Day 23- Love of Self- To Attain to Oneness with Jesus

"My Heaven is to know resemblance here with God... To be like Thee is my desire." 

 ~ St. Therese

Preparatory Prayer:

Dear St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, I thank the Most Holy Trinity for all the graces lavished upon you, and through you upon the world.  I have great confidence in your intercession, both because of your power in Heaven, since you yourself said that "God would refuse you nothing," and because of your goodness and your promise that "no one would invoke you without receiving answer, since you would "spend your Heaven in doing good upon earth" and "let fall from Heaven a shower of roses."  Intercede for me with the loving Hearts of Jesus and Mary, that the Holy Spirit may assist me to understand your teaching on "Joy in Suffering" and may grant me the gift of fortitude, that fired with a burning love of God and souls, I may eagerly follow you in joyous suffering and share in your glorious triumph.  I promise to show my heartfelt gratitude by doing whatever I can to promote your honor and to make you ever more widely known and loved throughout the world, for the greater glory of the Most Holy Trinity.  Amen.

Reflection:

St. Therese loved herself, in a very pure way, because she was made in the image and likeness of God and so in loving herself, who resembles God, she knew she could more fully love God.  She was not just content to be similar to God, but to be one with Him, to be united with Him.  St. Albert the Great says, "Love desires to be one with the beloved; and if it could, it would form but one being with the beloved... Love has the power of uniting and transforming; it transforms the one who loves into him who is loved and him who is loved into him who loves.  Each passes into the other, as far as this is possible."  St. Therese had this same desire, to be one with her Beloved.  She said, "Deign to transform me, O Love, into Thee."  She also said, "I asked Jesus to draw me into the fire of His love and to unite me so closely to Himself that He may live and act in me."  St. Therese also knew then that if she wanted to let Jesus live fully in herself, she would have to suffer, knowing that Jesus is the "Man of Sorrows."  St. Therese was happy to do so, she embraced her cross and loved herself in the process and this love transformed her into a living Tabernacle for Jesus.  

Prayer:

Dear St. Therese, help me to see my beauty, in being made in the image and likeness of God.  Help me to know that when I love myself, I love the one who created me and who lives in me.  Show me more and more each day how to unite myself with God to daily transform more and more into my Beloved.  I desire to be Christ, living in the world, happy to embrace my daily crosses as He did.

As I become one in suffering with Jesus, so shall I also be one with Him in glory.

I also recommend to you my special intentions in this Novena (Specify your intentions.)  To one who has suffered so much for Him, God will refuse nothing.

Our Father....  Hail Mary....  Glory Be....