JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Today is the anniversary of the marriage of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese de Lisieux. I unfortunately missed their feast day which was yesterday, but nonetheless I would like to give a brief review of their lives and how their vocation in marriage was the vehicle that God used for their sanctity and that of their children.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that matrimony has as its purpose, "the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."⁸⁴ Furthermore, we are told that "The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage."⁸⁷ The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator.

Louis Martin and Zrelie Guerin were able to realize the beautiful purpose and higher calling of this sacrament, through their union which was defined by a deep spiritual life, both individual and as they raised their daughters within their home.  Before meeting one another at a later age, both had pursued religious life unsuccessfully, and despite this continued to foster an active and focused prayer life. 

Louis, at the age of thirty-five, worked at who the watch-maker’s shop in the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Pavilion.  His mother met Zélie Guérin at some professional sewing courses, and was impressed with her solid qualities combined with her gentle manners and pleasant presence.  Was this not the wife of whom she had dreamed for her son?  She made overtures to her that perhaps she could meet her son, and eventually succeeded in overcoming her doubts and resistance.

"Shortly thereafter, Zélie Guérin was crossing the bridge of Saint Léonard she met a young man whose distinguished appearance, dignified bearing and reserved manner made a favourable impression on her.  At that same moment an inner voice murmured: “This is he whom I have prepared for you”.  The identity of the passer-by was soon revealed to her.  She learned to know Louis Martin.

 

The two young people did not take long to learn to appreciate and become fond of each other.  Their mutual moral harmony was so quickly established that their private engagement was sealed by a formal religious betrothal without delay and three months after their first meeting they were able to be united together before God.  On the 13^th July 1858, they plighted their troth in the splendid church of Notre Dame.  The Abbé Hurel, Dean of Saint Léonard, who had doubtless lent to the project the support of his authority as a spiritual director, received the vows of the pair.  The ceremony took place at midnight as quietly as possible, as though to enjoy only the sacred Christian aspect of the event; perhaps also because the great works of God are accomplished in the night silence and this was a work of greatness from which was to be born the Saint of Lisieux.

 

The house in the Rue du Pont Neuf had been hastily arranged to receive the newly married couple.  As it was large and had a private entrance, it was possible for two families to live there quite separately and that without encroaching upon the space taken up by the workshop and the jewellery business.  Louis’ parents were installed on the first floor.  Zélie transferred her business to her new home.  She lived there close to her own people, since only a short section of the main road separated her from the Rue Saint Blaise.

From this happy union ultimately nine children were born, four of whom died in infancy (two boys and two girls).  All five surviving sisters became nuns, four of them Carmelites, among them the great St. Thérèse (the Little Flower) and one, Léonie, became a Visitandine." (Excerpts taken from http://www.sttherese.com/Louis%20and%20Zelie.html)

This beautiful excerpt is taken from a paper written for the 150th anniversary of these blesseds written by Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O Carm. in his paper The Human Charm of Christian saintliness.

Louis and Zélie were luminous examples of married life lived in faithfulness, in welcoming life and in the education of their children.  A Christian marriage lived in an absolute confidence in God that could be proposed to families today.  Their marriage was exemplary, full of Christian virtues and human wisdom.  Exemplary does not mean that we should copy, photocopy their life reproducing all of their doings and gestures, but that we should use, like they did, the supernatural means that the Church offers to each Christian to carry out his vocation to saintliness.  Providence wanted their Beatification to be announced during the celebrations of the 150^th anniversary of their marriage, 13^th July 2008.

 

In what way are the Martin parents modern?  Can they help our families to take on today’s challenges? 

Vocation in a family

 

Vocation is, above all else, a divine initiative.  But a Christian education favours a generous response to the call of God: It is in the heart of the family that parents should be for their children by their words and their example, the first announcers of the faith, and they should favour vocations in everyone and in a special way the consecrated vocation [CCC, 1656].  So if the parents do not live the evangelical virtues, young men and young women cannot hear the calling, understand the necessity of the sacrifices and appreciate the beauty of the goal to be reached.  In fact, it is in the family that young people experience evangelical values of the love that is given to God and to others.  They must be educated to understand their responsibility in their freedom, to be ready to live, according to their vocation, the highest level of spiritual realities. [John Paul II, Vie consecrate].

All of the Martin children were welcomed as a great gift of God to be given back to God.  The mother, her heart broken with pain, offered to Him her four children who had died at an early age.  The father offered to Him his five daughters, on their entry to the convent.  For their children they not only suffered the pain of physical birth, but also the pain brought on in faith until Christ was formed within them [Galates 4, 19].

They were truly ministers of life and saintly parents who engendered saints; they guided and educated saintliness.  The Martin family, like the family in Nazareth, was a school, a place of learning and a place of preparation for virtue.  A family who, today, will become the landmark for each Christian family.

Let us pray that those of us who are married can take these gems and example and apply them to our own vocation as husbands and wives. We ask the Holy Spirit, Our Lady, and St.Joseph to further intercede for us as well.

  

Let us pray...

God Our Father, I You for having given us Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Therese. United and faithful in marriage, they have left us an example of Christain living and evangelical virtue. In raising a large family through trials, suffering and bereavement, they put their trust in You and always sought Your will.

Deign, Lord,to make known their will i n their regard and grant the favour I ask, in the hope that the the father and mother of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, may soon be canonised and thereby held up to the Universal Church as model for the families of our time. Through Christ Our Lord, Amen