Surrender That Sets Hearts Free

Saint Marie Thérèse Couderc founded the Sisters of the Cenacle to give ordinary Christians a place to encounter God through silence, guided prayer, and retreats. Her legacy is a school of holiness centered on total surrender to the Father, docility to the Holy Spirit, and loving service that quietly transforms the Church. She is remembered for shaping houses of prayer after the Cenacle in Jerusalem, spreading devotion through retreat ministry, and teaching the Church how to entrust everything to God with a free and generous heart. She was canonized in 1970 and is celebrated on September 26.

From Ardèche to the Upper Room

Marie Victoire Couderc was born on February 1, 1805, in the rugged beauty of Ardèche in southern France. Raised in a large farming family, she learned the hard work, steadiness, and Eucharistic devotion that would mark her vocation. As a young woman she heard the preaching of Father Étienne Terme, a missionary who was forming a small community to welcome pilgrims at the shrine of Saint John Francis Regis in Lalouvesc. Drawn by grace, she entered this fledgling work, received the name Sister Thérèse, and soon discovered that the bustle of a hostel could become the hush of a chapel when hearts were turned toward Christ. Under her guidance the simple lodging evolved into a house of prayer, and the community took on the name Religious of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle. The Cenacle was not only an address but a mission. It was a living memory of the Upper Room where Mary and the disciples waited in prayer for the Holy Spirit. Thérèse’s life was one long yes to that same Spirit. She professed vows, helped stabilize the congregation after Father Terme’s death, and began forming women to lead others into the deep waters of prayer. In time, Cenacle houses would be known as places where lay people, clergy, and religious came to make retreats and to experience The Spiritual Exercises in the heart of the Church.

A Charism of Prayer That Heals and Sends

The daily life of Mother Thérèse was simple and demanding. She welcomed guests, organized retreats, trained sisters, and quietly accompanied souls who were hungry for God. She insisted that the Cenacle be a place of silence and welcome, a home where the poor and the weary would feel at ease before the tabernacle. She taught that the point of prayer is surrender. In 1864 she wrote a little text that has nourished countless hearts, To Surrender Oneself, where she teaches, “To surrender oneself is more than to devote oneself. It is to die to everything and to self, to be no longer concerned with self except to keep it continually turned toward God.” Her apostolic fruitfulness flowed from contemplation. During thanksgiving after Holy Communion she received a luminous grace often called her “Goodness” experience, which shaped her gaze forever. She testified, “All that creatures have of good we owe to the goodness of our God.” Her words were not pious slogans. They were a lens for real life. She taught her sisters and retreatants to begin every day by acknowledging the Father’s goodness, to meet trials with trust, and to let prayer send them on mission to help others discover the same mercy. A brief aspiration she loved captures her whole heart: “My God, I wish to be entirely yours.”

The Cross That Purifies Love

Mother Thérèse’s path was not easy. In the turbulence of a young congregation she was relieved of leadership at a very early age and spent decades in obscurity while others governed. There were misunderstandings, reversals, and financial anxieties that cut to the heart. She accepted being set aside as a hidden grace that united her to Christ. She took on humble tasks without complaint, avoided self-defense, and made reparation in silence. Physical suffering also visited her in the form of fragile health and fatigue. Yet her response remained the same: a deeper surrender. She counseled her sisters to welcome whatever God permitted with confidence, to forgive quickly, and to build the house of the Cenacle on humility and charity. In her spirituality the way of the Cross is not a detour from mission but the very road by which God fashions apostles.

Holiness That Keeps Working After Death

When Mother Thérèse died on September 26, 1885, her influence did not end. Healings and favors through her intercession drew attention to the hidden foundress whom many had overlooked. The Church recognized miracles for her beatification in 1951 and for her canonization in 1970, confirming what her daughters and retreatants already knew. Today pilgrims venerate her in Ardèche, where her remains rest in the Basilica dedicated to Saint John Francis Regis. Cenacle houses continue her mission on several continents, welcoming those who seek silence, spiritual direction, and retreats rooted in The Spiritual Exercises. The quiet fruit is conversion of life, reconciliation, renewed vocations, and a missionary zeal born not of activism but of contemplative love.

Practicing the Cenacle at Home

Saint Marie Thérèse Couderc offers a simple and demanding program for holiness. Make room for God every day. Entrust everything to the Father with confidence. Pray with Scripture, and let the Holy Spirit reorder your desires. If you carry hidden humiliations, accept them as an altar on which love can be purified. If you long for mission, begin by surrendering the timetable and the outcomes to God. Let a short prayer become your daily refrain, “My God, I wish to be entirely yours.” Consider choosing one hour each week for quiet adoration or a guided retreat at your parish if available. Ask a trusted spiritual guide for help. The Cenacle is more than a building. It is a way of being in the world, hearts gathered with Mary in prayer so that Christ may be known and loved.

Engage with Us!

We would love to hear your reflections and prayer intentions in the comments below.

1. Where is the Holy Spirit inviting you to a deeper surrender this week, and what small act will you take to say yes to God?
2. How can you carve out Cenacle time in your home, parish, or commute so that prayer becomes a daily meeting with Jesus?
3. When did you last notice God’s “Goodness” shining through an ordinary person or task, and how did it change your attitude?
4. Which humiliation or hidden service can you quietly embrace for love of Christ, trusting that holiness often grows unseen?

May Saint Thérèse Couderc help us live a life of faith, and may we do everything with the love and mercy Jesus taught us.

Saint Marie Thérèse Couderc, pray for us! 

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