October 1 is the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, one of the most popular saints throughout the Church and a personal favorite.
Born in 1873 as the youngest child into an intensely Catholic, upper-class French family, Thérèse entered the cloistered Carmelite convent in her hometown at the age of 15; lived an austerity of prayer, silence, and work for nine years; wrote her spiritual autobiography, The Story of a Soul; and died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1897.
As she lay dying, she overheard two Sisters in the hallway wondering aloud what the prioress would write about Thérèse in her obituary, since she had seemingly not done anything extraordinary.
Yet, only 28 years later, Pope Pius XI canonized her in Rome before tens of thousands, an enormous basilica in her honor rose in Lisieux and she quickly became known and loved throughout the world as a powerful intercessor.
Her smiling image, holding an abundance of roses, is in most Catholic churches throughout the world, and millions of people devotedly pray to her.
Explaining Thérèse
So what is the explanation for this remarkable phenomenon? How do we explain the mysterious spiritual attraction of this humble Nun, who died young and unknown?
Thérèse was a girl of fierce determination who begged her father, her bishop, and even Pope Leo XIII for permission to enter the convent earlier than the rules allowed.
She got her way, entering the Carmelites at 15, but later confessed that, once inside the silence and poverty of the cloister, the long days of prayer and work challenged her vivacious spirit.
She dreamed of being a missionary in some exotic foreign land, or gloriously dying as a martyr, of doing practically anything other than what she was doing.
Then she read Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, and in his famous hymn to love in Chapter 13, she discovered her vocation.
God was not calling her to great and heroic deeds, but to great love. She would be love at the heart of the Church.
This conviction became the nucleus of Thérèse’s Little Way of Spiritual Childhood, as she embraced her life as she found it, moving forward with trust, surrender, and confidence in God.
Being kind to the old cranky Nun in the cell next to her, smiling when she wanted to cry, being kind to a fellow Sister whose personality and habits drove her to distraction became the substance of her oblation of self to God.
Most of us will not perform big and heroic deeds for God, but like Thérèse, we can embrace the thousand mundane details of our lives, loving God and our neighbor in the ordinary duties that life presents to us.
Thérèse is the patron saint of the little things, showing us how to be saints in the seemingly ordinary aspects of every day.
A strong trust
When St. Thérèse contracted tuberculosis in the spring of 1897, she entered into a very dark night of the spirit, feeling no consolation from God.
As her suffering intensified, she questioned the validity of her Religious vocation, the efficacy of her prayer, her own eternal salvation, and even the existence of Heaven.
At one point, she seemed to struggle with fleeting thoughts of suicide.
Through all of this darkness and temptation, Thérèse’s trust in the love and mercy of God never wavered.
The Lord was purifying her faith through the painful crucible of the Cross, and she remained serene in her confidence in the promises of Jesus.
By embracing her suffering in faith, St. Thérèse shows us how to do the same.
When our prayer feels dry and lifeless, when God seems distant, when the sufferings of this life are unbearable, we too can turn to the Lord in confidence and trust, believing that this experience of the dark night will lead to glory and salvation.
When we are on the Cross, often there is no human consolation for us.
In such moments, we can offer all of our fears, struggles, temptations, and suffering to God. Thérèse shows us the way.
As she lay dying, St. Thérèse promised that she would spend her Heaven doing good on earth.
Poetically, she phrased it as letting a shower of roses fall from heaven to bestow favors on those who sought her intercession. She has abundantly fulfilled this promise!
Hundreds of French soldiers carried her holy card and prayed to her in the battles of World War I.
Their written testimonies of her powerful and visible presence in acute moments of danger propelled her rapid canonization.
I can personally testify to her immediate, consoling, and efficacious help in dozens of difficult and perplexing situations in my life.
I publicly thank Thérèse for her love and help. If we think of Heaven as a place of rest and repose, Thérèse stretches our understanding of eternal life as an active intercession — the saints assisting those on earth to reach eternal life.
What explains the mysterious enigma of St. Thérèse of Lisieux? I would suggest three aspects of her life and spirituality:
Her Little Way, which shows us that extraordinary holiness is possible to attain through the ordinary.
Her dark night of suffering, which models for us how to embrace the Cross, with trust and confidence.
Her powerful, Heavenly intercession, which is often direct, efficacious, and astounding.
Pray to Thérèse. Entrust your intentions to her celestial intervention. She will not disappoint.