Annie and Patrick, Vendée

August 2020

Saints Louis and Zélie: inspiring and comforting friends.

This is the third time that we have come to the Louis and Zélie sanctuary in Alençon. We stayed a week, and we would like not to leave.
We have found great peace here. When we arrived, we were carrying torments and discouragements... which dissipated thanks to prayer, every evening, in front of the relics of Saints Louis and Zélie.

We had known Saint Thérèse for a long time.
We were very touched by the conference of a former prisoner, who recounted the graces received upon leaving the penitentiary... And how he had been freed from the crazy life he had led until then. It was an incredible testimony.
As soon as we met Saints Louis and Zélie, we felt an immediate, obvious closeness to them. Because they were a couple, because they were parents…
The memory of Saint Zélie's difficulties with Léonie encourages us in our journey as parents and grandparents. Praying Zélie and Léonie helps us move forward. Everything in their life is beautiful... But this aspect really marks us.

Another remarkable aspect is that they were well-off people who knew how to adapt well to very simple people. This is in line with Jesus' phrase in the Gospel concerning the little and the poor.
This week we heard an anecdote about Louis who, one day, knelt down in front of a poor man to give him alms. He said that in this way he knelt before Jesus, because a poor person is Jesus... Louis was a model of humanity, a social model.
He was affiliated with a Circle in which he shared his social and Christian values. This resembles what we can experience today in Catholic Family Associations or other associations of this type: search for social justice, fraternity of prayer.
Saints Louis and Zélie had great concern for the poor, and they helped the most deprived. This attachment to God which is realized in concrete terms, in society and everyday life, is impressive.

Marie was important to the Martin family, as she is important to us. Marie is… an adhesive mortar! It unifies us as a person, as a family, as a couple. It unifies our lives.
Sometimes we regret not having known Louis and Zélie sooner. We tell ourselves that we would have acted differently, that we would not have made certain mistakes. But nothing is ever lost. All trials have meaning. Suffering can make you grow and be transformed.
The big problem when we're parents is that we're human. We try to give our children the best according to our beliefs... in this case, Christian ones. But we transmit it with human means… And therefore with errors, with our fragility and our limits.
Then, these children become adults: the path, hitherto traveled together, becomes theirs. Our role ends and their freedom unfolds.
Faith is not transmitted with a sledgehammer. It is a message that we receive from Jesus. A message that we respond to. Personally and freely.
When we received this message from Jesus, we are happy. The message of the Gospel makes us happy and we want to spread it. It’s how we do it that testifies to our humanity. But we must accept that in the end, we will inevitably have made mistakes.

We admire the common sense which led Saints Louis and Zélie to frame their lives in such a way that, however ordinary they may be, they manage to become saints. The Church in turn shows common sense by presenting them to us as models.
We do not have the feeling of having received great graces, but of being inspired and comforted. This friendship with Saints Louis and Zélie, and their intercession, lead us on a spiritual journey.
Louis and Zélie lead us to the Holy Family. Through them, it is Jesus, Mary and Joseph with whom we learn to live, who we discover. There is an inexplicable connection, an atmosphere that emanates from the Martin family, and which “smells the perfume of the Holy Family”.
I believe they must have meditated on the happiness of being a family with Mary and Joseph. And that can't lead anywhere but to love. I have heard that Saint Thérèse received “the vocation of love”, and I think that this was already given to her by the love of her parents.
Through them, Joseph and Mary become concrete. They are such exceptional and simple saints... Their five daughters who became nuns, their family life shattered by infant deaths... When we contemplate their human lives, we say to ourselves "We are experiencing this... But they suffered even more". This does not console, but it supports. It strengthens.
Louis and Zélie show us that everyone, in their unique journey, can achieve holiness. Without wanting to be someone other than yourself.
God joins us in our own story. »