THE UNIVERSITY welcomed the pilgrim relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus on Thursday, April 13, at the Santisimo Rosario Parish Church.
This is the relics’ first visit to UST since its pilgrimage to the country in 2000.
St. Therese, also known as the “The Little Flower of Jesus,” is a “very powerful intercessor,” UST Parish Priest Fr. Paul Talavera, O.P. said in his homily.
Talavera recounted the start of his devotion to St. Therese when he was still a postulant.
“Pumunta ako sa library sa mga madalang na panahon […] at doon sa isang librong binuksan ko, mayroong nakaipit na prayer ni St. Therese. And I’ve always kept [and] pray that,” he said.
“[P]robably karamihan sa atin, we develop a devotion because of answered prayers,” he added.
Talavera read a letter written in 1999 by the late Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop-Emeritus Oscar Cruz, describing St. Therese as a “chosen instrument of God” for showing devotees holiness is present to anyone.
“Through her little way of confidence and love, she teaches us that by entrusting ourselves completely and obediently to our Father who loves us, and by doing and enduring all things for the love of God, we can also attain holiness and serve the salvation of the world,” Cruz wrote.
A procession was supposed to be held on campus at 8 p.m. but was canceled due to inclement weather brought about by Tropical Storm “Amang.” The relics were venerated after the 9 p.m. Mass.
St. Therese, a French Carmelite nun, exhorted Catholics to do small things with great love and reminded them of the universal call to sainthood.
During her illness with tuberculosis, she wrote her life story, which eventually became the popular book “Story of a Soul,” first published in 1898.
In 1997, she was declared a Doctor of the Church, the youngest so far to receive the honor.
The fifth Philippine pilgrimage of St. Therese’s relic also coincides with her 150th birth anniversary and the centennial of her beatification.
