Story of a Soul. Thérèse of Lisieux

      Preface

      Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

       By Michael R. Heinlein

      Of all the saints whose holiness blossomed in the setting of the family, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is perhaps the most famous example. Within the context of her loving and devout family, Thérèse began to discover her “Little Way” of holiness.

      Thérèse was born the ninth and final child of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. Zélie died of breast cancer four years later, and Louis’ brother-in-law helped arrange for the widower’s family to move north to Lisieux.

      From an early age, Thérèse learned from her parents to accept everything in her life as a gift from God, keenly understanding his grace and providence. Likewise, she learned to rely solely on God’s will to find her peace. Thérèse teaches us that holiness is found in doing little things consistently and with great love.

      Zélie’s death when Thérèse was four years old was a traumatic event for the young girl — one which she remembered vividly. She wrote later that it was then that “my naturally happy disposition completely changed. Instead of being lively and demonstrative as I had been, I became timid, shy, and extremely sensitive; a look was enough to make me burst into tears. I could not bear to be noticed or to meet strangers and was at ease only in my own family circle. There I was always cherished with the most loving care.”

      It was not until she was thirteen years old, at Christmas, that she finally overcame her tendency toward emotional hypersensitivity, which would usually end in fits of uncontrollable tears. She would later describe this Christmas experience as a necessary step in her “conversion” — in her ability to abandon herself for the love of God.

      During her childhood, Thérèse was considered weak and unusual. At the age of nine, she became so sick that it appeared the end was near. Her father even requested Masses at Our Lady of Victories Church in Paris, and her family kept vigil at her bedside. As three of her sisters were leading prayers of intercession to the Blessed Mother in front of the family’s statue of her, Thérèse experienced a miracle: the statue began to smile at her. She was healed.

      Thérèse and her four older sisters (her other four siblings did not survive infancy) each discovered God’s call to the religious life. And Thérèse was quite insistent upon doing God’s will as soon as possible, despite the many difficulties she encountered on that path.

      Refused entry to the Carmelite convent in Lisieux because of her young age, Thérèse seemingly could not contain the zeal with which her soul desired total union with Christ. She even used a meeting with Pope Leo XIII during a pilgrimage to Rome as an opportunity to seek his assistance. The pope replied “Well, my child, do whatever the superiors decide.… You will enter if it is God’s Will.” According to God’s designs and her own perseverance, the local bishop later gave his consent for Thérèse to enter the Lisieux Carmel when she was fifteen.

      Although she entered the convent with a desire for spiritual greatness, her attitude slowly changed. As she wrote: “Above all I endeavored to practice little hidden acts of virtue.” But her “Little Way” should not be dismissed as easy or unheroic, for it requires total trust in and abandonment to the will of God, which is the source of our joy. She firmly believed that holiness was attainable for all the baptized. When one of her cousins got married, Thérèse wrote to her, “We all take a different road but each one leads to the same goal. You and I must have a single aim: to grow in holiness while following the way that God in his goodness has laid down for us.”

      Thérèse explained the “Little Way” further: “But how shall I show my love, since love proves itself by deeds? Well! The little child will strew flowers … she will embrace the Divine Throne with their fragrance, she will sing Love’s Canticle in silvery tones. Yes, my Beloved, it is thus my short life shall be spent in Thy sight. The only way I have of proving my love is to strew flowers before Thee — that is to say, I will let no tiny sacrifice pass, no look, no word. I wish to profit by the smallest actions, and to do them for Love.” She also believed that her divine mission was just beginning in this life: “After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses.” As a result, one of her most popular names today is “the Little Flower.”

      Scripture, devotionals like The Imitation of Christ, and the daily office and Mass formed the center of Thérèse’s commonsense spirituality. She learned about the importance of a hidden life of charity and the esteem for bodily mortifications from the great Carmelite saints like John of the Cross and her namesake, Teresa of Ávila.

      Life in the Carmel of Lisieux was taxing for Thérèse. Her life behind the grate of the Carmel turned out to be the proving ground for the “Little Way.” Living with the other nuns was not always easy. She was maligned and mistreated. But in the midst of these difficulties and the simple jobs that were assigned her at first, Thérèse found her “Little Way.”

      Thérèse performed a variety of small jobs in the Carmel, including duties like scrubbing floors and positions such as sacristan. However, her spiritual gifts were eventually put to use in a more significant position — assistant novice mistress. Assisting the young novices with spiritual discernment, Thérèse was sweet yet firm, unafraid to call a young nun to task for anything that might be keeping her from holiness. Some of the keen spiritual insights Thérèse shared with her novices are applicable to all who desire holiness: “I realized that, while for the most part all souls have the same battles, yet no two souls are exactly alike.… Each soul, therefore, should be dealt with in a different way.… Our own tastes, our personal ideas must be forgotten, and we must guide souls not by our own way but along that particular path which Jesus indicates.”

      But her life at the Carmel was not destined to be long. One day she found blood in her handkerchief, and she was soon after diagnosed with tuberculosis. Rather than rejecting God’s plan for her, however, she experienced “joy” and awaited death as the final act in her complete union with Christ. In her great suffering, she taught of its greater purpose: “I have reached a point where I can no longer suffer, because all suffering has become so sweet.”

      Thérèse experienced intense physical suffering and offered it all to the Lord, in union with him to the end — uttering as she breathed her last, “My God, I love you!” She died on September 30, 1897, at the age of twenty-four.

      Thérèse identified her discovery of her personal mission in her spiritual autobiography, Story of a Soul:

      I understood that since the Church is a body composed of different members, the noblest and most important of all the organs would not be wanting. I knew that the Church has a heart, that this heart burns with love, and that it is love alone that gives life to its members. I knew that if this love were extinguished, the Apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, and the martyrs would refuse to shed their blood.…

      Then, beside myself with joy, I cried out: “O Jesus, my Love, at last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love! Yes, I have found my place in the bosom of the Church, and this place, O my God, Thou hast Thyself given to me: in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be LOVE!”

      In great joy, she declared her mission to be love, which, as she says, is at the center of the Church. Although she never left her convent, she would be proclaimed universal patroness of missionaries in 1927. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger explained this seeming irony thus: “She understood that she herself, the little nun behind the grille of a Carmel in a provincial town in France, could be everywhere, because as a loving person she was there with Christ in the heart of the Church.”

      Pope Saint John Paul II spoke of Thérèse’s vocation, saying,

      Jesus himself showed her how she could live this vocation: by fully practicing the commandment of love, she would be immersed in the very heart of the Church’s mission, supporting those who proclaim the Gospel with the mysterious power of prayer and communion. Thus she achieved what the Second Vatican Council emphasized in teaching that the Church is missionary by nature (cf. Ad gentes, n. 2).