Organizers of the Visit of the Pilgrim Relic of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Bacolod City set next month hope the event will pave the way for moral conversion and provide a sense of direction and hope for everyone.

The visit is timely as the country undergoes so many “thorns” with most of the people lacking in spirituality and perspective of what is true and what is not, the organizing group said in a press conference yesterday.

Coinciding with the Jubilee celebration of the Diocese of Bacolod, the organizing group encouraged offerings of prayers for St. Therese to provide Filipino people with a sense of direction, hope and meaning in their lives.

The pilgrim relic will arrive in Bacolod City from Iloilo City on March 4 and will be brought to San Sebastian Cathedral for the welcome rites, then to the Carmelite Monastery in Mandalagan where masses, visitations and venerations will be held.

The relic, contained in a reliquary made of jacaranda wood and gilt silver, will go to Kabankalan City in the morning of March 6 and will be brought back to the Carmelite Monastery by 5 p.m.

The organizing group said St. Therese was known for doing small and ordinary things in extraordinary ways with great love and was a “comfort to life's thorns”.

Of the 33 Doctors of the Church, Therese of Lisieux, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Avila are the only females.

Records on the life of St. Therese showed that she was the youngest nun to enter the Carmelite convent in Lisieux , France at the age of 15, and she has a special concern for prisoners and the causes of prisoners.

She is known for her autobiography, Story of a Soul, were she wrote that "what matters in life is not great deeds, but great love."*NAB

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