For the first time I told Therese: “eh, you pick the colors” and… uh…

My Mom was the one who bought them for me and when I told her about the Therese chaplet I prayed she said, “NO WAY! And they are not from her they are from me” (oh Mom, they are from both of you). Many people would say, “oh no, they are LGBTQ roses”, right? And believe me, my mind wandered there, too and I thought: “oh brother, please no” but then I remembered how the rainbow always came from God the Father first. The devil cannot make anything new so he just distorts what already is. In the Old Testament the rainbow symbolized Our Lord’s promise that He would never again flood the earth through water. It signifies: “I am a Father Who keeps His promises”. Which was the only answer I needed for my novena.

Different forms of Roses Therese gave:

Rose in college: Therese has always been very creative when I ask for Roses. The very first time I did a rose prayer to Therese was for my 21st birthday; I was taking a year off from college because I could not afford the tuition and was working a few different jobs near campus. I was spending the morning with two of my closest friends in my apartment and at that point I did not want to be a nun, no siry, but one of those friends insisted that we pray the novena prayer to Therese for vocations to the religious life. I laugh now looking back because I did not take the prayer seriously at all, but then a friend knocked on the door within the hour and gave me a red rose. The friend who wanted me to pray the prayer was saying IT’S THERESE; IT’S THE NOVENA. I thought, “huh, maybe it is”.

Rose in a dream: When I was working with the Laboure Society to fundraise my student loan debt that barred my entrance into religious life, one of the aspirants, who meant well, tried to persuade me to finish my degree anyway at a Catholic college. She talked it up so well that I was convinced she was right and so I applied, was accepted and I was ready to move forward. Something was telling me deep down that God did not desire me to return to school, Catholic college or not, and so I did a novena to Therese and asked for her blessing. Red rose, I won’t go, yellow, I will go! I recited the prayer and then took a siesta. In the dream my Dad had gone to the grocery store and when he returned he had a rose behind his back and… it was red. When I woke up, I think because at that moment in time I did not like the answer I received, I said: “It was only a dream, that does not count”. But when my Spiritual Director highly advised AGAINST going back to school, my path was once again set straight with paying off my loans and entering the convent. Therese had her way!

Rose Before entrance into Carmel: Before entering Carmel, I sent off my application to the Elysburg monastery on Therese’s October 3rd Feast Day and I made friends with this incredible woman who drove me to daily Latin Mass in Denver (who reminded me of my 100% French Grandmother I was close to, who at that point, had passed) and when she found out that the Church had too many roses for Therese’s Feast (who can ever have too many roses) she handed a bouquet(s) of red roses to me and insisted I have them. At that point my only intention was that Therese be entrusted with my vocation for our novena request. She has NEVER let me down.

Rose petals in Carmel: The next time I did her novena was in Carmel and I wrote up my own private prayer that I recited to her multiple times a day. At that point something about the cloister was not enough for me; I was hungering and thirsting for more solitude and I simply brought my intentions to her about all this. On the last day of the novena on Therese’s feast day I was cook in the kitchen, so I did not see this event take place: all the sisters were in the choir chanting the Divine Office; my choir stall happened to be directly underneath the statue of Therese. Each day a sister would typically place a vase of roses at her feet, for the rose novena.

Most men think this novena is pretty feminine but change their mind when she answers them with bouquets; she has a great sense of humor! During the chanting of the psalms, the sisters recounted to me that they saw the vase of flowers knock off the statue “by themselves” and shatter petals of pink and red over our entire choir stall. There was no wind; we were inside the building. The sisters left the petals to surprise me, so when I came back to the choir after siesta, I had nothing but petals. Later that day I was able to see how there were no petals left on the roses; usually there remains at least a few. Mother later told me it looked as though they were perfectly thrown there the way they all landed when she saw it happen. I wish I had a picture to show you, but you know, no cameras in Carmel.

Roses through socks: The quote said: “since we see the way let us run together”:

Roses through pictures: After hearing the hermit call upon leaving the cloister, after almost two years of living with my grandparents, where, I was able to develop this blog more fully, begin writing Our Lady’s book and create the Etsy shop, it was finally time to leave my Papa and Grammie and stay with my sweet Mom. Before leaving I needed confirmation for a certain intention and the thought was “ask for a bouquet of pink roses”. This novena was made for the intent of it ending on her October 3rd Feast. The very day I was leaving Pop and Gram, on our way to Latin Mass, my Grammie hands me her phone and says that my Mom sent some pictures that she wanted me to see from their 50th anniversary celebration. I scrolled too far to the left, but low and behold (the picture on the left) came up and it was the first time I had seen roses through a photo from Therese. I had my doubts but later a friend confirmed that in Therese’s recorded miracle stories, she does indeed work through photos. And were they not the most stunning bouquet? Then to confirm this, another friend of mine sent me the photo on the right. As I said, Therese can and will be creative:

Roses at the Latin Mass: Then to top it off, after receiving that photo, the day the novena ended was a Sunday and the Latin Mass parish by my Mom’s house decided to go ahead and celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary and when I read ROSAry and all the readings with relations to Our Lady and the rose, I was reminded of our name in Carmel being Rosa, taken from Our Lady’s title of “Rosa Mystica” I was smiling the entire time:

Roses on the least likely item: I chuckled because on the way home from that Mass, my Mom and her fiancé needed to stop at the store to pick up a few things and my Mom came back in the car and threw me a bag of tortillas and guess what was one them:

Roses on a China set: I recited a Therese chaplet and was given two tea sets with roses:

It is interesting because Therese only gives roses if they will draw a soul closer to God. Remember when Our Lord during His preaching said that those who ask for signs are of an adulterous generation? That speaks volumes.