Taken from “Pearls of Wisdom” by M. Susan Lautenbach

One would have to travel through this dark tunnel to understand its darkness. I will try to explain it by comparison…I imagine I was born in a country that is covered with a thick fog… Then suddenly the fog becomes more dense; it penetrates my soul…

The darkness, borrowing the voice of sinners, says mockingly to me, ‘You are dreaming about the light… you believe that one day you will walk out of this fog… Advance, advance; rejoice in death which will give you not what you hope for but a night still more profound, the night of nothingness.’

May Jesus pardon me if I have caused Him any pain, but He knows very well that while I do not have the joy of faith, I am trying to carry out its works at least. I feel no joy in this for I sing simply what I WANT TO BELIEVE.

-St. Therese of Lisieux

Our Prayer

Faith-filled Therese ~
how your fragile spirit struggled
in those final days of purification.

How you wanted to believe that God
would not abandon you in your hour of need.
Not only was your body writhing in pain,
but your heart and soul were being wrenched in a journey of darkness.

You who had always experienced a felt presence of the Divine,
suddenly were stripped of the grace of consolation.
Your only hope was to clench tightly the faith of your desire…
and that you did, as you stood before a wall of darkness that permeated the heavens.

Be with me, Therese ~
as I walk my own journey of dark faith.
Help me to KNOW beyond all signs, that God will
never abandon me in my own hour of need.

Fill me with the desire to believe, beyond all sensations, that the light of God
can never be extinguished in my soul ~ even when I can no longer see it.