The relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, are due to arrive in London on October 11. They are expected to draw thousands of pilgrims during their five day stay in the UK capital. Pilgrims will be able to see and venerate the relics, housed in a casket which contains bones from the thigh and foot of the Carmelite nun who died at the age of 24 in France in 1897.
The relics will arrive at the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Simon Stock in Kensington on the evening of October 11 and then taken to Wormwood Scrubs Prison on the next day where prisoners will be able to venerate the relics. The bones will then be moved to Westminster Cathedral – the see of the Catholic archbishop to be blessed on the steps of the Cathedral by Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster John Arnold. There they will remain until an October 15 Mass of Farewell, celebrated by the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols.
Westminster Cathedral is preparing to welcome up to 100,000 pilgrims who are expected to venerate the relics, and attend special services and an all night vigil. Already, 100,000 candles have been ordered fas well as 50,000 pink roses to honor St. Thérèse, who is also known as the 'Little Flower of Jesus'. Among Latin Americans, she is sometimes known as Saint Teresita.
St Thérèse died of tuberculosis in 1897 aged 24 and came to wider attention after her autobiography 'Story of a Soul' was published. It was her seemingly unremarkable life that has made her such a remarkable figure, demonstrating that an extraordinary spiritual life can be lived through ordinary tasks. The relics arrival in London mark the end of a month long tour around England and Wales.
Speaking about the visit, Canon Christopher Tuckwell, Administrator of Westminster Cathedral said: "I am delighted that the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux are coming to Westminster Cathedral this October. I am sure they will be a source of grace and spiritual healing for all those pilgrims who come to the Cathedral during those three days. St Thérèse is a great inspiration to us all and I hope that the visit of her relics will enable a deepening of faith and a renewed sense of commitment to the Church”
Added Canon Tuckwell, “I would warmly invite you to visit us during this time." More than 100,000 people have already visited the relics of St Therese since they arrived in England on September 16. They have been to Wales as well. Last week they were in Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester, Lancaster and Newcastle. History was made on October 1, when the relics were brought to the Anglican York Minster Cathedral for a service dedicated to Christian unity. York Minster was the only non-Catholic venue for the transit of the saint's relics.
The Catholic Bishops of Leeds and Middlesbrough were among the invited guests, along with clerics and pastors from the United Reform, Methodist and Anglican Churches. The Dean of Minster, The Very Revd. Keith Jones, gave the main address and highlighted that the day marked the anniversary of the five Malines Conversations which began in December 1921 and ended in October 1926. These brought together Anglicans and Catholics who shared a passion for Christian unity; these conversations involved Charles Lindley Wood (Viscount Halifax); Fr Etienne Fernand Portal and Cardinal Mercier of Malines.
Linking this historical anniversary to the visit of the Relics, the Dean said: "Here tonight we meet in the presence of the relics of St Therese, which, in the care of the Carmelite guardians we are very grateful to welcome to York Minster. We Anglicans make no claim to call Therese our own: she lived and died in an impeccably Roman Catholic milieu. But it is a central quality of Therese that she wished to speak to the heart of anyone who would read about the truth she had found and proved in her life, and her genius is in her fearless honesty and directness. Those who love and revere her find that nobody speaks more strongly of the freedom of God to do as he wishes, and to love those whom he will love."
"Therese herself prayed for people at or even beyond the edge, as we measure it, of the boundaries of covenanted grace. That, she saw, was where priests should be. When we come into the presence of this sign of the Kingdom of Christ, these relics of the Little Flower, we are all humbled. And whoever we are, we are at one in this: that we ask God to have mercy on us. Even in the difficult, searching mazes of our search for the unity of the Church, we have to be prepared for God, whose wisdom sometimes seem foolish to us, to do what he will do. We pray that we may not impede Him."
"So what we do tonight is simple, and little. All the prayers of Mercier and Halifax and Portal are summed up in the universal prayer of those who live by Christ: Thy will be done. This we can pray together, and this needs be all our prayer for now."
On October 7, the relics were brought to the National Shrine at Walsingham, a historic place of pilgrimage by the English for centuries, and thence to the Oxford Oratory. They will then go to St. Joseph’s, in Gerrards Cross, before being taken to Aylesford.
For more details see: www.catholicchurch.org.uk/ccb/catholic_church/relics_of_st_therese_of_lisieux
www.rcdow.org.uk/therese
http://www.yorkminster.org/worship/visit-of-the-relics-of-st-thrse-of-lisieux-1-2-october-2009/
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