Postscript- I find it interesting that the Seven (or Five) Joys had a place of honour in pre-reformation England. (More Here) We should pray for devotion to Our Lady to fully return to the Anglicans, and then perhaps we'll see the full fruits of Anglicanorum Coetibus.
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Chapter I cont.- St. Teresa and the Flowers
At about the age of five, while playing among the flowers, of which she was always very fond, she already found her amusement in making little altars within openings that she happened to find in the garden wall. When her tiny structures were completed, she would run to call her father, who invariably shared in her delight. Incidentally, too, these diversions manifest the attraction which Altar and Tabernacle even then exercised over her, and how the Divine Presence had captivated her thoughts and her heart.
Holiness may be said to have been almost bred in the very nature of this favored child, thanks to the Eucharistic devotion of her wise and pious parents, who knew how to make piety joyous, while play itself was hallowed by piety. Thus the way had been lovingly prepared for that Divine Bridegroom of her soul who at once led her by these sweetly scented paths directly to the great central mystery of our Faith, the Holy Eucharist.
That love of God which the parents so carefully instilled into the soul of little Teresa was no mere sentiment. It was a love strong in action and in suffering.
"I offered myself to Our Lord to be His Little Flower," she writes. "I longed to console Him, to draw as near as possible to the Tabernacle, to be looked on, cared for, and gathered by Him."
The desire of complete self-oblation now took possession of her heart. Such, in particular, were the affections aroused in her while looking at a picture whose charming title was: "The Little Flower of the Tabernacle."
But her supreme happiness consisted in taking her place in the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, there to await the moment when she could toss her flowers to the Divine King as he was borne along in triumph. She was not content merely to scatter them in His path-- her love was far too intimate for that!-- but she must even then signalize herself in her own daring way. And evidently no one thwarted these acts of childish affection which so delighted the Heart of her virginal Spouse. She herself tells us:
"Above all, I loved the procession of the Blessed Sacrament: what a joy it was to strew flowers in God's path! But before scattering them on the ground I threw them high in the air, and was never so happy as when I saw my rose-leaves touch the sacred Monstrance."
Every Sunday was a day of joy to her, when, as she tells us, "the whole family went to High Mass." Here she could satisfy her longing to be in the presence of Christ, to pour out her little heart before Him, and to listen to His own voice speaking to her from the silent Tabernacle.
Of the Little Flower's ardent desire for Holy Communion, almost from the days of babyhood, much remains to be said elsewhere in this volume, and also of her other Eucharistic attractions, so remarkable in one of her tender years. These were the first sparks of that great Eucharistic love which was to inflame her soul.
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| "Never was I so happy as when I saw my rose-leaves touch the sacred Monstrance." |
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