Oh... and the retreat house has a really nice statue of my patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux. :) It was so pretty! I don't know much about very many of the saints but I do feel a particular bond with the one I've chosen. I read her autobiography and she really is kind of fascinating. She didn't really DO much, as far as great deeds of, well, whatever great deeds other saints have done. If she hadn't written her story and her thoughts down, she might have been forgotten. But instead you can read about her childhood in her own words, and how she entered the convent at fifteen and lived as a nun until she died at twenty-four. Her absolute adoration of God is really amazing, and her goodness is just... mind-boggling. I mean, the girl never committed a mortal sin. I've done it and I'm younger than she was. :P She talks about her "littleness" and being among the smallest and humblest of God's creatures, and you really get a sense of her God of Love. I can't really explain it I guess, but I like her and I think people (myself included) would do well to be more like her. To be small and behind-the-scenes and not really noticed by others, and to be satisfied with that, knowing you are loved by God.



What first attracted me to her was when I was looking stuff up about saints and I came across a quote of hers where she was talking about how she sometimes had trouble staying awake during meditation. ;) So I did a little research and found out the basic outline of her life, and that she had an autobiography, and that she was declared a Doctor of the Church by the Pope (which basically means, that she has good things to say, and you can learn a lot about God and about faith through her). I grabbed her book (it took a lot of looking too, they don't have saint books in just any bookstore :P) and started reading it. It was interesting but after awhile I started thinking maybe I should look for a different saint to be my patron... I don't have anything in common with St. Therese... and she was SO good, as I said, I kinda thought maybe I should find myself a reformed sinner that I could relate to more.



But no. That's not the point... the point is to find someone I look up to, and I definitely look up to her.



Interesting things I've noticed since I decided to take Therese as my Confirmation name:

St. Therese is also called "The Little Flower of Jesus" and is associated with roses... roses are my favorite flower.

Supposedly when she intercedes for you you'll either receive a rose, or smell roses in the air, or something. Maybe I'm nuts, but I swear there have been times over the past few weeks when I've caught the scent of roses here and there. Crazy? Maybe. Superstitious? Nah. I just think it's neat. :)

I can recognize likenesses of her even when they're not labelled (like this weekend; also at the Basilica last week).

I love pointing her out to people and informing them she's my patron saint. Am I a dork? Yes. *shrug*

Tess can be a nickname for Terese or Teresa. Tess is my nickname from my mom. (Yeah, it's a stretch.) ;)

Mother Teresa took her name from St. Therese of Lisieux, and not the "other" St. Teresa (of Avila).

St. Therese was named for St. Teresa of Avila. ;)

This one's really weird... at Joe's on Saturday evening we were going through an old photo album... and oddly enough... his grandmother's maiden name was Terese. ;)



I suppose that's enough for now, seeing as how probably no one cares about this but me. ;) Seriously though, she's cool! Read about her! I'll be more than glad to lend you the book. :)