Therese of Lisieux – Little flower

“For me, prayer is the heart’s impulse, a simple gaze toward heaven. It is a cry of gratitude and love, from the depths of trial as well as the heights of joy. Finally it is something great, supernatural, that expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.”
Therese petitioned pope XIII for a special dispensation to enter the Carmelite order before she turned sixteen. You will enter if God wills it, he said. Her request was granted a few months later by the local bishop. Her life within the monastery walls was short and uneventful, “lacking in outward drama” She was praying ardently for the missionary service in Vietnam. At 23rd she contracted tuberculosis, followed a year of intense suffering. Therese devoted herself to prayer and to the service of God in the monastery. She prayed for missionary priests in particular. “Genius of secret mortification” Therese embraced small, daily hardships as both a test and a gift from God. The sisters in her convent who showed the least kindness to Therese were the ones she tried to love the most. She chose to sit beside the sister during the recreation. Therese heard harsh comments in the monastery, from sisters jealous of her youth, confused by her sanctity, and baffled by her Charity. Such misunderstanding was par to her life. Her autobiography “story of a soul” captivating, her example inspiring, and her “little way” accessible to countless believers. On Sep 30, 1897, at age 24 she died. Her last words were “Oh, I love Him …… My God ….. I love you. In 1925 only 28 years after her death, Therese was declared a Saint. And in 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the church.
In her autobiography, The story of the soul, Therese frequently speaks of her lifelong love of flowers and gardens. Here, she employs the image of the garden to illustrate here idea of the little way to God
“Jesus deigned to teach me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers he has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy.
And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to lilies and roses, but he has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks down at his feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be
Our Lord is occupied particularly with each soul as though there were no others like it. And just s in nature all the seasons are arranged in such a way as to make the humblest daisy bloom on a set day, in the same way, everything works out for the good of each soul.
She called herself a “little flower” a small daisy compared to the more magnificent roses.
Therese, who had been filled with a sense of God’s presence since her childhood, began to experience a crushing sense of God’s absence in her prayer. “If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into!” she admitted to one sister.
Her life – at once simple and complex, clear and opaque, childlike and mature, humble and bold, joyful and sorrowful – has spoken to millions of people. She can speak to you now here, if only you have ears to listen!