Thursday, January 6, 2011

A Rose from St. Therese


"St. Therese, the Little Flower, please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden and sent it to me with a message of love. Ask God to grant me the favour I thee implore and tell Him I will love Him each day more and more."
(Prayer to St. Therese)

It had been my first year teaching at St. Vincent Ferrer School in Brooklyn, having previously taught at Little Flower School. I had attended Little Flower as a child, and when I returned as a teacher, I remember being struck by a colorful framed print hanging above the stage in the auditorium of St. Therese holding a crucifix with cascading roses  It looked so familiar to me, and due to it's aged appearance, I thought it might have been the same one that had been there since I was a little girl.  I  would miss seeing that picture and all of the other images and statues of St. Therese. 

I was to teach 5A at St. Vincent's, and when the principal showed me my classroom for the first time, there, almost life size, was a statue of St. Therese with crucifix and roses right down the hallway from my classroom.  I would have the comfort of passing it many times a day walking to and from my room.  That was the first happy coincidence at my new school, but the one to follow was even more wonderful.

A few weeks after the beginning of the term, October 1st, would be the Feast day of St. Therese. I thought it would be nice to adorn her statue with a dozen roses and to read a little biography from my book of Lives of the Saints for children to the class.  Early the morning of October 1st, roses in hand, I had been on my way to the statue when Frances, a second-grade teacher saw me and said, "Good morning!  What beautiful roses!  What is the occasion?"  I told her that they were for St. Therese.  She said, "Well, they're lovely, and now she's going to see that you get roses, too." 

The teacher on duty had rung the school bell, and the children quieted down and began to take their places on line.  I was looking forward to hearing their "oohs" and "wows" when they saw the beautiful roses at the foot of the statue. It seemed as if most of the class was on line; maybe one or two students were late or absent. I noticed that Giselle, a petite and sweet little girl, was not on line, but at the next moment I saw her coming into the schoolyard.  What was she carrying wrapped in a large cone-shaped paper wrapper?  As she approached me at the front of the line, I saw it was a single red rose surrounded by an abundance of baby's breath and wrapped in printed florist's tissue.  She said, "This is for you, Miss Virzera".  I was almost speechless, but thanked her so much.  "Was there a special reason for bringing me this rose?"  I asked.  She said,  "I don't know  I just told my mommy I want Miss Virzera to have a rose today and she said OK." 

I felt as if a little bit of heaven had touched me, and I was on Cloud 9.  I couldn't wait to tell Frances that I received a rose, too. 

At that time, I was unaware of the tradition of asking St. Therese to send roses from heaven as in the Prayer to the Little Flower at the beginning of this post.  Some time later, I found out about this pious practice and tradition, and I was even more elated.  I mentioned to Frances that I didn't know about St.Therese sending roses to those devoted or praying to her, and she said, "I didn't either"  I asked her why she had said that I would get roses, too.  "I said it just like that," she said.

I later was to learn how closely St. Therese is associated with roses.  In her autobiography, Story of a Soul, she says: "I will let fall from heaven...a shower of roses."   

Could there be any doubt that the rose was from St. Therese?


Joan Virzera
www.catholic-collectibles.com

26 comments:

  1. Saint Therese, I believe in your interventions with my Heavenly Father. Thank you for the sign of the Rose!

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  2. Can an answer be a picture of a bouquet of roses

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  3. St.Therese does send us rose signs, from God, as a sign that our request will soon be granted, or that she has heard our request.

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  4. I got my red rose today, as a sign that, despite my sinfulness, we are still friends with St. Therese and Jesus.

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  5. I got my sign of roses .

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  6. I have been praying for a special intention for my daughter..of which she is unaware. I finished the novena to St. Therese today..and a few hours later I visited my daughter's Facebook page. She had just changed her profile picture and with it was an image of a rose! Thank you St. Therese for listening to my petitions and interceding to Our Heavenly Father!

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  7. I comityed a terrible sin a few days ago and felt like I completely broke my trust with God. I prayed to him every day since then and today at my high school during my whole 53 minutes of lunch, I spent time in the chapel, praying very very hard, crying and begging God for his trust and for him to forgive me. I asked him to please answer my prayers in any way of his, maybe even with flowers or roses, red, green, pink, blue whatever. I didn't care I just wanted to know that God was with me and he was making sure I would be ok. I even prayed to the Virgin Mary, with St. Theresa in my mind as well the entire time. Even said a decade or two of the rosary. After this I felt so much better. I feel like a gigantic weight had been lifted off of my shoulder. When I got home this evening, I walk in and my mom says "oh yeah, look at the beautiful set of Roses dad got for me on the counter" (she had been out of town for a few days so he got them as a welcome home gift but that's beside the point) so sure enough when I get into the kitchen, I see a bouquet of Red Roses on the counter in a vase. I immidently thought of earlier, and thought "it's a sign from God and St. Theresa" I feel blessed and I feel so much closer to God now. I'm so glad I got to experience this.

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    1. God bless you, Addie, and may you be reminded of God's love and the love of the Little Flower every time you see a rose.

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    2. Wonderful,did you get to confession too?

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  8. I prayed for a certain guy to come into my life and did the Novena to St. Theresa. After the 9 days, I saw real roses and pictures of roses--SEVERAL to be exact. Well, since roses are common, I wanted to have a certain color rose---BLUE----well I got several blue roses to. Was this the right thing to do to ask for a specific color? I really want to be sure on this. Thank you for answering this question.

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    1. p.s. the specific color I asked for was blue after a 2nd novena was done

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  9. St there's I'm doing novena to u today send me a rose to confirm you heard my prayers and grant them through Jesus chrChr who said ask and it shall be given I ask in faith and recirec in faith ameb allow me to hear good news from insurance adjuster that I will get what you lawyer demanded for my accident it may take a miracle but I believe it can be so thank you

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  10. Ive done lots of novenas to St. Therese and by God's grace my requests have been granted. It's really a powerful novena. Thank You St. Therese and praise be to God...

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  11. First of all a cordial greeting, My name is Dino ventrella, I live in New York City, the reason for this email is poruwe I would like to share the day I met or learned about Saint Theresa of flowers for the first time in my life and the way I was introduced,
    It may sound strange to many, but I am a man of faith in God but I am not one of those who should go to church. I of those who pray frequently is why I was even more impressed by the way this virgin came into my life, Although I admit that I still do not go to church frequently or my faith has increased or decreased ... I would only like to know why is santa chooses to present herself to a sinful backpack as I am.
    I tell them my meeting with her in short words:
    Since I was little I felt and communicated with a higher level of spirituality,
    This communication is almost always through messages that are materialized with medals or pins, last year I found a silver medallion very old on my night table as I usually found several medals or pins that somehow bring messages from beings or energies superior to us (sounds a bit strange to many) ask my partner or my best friend if they had left for me there, and both of them answered me that I did not pay attention, although I kept thinking about this medal With the image of a virgin and the inscription of the name Santa Theresa of Jesus of little flowers I, I went to sleep and that morning when I woke up my partner would go to the uncle's funeral in Pennsylvania (2 hours from NYC) it was 8 o'clock: 00 am and return home. At 5:00 p.m. but I noticed that he was wearing a white rose and he only told me this rose is for you, I miss it since he was never a person to give me flowers and much less to carry it for more than 3 hours in his hand ..the grip and put it in water, it is hard almost 3 weeks in perfect condition ,, that mine night I decided to look for the virgin of the medal and there I found out and I knew this virgin. Thank you for your time and read about my meeting with santa theresita
    Dino A.Ventrella

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    1. Your partner? What do you mean?
      Hope you are not shacking up Dino.

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    2. St. Theresa is a spiritual teacher and looks deep into your heart. She knows your soul better than you do. Keep praying to her. I am so happy St. Theresa is getting close to you and showing you that she loves you.

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  12. Today I saw Roses on TV it got Me so Excited becausr Ijust started St> Theresa ofRoses last Week for a Novena and I will continue.

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  13. Please send me Rose from the one soon.

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  14. St.Therese please have my future give me a Rose.Thank you!

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  15. St. Therese Please answer my prayer in passing my NCLEX RN board exam.

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  16. I have been praying to St. Theresa since I was 21 years old, today I am 55 years old and she has always been there for me. I have received Roses for many of my intentions and novenas in the most miraculous ways. An event has taken me by storm this recent year, and what I am asking for is not something acceptable by society. My sinful actions this past year has put doubt in my mind that I deserve any favours from St. Theresa. But she is constantly sending me signs and pictures of Roses.

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