(A crucifix at one of the "Stations" of Lough Derg Island in County Donegal, Ireland)

I was thinking wonderingly, that St. Therese knew so much about the love of God and the spiritual life that hundreds of books have been written about her, and yet, she never saw Our Lord in this life. So many other saints had visions of Him, but she loved Him without special voices and apparitions. She learned about Him the way we so easily can: by love, by prayer, and by her "Little Way" of love and sacrifice. As a matter of fact, much of the time, she didn't even have spiritual consolation...she often felt dark and alone. But she kept on loving in the dark...she kept on loving even when she didn't "feel" like loving. We've been talking about the Holy Face of Our Lord on this blog, and that was a great devotion of she who called herself "Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face."

She wrote a prayer along these lines, and Pope St. Pius X gave it an indulgence of 300 days. The final lines go thus:

"O Jesus, Whose Face is the sole beauty that ravishes my heart, I may not behold here upon earth the sweetness of Thy Glance, nor feel the ineffable tenderness of Thy Kiss. I bow to Thy Will -- but I pray Thee to imprint in me Thy Divine Likeness, and I implore Thee to so inflame me with Thy Love that it may quickly consume me, and I may soon reach the Vision of Thy glorious Face in Heaven! Amen."

We may never receive a vision of Our Lord's breathtakingly beautiful Face in this life, but we bow to His Will and pray that we may quickly come to Heaven to see Him there. So I hope, so may it be.