Saint Therese won my heart, and she won it for Jesus! I was in college and was just coming back to the practice of the Catholic faith when I caught a glimpse of little Therese on EWTN and knew I had to learn more. Learning more about Therese turned into praying more with Therese. Her Story of a Soul accompanied me in the Eucharistic Adoration chapel as my sprouting faith took deeper root and began to blossom into another little flower. Therese’s own interior life, opened up to us in her spiritual autobiography, shows us what it can look like to love God with all our heart.
As we recently celebrated Saint Therese’s 100th anniversary of canonization (May 17, 1925), we are reminded of the immense impact she has had on Catholic spirituality these past hundred years. It is my joy, having met her in college, to now be leading a contemplative symposium on her this summer, August 1-3 (see more information below). In this reflection, I simply want to open up two key ways she has helped to shape Catholic souls this past century, including the story of my soul.
First, in some ways, Therese’s key message is simply a resounding of the biblical teaching on salvation and holiness through grace working itself out in faith and love. What Saint Paul describes theologically in Ephesians, Romans, and Galatians as the gospel message of justification by grace, little Therese re-presents in her own charming way. Jesus is the elevator who alone can bring us to God. Our task is to be humble, childlike, and to trust as we respond to God’s grace in making efforts, however stumbling or imperfect our best efforts may be. Jesus and his merciful love must make up for what is lacking in us as we strive towards God.
Perfectionism and a performance mentality have sometimes been a cloud hovering over me. The implicit message often received growing up in our culture is that our value is in our success or in what we accomplish. Coming anew to our Catholic faith in my college years, the urge to put forth manly strength in my pursuit of the Lord was at the fore of my mind and heart. Disciplined effort is certainly good and necessary, but in the very determined exertion, and not without it, we bump up against our limits. I remember in the Adoration chapel, with the Story of a Soul in my hand, heaven seemed as close as the Host before my eyes. I longed to have that union culminate then and there. As the hours passed, it became evident that God was not going to consummate a heavenly union then and there. Of course not! I was left having to go to bed and wake up the next morning and find that I no longer had the same burning zeal I had the night before, and maybe even no desire at all for things of the Christian faith. It would take time to appreciate that our zeal for God is important, but it is His zeal for us that is all the more important and decisive. God’s love is primary. This requires trust in God’s grace and surrender to His plan. Saint Therese helped me live this and see the place of little things and daily faithfulness in the Christian life.
Second, in the zeal of my conversion, I was all about big things for the Lord–and indeed, magnanimity is a virtue–but there is also the greatness of the steady faithfulness to the ordinary, little things of our daily life. Therese’s “little way” opens us to this reality. Indeed, she has helped Catholics throughout the past century find new meaning in the ordinary tasks of day-to-day life. She opens up life in the Carmelite monastery so persuasively and shows us the stuff of which holiness is made. Her patience with the fellow nun whose clicking of her Rosary drives Therese crazy. Her making the effort to smile and respond with joy to the Sister she finds difficult to live with. Her trial of faith at the end of her life, to which she responded with little, repeated acts of faith, hope, and charity. In her charm, Therese helps us want to do little deeds of love amidst the difficulties.
In those years of college and of beginning to live a more devoted Catholic life, Saint Therese helped me see that the path to holiness is not so much a journey amidst felt zeal and sweetness in prayer but rather the path of aridity, darkness, and fidelity. In times of Eucharistic Adoration, when I half-realized that I was trying to generate the same experience I had the night before and it was not working, she helped me to begin to find peace and satisfaction in the aridity, abiding more purely by faith, hope, and charity. It was frustrating and excruciating at times, and still is, but Therese’s preference for aridity over sweetness shows the way forward. The path of fidelity in little acts of love and service to our neighbor and little, repeated acts of faith, hope, and charity in prayer bring us to real and substantial holiness by bringing us to true love.
Such themes of Saint Therese on the gospel of grace, the little way, and the dark night have surely continued to exert their influence over me. Our contemplative symposium on St. Therese on August 1-3 is precisely on the theme of “Saint Therese on Night of Faith and the Dawn of Hope” (https://www.dominicanhouseofprayer.com/thereseoflisieuxsymposium). In the good news of our salvation in the Lord Jesus, we have more than just optimism but rather a hope that nothing of this world can shake and that remains firm and bright even amidst difficulties and the night of faith. Our nine symposium speakers will address this rich theme from various angles and help us in our own spiritual journeys as we press on, with Therese’s help, in our own night of faith, dawn of hope, and high noon of charity.
Image: Depositphotos
