St. Thérèse and the Power of Surrender
All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri
Ascension
5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When we fall short, it’s easy to despair and berate ourselves for our failings. We’re tempted to turn our focus inward, and that’s exactly where the enemy wants us.
Using the theology of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Dr. Sri explains how this is the opposite of what God wants us to do. When we fail, instead of navel-gazing, we can recognize our littleness and let the Lord into our hearts by surrendering our shortcomings to him.
Snippet from the Show
Paradoxically, the real victory in the spiritual life comes from surrender. When you say, “Lord, I give this to you because I can’t do it on my own.”
SHOWNOTES
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Letter 243 - “As soon as God sees us convinced of our own nothingness — He stretches out His hand to us; but if we wish to attempt great things, even under the pretext of zeal, He leaves us alone. It is sufficient therefore to humble oneself and to bear our imperfections meekly: that is true sanctity.”
2 Ways to Surrender
- Morning offering prayer
- O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.
O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits ; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.
O my God! I ask Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in Heaven for all Eternity. Amen. (Offering Prayer by St. Thérèse of Lisieux)Offer up your suffering.
Next time you face a trial or difficulty, use it as an opportunity to surrender your weakness to God. Say, “God, I give this to you.”
Resources
* Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi I'm Edward Sree and welcome to all things Catholic where real faith meets real life. Do you have an area in your spiritual life where you really want God to come in and |
| 0:17.5 | intervene to come in and help you and bring about some change maybe it's something at |
| 0:21.6 | work or at home or in a relationship or maybe |
| 0:24.6 | it's your own personal and spiritual life maybe a certain weakness you're struggling |
| 0:28.3 | with maybe you struggle with anxiety or you're struggling with a certain sin. Well, if you want God to act in a powerful way in your life, |
| 0:36.7 | there's one important spiritual principle |
| 0:39.5 | that we want to bring into our lives, |
| 0:41.4 | and that is the power of surrender. I want to talk |
| 0:43.8 | about surrender today. The one thing we can always do no matter what's |
| 0:47.5 | happening in our lives no matter what's going on in our own spiritual lives, the |
| 0:51.9 | one thing we can always give to God is surrender. |
| 0:56.0 | And it invites God to come in when we do that and act in a powerful way. |
| 1:00.4 | And we're going to learn from a great saint who wrote a lot about surrender |
| 1:04.3 | and it's a saint that the church celebrates this week in her great feast day the |
| 1:08.4 | great doctor of the church St. Torres of Lissieu. So that's what we're going to look at in today's |
| 1:12.8 | podcast. So welcome back to the All Things Catholic Podcast. I'm Edward Sree and so glad to |
| 1:17.9 | have you here. I want to remind you if you haven't done so already go check |
| 1:20.8 | out the show notes that you can get now in the programs. |
| 1:23.7 | We just started these a few weeks ago and working in a partnership with Ascension Press. |
| 1:28.2 | You can go to Ascension Press.com slash all things Catholic for free show notes there and you could subscribe to get them |
| 1:34.2 | into your inbox each week as well. Again those are for free at ascension press |
| 1:38.7 | dot com slash all things Catholic. But another thing I like to do on the show also is |
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