Sts. Louis & Zélie Novena 2025, Day 6: Hope in the Darkest Trial
READING
Since I wrote to you, I’ve had so much trouble. My little girl became worse and worse. Last Monday I sent for another doctor… he said to me, “This child must be breastfed right away, that’s the only thing that can save her….”
So at daybreak I left to go to the wet nurse who lives in Semallé… I arrived at the wet nurse’s house and asked her if she would come with me right away… we arrived home at ten-thirty… the wet nurse looked at the child and shook her head with an expression that seemed to say, “I made this trip for nothing!”
I quickly went upstairs to my room. I knelt at the feet of Saint Joseph and asked him for mercy, that the little one be cured, resigning myself completely to the will of God if He wanted to take her. I don’t cry often, but I cried while I was praying.
I didn’t know if I should go downstairs… finally, I decided to go. And what did I see? The child was suckling with all her heart…. She didn’t let go of her hold until about one o’clock in the afternoon. She threw up a few mouthfuls and fell against her wet nurse as if she were dead. There were five of us around her…. As for me, my blood froze. The child had no visible breath….
Finally, a quarter of an hour passed. My little Thérèse opened her eyes and began to smile. From that moment on, she was completely cured.
Saint Zélie Martin
Letter CF 89 to Céline Guérin, March 1873
REFLECTION
Zélie’s hope was never passive resignation. Faced with baby Thérèse’s near-death, she moved through Spirit-guided decisions: consulting the doctor, setting out at dawn despite her fears, negotiating with Rose Taillé the wet nurse, then that tearful prayer to Saint Joseph. Each step required enormous courage in the face of despair.
Her “resigning myself to the will of God” wasn’t emotional defeat but spiritual freedom—the kind that allows bold action precisely because we’re not clinging to outcomes. Even after her intense prayer, she had to decide whether to rejoin the others, a small choice requiring enormous courage. Even after witnessing the apparent answer to her prayer, Zélie faced one final test when little Thérèse seemed to die—yet hope persevered through that quarter-hour of frozen terror until her daughter opened her eyes and smiled, completely cured.
Zélie demonstrates how true hope combines passionate petition with complete surrender, decisive action with total abandonment. The Holy Spirit works through our practical decisions as much as through our prayers.
PRAYER
Saints Louis and Zélie,
you who in your life as a couple and as parents
have borne witness to an exemplary Christian life,
by putting God first,
by fulfilling the duties of your state in life
and practicing the evangelical virtues,
we turn to you:
Help us to have unshakable trust in God
and to abandon ourselves to His Will,
as you did through the joys,
as well as the trials, grief, and suffering
that marked your lives.
Help us to love God with all our hearts,
to persevere through our daily difficulties,
and to abide in the joy and hope
that a living faith in Christ gives us.
Intercede for us
(Mention your intentions here)
that we may obtain the graces we need
today and every day of our lives.
Our Father…
Glory be…
Saints Louis and Zélie, pray for us.
Martin, Z & Martin, L 2011, A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885, trans. Hess, AC, ed. Renda, F, Society of St. Paul, New York.
All scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer
#hope #novena #prayer #StJoseph #StThérèseOfLisieux #StZélieMartin