SAINT THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX MASS GUILD 
Patroness of Missionaries
Join a Community United in Prayer
Enroll yourself or a loved one in the Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Guild, offering intentions for missionaries and for a deeper trust in God through her Little Way.
When you join this Mass Guild, your intentions become part of something larger than yourself. Each month, your prayers are lifted up at Holy Mass alongside fellow guild members, entrusting missionaries throughout the world and your own needs to Saint Thérèse’s powerful intercession. Through prayer, God accomplishes what we cannot do alone.
Your enrollment connects you to the Shrine’s unceasing prayer. Your intentions are remembered at Holy Mass every second Wednesday of the month at 12:15 p.m. CT. Enrollment may be made for yourself or for a loved one, living or deceased.
Painting: Saint Therese of Lisieux and Saint Théophane Vénard
Side-Aisle Painting in Shrine Church
Saint Théophane Vénard was a French priest martyred in Vietnam. While imprisoned waiting for his execution, he wrote a series of letters to family, including his father. One of those letters contained a line which said, “We are all flowers planted on this earth, which God plucks in His own good time: some a little sooner, some a little later . . . Father and son may we meet in Paradise. I, poor little moth, go first. Adieu.”
Saint Therese read this letter and was inspired by Saint Théophane, someone who lived her own image of a martyr and missionary. From this letter, particularly the line quoted above, Saint Therese came to use the image of being a little flower.
Painting: The image presents Saint Théophane and Vietnamese martyrs (carrying the palms) presenting a flower to Saint Therese at Carmel. Therese was invited to join a Carmelite mission in Vietnam (then French Indochina), but was unable to travel because of tuberculosis.
The background is a depiction of Ha Long Bay, a highly recognizable location in the northern part of Vietnam.
Above the saints is the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
Choose Your Enrollment
Your gift sustains the monthly Mass intentions and supports the Shrine’s mission of calling others to Christ through Mary. Choose the guild enrollment that best fits your intention, for yourself or for a loved one, living or deceased.
What It Means to Be a Guild Member
Monthly Remembrance
Your intentions will be remembered at Holy Mass every second Wednesday of each month
Personal Intercession
Receive prayerful intercession from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
Prayer Card Gift
Receive a beautiful prayer card to keep or share, by request.
Prayer Community
Find strength and support in a compassionate community.
About Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Although the “Little Flower,” in her brief life at home and in the cloister, never made a missionary journey, she burned with longing to bring the Gospel to souls everywhere who had never encountered the Lord. “I long to bring light to souls, like the prophets and doctors; to go to the ends of the earth to preach Your name…” she wrote in her autobiography, Story of a Soul. Thérèse understood in the end that she would fulfill this longing by supporting missionaries through her life of prayer and sacrifice.
The Calling
As Thérèse’s example shows, the Guild is a reminder that every member of the Church has a missionary calling of some kind. If one is not called to preach in distant countries or give talks at conferences, one can offer the simple witness of faith in one’s own community, and always, like Thérèse, have recourse to the power of prayer and sacrifice.
Become Part of This Community
Join the Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Guild and unite your intentions with the Shrine’s ceaseless prayer. Each month, you or your loved one will be held in prayer at the altar. Choose the enrollment that speaks to your heart.
“I long to bring light to souls, like the prophets and doctors; to go to the ends of the earth to preach Your name…”
—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, c. 11
