Alumna Author Gives TAC Women an Encounter with St. Thérèse

California

October 21, 2024

In celebration of the Feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, alumna author Suzie (Zeiter ’87) Andres visited the women of Thomas Aquinas College, California, in St. Thérèse Hall to share wisdom, stories, and snacks. Her talk, “The Dumb Ox, Two Little Flowers, and the Rest of Us,” invited the women to take advantage of the powerful friendship of the saints, especially that of St. Thérèse.

To begin the evening, College Chaplain Rev. John Mary Chung, visited the residence hall and offered individual blessings with Mrs. Andres’s relic of the saint. Mrs. Andres also brought boxes of books about St. Therese’s spirituality, including ones she has authored herself, and buckets full of roses, which she gave to the students as gifts. Passing around the flowers, she reminded the women that St. Thérèse promised to send down a shower of roses as a sign of the graces she obtained for those who prayed to her. “These are roses for a ‘pre-paid novena,’” Mrs. Andres joked. “You get the rose first, and then you can say the novena!”

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Mrs. Andres, a third-order discalced Carmelite, spoke about the role St. Thérèse played in her personal life and in forming her spirituality. She shared personal anecdotes and reflections, passed around books and photos, and read quotes from the writings of St. Thérèse, painting a picture of the Little Flower as a model of trust and child-like dependence on God. “If you read her words, you’ll learn these amazing truths that will put your soul at peace,” Mrs. Andres said. “Her words are yet another way a saint attempts to tell us of God’s ineffable love for us, how He just wants us to let Him love us, be our father and take care of us.”

In speaking about the Little Flower, Mrs. Andres also touched on another, lesser-known, little flower, telling the story of Servant of God Marcel Van, a Vietnamese boy who became St. Thérèse’s spiritual younger brother. Mrs. Andres shared Marcel’s story with great delight, explaining how he exemplifies that, through St. Thérèse’s Little Way, sainthood is accessible to everyone. “God has all kinds of saints,” she explained, “and some of them, like little violets, seem absurdly small besides the lily or the rose, but they contribute equally to the beauty of creation, filling out the Body of Christ.”

Encouraged by her message of God’s love and inspired by her devotion to the saints, the women of Thomas Aquinas College left Mrs. Andres’s talk uplifted by her infectious joy. “It was so special having Mrs. Andres come over and share her love for St. Thérèse,” said Rosemary Favila (’27). “It felt like we were meeting her best friend!”