Blessed Mother Teresa on The Joy of Living

" Let anyone who comes to you go away feeling better and happier. Every one should see goodness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile."

"We are carriers of God's love."

" Today God loves the world through us. Especially in times like these when people are trying to make God 'was', it is you and I, by our love, by the purity of our lives, by our compassion, who prove to the world that God 'is'."

"Do you want to do something beautiful for God? There is a person who needs you. This is your chance."

"Is my heart so clean that I can see the face of God in my brother, my sister who is that black one, that white one, that naked one, that one suffering from leprosy, that dying one?" "See how nature -- trees and flowers and grass -- grow in silence. See the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life."

Blessed Mother Teresa (1910-1997), quoted from "The Joy of Living"

Karl Rahner on Faith and Grace

"...grace is always and everywhere at work...the mystery of God communicating himself in love..." The Practice of Faith

"...we always, even in the midst of everyday life, extend beyond ourselves and the specific thing with which we are now concerned, we might say that mysticism occurs in the midst of everyday life, but it is hidden and undeclared..." The Practice of Faith

"...all things, heaven and earth, the realm of the material and of the spiritual, are the creation of one and the same God...spirit and matter have more in common than they have differentiating them." Foundations of Christian Faith

"...to pour forth the love which God is. That is the first and the last of God's real plans and hence of God's real world too. Everything else exists so that this one thing might be: the eternal miracle of infinite love."

Karl Rahner (1904-1984) is considered the greatest theologian of the 20th century  

Georges Farah on The Exaltation of the Cross

On the occasion of the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross, it is good to recall the liturgical year, and its starting feast. The liturgical year starts September 1 and finishes August 31. Why so? Because it refers to the cycle of seasons. And the early civilization depended on seasons for agriculture. Liturgically, the Fathers placed the feast of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8 and her Assumption on August 15. So the year starts and finishes with Mary who begot our salvation. The exaltation of the cross is the first feast of our salvation. It is placed on September 14.

Historically there is a lot to say about the Cross. It was found by St. Helen, the mother of Constantine, in 326. Excavating near Jerusalem, she, in fact, found 3 crosses, and one of them miraculously healed a sick person.  For almost 100 years from 511 on, there were many revolts and upheavals against the empire from within and from without.  Instigated by minorities including  the Jews, heretics and schismatics such as the Jacobites in Syria, and the Copts in Egypt, the Roman empire in the East was substantially weakened. In 614,  the Cross was carried away from the church by the invading Persians and remained missing until it was recaptured by the emperor Heraclius in 628. The Church commemorated the recapture of the Cross by illuminating with fire light the mountains and places it travelled throughout the empire. The Church does that every September 14.

The gospel we read on the feast is a re-actualization of the events that preceded the crucifixion of our Lord. It shows the forces that stood against Christ on his way to save them: the high priests, the Jewish people, and Pilate. The crowds were singing to Jesus a week earlier and now they turned against him. The high priests thought they were not doing anything wrong. Their duty was to keep the Law and to make sure that no revolution will take place when they are occupied by a staunch enemy: the Roman empire. They thought it is better for one man to die than the whole nation to perish. Pilate was a foreign governor who had no interest in religious Jewish quarrels. His dialogue with Christ before ordering his crucifixion sheds light on us today as much as it did then.

He questioned Christ at length, prompted by his wife’s request to release him. But Christ remained silent! He then asked him “So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." Pilate said to him, sarcastically, "What is truth?" as if saying to him: You have nothing. You are going to be killed for saying things. Be wise. Forget about truth-Just worry about your life and survival here.  I can release you and you can go to Rome. Live your life there as a free man…

Pilate could have said that to any other person but the answer of Christ is the same. The Truth is a big thing in Christ’s way of thought and life. He must defend the Truth to the end. He is not politically correct. And he cares for everyone even when everyone is against him.

“Behold the Man” Pilate tells the Jews when he is surrendering Christ to them. Christ is said to have been  crucified on the place called Golgotha i.e. The Skull, the skull of Adam- the skull of humanity. His blood went into the skull of humanity and he went to Hades so that he could save by his death the dead humanity. Christ’s Cross is tied to his Resurrection. No life without death.

Now look at Pilate and think of us: Do what you want – Just be silent in matters of truth. Is not this how we think today? Do not we crucify Christ everyday?

Fr. Georges Farah, PhD. gave the above lecture at Jesus the King Church on September 12, 2008.

Why is Thérèse of the Child Jesus the greatest saint in modern times?

"Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19: 14)

If we literally analyse the above statement of Jesus in the Gospel, we conclude that children will be in heaven. This tells us that people who have a child-like trust in God as children do with their parents, will enter heaven, or rather heaven will grow in them.

But what makes Thérèse the greatest saint in modern times? She did not perform any miracle in her life. She did not have the stigmata nor was she able to penetrate other people’s hearts. She was not a prophet, nor a teacher. She did not even see people but was a cloistered nun in a simple convent in Lisieux. We, in fact, would not have known anything about her short life had she not written her autobiography on order from her superior.

She was born in 1873 to two pious parents (whose process of beatification has now been approved by Benedict XVI this past August). She was the 9^th and youngest child of Louis and Zelie-Gerin Martin, therefore, the most spoiled of their children. Her father used to call her affectionately “My queen”. She was walking with him one night and saw the stars making the letter T in the sky. Amazed she told her dad “Look, my name is written in heaven!” Her mother died of breast cancer when she was only 4. Her father had a stroke and died when she was only 15. Thérèse grew in the atmosphere of a religious family: all her sisters, like her, became nuns. This shows the example of the parents in bringing up their children. They respected their children and loved them. They recognized their dignity and joyfully carried them to become what they wanted to be.

Now little Thérèse was very sensitive – after her mother’s death she adopted her sister Pauline as her second mother. Thérèse wanted to be happy. When as a child she was asked to choose one toy from a basket of toys, she grasped them all. She claims to have been miraculously cured from illness when the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary seemed to smile to her. However, her change from “mine” to “yours” came about when she had an inner conversion experience on Christmas eve when she was almost 14 years old.

Her desire to be with Jesus grew and became an exploding love which led her to plead with Pope Leo XIII to enter the Carmelite order at the early age of 15. Approved on an exceptional basis she was admitted. Here started her “little way”  - doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way. She wanted to be a saint but saw that she could not imitate the great saints who fought the spiritual wars and “earned” their merits with great deeds. For her, it was enough to do one’s little job but only do it with confidence in God’s merciful love. Thérèse practiced this way to the end. A happy girl, confident in God’s love, finding satisfaction in reading the Bible since she did not understand the great teachers, and doing her daily duties with care, she grew in carrying the cross of Christ.  Her doubts of the existence of God and her physical illness did not prevent her from growing in faith, hope and love. She died of tuberculosis at the early age of 24. Her last word was “My God, I love you!”

We know now from history that Pope Benedict XV in 1922 had to break the rule that no cause for sainthood could be considered for at least 50 years after her/his death. She was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. In 1997, on the occasion of the centenary of her death, Pope John Paul the Great, who himself was one of the most learned popes, made her Doctor (i.e. Teacher) of the Church.

The reason was simple: She was simple. She attracted many people to her “Little Way” to sainthood. When her book was published a few years after her death, it became a phenomenal best seller among ordinary lay people. Her popularity became world-wide with “showers” of miracles and conversions attributed to her intercession. Many churches have been consecrated to her, and at Lisieux where she lived and died, there is a shrine of her.

She has been, and continues to be, one of the most beloved saints in the history of the Church.

How important is this example for us and our world in this post-modern age where the rule is no rule, love is rather the selfish physical desire, and greed is the driver of souls. 

Thérèse of Lisieux –  Teacher of the World! That is what I think.

George Farahat

Thérèse the "Little Flower of Jesus": The Little Way

My mission - to make God loved - will begin after my death. I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses.

Thérèse of the Child Jesus, known as "the greatest saint of modern times." and  Doctor of the Church in tribute to the powerful way her spirituality has influenced people all over the world.