Reflection for the feast day of St Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower - October 1 2018

        This Monday, October 1, I will be going to the Carmelite monastery in Jackson to celebrate the feast day of St Therese of Lisieux with our beloved Carmelite sisters.  It is fascinating that this cloistered nun who died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in a remote area in rural France more than a century ago is one of the most popular today. Born Therese Martin, she left behind a notebook containing her story, as well as correspondence that she wrote to family and friends.  She did not write huge volumes of complicated theology like St Augustine or St Thomas Aquinas.  Yet, the profound nature of those writings and the way they have touched the souls of the faithful throughout the world prompted Pope John Paul II to name her as a Doctor of the Church, one of only four women to hold that distinction.

         Therese is a very much a product of her time and of her early life.  She was very much spoiled and dotted upon by her family, especially by her father after the death of her mother when Therese was 4 years old.  Therese entered the Carmelite convent when she was 15 years old - a very young age to become a religious sister.  Her writings and her story should be read in the spirit of her reality and in the reality of our faith. 

         Even though Therese was a cloistered nun whose life was confined to her convent in rural France, Therese was named the co-patron saint of missionaries in 1927, along with the great Jesuit missionary St Francis Xavier. Even though Therese did not go overseas to the missions herself, she had a special love of the missions.  She prayed for the missions; she prayed for missionaries.  She wrote letters of support to them. This is a reminder to all of us who feel we can do nothing if we are not missionaries living in a far away land that it is the little things that keep God's kingdom growing.  We can all pray for the missionaries each day.  You can ask yourself how can you be more missionary and support the missions on your journey during Lent and after Lent as well. St. Therese believed that the people of her time lived in too great a fear of Gods judgment. She saw this fear as stifling, not allowing people to experience the freedom of the children of God. She went to God as a child approaches a parent with open arms and a profound trust.  

         In the spirit of Therese, we are challenged to see the little things in life as a part of Therese’s “little way”, doing ordinary acts out of your love for God.  Whether we are doing chores around the house, running errands, doing our work, interacting family members, these can be acts that are lifted up to God, acts that come out of our faith.  Therese once said: “Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant deeds, count as nothing.”  St Therese, the Little Flower, we unite our prayers with yours.