Carmelite Spirituality
St. Therese Oil
The Carmelite saint most identified with roses is the Little Flower, St. Therese of Child Jesus, who often employed the imagery of nature in describing her relation to the Lord. Her last known photograph depicts her sitting in a wheelchair before the clister garden where she was assigned to care for as a novice, but now weakened by the advanced stage of tuberculosis at a tender age of 24, she utters a silent prayer as she slowly peels away at a rose allowing each petal to touch the crucifix which now lays on her lap.
It was on her deathbed where she uttered the most memorable analogous phrase with reference to the rose; she "would spend her heaven doing good upon earth...by letting fall from heaven a shower of roses."
From this legacy evolved a short but powerful aspiration, "St. Therese, the Little Flower, please pick a rose from the heavenly garden and send it to me with a message of love. Ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore {state intention here}, and tell him I love him each day more and more." Tradition holds that if you say this short novena prayer, followed by five Our Fathers, five Hail Mary's and five Glory Be's each day for five days, you will receive a host of roses on the fifth day.
Story of St. Therese Oil
During the Thanksgiving holidays in 1999, St. Jude Catholic Church, a Carmelite Community, was privileged to have a casket holding the mortal remains of St. Thérese reside on display for purposes of honoring, reverencing and petitioning this great saint. Fr. Timothy Maria Johnson, O. Carm. († 2016) a fervent devotee of St. Thérese and parochial vicar of the parish was instrumental in having this Spiritual Doctor of the Church come to the parish. For three solid days throngs of people from all parts of South Florida came to the Church. Fr. Timothy used his organizational expertise to accommodate the huge numbers which consisted of pious pilgrims forming ines from the Church door to the street, which is about the distance of the length of a football field (100 yards). Fr. Timothy estimated more than 60,000 people came to venerate the relics of this French discalced Carmelite nun who did not live beyond her twenty-four years. Soon after this event, Fr. Timothy received numerous phone calls and messages of gratitude, some of which were reported physical healing attributed to the Saint's intercession. Fr. Timothy, whose body was riddled with osteoarthritis would say in his own inimitable dry sense of humor, "yes, for these occasional pilgrims she helps retore health, and to me, I get nada". Nevertheless, from this event germinated the idea of having vials of rose oil (emblematic of the saint's love for roses) be available during the entire year for the parishioners to continue their prayerful devotion and symbolically represent their petition for healing through a thin application of the oil to the external part of the body where specific malady is located but not upon an open wound.
In addition to the rose oil, Fr. Timothy instituted a prayer ritual employing a first class relic of St. Thérese (a small chip of her bone) that came into his possession many years prior to this memorable visit of the casket of his beloved saint.
In the ancient tradition of the Church, the ritual consisted of dipping the relic into the oil while prayers for the relief of suffering and healing were said petitioning the saint to request of Jesus, the ultimate healer, to respond favorably to the anointed person if it be in accord with his divine will and infinite wisdom. Father Timothy was careful not to give a formal priestly blessing upon the oil so as to avoid the confusion that it would be perceived as an act of simony since Father, to cover his costs, was requesting a donation of $5.00 per bottle.
Soon, stories of gratitude and various testimonies attributing a healing through the application of the oil and the prayerful intercession of St. Thérese began to trickle into his possession. He then started a portfolio of correspondence from those who were so deeply affected and motivated to express their gratefulness. News of the success of the oil and validation of Thérese's faithfulness to her promise "after my death, I will let fall a shower of roses spending my heaven doing good on earth" began to spread beyond the confines of South Florida and today the church ships the oil to interested parties including churches throughout the United States.
