ST THERESA OF CHILD JESUS WAS A MEMBER OF THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER - it was her desire to be a daughter  of the Church that prompted her to pray for the intentions of the Holy Father.

DIREZIONE GENERALE DELL'APOSTOLATO DELLA PREGHIERA

BORGO S.SPIRITO 4 - C.P.6139 - 00195 ROMA - PRATI (ITALIA)

To the members, diocesan directors and national secretaries

of the Apostleship of  Prayer

and to all who live by its spirit

I have the pleasure and honour to communicate to you the news that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, through the faculties granted to it by the Supreme Pontiff Pope John-Paul II, has acceded to my request and confirms

Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church, the second patron before God of the members of the Apostleship of Prayer,

with all the rights and privileges that derive from it according to the rubrics, all things to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Apostleship of Prayer could not have wished for a better sign of the Church's esteem on the occasion of its 160th anniversary.

My request was prompted by the discovery, in the archives of the Carmel at Lisieux of the certificate of the enrolment in the Apostleship of Prayer of Miss Theresa Martin on October 15, 1885.

It was already known that Saint Theresa knew of the Apostleship of Prayer, for in her last autobiographical notes (June-July 1897) she wrote: "I desire to be a daughter of the Church like our Mother Saint Theresa and to pray according to the intentions of our Holy Father the Pope realizing that they embrace the whole universe, that is the general aim of my life...That is how I unite myself with the missionaries that Jesus has given me as brothers", but since it is now known that she became a member of the Apostleship of Prayer at the age of 12, she has become 'a Saint of the Apostleship of Prayer'.

As a member of the Apostleship of Prayer, the young Theresa undoubtedly prayed for the intentions which were recommended each month to the members of this association. A note attached to the certificate mentions that the leaflet presenting these intentions was brought each month by a volunteer to the Buissonnets, the home of Theresa. Now these are precisely the general and missionary intentions of the Holy Father that are at the centre of the attention of the millions of the adherents of the Apostleship of Prayer throughout the world and of the many others who, without being enrolled, make their daily offering and put their confidence in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

As Patron, Saint Theresa will surely intercede for our universal communion of prayer that it may contribute effectively to the building up of the Church and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The expression of Saint Theresa: "I desire to be a daughter of Church and pray according to the intentions of our Holy Father that is the general aim of my life" expresses in a few words what the spiritual Charter says about the aim of the Apostleship of Prayer, namely "to help Christians unite their prayers and their lives to the prayer and mission of the universal Church, of which the Holy Father's international and missionary intentions remind us each year".

Theresa approached the devotion to the Sacred Heart in her own way. Ii addressed to her sister Celine, she wrote: "I do not look on the Sacred Heart as others do -surrounded by thorns with a large cross at the centre". She preferred to relate to the risen Christ in heart to heart converse, until she could one day contemplate him face to face.

In her poem To the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she does not focus on the symbol of a heart pierced with a lance. She goes directly to the essential; the loving person of Jesus, his deep sentiments, the love that fills his heart.

This intimate knowledge of the Lord and of the sentiments of his heart corresponds perfectly to the way followed by the Apostleship of Prayer in recent times presenting the devotion to the Heart of Jesus as a spirituality rooted in the Scriptures and putting the accent, as Theresa did, on the loving person of Jesus. Indeed, all devotion to the heart of Jesus has no other aim than to make us more like him, trusting in the Father and attentive to others as he was himself.

Saint Theresa's vision cannot but appeal to Christians of this new millennium and be an encouragement for you to continue the way to sanctity in daily life that you have undertaken.

Fraternally yours in the Lord,

Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.

Director General of the Apostleship of Prayer

Rome, March 25 2004 Feast of the Annunciation

Morning Offering

(Composed by St. Therese of the Child Jesus)

Oh my God! I offer You 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 His infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them in the furnace of His merciful love.

Oh my God! I ask of You for myself and for those dear to me the grace to fulfill perfectly Your holy will, to accept for love of You the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may on day be united together in Heaven for all eternity. Amen.