Matt Talbot and St. Therese - Part 1
In this great Jubilee Year of Hope, we rejoice to be celebrating the centenary of the death of Venerable Matt Talbot. The Carmelite family are also celebrating the centenary of the canonisation of St. Therese on May 17th 2025. Matt was attracted to the young saint of Lisieux whose message of confidence in God’s merciful love was running like a forest fire around the world. We find her message making an enormous impact on the struggling alcoholic sucking his pebble as he walked the streets of Dublin to ward off his craving for drink and the other terrible withdrawal symptoms he was experiencing. Matt called Therese “his little brick”! She beckoned him on along his path of conversion. When shame and guilt scorched his mind and heart – her confidence in God’s merciful love was like oil poured into his wounds. In these 2 young people – 28 year old Matt and 14 year old Therese Martin, is there not something similar in their conversion? Christ’s grace of conversion descended on Matt outside ...