September 23 – October 1

O glorious Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower of Jesus, safe refuge of the afflicted and distressed, I, a poor sinner,

encouraged by the promises God has made to thee, come to thee

today with a firm hope, and I rejoice in the great honor which

our holy mother, the Church, has shown to thee in placing thee amongst the saints of her altars.  I pour forth my prayer to thee;

I implore thy aid, thy protection, thy counsel and thy blessing.

Obtain for me, I beseech thee, the intention of this novena.

(Here specify intention.)

I ask this favor provided it is not opposed to the Holy Will of God

and the welfare of my salvation.  Should such, however, be the case, obtain for me such other graces as shall be conducive to

the welfare of my soul.  Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.

One Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be

Dying at the age of twenty-four, St. Therese never knew a Silver, Golden or Diamond Jubilee, but if she had, we think she would have made her own the above jubilee exclamation of Fr. Albert Bourke, O.C.D., a well-known Carmelite Retreat Master of many years.  Once again, we celebrate a Jubilee Year of St. Therese, this time honoring the centenary of her canonization on May 17, 1925-2025.  God’s Providence arranged that it would fall during the Jubilee of Hope which we are observing – how perfect for the Saint of childlike confidence in God!  “We cannot have too much confidence in the Good God!” was a favorite cry of hers, echoing in turn Our Holy Father St. John of the Cross’ “We obtain as much as we hope for.”  With great hope then, let us place our concerns and intentions within the hands of St. Therese, asking her to present them to our “Papa the Good God”, confident in winning a hearing and receiving from Him what is most efficacious for us and for our loved ones.  Like her, may Jesus be our Jubilee – our ALL.  As St. Therese delighted in doing His Will on earth, He, in turn, now hastens to do all she asks of Him.  

     It is our deep pleasure to announce that our beloved Bishop of Sioux Falls, the Most Reverend Donald E. DeGrood, will be the Principal Celebrant of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for your intentions on this auspicious occasion of the Jubilee Year of St. Therese, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, preceded by the Holy Rosary at 6:30 p.m.  Father Michael Kapperman, our diocesan Vocations Director, and Father Patrick Grode, Newman Center Director, will concelebrate.  Roses blessed in honor of St. Therese will be handed out and her relic offered for veneration after Mass.  Priests wishing also to concelebrate are asked to bring alb and stole.

Though current funds may allow the digging of the foundation, we still need funds to build the skeleton and its roof atop, thus weather-proofing the new basement.  We appeal to all of you to keep your eyes and ears open to any possible donors who can help us in this holy endeavor.  Join us too, please, in petitioning the Souls in Purgatory for their aid in moving the hearts of those benefactors.  If God wills, from November 2nd (All Souls Day) to November 10th, a preached novena of nine evening holy hours is in the works for this intention – see the next mailing for details!

Meanwhile, we are working on getting a Confraternity of the Holy Face canonically established at our Monastery.  The Confraternity of the Holy Face draws souls together to make reparation to God for the offenses offered His Majesty against the first three Commandments, namely unbelief in His existence, blasphemy of His Holy Name and the profanation of, or the not keeping holy, the day of Sunday.  Daily prayers are offered by individual members, who once a month, if possible, will join the Nuns in offering prayers of reparation during a holy hour Sunday afternoon at the Monastery Chapel.  This Confraternity will be aggregated to the Archconfraternity in Tours, France, where the devotion of reparation to His Holy Face was given by Our Lord to the Carmelite Sr. Mary of St. Peter in 1845.  For some time now, the Archconfraternity has been without a director, but we have been told that the appointment of one is eminent and will hopefully take place in September.  Once that happens and we receive the papers to proceed, the approval and canonical intervention of our Bishop will be sought.  Please pray for this work of love to move forward, so that all of you desiring it, may join the Confraternity here at our Monastery.  You will certainly be in good company!  Exactly one hundred and forty years ago, on October 1st, Pope Leo XIII raised the year-old Confraternity of the Holy Face in Tours to the status of an Archconfraternity.  Six months before – in April, the month of the Holy Face – St. Therese and her family officially became members of the newly-formed Confraternity.  Just three years later, on April 9, 1888, she entered Carmel where she would bear the name Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.

May this Little Flower of Jesus, pictured in her office as sacristan on the reverse side, obtain many graces for you and your loved ones during her centenary year!  As the three-year Eucharistic Revival in our country comes to its completion, may Saint Therese especially gift you with the rose of devotion to the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, so beautifully portrayed in the book In Sinu Jesu (On the Breast of Jesus), by these words of our Lord to a Benedictine monk on April 14, 2009: “…The adoration of My Eucharistic Face is…a privileged means of transformation into Me…most precious among these graces is My invitation to contemplate and adore My Eucharistic Face.  The work of transformation into Me is My work…There must be…a desire to grow in My friendship, to abide in My presence, to surrender to My transforming love in silence and in repose before My Face…This is the rule of life I give you for this Paschaltide and, indeed, for the rest of your life.  Live in Me, hidden in Me as I am hidden in the glory of My Father and hidden beneath the appearance of bread in the Sacrament of My love.  Seek My Face, and I will seek yours, causing My brightness to penetrate your soul and transform you from within…take the time to abide before My Eucharistic Face and to surrender to the love of My Eucharistic Heart!”

Your Grateful Sisters in the Carmel of Alexandria

If you would like to participate in our Novena and make a contribution to support our building project or our religious community, you have two options for doing so.

1. You can click HERE to donate online and leave your prayer intentions in the gift comments.
2. You may also mail us your intentions and a check written to Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph to the address below.

If you just want our prayers, please feel free go to our Prayer Requests page and we will lift up your prayers to our Heavenly Father.

Once again, we have been asked by the Post Office to alert all our correspondents to use our P.O. Box (and not our physical address) to get mail to us.  The P.O. Box should be on its own line, closest to and directly above the city and state line, as seen below.  If the physical address is used in conjunction with the P.O. Box, then it should be its own line, above (and not on) the line with the P.O. Box.  Contrary to many search engines, our house number is 221, not 211.  Thank you and God bless you!

(Street address italicized below to show its placement if used; it is not necessary to use our physical address as the Post Office – i.e. USPS – will not deliver to the physical address.  Only UPS, Amazon and Federal Express require the physical address for their delivery.)

Carmelite Monastery

221 5th Street

P.O. Box 67

Alexandria, SD 57311-0067