St. Therese of the Child Jesus (of Lisieux)

            Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin was born into a devout Catholic home in France in 1873. At the age of 15, she entered a Carmelite Monastery in Lisieux. She discovered the “Little Way” to holiness, offering everyday sacrifices (flowers) for the love of God and neighbor. Put off by flowery, complicated books of spirituality, she discovered in Holy Scripture a simpler way to know the immense love of God the Father like an infant in the lap of his/her mother (Isaiah 66:12-13), the overwhelming love of God and His call for us to love one another (1 John 1:5: 7-16), and the necessity to be as little children (Mt 18:3) in our relationship with God. The spirituality of her "little way" was not about extraordinary things, but rather doing the simple things of life well and with extraordinary love.

            As Therese died at the age of 24, she continued to offer her sufferings as little flowers, but her suffering had undergone a transformation: “I have reached the point of not being able to suffer any more, because all suffering is sweet to me.”

                St. Therese loved nature, and often used the imagery of nature to explain how the Divine Presence is everywhere, and how everything is connected in God's loving care and arms.  Therese saw herself as “the Little Flower of Jesus” because she was just like the simple wild flowers in forests and fields, unnoticed by the greater population, yet growing and giving glory to God.  Therese did not see herself as a brilliant rose or an elegant lily, but simply as a small wild flower.  This is how she understood herself before the Lord - simple and hidden, but blooming where God had planted her.

            Pope Pius XI canonized Therese on May 17, 1925, twenty-eight years after her death.  A canonization so soon after death was unprecedented. However, her qualities of love, kindness, and closeness to God were so apparent to those around her that the Church quickly bestowed the honor of sainthood upon her. On October 19, 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church because of the impact that her spirituality has had on the lives of so many of God's children.

            Fittingly, her biography, Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux, has provided millions of readers with a short, simple key to the “Little Way”.