St. Therese Parish begins year of reflection with novena ahead of centennial year

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

St. Therese Parish, Southgate, was founded Aug. 15, 1927, and was placed under the care and patronage of St. Therese of Lisieux, who had been newly canonized in 1925. In Oct. of 1927, the parish was designated as a shrine to its patroness and now boasts a small reliquary with five first-class relics of St. Therese, as well as many second-class relics that were donated to the parish by St. Therese’s biological sisters.

In honor of their upcoming centennial, the parish community has begun celebrating its anniversary in small ways, including a year of reflection leading up to the official centennial year. As part of this year of reflection, Father Michael Grady, pastor, will be celebrating a novena to St. Therese, with daily reflections of the devotions of St. Therese.

“There’s a lot of things that we don’t understand about her. I think this would be enlightening for everybody,” said Father Grady. Beginning on Sept. 23, and concluding on St. Therese’s feast day, Oct. 1, the novena will be prayed nightly at 7 p.m. at the parish.

“It brings the history of who she is,” said parish secretary, Kathy Mayer. “This is to bring to the forefront what a wonderful saint she is. She’s the saint of our time, and what it can do to help revive faith in anybody.”

Parishioner and volunteer Rebecca Hugg said, “I am looking forward to learning more about St. Therese because I didn’t go to school here, I came here as an adult, so I am looking forward to learning more about her through his [Father Grady’s] talks.”

“We’re trying to re-energize the parish in general,” said Ms. Mayer.

Father Grady encourages people to attend the novena, even if they are not a member of St. Therese Parish.

“It’s a great source of blessings and graces,” he said, “If people come to this novena, they can expect a lot of graces and blessings from St. Therese because she is such a great intercessor, she’s such a great prayer for us.”