Each month of our year is marked with occasions that celebrate different aspects of this wondrous gift of our Catholic Faith, and October is no exception. However, this October some of those feasts are even more special than usual. October 1^st is the Feast of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus and of the Holy Face, who is popularly referred to as St. Therese of Lisieux, one of the most popular Saints of all time. This Discalced Carmelite nun, little known during her lifetime, became known world-wide very quickly after her death due to the tremendous number of miracles that occurred and still occur as a result of her intercession. There are two aspects to her feast this year that are particularly important. First, this October 1^st marks the one hundredth anniversary of her death. In God's oft mysterious plan, there seems to be an outpouring of even more grace than usual on those kinds of anniversary celebrations, and so this centenary is a very special event. The charisms associated with this great Saint include a very personal and intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus, a special devotion to His Incarnation and His holy childhood, a deep love and commitment to prayer, an attitude of simplicity and profound trust in Divine Providence, and heroic perseverance and faith in the face of great suffering (she died a rather agonizing death of tuberculosis). These particular charisms seem consistent with the Spirit's movement in her in the circumstances of her life. But another charism associated with her that is somewhat surprising is great zeal for missions and apostolic outreach. One ordinarily would not associate a cloistered contemplative with zeal for the missions, but she felt led by the Lord Jesus to devote much of her intercessory prayer to praying for missionaries and all those who work to spread the Gospel, so much so that she was named one of the patrons of mission work.

Another aspect of the celebration of her life that is being formally proclaimed this year is her designation as a Doctor of the Church. This is a very special title, granted only by the Pope, that indicates that the Saint so designated has written works that are particularly outstanding in their content and are suitable for guiding all of the faithful into a deeper understanding of their Faith. In the entire history of the Church, only 32 Saints have been honored with this important title. St. Therese will be the 33^rd. She is also only the third women to be so designated, following St. Catherine of Siena and her own namesake, St. Teresa of Jesus (known popularly as St. Teresa of Avila). Her most famous work is her spiritual autobiography Story of a Soul (best edition is the Institute for Carmelite Studies edition of the translation by Fr. John Clarke, OCD). The Holy Father, with his own great love and zeal for the proclamation of the Gospel, has chosen to make the formal announcement of the proclamation of St. Therese as a Doctor of the Church, not on her own centenary feastday, which is when you might expect it, but rather to declare it on October 19^th, the day this year that the Church celebrates World Mission Sunday. The selection of this date highlights the connection between St. Therese and missionary work and reminds all the Christian faithful of the essential link between prayer and apostolic activity. May we learn from this great Saint, and be men and women both of prayer and of zeal to spread the Gospel!