Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is an amazing font of holy knowledge and wisdom; as a “modern-era” saint, we are blessed with full copies of most of her original writings. It was this body of work that propelled Saint John Paul II to proclaim her a “Doctor of the Church,” only one of four women Doctors of the Church, including Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
Her autobiography, The
Story of a Soul, contains wonderful lessons in love, trust, and humility.
As Pope Benedict told an audience in April 2011, “I would like to invite you to
rediscover this small-great treasure, this luminous comment on the Gospel lived
to the full!” She also left behind a wonderful collection of letters, which are
profound in their maturity of faith, but yet personal enough to enable us to
feel like we are actually the recipient.
Saint Thérèse’s letters include
memorable lines from which we can all draw lessons for ourselves and our faith.
She has much to teach us about trusting in the Lord, being open to the Holy
Spirit, and making our lives a mission for others. It is little wonder why her
writings have been so inspiring to generations of faithful. Let us learn her
“Little Way” through her letters.
TRUSTING GOD
God cannot be giving me
trials beyond my strength. He gave me the courage to sustain this one.
--20 November 1887
Saint Thérèse put all her
trust in God’s loving care. She did this especially in the face of tremendous
obstacles to her faith—especially losing her beloved mother at the age of 4.
But this strong faith and belief that “God will provide” continually reinforced
her; it is rooted in the truth that God does in deed love us, and He seeks us.
This certitude enabled her to pray more vigorously for others, which is the
true essence of love—caritas.
HOLINESS OF FAMILY
What a joy for our hearts
to remember that 'our little' family loves Jesus so tenderly! That is always my
consolation . . Ask Jesus that the smallest and last may not be the last to
love Him with all her power of loving. -- May 1890
The Little Saint was a devoted letter writer to
her family, especially her sisters (who were also religious) and her aunts,
uncles, cousins, and family friends. These letters are amazing because they reflect
the faith-filled upbringing she and her sisters had. Both of her parents
suffered from illness and died before she did, but the faith and love of family
are evident in her correspondence. Her parents, Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie
Guérin, were canonized on October 18, 2015 by Pope Francis. He said that they “practiced
Christian service in the family, creating day by day an environment of faith
and love which nurtured the vocations of their daughters…”
HEALING OUR SOULS
When the devil has
succeeded in keeping a soul away from Holy Communion, he has gained all and
Jesus weeps!...he [the evil one] wants to deprive Jesus of a loved tabernacle;
since he cannot enter that sanctuary himself, he wants at least to have it
remain empty and without master! We have only the brief moments of this life to
love Jesus, the devil is well aware of it, so he tries to consume it in futile
occupations....receive Communion often, very often . . . there you have the
sole remedy if you want to be cured, Jesus has not put this attraction into
your heart for nothing.
--30
May 1889
The Eucharist was a
special source of love and grace for the young Thérèse. As this passage
illuminates, she knew of the Eucharist’s amazing ability to heal our inner hurt
and enable Jesus to be truly with us. She believed in the tremendous power of
Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to unite us with Christ, His Church,
and His mission to save souls—both ourselves and our neighbors. The Eucharist
presents God’s love through His Son in a way like nothing else; it gives us
peace and embeds itself in our souls.
HUMILITY AND GRACE
I desire one thing only
when I am in Carmel, and that is to suffer for Jesus always. Life passes so
quickly that it is obviously better to have a most splendid crown and a little
suffering, than an ordinary crown and no suffering. When I realize that one
will love the good God better for all eternity, because of suffering borne with
joy—! And, by suffering, one can save souls.
--March 1888
Suffering was something
that Thérèse had first-hand knowledge of, both in her early life (she had been
miraculously cured at age 10 through the intercession of Our Lady of Victories)
and the latter suffering of her beloved father in his sickness. In April 1888,
just after she wrote the letter above, she also wrote another beautiful line
that unites us with Christ’s suffering: “Sanctity lies not in saying
beautiful things, or even in thinking them, or feeling them: it lies in truly
willing to suffer.” Like Saint Paul, she knew that suffering was the bond
that draws us up to God, because as others suffer, so do we, in a way that
enables a greater love of them (c.f., Col 1:24).
LOVE OF SCRIPTURE
Again and again we come
down into the fertile valleys where our hearts love to pasture; the vast field
of Scripture, which had so often opened before us to spread its rich treasures
for our profit... --7 July 1894
Beginning in her 20th
year, 1892, Thérèse’s letters begin a marked increase in the description,
contemplation, and inclusion of Scripture verses. She was keenly aware of the
Holy Word’s ability to be a saving and uplifting power, just as the Eucharist
is. The Sisters of her order were amazed at how she was able to read and
reflect on Scripture verses to discern their meaning. Remember too that she had
no formal theological or advanced education, which made this ability all the
more enriching. The joy and spiritual enrichment she received through the
Scriptures can be a great model for us today!
LOVE OF SAINTS
I want to be a saint. The
other day I saw words which greatly please me, I don’t recall which saint said
them—“I am not perfect but I want to become so.”
--
27 March 1888
The Little Thérèse had a
special devotion to Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila, as well
as to the then Blessed Marguerite Marie Alacoque (who lived from 1647-1690 in
France and was Canonized in 1920). Saint Marguerite Marie was given the vision
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from which continues a large following—she is also
the patron saint of lost parents, which probably was particularly striking for Thérèse,
since her mother died when she was 4, and her father eventually died before she
did.
In addition, in July
1895, she wrote to her aunt and thus gave us some amazing insight and wonderful
advice on the saints: “I love reading the lives of the Saints, and the
account of their heroic actions sets my courage on fire and rouses me to
imitate them…” Reading, meditating, praying with them, and then acting upon
the fire in our hearts to serve is the greatest way to be holy and model
holiness for others. Let us all read more biographies and writings of the
Saints!
LOVE OF GOD
God is admirable, but
above all He is lovable, so let us love Him ... let us love Him enough to
suffer for Him whatever He chooses, even griefs of soul, aridities, anguish,
seeming frigidities. Ah! that is indeed a great love, to love Jesus without
feeling the sweetness of that love…
--14
July 1889
Her letters contain the
phrase “good God” about 116 times. She used the word ‘good’ to describe what
God has done for her. Her love of God was palpable, especially the deeper into
her letters one reads. She never wavered and strongly believed that God loves
us too. She enjoyed basking in the warm sunshine that the love of God offers
us, the peace when we feel lonely, anxious, afraid, or confused. Through
suffering, we can see the love that God has for us, which is, from a worldly
view, a very backwards perspective, but for Saint Thérèse, it was the key. God
will reward us for our service on Earth, and that service usually entails
suffering.
ON THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM
But I know that the earth
is the place of our exile, we are travelers on the way to our Homeland; what
matter if we do not follow the same road, since the one end of both roads is
Heaven, and there we shall meet, never to part. There eternally we shall live
joyously as a family…
--12 August 1893
The importance of getting
ourselves—and each other—to Heaven was an important, if understated, theme in
her letters. But she loved the image of choirs of angels singing praise to God,
when she wrote in April 1896, “[In Heaven, we] shall be everywhere with Him,
singing the same canticle which none but Virgins may sing!... Then we shall
understand the price of suffering and trial…”
THE LAST WORDS
“Oh! I love Him!…My God,
I love you!”
She was 24 when she died,
uttering these lasting words of faith, hope, and love. Witnesses at her bedside
recalled that as she said those words, she looked directly at the Crucifix she
held tightly in her hands. Her unrelenting devotion to the Lord is clear and
that’s exactly what God wants from us. No matter our circumstances or issues,
we can love the Lord regardless of the worldly cost. We have hope—a gift that
fulfills and uplifts us. Saint Thérèse knew that gift and wanted to share it
with us all.
What a better example of
a Saint?
Pope Francis, in a
General Audience on December 30, 2015, reminded us that Saint Thérèse had a
special devotion to the Child Jesus. She, the Holy Father said, “knew how to
live and witness to the ‘spiritual childhood’ which is assimilated through
meditation, as the Virgin Mary taught, on the humility of God who became small
for us.” So, too, we can live her example and witness as protector of children,
young people, and those who are ill or frail, or unable to care for themselves.
As Saint John Paul II
said in his homily upon naming her Doctor of the Church, she was not educated,
she was young, and she never left her convent. But, in spite of those
“obstacles,” Saint Thérèse provides us with a beautiful reminder and example to
follow. Her writings and faith are “a reference point, not only because it
conforms to revealed truth, but also because it sheds new light on the
mysteries of the faith” and draws us deeper to Christ. This enables us to share
it with others. Her missionary zeal for souls, even though she never left her
little convent, reminds us that we can do good for others wherever we are
physically present, because our prayers travel faster than any human speed can
detect.
May we continue to find inspiration and concrete example in the Little Way offered by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. May we find her total trust and love of God to be a model for us to live out in our own lives. May we “ask of Him…to work for His glory, to love Him, and to make Him loved.”
Saint Thérèse, Pray for us!
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