St. Therese Of The Child Jesus

St Therese of Liseux is remembered for many things. She is a Doctor of the Church, patroness of the missions, and her "Little Way" of doing small things for Jesus with great love. I think it is her simplicity that appeals to so many people. She is probably one of the most popular saints; many people have great devotion to her for various reasons. She is quoted as saying that she would spend her heaven doing good on earth. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul is a spiritual classic. It is actually one of the few books I have read more than once.
An aspect of this great saint's life that may be a little less known is that of her devotion to praying for priests. Because of this, she is a wonderful patron to those of us who have answered the call to be spiritual mothers to priests.
When I began thinking about what to write for this post, I was going to write about the book Maurice & Therese: The Story of a Love by Patrick Ahern. This is a beautiful story of St Therese and a seminarian who wrote the Carmel asking for a sister to pray for him. St Therese was the sister who was given this prayerful task. They began writing each other, and eventually became close friends.
In reading through the blogs I follow, I came upon a beautifully written post on this very book over at Spiritual Motherhood For Priests. The post gives a thorough and insightful review of this book. Please follow the link to read the post and pray for the priests mentioned on the site.
I read this book several years ago and was deeply moved by the friendship that developed between Maurice and Therese. She was his friend, but displayed all of the qualities of spiritual motherhood as well.
On this her feast day, I thank St Therese for her example of how to love Our Lord in the little things I do, and for her example of how to love our priests.
I ask your prayers for all spiritual mothers and remember to pray for your priests.

St. Therese please pray for us, and pray for our priests.