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A story about beginning Evangelization with prayer.

To say that the St. Louis Byzantine Catholic Mission is small is an understatement. We do not have our own Church; Divine Liturgy is on Saturday evening at the Adoration Chapel of St. Mark's Roman Catholic Church. We do not have a Byzantine Catholic priest; several bi-ritual Roman Catholic priests take turns saying the Divine Liturgy.

From August of '05 (when I moved to St. Louis) until January of '06, we averaged 10 persons attending the Divine Liturgy. I spoke with most of the Byzantine Catholics about this (I am Roman Catholic), and they explained that there are 8 members of the Mission and we usually have 2 or 3 visitors each week.

We began discussing Evangelization seriously in January of this year. Several good ideas have been suggested, and they probably will be followed through later this spring and summer. A consensus was reached that Evangelization should begin with prayer.

I asked one of the Byzantine Catholics if we could say a short Novena to St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, before Divine Liturgy. I wanted to be sensitive to Eastern Catholics' concerns about Latinization. His response was immediate and unequivocal: "Of course; we can never have too many prayers."

We began saying a Novena to the Little Flower in February of '06. There were 15 people in attendance the next week, and 18 people the following week. This week we had over 40 people attend Divine Liturgy.

Upon seeing the size of the congregation this weekend, Father Selzer (a Roman Catholic priest) asked the visitors if they were from a group. They were not. Almost all of the visitors were unrelated married couples, or elderly singles. There were a few college students. When we spoke with them after the Liturgy, almost everyone said that they just suddenly had an interest in seeing what Eastern Catholicism was all about, was the Divine Liturgy in English, could they receive Communion, etc.

I do not claim that the sudden increase in attendance is the work of the Little Flower keeping her promise that upon her death, she "will let fall from Heaven ... a Shower of Roses." On the other hand, I do not deny this is the explanation. I just don't know. Let the theologians and philosophers debate the issue. Meanwhile, we will continue to say our Novena to the Little Flower before each Divine Liturgy.

The Little Flower is the patron saint of St. Therese of Lisieux Byzantine Catholic Church in St. Petersburg, FL. Their website explains that they chose her as their patron saint because she is the patron saint of missions. She is the youngest Doctor of the Church, and the Church has declared her to be the greatest saint of modern times.

I would love to hear from some of the members of St. Therese of Lisieux Byzantine Catholic Church about their experiences.

Saint Therese of Lisieux is also the patron of the Russian Greek-Catholics.

As to the roses, be on guard! Not long before she died, someone asked Catherine Doherty if she also would throw roses upon us from Heaven. Her answer was a classic: "Me? Throw roses? Certainly not! I'm going to throw BRICKS!"

Incognitus

http://stmichaelruscath.org/library/russicum.php

An explanation of the link with St Theresa and the Russicum in Rome.

ICXC
NIKA

Russian Rite?

Shouldn't that read "the Great Russian recension of the Constanstinopolitan (i.e. Byzantine) Partricular Church (i.e. liturgical rite)"?

Ungcsertezs

Certainly any prayer is effectual.

It would be wonderful to also introduce a Byzantine devotion with the growing numbers, to introduce everyone to those riches easily at hand but often neglected (Akathists, Canons, etc.). The Little Flower site suggests the Akathist to the Theotokos - perhaps our "New Romanos" Dr. Alex could compose an Akathist to the Little Flower?
FDD

Oh agreed there Fr Deacon - BUT

Not till he's finished my translation please

I'm hoping to have it in my paws before I go to Lourdes in May

Or a Parakletic Canon?

It certainly would be simple to organize a brief Moleben to St. Therese--many Byzantine liturgical texts in her honor already exist, so it would just be a matter of compiling them.

Dave

Sorry to show my ignorance, but what are an Akathist and a Moleben?

John Patrick - you may want to read the thread on Akathists and Molebens: https://www.byzcath.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=003571;p=2

There are quite a few of these on-line now. God bless.
FDD

I am excited for the mission in St. Louis. perhaps there will be something in Chattanooga. keep the faith, and may you grow numerically and spiritually in St. Louis.
Much Love,
Jonn

This is the Novena to St. Therese we say before Divine Liturgy every week:

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus,
Please pick a rose
From the heavenly gardens
And send it to us
As a message of love.

O Little Flower of Jesus,
Ask God today to grant the favors
We now place with confidence
In your hands.

(Mention specific requests): Please pray that there may be an increase of membership in the St. Louis Byzantine Catholic Mission.

St. Therese,
Help us always to believe,
As you did,
In God's great love for us,
So that we might imitate your
"Little Way" each day.

Amen.

I agree with Diak that something as advised would be more approriate if it was Byzantine and of course it would be in line with Church instruction as well. We can't be removing Latinisms in one place to slip them in somewhere else.

ICXC
NIKA

Here is the prayer I said on the operating table before the general anesthesia was administred:

St. Therese, the Little Flower,
Now is the hour to show thy power.

Very short and to the point, yet very powerful. It can be said as you inhale/exhale.

I think any Byzantine or Latin prayer should take into consideration what St. Therese said about prayer. In her autobiography, Story of a Soul, St. Therese wrote:

"I do not have the courage to search out beautiful prayers in books. There are so many of them and they really give me a headache! And each prayer is more beautiful than the others. I cannot recite them all and not knowing which to choose, I do like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me." Story of a Soul, page 242, John Clarke, O.C.D., Third Edition (1996).

Beautiful prayers give me a headache? And this is from a Doctor of the Church? The greatest saint of modern times? Later on, she even admits it was difficult to say the Rosary because her mind would always wander! It sounds like St. Therese is really a lot like most of us.

My only suggestion is to keep any prayer simple and childlike. I believe Jesus said on more than one occasion that we had to be like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Don't come up with some recitation of several pages that nobody understands unless they have studied theology, or that puts people to sleep.

I think St Theresa would personally prefer to be on the side of what the Church instructions are regarding the different Rites in the Church. The Church requires the different Rites and Churches to be authentic and to stop adding Latin devotions or altering our Byzantine prayers and services to Latinise them and that included trying to "improve" the Byzantine Rite in any way. There are appropriate services to precede the Divine Liturgy and their use is to be prefered to anthing else.

ICXC
NIKA