Today September 26

Although it's the feast day of Saints Cosmas and Damian, great merciful (and FREE) doctor brothers, let's do St. Therese Couderc (1805 - 1885) whose feast day today also is, because her life seemed such a failure -- plus she suffered from spiritual dryness -- but she also had a profound sense of God. Even at the end of her long, hard life she could say, "I would willingly begin my journey again: I have found God so completely." We have the advantage of living in a photographic age, and so in her photo we see a kind, wise soul, surrounded by rabbits! She was standing in front of the convent hutch.

How was she (considered) a failure, even in her own eyes? Well, though she founded both the teaching order of the Sisters of St. Regis and the retreat-giving order of the Sisters of the Cenacle, based in part on the Jesuits, she was shunted out as superior -- first ignored (under the next superior, who was wealthy and only a novice for one month, and who relaxed the rules, especially of poverty, much to Mother Therese's dismay) and then put to hard manual labor (under the third superior, a practical woman, but unfortunately given to believe the false rumors about Mother Therese's [bad] business ability and physical and even mental health!) Poor intelligent and thoughtful Therese was put to work in the garden and the cellar (rather than teaching or giving retreats) but she found God there anyway. "Great trials make great souls," she used to say. Also, "Have confidence in God. The tree of the Cross bears fruit in every season and every land." And, "God is sufficient for me."

She was always happy and helpful. She liked to tell jokes and laugh, and she never let a young sister carry firewood all by herself or work in the garden herself. She believed "slow and steady wins the race" and was much given to silence, as noted by Pope Paul VI in his canonization of her in 1970.

She suffered spiritual dryness and physical ailments the last 10 - 12 years of her life, but she also had some neat mystical experiences too. She saw all things as if they had the word "Goodness" stamped on them in gold. It reminded her to thank God for all things. And she actually saw the souls of some folks in Purgatory. They were all around her (in her final hours) singing the Te Deum over and over, with an ineffable "reverence of which nothing on earth can even give a suggestion." She died in peace and silence a little while later; it was this date in 1885.