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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Julito Cortes has called on the people to follow the example of St. Therese of Lisieux by living simple lives.
Bishop Cortes gave the challenge in a homily during yesterday’s concelebrated farewell Mass for the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux at the Carmelite Monastery in barangay Mabolo, Cebu City, after a three-day stay in Cebu.
French-born St. Therese was a Carmelite contemplative nun who spent 10 years in a convent in Lisieux, France, before she died of tuberculosis on Sept. 30, 1897 when she was 24.
She was canonized in 1925 and was declared a Doctor of the Church and Patroness of Missions by the late Pope John Paul II on Dec. 13, 2001.
“For us ordinary persons, ordinary Mass goers, ordinary public servants, ordinary priests, ordinary bishops, Therese is saying that holiness need not mean accomplishing grand actions,” said Cortes, one of 15 priests who concelebrated the Mass.
He said the three-day stay of the relics of the saint, who is also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, has also been a time to reflect on the life of the saint.
“How does one save one’s soul? Is it having one’s soul and saving the nation as these past week’s events in Metro Manila would tell us, or is it saving one soul and saving the world as one nun in the quiet cloister of Carmel would suggest?” he said.
Cortes also said that the visit of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux was an opportunity for people to pray for personal intentions and for those of the country.
“We asked for personal healing and conversion and for the healing and conversion of our country,” he added.
The reliquary bearing the relics of the saint was on display at the Carmelite convent, which was open daily until midnight since its arrival on Sunday night.
Early yesterday morning, the church-shaped reliquary was carried into the church from the cloister and placed in a side altar in preparation for the Mass where devotees lined up to venerate the relics.
The relics were brought to Mactan to board a ferry for Tubigon, Bohol, from where it will proceed to Tagbilaran City.
Msgr. Joseph Tan, member of the ad hoc committee for the visit of the relics of St. Therese to Cebu, announced that the relics of the French saint will return to Cebu on March 1 for a brief stay before it proceeds to its next stop, Iloilo. /Editorial Assistant Ma. Bernadette A. Parco
