With this final installment of the series of the ways St. Thérèse answered prayers for her intercession and made that known by showering a rose or roses in different, and often unexpected and unusual ways, we offer great thanks to everyone who shared their stories. There were many more beautiful ones that, because of the length of this series, could not be added, beautiful and moving and inspiring as they were. It was most difficult not to be able to include every single on of them. Thank you all.

 

Move or Stay

Everything seemed fine when the Gomez family moved into their house in Long Island, New York, in wife Kristin’s hometown, on the same street as her brother and a mile from her parents. In a year, everything suddenly turned upside down when husband Pablo lost his job.

After months of job searching with no offers, he expanded horizons and got a job offer in Virginia.

Kristin had a mix of shock, relief, sadness and confusion, she said. “Move to Virginia after only just settling down finally near my family?”

To go or not to go? Kristin said, “Both of us began begging God to show us the next step.”

She needed a tangible, clear sign for the right decision. Although never very devoted to the Little Flower, she decided to pray a novena to her for a sign. Kristin didn’t tell her husband or anyone else about the novena.

“I prayed, in particular, for a red rose if we were to accept the job in Virginia, and a white rose if we should stay put and keep looking,” she explains.

“Mind you, things had gotten very serious for us financially, as the move to New York had taken all of our savings.”

Each night she quietly said her own version of a St. Thérèse novena, making up the prayer and petition. She recalls, “It was nothing ‘official,’ but I promised to pray in this way to her…I prayed with complete trust because honestly, I had no clue as to what God wanted us to do in this situation. She was my only hope.”

On the third day Kristin woke up particularly exhausted. Walking downstairs, she sat down midway, feeling the weight of the situation. Her 5-year-old son ran up to ask what was wrong.

“I am just tired, sweetie,” she answered.

“As if he had had a lightbulb moment, he jumped up and ran off into the kitchen where he had a little table full of playdough and art supplies which he never really used,” Kristin said. “Two minutes later Patrick returned to me and handed me a beautiful picture he had drawn.

“I was stunned. ‘Patrick...What did you draw me?’ I stuttered. Without skipping a beat, he replied, ‘I drew you a rose.’ Sure enough — there was a sweet, very obvious red rose, clear as day. This, from my non-artistic son who rarely drew pictures for me, and if he did, they were always silly and messy abstractions.”

She asked again and Patrick said “very specifically, ‘It is a rose.’”

“I just could not believe it,” she said, thinking, “I was only on day three of my novena. Was this not the answer to my prayer? I had never been very devoted to The Little Flower, but I thought for sure the sign would come on the 9th day…I did not want to doubt, but I was slightly questioning.”

After breakfast, her mother called. Kristin told her what happened and about her novena. Her mother interrupted: “Oh St Thérèse! I love St Thérèse! You know today is her feast day!”

That was it. “Needless to say, we took the job, moved to Manassas and into one of the most beautiful, pro-life, Catholic-saturated communities you could imagine,” Kristin said. “It has been a Godsend to our family. I am constantly in awe of the families I call friends, even 15 years later.  And all this because of the generosity of the saint I had for too long ignored. That sweet saint who indulges the confused and uncertain with clear signs to comfort us. St Thérèse, I am forever grateful.”

 

Impossible Becomes Possible

Five years ago Lori Hastings picked up a coloring crayon and started to color with her grandson Simon. While most would think that was no big deal, she said, “for me, it was something I had only dreamed of. Myasthenia Gravis had robbed me of the very basic skills I had taken for granted for 10 years —my small motor skills, the ability to swallow and smile, the ability to breathe, throw in double vision and you've got a disaster. It made my diagnosis of Muscular Dystrophy at age 12 look like a cakewalk.”

On Sept. 22, 2014, she noticed her small motor skills had been slowly coming back. Lori picks up what happened next.

“Shortly thereafter, on Sept. 24, my sister Jeanne Hastings stopped by for a visit and cried when she saw my smile returned. She quickly snapped a photo of my husband Dave and me to capture the moment, just in case it was a fleeting phenomenon.”

Then Sept. 27, as they got ready for the Lori's Voice barn dance — Lori’s Voice being a nonprofit she runs “to enrich the lives of challenged children and make their lives a little easier by providing them with special medical equipment, summer camp scholarships, voice activated software, braces, things that insurance would typically not cover” — for the “first time in over 10 years I buttoned my shirt without any assistance from Dave,” she said. “This was huge! Soon to follow, I held my new Grandson Hunter and fed him a bottle for the very first time! There is no medical explanation for all that took place. At the time this happened I was under Hospice Care. The hospice doctor along with my neurologist…for the previous 25 years both said that they would rejoice with me and both knew that I had been surrounded by much prayer.”

She had been praying a novena to St. Thérèse and also begging Jesus to give her the strength back in her hands. She added her name on prayer lines all over the world using her voice-activated computer.

“Who do you think was the most surprised when the things I had been praying for became a reality? Me!” she exclaims. “I am so undeserving of this miracle and I know it is only by the grace of God who poured out His love for me and gave me back not only the strength in my hands, but also my smile! And I no longer see two of everything, and swallowing is no longer an issue. Glory to God in the Highest!”

Did Lori receive a rose from St. Thérèse? Sure enough, “on the last day of the Novena, it came in the form of a picture I was sent on Pinterest,” she said. “It was a bouquet of pink roses sent by a friend that I meet in Montana who had no idea I was praying the novena.”

She and Dave just celebrated 36 year of marriage, blessed with three healthy children which Lori said is another miracle, since three doctors told them they would never be able to have children. And add nine beautiful grandchildren. She sums up, “Our blessings overflow!”

 

The Reassurance Rose

On the morning of June 27, 1995, Mary Behring’s oldest brother headed to work for a rancher a few miles from town. She and all their younger siblings were packing lunches and preparing to go to Totus Tuus at their parish hall. Their parents were at work, and one older sister married 10 days earlier “was whisked away to another state with her new husband,” Mary said. “Two other college-aged sisters were at home for the summer.”

Mary recalls, “A few minutes after 8:00, a police officer came to the door and told us that our brother, 17-year-old Jim Dale, was on his way to the hospital. Someone driving down the highway saw his car in a ravine a couple miles north of town.”

Mary recalls that morning, as following days, were “a chaotic blur.” Their brother was going to be flown to Wichita for treatment. “Then our parents walked into the door, both of them; and we knew. The plane never left with our brother. He died in the emergency room.”

“Through the tears and pain,” she explains, “I prayed to St. Thérèse. I wanted to know if my brother was in heaven. I really had no doubt, but I asked her for confirmation. I was 12-years-old. He was a very special brother, who made sacrifices of time and money to spend time with his family instead of friends. He was very mature for his age and impressed many.”

Some of the children attended Totus Tuus (a catechetical program for junior and senior high students) the next day, some did not. “It was a way to occupy our time instead of greeting the constant stream of visitors at our home,” Mary said.

“That afternoon the Totus Tuus team members came to our home,” she well remembers. “They gave us a small potted rosebush. Total strangers in our town to teach summer religion classes, out of compassion for our family, came with roses. Not food, or a bouquet of sunflowers, or any other thoughtful and helpful gift; but the roses I had asked for. Thank you, St. Thérèse.”

 

Down Payment for the Future

After a classical Catholic education in high school and college, Richie Hutter entered the corporate world and basically no longer practicing the Faith.  Drafted into the Army and stationed in Virginia, he drove back to New York weekends.

One Sunday afternoon speeding back to base in his ’57 Chevy along the New Jersey Turnpike, a large bus was moving into his lane. He had to decide either to accelerate or slow down quickly in a car with no power or antilock brakes. He hit the brakes. His wheels locked, the car spun around, stalled in the middle of the turnpike, and faced the wrong direction.

“Then a fragrance of roses filled the car,” Richie said. “I started the car, turned around and headed in the right direction…Why the miracle and the fragrance of roses? Did God spare me? And why?”

His service ended and back home, he said he “shortly saw the love of my life. But how do you walk up to someone and say how about a date?” His cousin’s wife told him to pray the St. Joseph Novena to meet her. His response? “I said, me pray? But I did!”

Shortly after an old friend introduced him to Sandy.

“For our first date she suggested we go to Mass together,” Richie recalls. “Me, go to Mass? I said OK.  I did not go to Communion. Our next date was to start again with Mass, so I knew if I ever hoped to marry her, I had to make-up with God. I went to confession that week and 52 days later we were engaged and we are married 49 years.”

Richie came to know how St Thérèse fits into the picture. He said, “My wife’s favorite Saint is St. Thérèse. She always wore a St. Thérèse medal. We are both very active in the Church today and happily married. We have been doing Pre-Cana for years. St. Thérèse saved my life so that I would marry this wonderful girl who brought me back to God and the Church. Thank you St. Thérèse!”

 

Unexpected Best Answer

Joe O'Farrell was sitting in his car in the driveway “feeling overwhelmed,” he said. “The trunk and back seat were loaded down with boxes from the office because his job had been eliminated in a ‘restructuring.’” He was “in a constant state of fear and dread” thinking how he was going to take care of his family. They had just moved to this house because they needed more space to fit the growing family now numbering three small children.  They were still unable to sell their old place or rent it because of condo association rules.

He lamented that paying a full mortgage on a new home plus rent on the other had wiped out their savings. Now he didn’t have a job.

His phone rang. His wife Kersti was calling from the doctor’s office. Six weeks earlier she had announced she was pregnant with their four child.

“Are you sitting down?” she asked. “Both knowing and feeling something from God,” Joe said, ‘We’re having twins, aren’t we?”  — “Yup.”  “Wow!” was all he could say.

Inside the house, his dear mother was with Joe and Kersti’s children who were 4, 2, and 10 months old.

Pausing a minute before going in, he said he “looked out into the trees and thought about my new friend, St. Thérèse.” A good friend who knew of his predicament recommended that he bring his troubles to her and she would guide him. Joe took the prayer card offered him and was praying them daily.

“I desperately pleaded over the previous few weeks with her for her help in my difficulty,” he said. Knowing only a little about St. Thérèse I did recall the way she would reply to those who petitioned her with a rose.”

Inside, he said he “went to my room fell to my knees and put my head in my hands. I began begging St. Thérèse to guide my path and help me!” He was looking for a worldly solution, an immediate remedy to his overwhelming situation.

“As I was praying in my desperation,” he explains, “I felt a sudden sense of peace.  My mind recalled a conversation with my wife from a few weeks earlier when she told me she was pregnant.  We had decided on the name ‘Rose’ if we had another girl. Then, feeling like Thérèse was sitting next to me smiling, I realized that my ‘rose’ was ‘My Rose’.  As if giggling while telling me I heard her say ‘You get two!’ Tears filled my eyes and I thought of my twins.  I had been praying and pleading with Thérèse to hear me, to help me and to bless me.  In my human shortsightedness I looked only for temporal solutions. She had given me the most precious rose possible and then, she doubled her gift!”

All worked out well. Joe said St. Thérèse is like his big sister. His twins Maura and Rosie are now 9-years-old and couldn’t be happier, healthier or more beautiful.  He keeps the prayer card “to my friend St. Thérèse by my bed and take it with me wherever I travel,” he affirms. “She is a generous and devoted friend.”

Waiting for an Answer

Agnes Joseph was close to her father who passed away in January 2012, and she was very concerned about where he went when he died.

Reading in my little blue Pietá prayer book, she came across a story which fascinated her. “It was about a priest who prayed to St. Therese about something and requested a rose from her as an answer to his prayer,” she said. He did, and she “decided right then that I would pray to St. Therese about where my father was. I knew she was very close to her father, as I was to mine, so I figured she might understand my heartache and answer my prayer.”

During adoration at a Carmelite monastery not far from St. Louis in its beautiful side chapel dedicated to the Little Flower, Agnes remembers, “I poured out my heart to her, begging her to alleviate my anguish at not knowing where my father went after he died. I asked her to please send me a white rose if my father was in Heaven.”

After a few weeks, her request faded to the back of her mind until something jogged her memory and she realized her request hadn't been granted.

“Undaunted, I went back to the chapel, and this time I asked her if my father went to Purgatory,” she recalls.

Again weeks passed before she found herself in Spokane, Washington, a couple of days before Christmas 2012 because she works as a flight attendant. While greeting passengers boarding the flight, she said “Suddenly, a man came on board carrying a bouquet of roses. He had the sweetest, most gentle look on his face and he never uttered a word. I didn't really take much notice of him until he slowly turned to me and pulled a single rose from the bouquet and handed it to me, and continued walking down the aisle toward the back of the airplane. It was the lightest shade of pink you could ever imagine, and still be called pink. It was a fine line between pink and white — and it was beautiful.”

It took her about 30 seconds for the significance of that rose to hit. “I had to excuse myself from the boarding door and go compose myself in the bathroom,” she said. “I sat there fighting back tears as two realizations hit me: St. Therese heard and answered my prayer and, my dad made it to purgatory! I sat there and thanked God and St. Therese profusely.”

Next she related the entire story to a Protestant flight attendant who looked at Agnes like she was crazy.

Agnes called her mother, brother and her two children to let them know what had happened. None knew about my prayer requests to St. Therese. “For about the next two months, my devout family and I offered up every single Mass and Rosary for my father,” she said. “Sometimes, I would go to Mass twice in one day in order to have more Masses to offer for him.”

There’s one more part to the story. As Agnes explained, “I never saw the gentleman who gave me that rose again. I couldn't find him anywhere on the airplane. Angel?”