Educate your children at the school of Saints Louis and Zélie
For 5 days, in the footsteps of the holy Martin parents, you can educate your children, help them to rise above themselves, and encourage them on the path to holiness.
Why pray with the holy Martin parents?
In the Gospels, the disciples of John the Baptist ask him: “What should we do?" (Luke 3:10-18) and the disciples of Jesus beg him: “teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Here is a question and a request which open the path to education – an education which is the reciprocal gift of love within a family. This love is extended towards your neighbor and bridges Heaven and earth. This education does not merely involve repetition of formulas or recitation of prayers but of moving forward in a relationship in order to deepen it. “I had only to look at him to know how the saints pray,” said Saint Thérèse when speaking of her father. If educating means leading by example and rising above oneself, the holy Martin parents mark out the path for us because they gave the testimony of a “careful education” of their children so that they succeeded on this earth, without neglecting an education which encouraged them to become saints.
And concretely?
“Teach us to pray”: this is not a one-day affair, any more than educating; it is a long-term task!
Let us focus on five themes in these five days of prayer with the Martin family:
- 1. Live a relationship of love that bridges Heaven and earth.
- 2. Make yourself available to engage in dialogue.
- 3. Educate yourself in personal autonomy and mutual respect.
- 4. Go through trials together with the help of Heaven.
- 5. Welcome companionship - a path of human and spiritual communion.
We will be sitting down to “incarnate” our prayer and descend into an authentic relationship by looking at different facets of education which will help us better answer the question that we all ask ourselves at one time or another: “what should we do?”
Who are we?
The mission of the sanctuary for couples and families in Alençon is to welcome pilgrims to the places where the Martin family lived, worked, and walked (the family home, the basilica in which Louis and Zélie were married and where Saint Thérèse was baptized, the so-called Bridge of the Meeting, the watchmaking of Louis...).
The mission is also to share, through the rich and profound testimony of the Martin family, God's plan for couples, families, and also educators or spiritual companions.
To come to the sanctuary of Alençon is to go to the school of the holy spouses Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. It also means discovering the source of their marital and family happiness: the love that united them and their unshakable faith in God through the joys and trials of their daily life. Their life was completely penetrated by the Gospel message.
Find out more about the sanctuary here.
Join the “Louis and Zélie Family”
If this spiritual retreat has touched you and you wish to continue praying with the holy Martin spouses, you can register with the spiritual family of the sanctuary, the “Louis and Zélie Family.”
What is the “Louis and Zélie Family?”
- It is the spiritual union of all the friends of Louis and Zélie Martin: of all those who recognize in them an example of Christian life.
- It is to join the family of Louis and Zélie Martin by becoming their spiritual children. Thus we respond to the desire of Saint Zélie: “I wanted to have many children in order to raise them for Heaven.” And how did they educate their children for Heaven? They guided them to Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. This is why we dedicate ourselves every day to the Holy Family.
What does it mean to be part of “The Family of Louis and Zélie?”
- I consecrate myself every day to the Holy Family with the prayer of “The Family of Louis and Zélie”.
- Imitating Saints Louis and Zélie, I strive every day to place God first in my life.
- The Sanctuary of Alençon will send me on the 13th of each month (the wedding day of the Martin spouses) a letter with a spiritual meditation. Thus, Saints Louis and Zélie will help us to live out - like they did – our daily faith in justice and fraternal charity. This “little way” of the Gospel lived out in the fullness of trust and love was so luminously shared by Saint Thérèse and remarkably practiced by Léonie, Louis and Zélie's daughters.
If you want to join the “Louis and Zélie Family,” go to the sanctuary's website.