Living the Mission of Holy Mother Church: St. Therese of Lisieux / of the Child Jesus

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 19 Mar 2011)

Dear brothers and sisters,

Last week, we shared on St. Francis Xavier living the mission of Holy Mother Church. This week, you will hear about St. Therese of Lisieux a.k.a Therese of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower whose love and devotion to our Lord has touched and is still touching the hearts of millions of followers.

Therese, born on 2^nd Jan 1873 in Alencon, Normandy in France, was the pampered youngest daughter of two very devout Catholics. When she was four, her mother died of cancer.

Pauline, her second sister, became a surrogate mother to her. When Pauline entered the Carmelite Convent, Therese was upset and became critically ill. She was cured when she prayed before the statue of Mary and saw a vision of Mary smiling at her.

By eleven, she had developed the habit of mental prayer. She would find a place and think about God and eternal life in solitude. Her two other sisters, Marie and Leonie also left home to join the Carmelites and the Poor Clares respectively.

In 1886, at fourteen, Therese felt a stirring in her heart, which she referred to as her conversion. Therese decided that she wanted to enter the Discalced Convent at Lisieux.  However, the ecclesiastical superior objected and told her to come back when she turned 21. She consulted the Bishop but was also rejected. On a pilgrimage to Rome with her father and sister Celine, she broke decorum during an audience with the Pope and asked him for a special dispensation to enter Carmel. Pope Leo Xlll responded that she would enter if God wills it. Soon thereafter, at 15, Therese finally entered Carmel. There, Therese lived a life of humility, simplicity and childlike trust in God. She shared the Little Way of Spiritual Childhood with the novices under her care. 

She knew, as a Carmelite nun, she would never be able to perform great deeds.  She wanted to show her love for God by scattering flowers which were little sacrifices she made no matter how insignificant it would seem.  She smiled at the sisters she did not like; ate everything given without complaining so that she was often given the worst leftovers. Once, she was wrongly accused of breaking a vase.  Instead of arguing, she knelt to beg for forgiveness.

These little sacrifices of humiliation and good deeds cost her more than bigger ones because they were not recognised by others. When Pauline became prioress, Therese had to pay the ultimate sacrifice by remaining a novice so as to allay the fears of the other nuns that the three sisters would be dominating. This meant that she would never be a fully professed nun, and would have to ask permission for everything she did.

Therese energetically sought holiness in the life she led.  She did not want to be just good. She wanted to be a saint. Comparing herself to the great saints, she told herself she could aim at being a saint despite her littleness as God would not want her to wish for something impossible. She had to put up with herself, with all her countless faults, but she would look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is “very short and very straight”.

On 9^th June 1895, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, she offered herself as a sacrificial victim to the Merciful Love of God. At this time, ordered by her prioress, Therese began to write her autobiography, ‘The Story of a Soul’. This unique book gives evidence of her spirituality. In her own words: “I just tell our Lord all that I want and He understands.”

In 1896, Therese coughed up blood. Over the next 18 months, her condition steadily deteriorated. In the months prior to her death, she prayed for the grace to “spend heaven doing good on earth” and promised that after her death, she would send a shower of roses from heaven.

Therese died of tuberculosis on Sept 30th, 1897 at the age of 24. By 1925, only 28 years later, she was canonised by Pope Pius Xl. He proclaimed her Universal Patron of the Missions, alongside St. Francis Xavier in 1927. St. Therese was conferred this honour not because she ever went anywhere, but because of her special love of the missions and the prayers and letters she gave in support of missionaries. This reminds those of us who feel that we can do nothing, that it is the little things that keep God’s Kingdom growing.