October Feast Day

 It was a beautiful start to the morning yesterday, with the orange hues slowly lighting up the sky as a backdrop to the dark blue paints of the early morning sky. It's October 1st, the first day of my favorite month, and loveliest month of Fall. Also, the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, a saint and a family I admire. 

It was only a year ago that I learned more about this inspiring saint's family, her parents, St. Zelie and St. Louis Martin as well as her other siblings, 4 who died as infants or toddler age, and her 4 older sisters who like her entered into religious life and the same Carmelite Convent. (Except for her sister Leonie who joined the Visitation Order). It's all due to my dear sister who had read more about St. Therese's parents and family that made me intrigued to know more after her telling all about the interesting details and intricacies of the Martin Family from France. 

I think its amazing to feel connected, inspired or encouraged from a saint family. Just like St. Therese, I am also the youngest daughter, with 4 older sisters. I seen and witnessed their lives, vocations develop and have had so manty fun, special and memorable times together. I can connect with St. Therese in this way, and feel a special connection to her because of it. 

This summer on my birthday, we visited a Carmelite House and saw a statue in front of the grounds of St. Therese. Last Fall, I was reading books about the Martin family and St. Zelie and Louis. It made me interested and inspired to learn more about their spiritual lives, God's unique workings in their lives and I felt another connection with the French language, as I was picking up French again. It was a difficult Fall season, but I felt sense of hope and confidence that just like St. Zelie receiving divine answers from Our Lady about her state in life and her work, I too would receive answers for my deep questioning about my path. 

As I drove in the early evening to adoration on the same road I did in the early sunrise, I could sense a different kind of beauty. The sky was a mysterious darkness that got more stark as I continued. I thought about the darkness in St. There's own life, her final days, years of feeling abandoned by God. She only experienced darkness, in a similar way to St. Mother Teresa (though M. Teresa for much longer). This darkness of the sky made me think of that, but how God's hand and providence was still at work. And now she is a saint. Her little way is something I want to continue to be reminded of and put into practice. Gratitude and surrender are her words to live by.