Thérèse Emmanuel, born Catherine O’Neill, was a child endowed with special graces from God and an early vocation. Orphaned of her mother at the age of 7, she entered (with her sister Mariana) the boarding school of the English Ladies of York and later that of the Religious of the Holy Sepulchre of New Hall. There, Catherine appreciated the beauty of the liturgical ceremonies, the seed of the love and taste for the Holy Office that she would later bring to the Congregation.
A woman with a fiery and determined soul, beautiful and proud, with her own convictions, free and independent. She entered the nascent congregation and took the name Thérèse Emmanuel. Upon her arrival, the sisters described her as somewhat cold and rigid, although she loved poetry and enjoyed dance. Seduced by God, she embraces His presence and unites herself in an intimate path to Jesus Christ, the love that conquers her, and she – in her freedom and conviction – allows herself to be seduced and guided by Him into a mystical union.
From the beginnings of the congregation, Saint Marie Eugénie described M. Thérèse Emmanuel as a woman “intimately inhabited by the presence of God,” and at Christmas 1840 she asked God for the grace of being reborn to a new life. God, hearing her prayer, granted her a mystical union that would grow throughout her religious life. That night she wrote: my soul… a desert state that opposes no barrier to the winds of heaven… a manger where a new being begins. Indeed, God has begun His marvelous work to fulfill His plan in His creature: be Emmanuel, be Emmanuel. Divine presence in the midst of your people.
In 1842 she was appointed Mistress of Novices, a mission to which she devoted her entire life, forming in spirituality, virtues, and values of the congregation the first Religious of the Assumption. Saint Marie Eugénie, her friend and companion, described her as a soul sovereignly raised above baseness and smallness… with humility and uprightness. Mother Marie Célestine described her as someone who carefully kept hidden the treasures of grace communicated to her soul by the Bridegroom of Virgins, and Bishop Charles Louis Gay, during the Eucharist celebrated one month after Thérèse Emmanuel’s death, described her as a perfect religious in God’s eyes, absolutely free and pure, with her feet on the ground, who lived the motto of the Assumption of “God alone.”
The testimonies of those who knew and lived with M. Thérèse Emmanuel agree that she was a woman totally given to God, who knew how to embrace God’s plan for her life, who knew how to love Jesus and, through her example and coherence, led the sisters so that, as Saint Marie Eugénie said, their gaze would be entirely fixed on Jesus Christ and the extension of his Kingdom.
But her own testimony, gathered in her spiritual conversations, shows a path of maturation in faith, a woman obedient to the will of God who knew how to live from the joy born of her adherence to Jesus, a divine joy that she transmitted to the first sisters and that continues to be present in every religious woman who walks in the light of Christ.
In the Christmas 1942 conversation, Thérèse Emmanuel feels overwhelmed by the Word of God, and the invitation to reproduce in her life the mysteries of Christ’s life is confirmed. Once again, she feels she must die to herself in order to live united to Christ and accomplish through grace the works of love of Jesus Himself. She hears within her these words: be Emmanuel, be Emmanuel more than you have been. It is I who have called you Emmanuel; I have called you by my own name, because I want to be in you.
In July 1864, Thérèse Emmanuel receives confirmation about the distinctive character of the Assumption, in prayer, which leads her to rise toward God. She hears from Jesus the following words: I want the distinctive character to be the supernatural spirit, the spirit of faith, for it is the spirit of faith that makes one see things in the light of God. And from a great faith, a burning faith will arise… I have chosen them to go and bear fruit; this work I establish must have an apostolic side and must be guided by an apostolic spirit like the apostles. They resorted to prayer; the Blessed Sacrament exposed in your midst must be the center to which your sisters will turn.
On January 20, 1868, Thérèse Emmanuel asks Jesus: what will be the spirit of our Assumption? And He replies: If you want to be true Assumptionists, you must contemplate God, rising above all earthly things, stripping yourselves as nothingness to enter into the joy of the Lord, as my mother does in this mystery of the Assumption… Walk in the light of my face that shines upon you, console me and render me, through the life I give you, a thousand services and all your love.
One year earlier, in 1867, she received the injunction of an Assumptionist: “God alone!”, and in 1874 Jesus tells her that the vocation of an Assumptionist is to be closely taken by Him and to live united to His person through a grace that imitates His Incarnation, under the light of His truth.
These conversations not only show a path of intimacy between God and His creature, but also reveal a balance between action and contemplation in our congregation. Adoration is a distinctive trait of the Assumption as a means that enables intimate union with Jesus who welcomes and listens to us, a moment in which we present to the Lord the realities of our world and are renewed to continue extending His kingdom. We are contemplatives in action, and our action is sustained only through contemplation.
The life of Thérèse Emmanuel was lived as an assumption by God, a woman who allowed herself to be assumed by God. She lived united to God, through God, from God, and for God, and knew how to rise above earthly things to be Emmanuel. Her life and self-giving have borne fruit in the Congregation since its beginnings and continue to bear fruit today.
Her instructions remain valid for our Assumption in all parts of the world where we are present: we must also live united to God, cultivate the spirit of faith, live from the joy that comes only from Jesus Christ, and be His face in the realities of our world today. This invitation, once reserved for novices, now extends to all who are part of our Assumption: students, alumni, teachers, friends, committed laypeople.
All are called to live the spirit of the Assumption, to live a union with Jesus Christ that makes us agents of transformation in our society, to embody God in the midst of the realities we live, to reflect the face of a God who welcomes and loves. Let us welcome the invitation that God makes to Mother Thérèse Emmanuel and become ourselves a readable testimony of a God who walks with His people.
Eliette Quintero
Province d'America Central et Cuba
Biography
Conversations between Jesus and Mother Thérèse Emmanuel. Bicentenary of the birth of Marie Eugénie and Thérèse Emmanuel. Province of Central America and Cuba. 2016. Booklet
Salinas L. & Pacas V. A legacy to be discovered. Approach to the person of Mother Thérèse Emmanuel. Province of Central America and Cuba. 2016. Booklet
[1] Un legado por descubrir. Acercamiento a la persona de Madre Thérèse Emmanuel. Religiosas de la Asunción-Provincia de Centroamérica y Cuba. p. 7 [2] Ibíd., p. 10 [3] Ibíd., p. 11 [4] Ibíd., p. 14 [5] Coloquios entre Jesús y Mère Thérèse Emmanuel. Sobre vivir la propia vida de Jesús. Navidad de 1842 [6] Coloquios entre Jesús y Mère Thérèse Emmanuel. Sobre el carácter distintivo de la Asunción. 13 de julio de 1864 [7] Coloquios entre Jesús y Mère Thérèse Emmanuel. Sobre la palabra de nuestra Asunción. 20 de enero de 1868 [8] Coloquios entre Jesús y Mère Thérèse Emmanuel. Sobre la vocación de una Religiosa de la Asunción. 7 de marzo de 1873