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<table class="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-table gmail-m_-4246801287167508626root-table" style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" width="650" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row-margin27533" style="padding:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%;border-collapse:initial" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row27533" class="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row gmail-m_-4246801287167508626widget gmail-m_-4246801287167508626_widget_html gmail-m_-4246801287167508626style27533" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row-padding27533" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);padding:30px 30px 0px" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626html_div27053" width="590" align="left"><p style="color:black;font-family:Avenir Next;font-size:20px;font-weight:500;line-height:1.25;text-align:center;text-transform:uppercase">Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus</p>
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<tr style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row-margin27534" style="padding:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%;border-collapse:initial" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row27534" class="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row gmail-m_-4246801287167508626widget gmail-m_-4246801287167508626_widget_html gmail-m_-4246801287167508626style27534" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row-padding27534" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);padding:5px 30px 0px" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626html_div27054" width="590" align="left"> <p style="color:rgb(237,119,34);font-family:Avenir Next;font-size:18px;line-height:1.25;text-align:center;text-transform:uppercase">Luke 9:46-50</p>
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<tr style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row-margin27538" style="padding:5px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%;border-collapse:initial" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row27538" class="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row gmail-m_-4246801287167508626widget gmail-m_-4246801287167508626_widget_text gmail-m_-4246801287167508626style27538" style="margin:0px;padding:0px"><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626layout-row-padding27538" style="padding:10px 30px 30px" valign="top"><table style="font-size:13px;min-width:100%" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td id="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626text_div27058" class="gmail-m_-4246801287167508626td_text gmail-m_-4246801287167508626td_block" style="color:inherit;font-size:12px;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.5;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:Arial" valign="top" align="left"> <div style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;line-height:1.5"> <div style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Friends<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">,
<b>today is the Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. The best
introduction to Thérèse’s spirituality is a text that she wrote </b></span>at the
behest of Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart, a sort of memoir of the retreat
that she made <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>in September 1896, just a year before her death.</b></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span></b></span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>What
she offers is a “science of love,” a way of knowing and acting that is
utterly conditioned by the love that Jesus has placed in her heart:
</b></span>“Jesus deigned to show me the road that leads to this Divine Furnace,
and this road is <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the surrender of the little child who sleeps without
fear in its Father’s arms.”</b></span></span><b><br><span> </span><br></b><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>God,</b>
</span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Thérèse concluded</b></span>, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>is pleased to work with those who have become
utterly docile to his direction, who have acknowledged their total
dependence upon him, their readiness to receive gifts.</b></span> Any sense that
God’s love must be earned or that a relationship with him is a product
of economic calculation is repugnant to a healthy spirituality: “<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Jesus
does not demand great actions from us but simply surrender and
gratitude.”</b></span></span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>When
this attitude is in place, anything and everything is possible.
</b></span>Following Thérèse,<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> we can be pleasing to God and valuable to the Church
in the humblest places and through the simplest acts. All we need to do
is surrender, like a little child asleep in its Father’s arms.</b></span></span></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
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