A Morning Prayer of St. Therese of Lisieux

O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.
O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity. Amen.

I am named after St. Therese. Love her. She was something of a willful, spoiled child who grew into a determined, sensitive loving adult with a care and concern for others. Therese wanted it all and chose to be content with what God gave her. In spite of a very dark time in her life, she chose to believe and trust in God’s Love.
There was a moment in the couple of years where I very nearly gave up my faith life. I’ve mentioned that rough year or so. I remember where I was when I thought that. I chose to keep believing. I chose to trust in all that I’d experienced throughout the years. I chose to trust in that moment where I recognized Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the experience at the Easter Vigil. Those moments are the moments to hold on to, for strength. Those are the moments to hold on to with deep trust.
Faith is an act of the will.

The last few days I’ve been sharing from John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, sharing yesterday how we just have to show up and do the work. I can not stress enough, much as I try, how important, how valuable is practice, particularly when it comes to machine quilting. Practice is like: training for a marathon, practicing for a concert or recital – it’s showing up for work. By uniting these actions with God we participate ever more deeply in the creativity of God’s Creation. Our work is sanctified. We can see the practice pieces, how they change over time, we can see the progress we make as we grow and learn and understand how things work. And then there is that moment where the work moves from being a technical to something more, something truly creative, sacred, something that speaks to the hearts of others.

God bless!

Teri