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St. Therese and the Little Way
Catholic Exchange ^ | Mark Shea

Posted on 12/02/2005 10:06:00 PM PST by Knitting A Conundrum

St. Therese and the Little Way
Mark P. Shea
St. Therese and the Little Way

Many of us modern people have the sense that sainthood is a far-off and unattainable goal reserved only for heros. We despair of our ordinariness. Yet the greatest saint of modern times, a woman whom Pope Pius called "a word of God" sent to point us the way to Christ was as ordinary as we and made it her life's (and death's) work to say that it is precisely in the ordinary that God comes to us.

St. Therese of Lisieux was a person who had struggles like our own--and who turned them all to what Pius XI called a "storm of glory" by the help of the Holy Spirit. Born into a middle-class French family in the middle of the last century, Therese was a young girl with a thirst for life. Once, as a child, one of her sisters offered her a choice of different colored threads for use in a sewing project. Therese took them all, an act which epitomized her attitude toward all of life. Later, she would write, "My God, I choose all. I will not be a saint by halves." As a child, she had dreams of being an adventurous missionary and even a priest and, when this was realized to be impossible, she asked (and eventually received) permission from Pope Leo XIII to enter the Carmelite Order at the age of 15.

It was here that Therese began to perfect in earnest her "Little Way": a way of prayer and life which sought to find God not in some immense Olympian struggle or via some gigantic work of greatness, but in the ordinary stuff of day to day life. Therese, like you and I, felt far too small to attempt the heights mastered by giants. She was acutely aware of the ordinariness of her life. But instead of succumbing to the modern belief that this rendered her life dull and pointless, Therese chose to offer precisely this raw material of ordinariness up to God that he might transform it.

What was this Little Way? Therese described it as the way of Spiritual Childhood. She said of herself, "I am only a very little soul, who can offer to God only very little things." And so, she fully embraced her littleness rather than lamenting it. She did so by

1. fully recognizing her spiritual poverty, weakness and incapacity and accepting it;

2. fully embracing at the same time a complete childlike confidence in God to fulfill in her what she could not do by her own powers;

3. choosing to live in Love and to apply herself to the practice of Love.

Therese's attitude toward the littleness and insignificance of her life was delightfully simple. For her, littleness was not a mark of failure but an opportunity for intimacy with God, just as a kitchen table is more conducive to a loving chat than an enormous banquet hall. Therese delighted in her smallness and even rejoiced in her imperfections since they made her all the more attractive to the God who delighted in showing himself to the smallest and weakest of his creatures.

We in the self-empowered 90s shy from this sort of talk. We think it is a bit degrading to speak of a God who calls us to rejoice in our weakness. But Therese did not, for she knew it was the way in which all children lived, forgetting themselves and trusting without question that when they fell down or got tired or did a bad thing they would be set upon their feet by a loving father. In short, Therese knew that the way to save her life was to lose it; whereas our culture still thinks the first shall be first and the last shall be co-dependent.

But in fact it is our self-assertive culture which is always complaining of low self-esteem and worthlessness, for instead of seeing ourselves reflected in God's loving eye, we look for our value in what we earn and do. But Therese, precisely because she forgot herself, had a confidence which was almost as shocking as her embrace of littleness. For the same young girl who could rejoice over her weakness and even proclaim her nothingness, could also say, "Our Lord has one great weakness. He is blind and He really knows nothing about arithmetic. He does not know how to add, but to blind Him and prevent Him from adding the smallest sum... you must take Him by His Heart. This is His weak spot.... It is this way that I took hold of the good Lord and that is why I shall be well received by Him."

Such clear-eyed recognition of her littleness and absolute confidence in the love of Christ was what enabled Therese to speak of Jesus as her "divine elevator." Drawn to her by her very weakness, he would, she was confident, lift her up and place her on the Father's lap simply because she trusted him to. And inspired by this complete confidence in that fatherly love, Therese was able to see the most insignificant parts of her life as opportunities to love, rather than as mediocre, middle-class or dull. Thus, instead of seeking to perform herculean feats, she offered God the sweat of aggravation she felt over a sister who rattled her rosary beads during silent prayer. She sought to offer her work, prayer and sufferings, both large and small, up to God in union with Christ for the sake of others. Small tasks, small sacrifices, small thanksgivings: these came her way in a continual stream each moment of each day and she seized upon them all as a chance to love God and offer herself for the good of souls.

Therese died of tuberculosis in complete obscurity at the age of 24. But before she died she said (with typical confidence in God and love for others), "I feel that my mission is about to begin... I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth." Indeed, with a certain holy impishness, she assured one of the sisters from her deathbed, "Don't worry; Mother Agnes will not have time to think of her sorrow, for, until the end of her life, she will be so busy with me that she will not be able to do all that she will be asked to do." Twenty-eight years after her death, God made good this confident promise and Therese was recognized as a saint. Two years after that, the little girl who wanted to be a missionary was made equal Patron, with St. Francis Xavier, of all Missions and Missionaries.



TOPICS: Catholic
KEYWORDS: holyliving; lovinggod; sttherese
t. Thérèse's "Act of Oblation to Merciful Love"

Source: Story of A Soul, translated by Fr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Copyright (c) 1976 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington, DC 20002 U.S.A., pp. 276-278.

ACT OF OBLATION TO MERCIFUL LOVE

J.M.J.T.

Offering of myself
as a Victim of Holocaust
to God's Merciful Love

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make you Loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Sanctity!

Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with Love.

I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints (in heaven and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! the Love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my Dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the says of His mortal life: "Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you!" I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! that the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-powerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.

I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of you to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.

I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the sceptre of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.

After earth's Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love Alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.

In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!

Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, Asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!

May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.

I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!

Marie, Françoise, Thérèse of the Child Jesus
and the Holy Face, unworthy Carmelite religious.

This 9th day of June,
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity,
In the year of grace, 1895

1 posted on 12/02/2005 10:06:02 PM PST by Knitting A Conundrum
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Therese's Little Way of great love seemed like a nice advent thing to contemplate...


2 posted on 12/02/2005 10:07:02 PM PST by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Source: Story of A Soul, translated by Fr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Copyright (c) 1976 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington, DC 20002 U.S.A., pp. 242-243.

How great is the power of Prayer! One could call it a Queen who has at each instant free access to the King and who is able to obtain whatever she asks. To be heard it is not necessary to read from a book some beautiful formula composed for the occasion. If this were the case, alas, I would have to be pitied! Outside the Divine Office which I am very unworthy to recite, I do not have the courage to force myself to search out beautiful prayers in books. There are so many of them it really gives me a headache! and each prayer is more beautiful than the others. I cannot recite them all and not knowing which to choose, I do like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me. For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.

However, I would not want you to believe, dear Mother, that I recite without devotion the prayers said in common in the choir or the hermitages. On the contrary, I love very much these prayers in common, for Jesus has promised to be in the midst of those who gather together in His name. I feel then that the fervor of my Sisters makes up for my lack of fervor; but when alone (I am ashamed to admit it) the recitation of the rosary is more difficult for me than the wearing of an instrument of penance. I feel I have said this so poorly! I force myself in vain to meditate on the mysteries of the rosary; I don't succeed in fixing my mind on them. For a long time I was desolate about this lack of devotion which astonished me, for I love the Blessed Virgin so much that it should be easy for me to recite in her honor prayers which are so pleasing to her. Now I am less desolate; I think that the Queen of heaven, since she is my MOTHER, must see my good will and she is satisfied with it. Sometimes when my mind is in such aridity that it is impossible to draw forth one single thought to unite me with God, I very slowly recite an "Our Father" and then the angelic salutation ["Hail Mary, full of grace, etc.]; then these prayers give me great delight; they nourish my soul much more than if I had recited them precipitately a hundred times.

The Blessed Virgin shows me she is not displeased with me, for she never fails to protect me as soon as I invoke her. If some disturbance overtakes me, some embarrassment, I turn very quickly to her and as the most tender of Mothers she always takes care of my interests. How many times, when speaking to the novices, has it happened that I invoked her and felt the benefits of her motherly protection!


3 posted on 12/02/2005 10:22:03 PM PST by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: Knitting A Conundrum

Thank you for posting this..I needed that today !

May St. Theresa help all of us!


5 posted on 12/03/2005 7:05:45 AM PST by Rosary (Pray the rosary daily,wear the Brown scapular)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum
New Film on the Life of St. Thèrése of Lisieux Screened for the Roman Curia

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Catholic Caucus - St. Therese of Lisieux

Saint Therese of Lisieux-Excerpts from autobiography:STORY OF A SOUL

The Little Way of St. Therese [Long]

St. Therese and Her Little Way

Today we remember the Little Flower

6 posted on 12/03/2005 7:19:28 AM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation

I should know you would be the lady with all the resources! (smiling!)

A little bit more:



St. Thérèse on Prayer

Quite often, when pondering the lives of the saints we hear of great miracles (e.g., ecstasies, healings, levitations, etc.). It is rare that we hear of a saint’s faults and weaknesses. Sometimes we need to hear about these in order to be able to relate to them; to realize that they were "earthen vessels" like the rest of us. One of Saint Thérèse’s weaknesses was distraction at prayer. However, this did not keep her from trudging along her "little way". As we shall see in her autobiography and letters, Saint Thérèse faithfully acknowledged her weakness to God, trusting in His Infinite Mercy to forgive.

Source: Story of A Soul, translated by Fr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Copyright (c) 1976 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington, DC 20002 U.S.A., pp. 242-243.

How great is the power of Prayer! One could call it a Queen who has at each instant free access to the King and who is able to obtain whatever she asks. To be heard it is not necessary to read from a book some beautiful formula composed for the occasion. If this were the case, alas, I would have to be pitied! Outside the Divine Office which I am very unworthy to recite, I do not have the courage to force myself to search out beautiful prayers in books. There are so many of them it really gives me a headache! and each prayer is more beautiful than the others. I cannot recite them all and not knowing which to choose, I do like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me. For me, prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.

However, I would not want you to believe, dear Mother, that I recite without devotion the prayers said in common in the choir or the hermitages. On the contrary, I love very much these prayers in common, for Jesus has promised to be in the midst of those who gather together in His name. I feel then that the fervor of my Sisters makes up for my lack of fervor; but when alone (I am ashamed to admit it) the recitation of the rosary is more difficult for me than the wearing of an instrument of penance. I feel I have said this so poorly! I force myself in vain to meditate on the mysteries of the rosary; I don't succeed in fixing my mind on them. For a long time I was desolate about this lack of devotion which astonished me, for I love the Blessed Virgin so much that it should be easy for me to recite in her honor prayers which are so pleasing to her. Now I am less desolate; I think that the Queen of heaven, since she is my MOTHER, must see my good will and she is satisfied with it. Sometimes when my mind is in such aridity that it is impossible to draw forth one single thought to unite me with God, I very slowly recite an "Our Father" and then the angelic salutation ["Hail Mary, full of grace, etc.]; then these prayers give me great delight; they nourish my soul much more than if I had recited them precipitately a hundred times.

The Blessed Virgin shows me she is not displeased with me, for she never fails to protect me as soon as I invoke her. If some disturbance overtakes me, some embarrassment, I turn very quickly to her and as the most tender of Mothers she always takes care of my interests. How many times, when speaking to the novices, has it happened that I invoked her and felt the benefits of her motherly protection!

Source: Story of A Soul, translated by Fr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Copyright (c) 1976 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington, DC 20002 U.S.A., p. 165.

Really, I am far from being a saint, and what I have just said is proof of this; instead of rejoicing, for example, at my aridity, I should attribute it to my little fervor and lack of fidelity; I should be desolate for having slept (for seven years) during my hours of prayer and my thanksgivings after Holy Communion; well, I am not desolate. I remember that little children are as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as well as when they are wide awake; I remember, too, that when they perform operations, doctors put their patients to sleep. Finally, I remember that: "The Lord knows our weakness, that he is mindful that we are but dust and ashes."

Source: Story of A Soul, translated by Fr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Copyright (c) 1976 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington, DC 20002 U.S.A., p. 199.

O Jesus, Your little bird is happy to be weak and little. What would become of it if it were big? Never would it have the boldness to appear in Your presence, to fall asleep in front of You. Yes, this is still one of the weaknesses of the little bird: when it wants to fix its gaze upon the Divine Sun, and when the clouds prevent it from seeing a single ray of that Sun, in spite of itself, its little eyes close, its little head is hidden beneath its wing, and the poor little thing falls asleep, believing all the time that it is fixing its gaze upon its Dear Star. When it awakens, it doesn’t feel desolate; its little heart is at peace and it begins once again its work of love. It calls upon the angels and saints who rise like eagles before the consuming Fire, and since this is the object of the little bird’s desire the eagles take pity on it, protecting and defending it, and putting to flight at the same time the vultures who want to devour it. These vultures are the demons whom the little bird doesn’t fear, for it is not destined to be their prey but the prey of the Eagle whom it contemplates in the center of the Sun of Love.


7 posted on 12/03/2005 7:21:46 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

oops. My cut and paste went further than I thought...I was really just trying to quote the last paragraph....


8 posted on 12/03/2005 7:23:00 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

See my tagline!


9 posted on 12/03/2005 10:17:56 PM PST by ImaGraftedBranch (God is my Fulcrum; prayer is my lever -- Saint Therese of Lisieux)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Thank you for reminding us of the "Little Way"

It is this type of message that often keeps me from losing my mind as I go through each day - doing the same 'ole thing.


10 posted on 12/04/2005 6:13:57 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: Scotswife

Therese's approach has been such a blessing - it helps remind us that we can touch God in the everyday, and that's a lesson we need to remember.


11 posted on 12/04/2005 7:45:08 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

How simple is the message of St Therese and yet how applicable it is to all of us in the modern world.

You need not do great and noble things to be saved. Small acts of compassion and kindness bring happiness and salvation.

For me, the little way consists of my visits to the sick and dying, those who are confined to nursing homes or housebound, those whom no one seems to care about. My conscience, (God's inner voice) tells me when to go on these visits, and what to say.

In spite of my hectic, fast past paced life, these visits bring me peace and joy, because I know that the people I visit are helped by my presence.

Anyone of you can do this..it is a wonderful opportunity to follow the spirit of St Theresa's 'Little Way'


12 posted on 06/26/2006 12:06:03 PM PDT by epidoc
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To: epidoc

That's it...we should do what we can with love.


13 posted on 06/26/2006 12:16:27 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum
St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. Thérèse of Lisieux
(1873-1897)
Feast day: October 1, 2007

"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul." These are the words of Theresa of the Child Jesus, a Carmelite nun called the "Little Flower," who lived a cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of Lisieux, France. [In French-speaking areas, she is known as Thérèse of Lisieux.] And her preference for hidden sacrifice did indeed convert souls. Few saints of God are more popular than this young nun. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, is read and loved throughout the world. Thérèse Martin entered the convent at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age of 24.
     Life in a Carmelite convent is indeed uneventful and consists mainly of prayer and hard domestic work. But Thérèse possessed that holy insight that redeems the time, however dull that time may be. She saw in quiet suffering redemptive suffering, suffering that was indeed her apostolate. Thérèse said she came to the Carmel convent "to save souls and pray for priests." And shortly before she died, she wrote: "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth."
     October 19, 1997, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, the third woman to be so recognized in light of her holiness and the influence of her teaching on spirituality in the Church.

Comment:

     Thérèse has much to teach our age of the image, the appearance, the "sell." We have become a dangerously self-conscious people, painfully aware of the need to be fulfilled, yet knowing we are not. Thérèse, like so many saints, sought to serve others, to do something outside herself, to forget herself in quiet acts of love. She is one of the great examples of the gospel paradox that we gain our life by losing it, and that the seed that falls to the ground must die in order to live (see John 12).
     Preoccupation with self separates modern men and women from God, from their fellow human beings and ultimately from themselves. We must relearn to forget ourselves, to contemplate a God who draws us out of ourselves and to serve others as the ultimate expression of selfhood. These are the insights of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and they are more valid today than ever.

Quote:


     All her life St. Thérèse suffered from illness. As a young girl she underwent a three-month malady characterized by violent crises, extended delirium and prolonged fainting spells. Afterwards she was ever frail and yet she worked hard in the laundry and refectory of the convent. Psychologically, she endured prolonged periods of darkness when the light of faith seemed all but extinguished. The last year of her life she slowly wasted away from tuberculosis. And yet shortly before her death on September 30 she murmured, "I would not suffer less."
     Truly she was a valiant woman who did not whimper about her illnesses and anxieties. Here was a person who saw the power of love, that divine alchemy which can change everything, including weakness and illness, into service and redemptive power for others. Is it any wonder that she is patroness of the missions? Who else but those who embrace suffering with their love really convert the world?

14 posted on 10/01/2007 10:02:54 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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