St. Christopher Ladies Guild Woman of the Month

St. Therese of Lisieux 1873-1897

Sportscasters, whether in reference to the Olympic gymnast who nails her routine for the gold medal or the quarterback who leads his team to a Superbowl victory, often say: “The moment was not too big for her/him.” For most of us, however, the real struggle is that we feel the moments are too small. Father Ronald Rohlheiser puts it this way: “And so, our lives can seem too small for us. We feel ourselves as extraordinary, forever trapped inside the mundane, even as there is something inside us that still seeks expression, that still seeks recognition, and that feels that something precious inside us is living and dying in futility.” Saint Therese of Lisieux dealt with these same feelings as she quietly went about her ordinary duties in an obscure convent in rural France. She died at age 24 after a painful battle with tuberculosis, a virtual unknown to anyone outside of her family and convent. But the journal which she left behind, The Story of a Soul, is so powerful that it has touched the lives of millions since, including such luminaries as St. Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II who made her the youngest Doctor of the Church in 1997. Through her journal, one sees that Therese was fully aware of her own uniqueness and preciousness, and this allowed her, Fr. Rohlheiser says, “to unbegrudgingly give that all over in faith because she trusted that her gifts and talents were working silently (and powerfully) inside a mystical (though real, organic) body, the Body of Christ and of humanity.” Her path to holiness became known as The Little Way and Therese herself is known as The Little Flower for the small acts of love that she describes in her journal as “scattering flowers.” Notre Dame’s Faith ND website provides this wonderful biography of St. Therese: https://faith.nd.edu/saint/st-therese-of-lisieux/ What follows is a brief reflection by a young mother in our parish on becoming reacquainted with St. Therese.

St. Therese: A New Appreciation by Liz Biggers

I will confess that Therese was never one of my favorite saints. At some point in elementary school we discussed her briefly, and as I grew older all I really remembered was that she was a nun and she died young. Embarrassingly, I never went back to study her or her work again. So as an adult I maintained the same opinion I had at age 12. “I don’t want to become a nun, or die of tuberculosis, so how is this relevant to me?” But my bias went deeper than that. The phrase “Little Flower” was one that made Therese feel very unapproachable to me. I pictured a beautiful delicate flower, who moved through life thinking beautiful delicate thoughts, and who probably accepted all suffering with perfect serenity and without any negative or ugly emotions.

But Therese wasn’t actually like that at all. In fact, her life was full of pain, suffering, and tragedy, and she felt negative emotions deeply. Her parents Louis and Zélie were married in 1858 and had nine children, four of whom they lost. Therese was ill as a baby, and was actually sent away to live with a wet nurse until her health improved around 15 months and she returned to her family.

At just age 4, Therese suffered a devastating tragedy when her mother became ill and died, despite journeying to Lourdes to pray for a miracle. Therese wrote, “When Mummy died, my happy disposition changed. I had been so lively and open; now I became diffident and oversensitive, crying if anyone looked at me.”

After losing her mother she suffered further loss as her older sister entered the convent. When her sister Pauline was cloistered Therese was just 9 years old. “I said in the depths of my heart: Pauline is lost to me!” And so, at age 13, Therese followed her sister into Carmel as a postulant.  However, her troubles did not magically end there. She was even bullied as a nun, due to her lack of aptitude for manual labor and handicrafts like embroidery. Despite this, Thérèse deliberately “sought out the company of those nuns whose temperaments she found hardest to bear.”

Therese did many things as a Carmelite: she prayed for and advised priests and other nuns, she studied and absorbed spiritual works, and she wrote The Story of a Soul, which explains her theology of the “Little Way”.

I am struck by this quote from Therese: “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”

This message is so powerful, yet due to my own flaws and pride, is sometimes hard to hear. Perhaps this is another reason why I avoided reading more about the saint called “the Little Flower”. Because “Little Flower” sounds…well… little. And I don’t like feeling little. I long for recognition, for the sense that I’ve accomplished something great. I admit I want to be important. However, Therese knew what so many of the incredible women in my life know. We are all important to God. And while some of us might have opportunities to do great deeds, we are all called to do small things with love.

Recently a friend paid tribute to an older neighbor who had died. Despite the fact that I didn’t know her, I teared up. Her description of her friend was simple. “She always showed up.” And isn’t that a perfect description of doing small things with love? Showing up. Showing up for our family, for our friends, for the poor and marginalized. When we’re tired, when we’d rather not, when our efforts might be mocked, when we feel overwhelmed by a situation that feels ugly and hopeless. Therese was no stranger to suffering and loss – from her infancy to her brutally painful young death from tuberculosis. And yet she never stopped showing up. May we all strive to live the “Little Way” and show up for each other.