The Sacrifice/ Good Deeds Beads

                

From the site:

                               http://www.fisheaters.com/sacrificebeads.html

The most typical actual "chaplet" consists a string of 10 beads, with a Crucifix at one end, symbolizing our taking up our Crosses and going the Way of Christ. On the other end nowadays is usually a medal depicting St. Thérèse, which reminds us of her "Little Way" of spirituality that's embodied in the use of the beads, and of the fact that we are all called to be Saints. They are kept in one's pocket, secretly, and when one mentally offers up something to God in union with Christ's sufferings on the Cross, one slides one of the beads toward the Crucifix. The beads are constructed such that when they are moved, they remain where they are put.

Some Sacrifice Beads consist of 15 beads, with 3 beads of a different color evenly interspersed among them, each representing one of the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. Each time 5 regular beads are moved toward the Crucifix, one of the Trinity beads is automatically moved, too, symbolizing our participation, by grace, in life of the Most Holy Trinity, and reminding us that any good we do is because of God alone.

Some people use the beads simply, by just moving one toward the Crucifix for each Sacrifice, but a more challenging and fruitful way of using them is to move a bead back toward the medal for each sin one commits along the way. This is a good way of examining one's conscience all throughout the day.

At the end of the day, one "re-sets" all of the beads and places them under one's pillow to retrieve and put in one's pocket in the morning in order to begin anew, hopefully fulfilling the goal of moving all the beads toward Christ.

Though Sacrifice Beads originated with the young St. Thérèse and are most commonly used by children, they can be and often are used just as well by adults, too.

Sacrifice Beads (which don't need to be blessed by a priest) shouldn't be used in a spirit of competition with others who might be using them (though a child discussing nightly with his parents his spiritual development by use of the beads is, of course, good!). Their use is, ultimately, between God and the one making sacrifices.

Prayers of St.Therese - Act of Oblation to Merciful Love

                                       http://www.medjugorje.ws/en/articles/therese-lisieux-story-soul/15

ACT OF OBLATION OF ST THÉRÈSE OF THE CHILD JESUS AND THE HOLY FACE TO THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD

This Prayer was found after the death of Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus and of the Holy 
Face in the copy of the Gospels which she carried night close to her heart. 

            Offering of myself as a Victim of Holocaust to God’s Merciful Love

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make You Loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! To be Yourself my Sanctity!

Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Saviour and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with Love.

I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints (in heaven and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! The love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of His mortal life: “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you!” I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! That the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-powerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.

I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.

I thank You, O my God! For all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the sceptre of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.

After earth’s Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.

In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved! Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I Offer Myself as a Victim of Holocaust to Your Merciful Love, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!

May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.

I want O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!

Marie Francoise Thérèse of the Child Jesus
and the Holy Face, unworthy Carmelite religious
This 9th day of June,
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity,
in the year of grace, 1895

St. Thérèse's self-offering to "Merciful Love"http://www.ewtn.com/therese/readings/readng4.htm

---

From Céline's (Sr. Geneviève's) testimony at the diocesan inquiry into the life of St. Thérèse, given as a part of the process for the cause of canonization.
Source: St. Thérése of Lisieux by Those Who Knew Her. Edited by Christopher O'Mahony. Dublin: Pranstown House, rep. 1989, pp. 128-129.
"On 9 June of the same year 1895, the feast of the Blessed Trinity, she received a very special grace during Mass, and felt within herself an urge to offer herself as a holocaust victim to Merciful Love. After Mass she took me with her to mother prioress; she seemed beside herself and did not say a word. When we found Mother Agnes, for it was she who was then prioress, she asked her if both of us could offer ourselves as victims to Merciful Love, and gave her a short explanation of what that meant. Mother Agnes was at a loss; she did not seem to understand too well what was going on, but she had such confidence in Sister Thérèse's discretion that she gave her full permission. It was then that she composed the act called 'An Offering to Love', which she carried next to her heart ever afterwards."

Check the site http://www.rc.net/org/therese/q%26a.htm#firsted  for the Catechism of the Act of Oblation.

Her Devotion to Child Jesus of Messine

(This Act of Oblation (Oblation to the child Jesus) by St. Thérèse of Lisieux was one of the key hallmarks of her attaining the heights of holiness in such a short time.)

Christ. Franz Ittenbach.
The Child Jesus of Ittenbach, called “of Messine” because it had been brought to Lisieux by Sr. Marie of the Trinity from her Carmel in Paris, avenue de Messine.

http://www.gci.org/files/images/b9/index

                                 

PRAYER TO THE HOLY CHILD

O Jesus, dear Holy Child, my only treasure, I abandon myself to Thy every whim.
I seek no other joy that that of calling forth Thy sweet Smile. Vouchsafe to me the graces and the virtues of Thy Holy Childhood, so that on the day of my birth into Heaven the Angels and Saints may recognize in Thy Spouse : Teresa of the Child Jesus.

                                        http://www.sttherese.webhero.com/
 PRAYER TO OBTAIN HUMILITY

Written for a Novice

 O Jesus ! When Thou wast a wayfarer upon Earth, Thou didst say : “ Learn of
Me, for I am Meek and Humble of Heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls..”
11 O
Almighty King of Heaven ! my soul indeed finds rest in seeing Thee condescend to wash
the feet of Thy Apostles—“having taken the form of a slave.”
12 I recall the words Thou
didst utter to teach me the practice of humility : “ I have given you an example, that as I
have done to you, so you do also. The servant is not greater than his Lord . . . If you know
these things, you shall be blessed if you do them.”
13 I understand, dear Lord, these
words which come from Thy Meek and Humble Heart, and I wish to put them in practice
with the help of Thy grace.
 I desire to humble myself in all sincerity, and to submit my will to that of my
Sisters, without ever contradicting them, and without questioning whether the have the
right to command. No one, O my Beloved ! had that right over Thee, and yet Thou didst
obey not only the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, but even Thy executioners. And now, in
the Holy Eucharist, I see Thee complete Thy self-abasement, O Divine King of Glory,
with wondrous humility, Thou dost submit Thyself to all Thy Priests, without any
distinction between those who love Thee and those who, alas ! are lukewarm or cold in
Thy service. They may advance or delay the hour of the Holy Sacrifice : Thou art always
ready to come down from Heaven at their call.
 O my Beloved, under the white Eucharistic Veil Thou dost indeed appear to me
Meek and Humble of Heart ! To teach me humility, Thou canst not further abase Thyself,
and so I wish to respond to Thy Love, by putting myself in the lowest place, by sharing
Thy humiliation, so that I may “have part with Thee”14 in the Kingdom of Heaven.
 I implore Thee, dear Jesus, to send me a humiliation whensoever I try to set
myself above others.
 And yet, dear Lord, Thou knowest my weakness. Each morning I resolve to be
humble, and in the evening recognize that I have often been guilty of pride. The sight of
these faults tempts me to discouragement ; yet I know that discouragement is itself but a

10 John. xii. 26.
11 Matt. xi. 29.
12 John. xiii. 15-17.
13 Phil. ii. 7.
14
 Cf. John xiii. 8.  6
form of pride. I wish, therefore, O my God, to build all my trust upon Thee. As Thou
canst do all things, deign to implant in my soul this virtue which I desire, and to obtain it
from Thy Infinite Mercy, I will often say to Thee : “ Jesus, Meek and Humble of Heart,
male my heart like unto Thine.”

The disarming simplicity of the "little way"

                                                     https://carmelourladysdovecote.wordpress.com/2013/02/
While proclaiming St.Therese of Child Jesus and the Holy Face as a Doctor of the Church, Pope John Paul II said:

Before the emptiness of so many words, Thérèse offers another solution, the one Word of salvation which, understood and lived in silence, becomes a source of renewed life. She counters a rational culture, so often overcome by practical materialism, with the disarming simplicity of the "little way" which, by returning to the essentials, leads to the secret of all life: the divine Love that surrounds and penetrates every human venture. In a time like ours, so frequently marked by an ephemeral and hedonistic culture, this new doctor of the Church proves to be remarkably effective in enlightening the mind and heart of those who hunger and thirst for truth and love.

Sunday, 19 October 1997

                                  http://www.prayforourleaders.net/LittleWayOfLove.html
St.Therese reminds us  that suffering is redemptive and that it is privilege granted to us by God. In her poem 'Living On Love!' she writes:     

Living on Love is holding You Yourself.
          Uncreated word, Word of my God,
         Ah ! Divine Jesus, you know I love you.

        The Spirit of Love sets me aflame with his fire.

In loving you I attract the Father.
My weak heart holds him forever.
O Trinity ! You are Prisoner
Of my Love !…

Living on Love is living on your life,
Glorious King, delight of the elect.
You live for me, hidden in a host.
I want to hide myself for you, O Jesus !

Lovers must have solitude,
A heart-to-heart lasting night and day.
Just one glance of yours makes my beatitude.
I live on Love !…

Living on Love is not setting up one’s tent
At the top of Tabor.
It’s climbing Calvary with Jesus,
It’s looking at the Cross as a treasure !…

In Heaven I’m to live on joy.
Then trials will have fled forever,
But in exile, in suffering I want
To live on Love.