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buckster
Formation
17 Posts |
Posted - Dec 02 2008 : 4:41:18 PM
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I have many personal St. Therese stories, but I'll pick this one to share.
When my husband and I were engaged to be married, I had shared with him some of my personal St. Therese miracle stories. He had not converted yet (he was raised Episcopalian), and wasn't planning on it at that particular moment, but was so struck by St. Therese's intercession in my life that he began to do some research of his own on the saint.
Meanwhile, like so many good fiance's he began searching for a home for us to start our new life and family together. But we were pretty broke though we both worked, and the housing market was pretty high and tight. For weeks we looked at house after house. Either they were too expensive or in really rough shape and in a really rough neighborhood. With just weeks until our wedding and both of us back home with our prospective parents, we were beginning to panic wondering which one of us would have to ask his/her parents to let us live with them until we found an apartment to rent.
One particular house we looked at was so discouraging, that my then fiance began to get really sad, and even apologetic that he probably wouldn't be able to afford to get us a house for many years from the way things were looking for us. I told him not to worry about it...even though I was crying too. Then I said, "let's do a St. Therese novena...like the ones I told you about." And he agreed.
So we began our 9 day novena to St. Therese. The particular novena that I used was found in a little blue prayer book (found at many religious bookstores...but I got mine under "unique" circumstances- a story in itself! The prayer noted that the prayer had to be done before 11am, and that on the third day, if your prayer was to be answered favorably, you would recieve a rose.
Three days into the novena, my fiance/husband called me at work all excited, asking me to meet him at this certain address in town. He explained that a friend of his had a friend that was being relocated for his job and needed to sell his home quickly. The friend thought we should see the house. My fiance/husband had already seen the house at that point, and new from all of the homes we had already seen, that I wasn't crazy about ramblers because the way they were laid out. One particular box style was really on my "no" list because they were split in such a way that the "children's" bedroom was in the basement and the grown ups were upstairs and in the front of the house. He said the guy might be willing to "wheel a deal" and he further asked me to keep an open mind because the house was similar to one of "those ramblers" I didn't like.
That evening I drove up to this tiny 1950's rambler just blocks from a Seminary campus. A young man named "T" answered the door. He showed us around. It was in great condition. The neighborhood was nice. The layout was even nice. We both liked the house. We asked what he wanted to sell it for. He had an envelope and handed it to us and told us to check it out and to get back to him.
We left, and opened the envelope before were down the steps and in the driveway, and were instantly dismayed. It was more than we could afford...by about 10 grand. We got into our cars and called each other on our cell phones to talk about it as we headed to a coffee shop nearby to talk some more. As drove down the street about a block from the house, I notice this huge, I mean absolutely honking, huge water tower in the middle of the street. It really stood out as odd to me that a water tower this size was in a quiet suburban street. That's when the light bulb went off. On the side of the water tower, the name of the suburb was blazened in large black letters... "ROSEVILLE." Next to the city's name was a huge painting of a fully opened, red rose with a long stem! I absolutely gasped and yelled..."No way!!" How crazy is this that a block from this house was this water tower for a city named "Roseville" with a giant rose for it's logo?!! Then I noticed all of the street signs had the same rose painted on them. In fact, everywhere I looked, I was seeing roses painted on everything, and everywhere.
I finally calmed down and asked my fiance if he had gotten his "rose" from St. Therese today. He paused and said no. Then I said, start looking at the signs around here more carefully, and I tell you why I'm yelling all over the place.
When we finally caught up with each other, I explained to him that I thought we had found our new home and why. He was absolutely floored. A bit doubtful because he didn't get an actual flower, but definitely taken aback. I told him that not all of my Therese roses were actual roses. I definitely thought this was a "signal grace" or "sign" (literally LOL!) Then I said counter-offer the seller and see if he'll sell it to us for what we can afford.
We counter offered and two days later he accepted...the last day of our novena. The following year, after we were married, my husband became Catholic and the biggest St. Therese fan ever!
In case you were wondering, the novena goes like this;
O little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it to me 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 request) St. Therese, help us to always believe as you did, in God's great love for us, so that I might imitate your "Little WAy" each day. Amen. Then offer 5 Our Father's, 5 Hail Mary's, and 5 Glory Be's.
On the last day of this five-day Novena, offer a second set of 5 Our Father's, 5 Hail Mary's, and 5 Glory Be's in Thanksgiving.
My fiance of course was freaking out because I was hollering "No way!" into the phone.
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St. Therese
Posted - Nov 22 2008 : 08:45:45 AM
