Getting to Know More About St. Therese of Lisieux

An extraordinary charity

What makes St. Therese such a great saint was not because she
accomplished many great things, but that she accomplished her
simple tasks with extraordinary charity. According to author
Segundo Galilea, the spirituality of St. Therese is not
complicated. No excessive will power was exercised and no
emphasis was made to accomplish what was difficult. She rather
insisted on the quality of love and charity in everything that
she did. This extraordinary charity in which she acted with,
was very much rooted in her heart and soul in the common routine
of her tasks as a Carmelite nun.

Her "Little Way"

Even with her childlike attitude in the spiritual way, we find
an amazing wisdom that leads us to the truth that we are indeed
small in relation to God and all the trials and tribulations
we experience in life. We see this very much in Therese when
she said to her sister Celine:

"Do not try to rise above your trials, for we are too small to
rise above our difficulties. Therefore, let us try to pass
under them."

All things in the Church for God

Because of her extraordinary charity, St. Therese wanted to live
and experience every existing vocation in the Church. She
wanted to become a contemplative, a missionary, a martyr, an
evangelizer, a penitent, an educator, dedicated to the poor, and
the servant of the sick. Like St. Paul, she wanted to be all
things to all people so that she may win many souls to God.

St. Therese did live all what she desired for God as she
expressed in her desire to be many things for Him. She
"mystically" (as Segundo Galilea stated) lived the substance of
every Catholic vocation in her state of life as a discalced
Carmelite. Through God's divine grace, she has "mystically"
integrated the entire multiform mission of the Church in her
soul.

A missionary in heart and soul

St. Therese sacrificed herself for the missions. But unlike St.
Francis Xavier who traveled thousands of miles, preached the
gospel incessantly, died a martyr, St. Therese never left her
Carmelite convent. But her missionary journey was more an inner
journey - what author Mary Neill, OP, calls the "emigres de
l'Interieur". In her inner journey, St. Therese experienced
"spiritual martyrdoms" and "dangerous adventures". She traveled
the inner geography of her soul in a very deeply affecting way
that really touches the lives of anyone who reads her book on
her life. Many will be inspired to live a more contemplative
approach to life after reading her autobiography.

What also made St. Therese a true missionary in heart and soul
was her ministry and mission of encouraging missionaries through
her correspondence with them. Amidst being in the laundry, in
cleaning rooms, in looking after linen, she also took time to
bring courage and faith to the missionaries she corresponded
with. She wrote to Carmelite sisters in Hanoi, Vietnam, to
Pere Roulland (a missionary in China), and she also wrote to a
seminarian named Maurice Belliere.

"The Story of a Soul"

Much is to be learned from St. Therese not only from the
secondary sources on her life and spirituality, but also and
most importantly on a primary source which is her autobiography,
"The Story of a Soul". It is really a very inspiring book - one
that you can identify with spiritually and in some instances,
also personally. She writes her autobiography in a candid and
very simple style. After reading the book, you will truly know
in mind, heart and soul, that there is a God who truly loves all
of us - no matter how small or insignificant we are or feel to
be so.

Sources of this blog post

• Great Saints Great Friends, by Mary Neill, OP, and Ronda
  Chervin
• The Doctors of the Church, by John F. Fink
• The Friendship of God, by Segundo Galilea