Besides being the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, today is the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux. When I was confirmed at the age of ten, St. Therese was the favored confirmation name among the girls in my large class. The wonderful Sisters of Mercy taught us to love this young nun (she died at the age of 24) who became a saint (we all wanted to become saints in those good days) by doing the little things with great love. That was a formula that appealed to us. It was like a pretty poem–do little things with great love–that became a mantra of sorts for us. It didn’t call for us to be heroes or statues or angels. Just ordinary little girls who could love Jesus and show Him our love by trying to smile when it hurt and to be nice to the girl nobody liked. We put bits of straw in our wooden cribs when we made our little sacrifices so Jesus would feel welcome when He came on Christmas Eve, and we poured our hearts out to Him every Sunday when we received Him in Holy Communion. It was called the Little Way, and it was a way of life for us at St. James School and at home. It was an easy, true means of keeping our hearts open to His love. By the time we turned eleven, we found that going to confession wasn’t something scary because Jesus was very merciful, and loved us even when we weren’t as holy as we had promised we would be when we were ten; He knew how to give us second chances! The Little Way was a safe harbor where we felt secure and certain of the Goodness of God. And it kept us journeying toward a life that would eventually bring us to heaven. What a gift that was to us.
In today’s busy world, St. Therese isn’t quite as popular as she used to be. Life is more complicated now; there are formulas and rubrics to follow, and too often we are told we have to find our own way, so don’t try to be like anyone else. That’s not necessarily bad advice, but I feel sad for the little girls who may not hear about this wonderful child of France who became the Saint of the Little Way and appeared on the killing fields of foreign wars over and over again long after her death. Here I am, many decades later, looking back to the promise of holiness that St. Therese held out to us–still holds out to us. I have found other ways to prepare my heart for Christmas (though the fragrance of the small bits of straw lingers on my fingers during Advent), and my prayer after Holy Communion has certainly deepened, but men and women alike continue to find refuge in the knowledge that doing small things with great love draws us into the Heart of Jesus and will keep us there until the day of eternity.
I urge you to keep a look out for books or pamphlets about The Little Flower (as St. Therese is called). She is a timeless Saint whom Popes and sinners have revered, most powerful in our times of need, still teaching us that holiness is for everyone, the weakest among us and the greatest among us.
St. Therese, Saint of the Little Way,
pray for us who continue to long for heaven, in spite of ourselves.
Have a blessed week.
and then