Today is the feast day of St Therese of the Child Jesus. We celebrate her feast day today, and then the feast day of St Teresa of Avila two weeks later. Two Carmelite nuns who are also Doctors of the Church. Both of them are still immensely popular saints today in the modern world.
Pope Francis wrote an apostolic exhortation on St Therese in 2023, the 150th anniversary of her birth and the 100th anniversary of her beatification. Pope Francis starts his document with the following quote from St Therese: “It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love.” Pope Francis states that these words of St Therese sum up the genius of her spirituality. Pope Francis states that “with confidence, the wellspring of grace overflows into our lives, the Gospel takes flesh within us and makes us channels of mercy for our brothers and sisters.”
Pope Francis states that: “St Therese is one of the best known and most beloved saints in our world. Like Saint Francis of Assisi, she is loved by non-Christians and nonbelievers as well. In addition, she has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the most significant figures for contemporary humanity.”
Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born in 1873 as the youngest daughter of a devout Catholic family in the Normandy region of France. He parents, Louis and Zélie Martin, who have also been canonized saints. In fact, Therese’s four older sisters also entered the convent to become nuns. Therese felt the call to religious life at an early life. After overcoming different obstacles that kept her from entering earlier, she became a nun at the age of 15 with two of her older sisters in the Carmelite community of Lisieux in Normandy. She died at the young age of 24 in the year 1897.
Here are some key points we can make about St Therese and her spirituality. She calls us to the little way, emphasizing a child-like approach to God through humility and relying entirely on God’s grace rather than our own achievements. Therese also emphasized the importance of God’s love, seeing that as the center of the Christian life.
How did a young nun who was unknown during her lifetime become one of the most popular saints? Unlike the complex writings of other saints, including St Teresa of Avila, St Therese has a spirituality that is very easily understood and that resonates with the Catholic faithful. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, has been a best seller since the time it was published soon after her death. Also, in a world that mostly values power and status and material possessions, St Therese offers us a counter-cultural message of God’s mercy and tenderness and charity toward others, as well as taking responsibility for forging a path of faith here on earth.
One of her famous quotes, which is echoed in the spirituality of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, states: "Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”
Our psalm refrain today is traditionally attributed to King David: “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.” We are not to wait to see the goodness of the Lord only after we are dead in our eternal life with him. We are to cling to the faith and the hope that God shows us his kindness during our days here on earth. We experience God in the reality of our lives and we can see his goodness all around us if we open our hearts to him. That is certainly something St Therese would agree with.
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