Our Father

Lord, strengthen our will to heed your commandments. We pray to be found faithful in the smallest things, that you might deem us worthy of more opportunities to serve you. Amen.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.