A Carmelite Day of Recollection on Merciful Love

On Saturday, November 11, the Discalced Carmelite Friars at the Monastery of the Espousal of Mary and Joseph on Foster Street hosted a “Carmelite Day of Recollection” in honor of the 150th anniversary of the birth of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The day of recollection was centered on St. Thérèse’s prayer, “Act of Oblation to Merciful Love,” with the goal of making this prayer together as a community during the Mass. 

The day began at ten o’clock in the morning as some of the friars positioned themselves outside the monastery, directing their visitors into the monastery. The guests checked in and entered a plain conference room with a low ceiling and a podium placed front and center. 

St. Thérèse posters, borrowed from the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Boston, hung on the walls, and bouquets adorned the corners. Although the cloistered nuns could not physically join the little community of friars and lay faithful gathered there, their prayers nevertheless made the day possible. 

There were a great number of visitors to the monastery for the Day of Recollection—mostly young adults, family of the friars, and Third Order Carmelite women. As one of the friars commented, “St. Thérèse has a way of drawing people to herself,” and no doubt, the nuns’ prayers helped. Once everyone was settled in, a friar led us in prayer and layed out the schedule for the day: a reflection on the “Act of Oblation to Merciful Love,” Benediction and a holy hour, confession, Mass, and lunch. 

Another friar came up to the podium and introduced some of the history surrounding this little known act of St. Thérèse. The friar explained that during St. Therese’s life, there was another nun who had died, and whose “Act of Oblation to Divine Justice” was being spread around and growing in popularity. But once it came to St. Thérèse, she was taken aback by its heavy focus on suffering, the demands of God, and acquiring sufficient merits. 

The very next day, St. Thérèse composed her “Act of Oblation to Merciful Love.” She explained, “O my God! Will your Justice alone find souls willing to immolate themselves as victims? Does not Your Merciful Love need them too? On every side this love is unknown, rejected; those hearts upon whom You would lavish it turn to creatures . . .”

The point of St. Thérèse’s act was to offer herself entirely—as a holocaust—to God’s love and to console the heart of Jesus. This is the goal of the Christian life, to give ourselves completely over to God so that there comes a point when we cannot tell where our heart begins and God’s heart ends. 

After the talk on St. Thérèse’s act, the friars brought us upstairs to the chapel for adoration and confession. The chapel was small with humble stained glass windows. Some people sat in chairs, others on the ground, and some knelt. After Benediction, the chapel was silent, disturbed only by the shifting of coats when people entered the confessional. There, we raised our hearts to that same Merciful Love which lay exposed on the Altar. 

The hour concluded with the beginning of Mass. The readings for the day were read, and the friars softly chanted the psalms. After the homily, during the presentation of the gifts, we made the Act of Oblation together, offering ourselves as victims to God’s Merciful Love most perfectly manifested in the Eternal Sacrifice on the cross. At the Mass, we gave ourselves to the Lord, and He to us. 

We ended the day of Recollection by returning downstairs to the conference room to have lunch as a community. The friars ordered pizza and most of the guests brought along pasta, soups, bread, snacks, and desserts. Two of the friars played some tunes in the back while the guests and other friars enjoyed each other’s company. 

The Carmelite Day of Recollection was a beautiful opportunity to take a pause from the business of life and to reflect upon St. Thérèse’s “Act of Oblation to Merciful Love.” St. Thérèse reminds us that we are called each and every day to give our lives to God and to be a self-gift to others. By renewing this Act of Oblation, may we say along with St. Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

Act of Oblation to Merciful Love:

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make You Loved, to work for the glory of the 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 holy, but I feel my powerlessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Holiness! 

You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse. The infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness. Look on me through 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 cherished Mother. To her I entrust my offering completely, imploring her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, during his earthly life declared: “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 scepter of Your Cross. Since You have chosen 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 forever. 

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. 

Finally, 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! 

In the end, after it has prepared me to appear before you, may this martyrdom make me die. May my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love. 

I want, O my Beloved, with each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows are no more, and I am able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!