PROPER OF THE MASS (oct3pom.htm)

Mary Frances Teresa Martin was born of saintly parents at Alencon (Orne) on January 2, 1873. She was educated by the Benedictine Nuns at Lisieux. After her ninth year she tried to enter the Carmelites, and put her case before the Bishop of Bayeux and Pope Leo XIII, whom she visited. At the age of fifteen she was allowed to enter the Carmel at Lisieux (April 9, 1888). She died at the age of twenty-four. There was nothing extra-ordinary about her religious life; she was perfect in her simplicity, humility, charity, her love of God and her trust in Him. She offered herself as a victim to the "merciful love of the good God." She was just a little child in the arms of Jesus. Her way of sanctity was a little way; Pius XI said: "We wish that St. Theresa's secret of sanctity should be made known to every one of our children. We have set her before the children of the Church as a striking and most precious example." Countless miracles have been wrought through her intercession. On her death bed she said: "I do not intend to remain idle in Heaven. My longing is to labor even there for the Church and souls. Our Lord will work wonders for me that will infinitely surpass my boundless desire. After my death I shall let fall a shower of roses." She was canonized May 17, 1923.

The youngest of nine children, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus was one of four of the daughters who survived infancy. Five of the other children born to Theresa's parents Louis Martin Guerin and his wife Zelie-Marie had died in their infancy. Theresa was sent to the Benedictine monastery in Lisieux where she became known for her total suppression of her own will in favor of what Jesus wanted, offering every little sacrifice she could.

Frail from birth, Therese, or Theresa, had been healed of a serious illness in 1883 through the intercession of Our Lady, and decided then and there she would become a Carmelite Nun. However her age prevented her from pursuing this immediate goal. Undaunted and persistent that Jesus wanted this, she even approached the Holy Father Pope Leo XIII during a group audience with him in Rome on pilgrimage, asking him to allow her to enter the convent. He was somewhat taken aback by her forwardness but replied gently, "Whatever your bishop advises, you follow, my child." This news from such a powerful prelate forced Theresa to bite her lip for she thought surely the Pope would allow this.

Saddened she returned to France where she waited until old enough to be admitted which she was in 1888 and given the name Sister Theresa of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face. Five years later at the age of 20 she was chosen mistress of novices. Three years later in 1986 Tuberculosis set in. Once this was known, Theresa's older blood sister, Mother Agnes of Jesus insisted that Theresa write down her memoirs for posterity. This she did and after her death this work entitled The Story of a Soul was widely circulated. In it, Theresa emphasized her doctrine on the "little way" of spiritual childhood stressing that she wanted to save souls to help priests save souls by prayer, sacrifice, and suffering. Her "little way" means loving and trusting in God as a child, held in His loving arms as she writes, "From the age of three, I never refused our good God anything. I have never given him anything but love. I just want to love God. I want to do hard things for Him. I want to pray for priests and for sinners. I want to shine like a little candle before His altar."

She exemplified two of the greatest virtues, humility and total dependence on the Will of God. She even prayed that God would hear her prayer and save so many souls by offering herself in total reparation, including letting God give away any graces she would earn to any soul who needed it. As she lay dying in the convent in 1897, she pressed her precious crucifix to her heart and peering Heavenward replied, "I love Him! My God, I love You!" Shortly afterwards the tuberculosis took its toll and Theresa died on September 30, 1897 at only 24. True to her promise that she would let fall from Heaven a "shower of roses," she became known far and wide as the "Little Flower" with many miracles of intercession attributed to her throughout the world so that in 1925 Pope Pius XI canonized her proclaiming, "St. Theresa of the Child Jesus is the greatest saint of modern times." In 1944, at the height of World War II when France was being pummelled by German howitzers, Pope Pius XII proclaimed her patroness of France along with Saint Joan of Arc. French aviators and soldiers took up the battle cry encouraged by her intercession and many attribute the fall of Germany to storming Heaven. Theresa also shares a title with Saint Francis Xavier as patroness of Foreign Missions. Though Theresa never had the opportunity to set step outside of Europe, she had a longing to go to a Carmelite mission in Hanoi, Vietnam in the late 19th Century.

Few Saints have aroused so much admiration and enthusiasm immediately after their death; few have acquired a more astonishing popularity everywhere on earth; few have been so rapidly raised to the altars as was this holy young Carmelite. Marie Françoise Therese Martin was born January 2, 1873 at Alençon in Normandy, France, of very Christian parents. The Martins, who lost four of their little ones in early infancy or childhood, regarded their children as gifts from Heaven and offered them to God before their birth. Theresa was the last flower of this blessed stem, which gave four Sisters to the Carmel of Lisieux, still another to the Visitation of Caen. The five sisters were left without their mother, a victim of cancer, when Therese was only four years old; but her two oldest sisters were of an age to take excellent care of the household and continue the Christian character formation of the younger ones, which their mother had initiated. Their saintly father was soon to see his little flock separated, however, when one after the other they left to enter religious life. He blessed each one and gave them all back to God, with humble gratitude to God for having chosen his daughters.

From childhood Theresa had manifested a tender piety which her naturally lively temperament could not alter. Her mother’s death affected her profoundly, however, and at the age of nine she was visited with a severe trial in the form of an illness the doctors could not diagnose, and which seemed incurable. She was instantly restored to her ordinary good health by the Virgin Mary, in answer to her desolate sisters’ prayers; Therese saw Her statue become animated, to smile at her with an ineffable tenderness as she lay on her bed of suffering.

Before the age of fifteen Theresa already desired to enter the Carmel of Lisieux, where her two eldest sisters were already nuns; a trip to Rome and a petition at the knees of the Holy Father Leo XIII gave her the inalterable answer that her Superiors would regulate the matter. Many prayers finally obtained an affirmative reply to her ardent request, and four months after her fifteenth birthday she entered Carmel with an ineffable joy. She could say then, “I no longer have any desire but to love Jesus even to folly.”

She adopted flowers as the symbol of her love for her Divine Spouse and offered all her little daily sacrifices and works as rose petals at the feet of Jesus. Divine Providence gave to the world the autobiography of this true Saint, whose little way of spiritual childhood was described in her own words in her Story of a Soul. She could not offer God the macerations of the great soldiers of God, only her desires to love Him as they had loved Him, and to serve Him in every way possible, not only as a cloistered nun, but as a missionary, a priest, a hero of the faith, a martyr. She chose “all” in spirit, for her beloved Lord. Later she would be named patroness of missions. Her spirituality does not imply only sweetness and light, however; this loving child of God passed by a tunnel of desolate spiritual darkness, yet never ceased to smile at Him, wanting to serve Him, if it were possible, without His even knowing it.

When nine years had passed in the Carmel, the little flower was ready to be plucked for heaven; and in a slow agony of consumption, Therese made her final offering to God. She suffered so severely that she said she would never have believed it possible, and could only explain it by her desire to save souls for God. She died in 1897, was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925. And now, as she foretold, she is spending her heaven in doing good upon earth. Countless miracles have been attributed to her intercession.

Sources: Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year. (Reprint of the work of John Gilmary Shea, with Appendix including recently canonized Saints) (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1955. Third Edition: Tan Books and Publishers: Rockford, Ill., 1995); Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année, by Abbé L. Jaud (Mame: Tours, 1950).

We want to thank the Friends of Our Lady of Fatima for expediting these resources of the Propers. Sources: Saint Andrew Daily Missal and the Marian Missal , 1945 Bio: Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 edition

Missa "Veni de Líbano"
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INTROIT: Canticles 4: 8,9

Veni de Líbano, sponsa mea, veni de Líbano, veni: vulnerásti cor meum, soror mea sponsa, vulnerásti cor meum. (Ps. 112: 1) Laudáte, púeri, Dórninum: laudáte nomen Dómini. V. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Repeat Veni de Líbano...

Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus, come: Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse: Thou hast wounded my heart. (Ps. 112: 1) Praise the Lord, ye children: Praise ye the name of the Lord. v. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
RepeatCome from Libanus...

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COLLECT

Dominus vobiscum. R. Et cum spiritu tuo.

Oremus. Dómine, qui dixísti: Nisi efficiámini sicut párvuli, non intrábitis in regnum cælórum: da nobis, quæsumus; ita beátæ Terésiæ Vírginis in humilitáte et simplicitáte cordis vestígia sectári, ut præmia consequámur ætérna. Qui vivis et regnas, cum Deo Patre in unitáte Spíritu Sancti, Deus,
Per omnia saecula saeculorum.
R. Amen.

The Lord be with you. R. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray. O Lord, Who hast said: Unless ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven, grant unto us, we beseech Thee, so to follow the footsteps of blessed Teresa, virgin, in lowliness and simplicity of heart that we may gain everlasting rewards. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,
Forever and ever.
R.Amen.

EPISTLE: Isaias 66: 12-14

Léctio Isaíæ Prophétæ. Hæc dicit Dóminus: Ecce ego declinábo super eam quasi flúvium pacis, et quasi torréntem inundántem glóriam géntium, quam sugétis: ad úbera portabímini, et super génua blandiéntur vobis. Quómodo si cui mater blandiátur, ita ego consolábor vos, et in Jerusalem consolabímini. Vidébitis, et gaudébit cor vestrum, et ossa vestra quasi herba germinábunt, et cognoscétur manus Dómini servis ejus. Léctio Isaíæ Prophétæ.
Deo Gratias.

Lesson from Isaias the Prophet. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring upon her as it were a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the gentiles, which you shall suck; you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you. As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants.
Thanks be to God.

GRADUAL: Matthew 11: 25

Confíteor tibi, Pater, Dómine cæli et terra:, quia abscondísti hæc a sapiéntibus, et prudéntibus, et revelasti ea párvulis V. (Ps. 70: 5) Dómine, spes mea a juventúte mea. Allelúja, allelúja. V. (Ecclus. 39: 17-19) Quasi rosa plantáta super rivos aquárum fructificáte: quasi Líbanus odórem suavitátis habéte: floréte flores, quasi lílium, et date odórem, et frondéte in gratiam, et collaudáte cánticum, et benedícite Dóminum in opéribus suis. Allelúja.

I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones. V. (Ps. 70: 5) My hope, O Lord, from my youth. Alleluia, alleluia. V. (Ecclus. 39: 17-19) Bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters. Give ye a sweet odor as Libanus. Send forth flowers, as the lily, and yield a smell, and bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in His works. Alleluia.

GOSPEL: Matthew 18: 1-5

Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Matthaeum.
R.Gloria tibi, Domine

In illo témpore: Accessérunt discípuli ad Jesum, dicéntes: 'Quis, putas, major est in regno Cælórum?' Et ádvocans Jesus párvulum, státuit eum in médio eórum, et dixit: "Amen dico vobis, nisi convérsi fuéritis, et efflciámini sicut párvuli, non intrábitis in regnum Cælórum. Quicúmque ergo humiliáverit se sicut párvulus iste, hic est major in regno Cælórum."
Laus tibi Christe.

The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
The continuation of the holy Gospel according to Matthew. R. Glory to Thee, O Lord

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying: 'Who, thinkest Thou, is the greater in the kingdom of Heaven?' And Jesus calling unto Him a little child, set him in the midst of them and said:"Amen I say to you, unless you be. converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of Heaven."
Praise be to Christ

OFFERTORY:

Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Oremus. Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum: et exsultávit spíritus meus in Deo salutári meo: quia respéxit humilitátem ancíllæ suæ: fecit mini magna qui potens est.

The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid: He that is mighty hath done great things to me.

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SECRET

Sacrifícium nostrum tibi, Dómine, quæsumus, beátæ Therésiæ Vírginis tuæ precátio sancta concíliet: ut in cujus honóre solémniter exhibétur, ejus méritis efficifiátur accéptum. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, Qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus,
Per omnia saecula saeculorum.
R. Amen.

We beseech Thee, O Lord, that the holy intercession of blessed Teresa, Thy virgin, may make our sacrifice agreeable to Thee, so that it may be made acceptable by the merits of her in whose honor it is solemnly offered. Through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God
Forever and ever.
R.Amen.

PREFACE Common Preface

Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Sursum corda.
R.Habemus ad Dominum.
Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.
R. Dignum et justum est.
Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos Tibi simper, et ubique gratias agere: Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus: per Christum Dominum nostrum. Per quem majestatem Tuam laudant Angeli, adorant Dominationes, tremunt Potestates, Coeli, Coelorumque Virtutes, ac beata Seraphim socia exultatione concelebrant. Cum quibus et nostras voces, ut admitti, jubeas, supplici confessione dicentes:
SANCTUS, SANCTUS, SANCTUS...

The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
Lift up your hearts.
R.We have lifted them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
R. It is meet and just.
It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation that we should at all times and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God: through Christ our Lord. Through Whom the Angels praise Thy Majesty, the Dominations worship it, the Powers stand in awe. The Heavens and the Heavenly hosts together with the blessed Seraphim in triumphant chorus unite to celebrate it. Together with them we entreat Thee, that Thou mayest bid our voices also to be admitted, while we say in lowly praise:
HOLY, HOLY, HOLY...

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COMMUNION: Deuteronomy 32: 10, 12

Circumdúxit eam, et dócuit: et custodívit quasi pupíllam óculi sui. Sicut áquila expándit alas suas, et assúmpsit eam, atque portávit in húmeris suis Dóminus solus dux ejus fuit.

He led her about and taught her: and He kept her as the apple of His eye. As the eagle, He spread His wings and hath taken her, and carried her on His shoulders. The Lord alone was her leader.

POSTCOMMUNION

Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Oremus. Illo nos, Dómine, amóris igne cæléste mystérium inflámmet quo beáta Therésia Vírgo tua se tibi pro homínibus caritátis víctimam devóvit. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus,
Per omnia saecula saeculorum.
R. Amen.

The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray. May the heavenly mystery, O Lord, enkindle in us that fire of love, whereby the blessed Teresa, Thy virgin, offered herself to Thee as a victim of charity for men. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,
World without end.
R. Amen.

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Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux