Roses, flowers, and sweetness…
I’m sure you already know the Saint I’m thinking about just from those three words! Her Little Way, spiritual childhood, and being love in the Heart of the Church are also phrases you would think of and hear in a conversation or conference on Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She is named the “Little Flower” after all, and in one of her last conversations with her sisters, she said that after her death she would like to be called “Little Thérèse.” Yes, she is well known as Little Therese with her Little Way.
I do find Saint Thérèse’s little way of love quite beautiful. Her words beckon us to accept our weaknesses and imperfections in humility, and to come to a loving “at-homeness” with them as we begin to realize that they are the means by which God can fill us with His merciful love, with the fulness of Himself. Instead of muscling our way through life, even our spiritual lives, little Thérèse teaches us to be content with and love our human weaknesses and frailty, to find rest and consolation in the deep Truth that without Him we can do nothing (Jn 15:5), and to let those low valleys be the exact places where God can see and pour out Love upon us. He finds our bare, vulnerable hearts very, very endearing!
Although Thérèse is well known for this Little Way, there is also another angle of hers that I’ve always found captivating. It’s what sparked my vocation to become a Discalced Carmelite Nun. Underneath the sweet and sentimental heart of a child is the passionate heart of a real fighter for Love. Thérèse admired Saint Joan of Arc, martyr of France, and she wanted the martyr’s crown also, praying every day in her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love that she would become “a martyr of your Love, O my God!” Her zealous love for God, her ardent and magnanimous desire to “love Him and make Him loved” across the face of the earth, impelled her to accept with open hands all the crosses Jesus handed to her and to turn those crosses into sweet fragrant oblations of love for Him.
I think one of Thérèse’s secrets to keeping that fighting spirit and passionate love was her hope. Little Thérèse had an enduring hope in the Light of Heaven and the Light of God her Savior, the Lights she could not see (cf. Rom 8:24). Thérèse kept her heart’s fire lit through this wind of hope that she always managed to breathe into her lungs even in times of thick suffocating fog. She lifted her eyes in hope to the Sun even when she couldn’t feel its rays past the clouds of her ordinary daily darkness. Then in her last eight months during her trial of faith in excruciating darkness, she clung to this hope with a desperate life-grip. Little Thérèse was asked to have big faith in her spiritual nights with eagle’s eyes looking for the coming dawn of hope.
This side of our dear Carmelite sister Saint Thérèse will be the focus of an upcoming Contemplative Symposium from August 1-3: “Saint Thérèse on the Night of Faith and the Dawn of Hope.” The weekend will be a time where one can grow deeper in contemplative prayer and be spiritually enriched and rejuvenated by a series of conference talks, Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, silence, holy friendships, and music. There will be nine dynamic speakers, including our own Carmelite Cardinal, Cardinal Anders Arborelius, OCD and our Carmelite Father Provincial, Fr. Daniel Chowning, OCD. Another little Carmelite from Flemington will also make a short appearance via Zoom! Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB, Fr. Ignatius John Schweitzer, OP, Fr. Donald Haggerty, and more will share their wisdom and experience on Thérèse as well, and help us to press on in our sometimes bleak and dry nights of faith by looking towards the hopeful Light of the new dawn.
Little Therese with your Little Way of Big Hope, pray for us!
For more information and how to register please visit: https://www.dominicanhouseofprayer.com/thereseoflisieuxsymposium
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Image: Unsplash
