Is St. Therese a practical joker?

After analyzing the mysterious events that happened this weekend, I do believe that she is quite fond of practical jokes. You be the judge...

I have the suspicion that she is a practical joker. First, take a look at this photo...., doesn't she look a bit mischievous?

Then look at the company she keeps! These are Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus from Oklahoma City...

I don't mean to be disrespectful. Let me explain... this weekend I noticed that a lot of people were coming from Truth Laid Bear to visit my blog. I went to that site to see if I could figure out why, but I didn't see any references to Your Pastoral Coach. I then clicked the "Go to Community" pull down list and selected "Blogdom of God." I looked around and they did not have any post from me. How are people finding my blog? I glanced to the right where they have a list of 4,133 religious blogs listed by popularity..., what do I see..., it can't be...it's impossible...

IT'S A MIRACLE! IT'S A MIRACLE! Your Pastoral Coach was listed as THE #1 religious blog in the world!!!

My first reaction was, "I really hope Amy Welborn has a compassionate heart." I began blogging inspired by open book..., I didn't mean to bring her down 5 notches! How did I go from last to first in one weekend? Well, the only thing I know that happened is that Julie from Happy Catholic mentioned my post on St. Therese's miracle. Wow! I knew she was popular, but I never knew she was so connected!

(The truth is, I work in IT, so I had a suspicion that there was a coding glitch somewhere..., but it was fun to fantasize...)

Then, Adrian Warnock pulled open the curtains (via this post), exposing the truth behind the wizard of Oz... However, it is Monday P.M. and the glitch is still there...

Now, this list in TLB has been working well for quite some time. It didn't move my blog from 4,000 to 3,000, but to #1, making it VERY visible. This didn't happen when I was talking about organic coffee or the last Notre Dame game. It happened when I was talking about how St. Therese so lovingly interceded for my father, and how God was so lovingly moved to miraculously heal him. Could it be that she wanted many people to see this? Could it be that others out there needed a bit more information to surrender a big problem in the hands of God? If this is so, then St. Therese sure has a good sense of humor...

Technorati Tags: Catholic, Saints, St. Therese

Comments

[Julie D.]

I love it! I thought I remembered that St. Therese had quite a sense of fun ... and we KNOW that God is hilarious sometimes ...

So nice to be mentioned by the #1 blog. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted! :-0

[Katrina]

I want to agree that St. Therese is a practical jokster. On her feast day (Oct 1), I was reading her autobiography in a bunk (I was at retreat), when the front door, then the back door suddenly opened as if someone had walked through. I got up to close the back door to find the door still locked! I think St. Therese wanted me to get up and stretch my legs.

[Hector]

Thanks Julie and Katrina for your comments. I never knew about this side of St. Therese. I found this tonight...

"In her testimony at the Apostolic Process, she tells us that after Therese died, the body was laid out in front of the grill, according to custom, so that visitors could come and view the body. Often people would pass rosaries through the grill so the Sister on duty could touch the rosary to the body and then back to the visitor. Marie of the Trinity tells us that during her watch she couldn't stop crying. She had been very close to Therese so the tears were just pouring down her cheeks. But suddenly something very strange happened. As one visitor came up and gave her a rosary, she reached with it into the coffin and touched the body of Therese and somehow the rosary got entangled in Therese's fingers! And so there she was pulling away, and she couldn't get it loose! As she was struggling with this and crying and crying, she thought she heard Therese saying to her interiorly "I'm not going to let go until you give me a smile." And she said, herself, interiorly "No, I feel like crying; I'm not going to smile." And then pretty soon the visitor starts saying "Well, what's taking so long?" Suddenly she was struck by the humor of the situation and she laughed. And the fingers seem to let go and there she had the rosary back again. So Therese got what she wanted, even there at the grill!

Here is a central characteristic of Therese's spirit that we can easily overlook or take for granted. Which? Her sense of humor... Carmelite spirituality is something deadly serious. And because it is serious it is full of joy! Our God is a happy God. "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."(John 15,11). The one who started the whole Carmelite adventure, Saint Teresa of Avila, used to remark : "God deliver me from sad-faced Saints.""