re St Therese of Lisieux's prayers for a criminal

Letting Jesus into Our Boat

May your love draw down upon you the mercy of the Lord, and may he let you see that within your soul a saint is sleeping. I shall ask him to make you so open and supple that you will be able to understand and do what he wants you to do. Your life is nothing; it is not even your own. Each time you say, “I’d like to do this or that,” you wound Christ, robbing him of what is his. You have to put to death everything within you except the desire to love God. This is not at all hard work to do. It is enough to have confidence and to thank the little Jesus for all the potentialities he has placed within you. You are called to holiness, like me, like everyone, don’t forget.

You have a large ship to steer. You must set about it courageously, but don’t count on yourself, for alone you can do nothing. It is not YOU who must act, but CHRIST in you. And then you will taste the marvels of divine love, prayers filled with honey, ravishing delights and ecstasies, and your soul will climb, without you noticing it, to the summit of love. But for this, you must put self-love to death, and pray. Become like the slave of others. Renounce yourself completely. Be like the clay which the divine potter can shape as he wills. The one who abandons himself to God in this way no longer has a heart of flesh in his breast but a ball of fire. And I assure you that when the Lord begins to kindle the fire of his love, his victim is quick to cry for mercy, for the joy is beyond our human strength to bear. May you, too, penetrate into this world! But don’t forget, you have to give everything.

By Jacques Fesch , a murderer who experienced a profound conversion before his death by execution. St. Therese of Lisieux prayed for this conversion