Eckstein 1
The Spirituality of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: Her Little Way
Gabriel Eckstein
Theology 721 A Dr. Mark Miravalle November 19, 2011
Eckstein 2 According to Pope Pius X, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is the “greatest saint of modern times”.1 She is a great saint because she presents to us a spirituality that is simple and can be faithfully followed by everyone. Pius XII tells us, “This way, conceived un der the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is suitable for learned men, for those who, like the apostles, are responsible for souls, as well as for the lowly and unlearned .”2 Her great role in bringing souls to God in our time should not be overlooked, and we should not fail to spread devotion to her Little Way. Abbé André Combes writes that Her importance lies not in that she either knew or foresaw the progress of atomic research, the march of Marxism, or of existentialist speculation. She is important be cause, having given her life unreservedly to the living God in order to be of help in the salvation of souls, particularly the souls of unbelievers, she became a vehicle through which God perfected a type of sanctity scaled to the preoccupations of the day. To speak more precisely: she was a means by which God set upon this kind of sanctity the mark of his prophetic creativeness in bringing it to pass even before the general trends which have of late most influenced mankind had fully manifested themselves.3 Saint Thérèse is a saint for us in our times. She found the solution to her human weakness in the love of God. Saint Thérèse shows us the way to obtain holiness in our current age which is dominated by sin and disorder. Using her life as a model, she “addresses the modern dilemma: not only the issue of our fundamental human limitations, our sense of guilt, the depth of suffering inherent in human life, and our fear of annihilation— but more so, our sense of alienation, our tendency to self-hatred and violence, our quest for meaning in life, our search for authentic existence, our complete divorce from any sense of hope, our loss of the security of truth and our
1. Pope Pius X quoted by Joseph F. Schmidt, F.S.C in Everything is Grace: The Life and Way of Thérèse of Lisieux (Ijamsville, MD: The Word Among Us, 2007), 12. 2. Pope Pius XII quoted by François Jamart in Complete Spiritual Doctrine of St. Therese of Lisieux , trans. Walter Van de Putte (Staten Island, N.Y.: Alba House, 1961), 7. 3. Abbé André Combes, Saint Thérèse and Her Mission: The Basic Principles of Theresian Spirituality , trans. Alastair Guinan (New York: P. J. Kennedy & Sons, 1955), 24.
Eckstein 3 fear of ‘eternal solitude,’ as Nietzsche put it.”4 Because she has the answer to our modern problems, it is very important that we discover what exactly Saint Thérèse can teach us. It is important for our own sake to understand Theresian spirituality but more importantly for the sake of those Christians who have families and live and work in the world. They must have a way to grow in holiness by performing their little duties in life. Because I want to become a pastor of a parish someday, I chose Saint Thérèse for this very reason. Once we understand who little Thérèse is and what she taught, then that is when we can wins souls for Christ, and be like little Thérèse – converting souls so that Jesus can receive more love. Where do we begin? According to Joseph Schmidt, “To understand and appreciate Thérèse’s spirituality, there is no better way than to see it lived out by Thérèse herself. Yet her life contains nothing extraordinary; in fact, many o f the details are similar to the details of the lives of multitudes of common holy men and women, who at their deaths, are quickly forgotten because their lives were so ordinary.”5 This is the remarkable, yet somewhat perplexing, fact about Saint Thérèse that sheds so much light on her spirituality way. She was ordinary. Based on outside appearances, she was a good and faithful Carmelite, yet she was no better or no worse than any of the other Carmelite sisters. In a room full of Carmelite sisters, Saint Thérèse would not stand out. Many of her fellow Carmelite sisters attested to how ordinary she truly was. Schmidt shows us two examples.6 One of her religious sisters, upon Thérèse nearing death, said, “My sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is going to die soon; and I really wonder what our mothe r [superior] will be able to say after her death. S he will be very embarrassed, for this little sister, as 4. Schmidt, 21. 5. Ibid., 13. 6. Ibid.
Eckstein 4 likeable as she is, has certainly done nothing worth the trouble of being recounted.”Even the prioress of Thérèse convent, Mother Marie de Gonzague, laughed when asked about the chances of Thérèse being canonized. She said, “In that case, many Carmelites would have to be canonized.” These responses show how truly little Saint Thérèse was. Instead of pe rforming outward acts of penances, she chose inward acts that could only be seen by Jesus. Instead of performing penances for her own merit, it was all for the love of Jesus. She was so humble, that her sisters, both biological and religious, did not think her to be a great saint, until after her death when her personal autobiography was being read and reproduced. That was when the heavenly light showed the true greatness of little Thérèse. Sister Marie of the Trinity, a novice under Thérèse described the life of holy life of Thérèse as follows: [She] has done nothing extraordinary: no ecstasies, n o revelations, no mortification which frighten little souls like ours. Her whole life can be summed up in one word: she loved God in all the ordinary actions of common life, performing them with great faithfulness…She took every as coming from God;…to abandon yourself to God and to think of yourself as little as possible, not even to seek keeping an account of whether you make [spiritual] progress or not. That’s not our business. We have o nly to try to perform all the little acts of daily life with the greatest possible love, to recognize humbly but without sadness, our thousand imperfections which are always resurfacing and to ask God with confidence to transform them into love.7 This testimony gives us a basic understanding of who Saint Thérèse was when she was close to reaching spiritual perfection. However, we still need to start from the beginning and see the foundational aspects of her spirituality set in place and th e spiritual back drop in which she lived. After providing a historical foundation, we can give a give a general definition of her Little Way before thoroughly analyzing all of its charact eristics. Thus, at present we must first present
7. Ibid., 20-21.
Eckstein 5 a brief overview of the history of spirituality leading up to Saint Thérèse. 8 Once this is done, we can look at Thérèse’s childhood leading up to entering the convent to see how much those early years had an effect on the later years. This will allow us to contrast the more aesthetical treatises and the heresies of the time with h er Little Way, both in its primitive form and its advanced form. Following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the early Church spirituality was very communal and evangelistic. At this point it was very primitive and there was much room for spiritual and doctrinal development. The focus of the Church was on spreading the good news about Jesus Christ and welcoming more members into the Church. The New Testament, currently being written at this po int, focuses on the redemption found in Christ because “God is love” (1 John 4:16) and the charisms of the Holy Spirit. The spirituality was very simple and focused on love of neighbor and love of God. This “primitive spirituality gradually became more complex”.9 With time and practice, the spiritual life was better understood and man y spiritual treatises were written about various forms of prayer. According to François Jamart, these spiritual treatises were helpful for those who were not fortunate to have someone spiritually guiding them, “but, as a result of it, there developed a multiplicity of ascetical rules and practices which tended to obscure the heart of the matter: that interior disposition of confident love for God, which should be the basis for our relations with Him.”10 Thus, the idea developed that the only means in which to reach perfection
8. For this historical overview, I will be paraphrasing François Jamart in Complete Spiritual Doctrine of St. Therese of Lisieux pages 13-17 unless specifically footnoted otherwise. 9. Jumart, 15. 10. Ibid.
Eckstein 6 were through these very challenging ascetical rules and practices. Only those who lived extremely focused lives, such as cloistered and m onastic religious monks and sisters, could obtain this holiness and perfection. This was a time of great saints who focused on very strict penances and were “often favored by extraordinary graces: visions, revelations, miracles, prophecies” and many other extraordinary gifts.11 Those lay people, and especially those with families in the world, were out of luck, and would have to rely on God’s generous mercy in purgatory to be saved. Thus, there was a great divide between those great holy saints and the normal everyday person. This notion of holiness for the few and perfection based on strict ascetical models dominated Saint Thérèse’s time. In the two centuries leading up to when Thérèse lived (the late 1800s), two heresies raised their ugly heads: Jansenism and Pelagianism. “Jansenism, a heresy that promoted a false image of God as punitive and vindictive, had been condemned two centuries earlier, but was still sending out roots and tendrils into Catholic teaching. Pelagianism, an even earlier heresy that taught that people could successfully strive to merit God’s love, also contaminated Catholic life.”12 These two heresies, although condemned, greatly affected how people viewed the spiritual life. The emphasis of salvation was changed from something freely given by the mercy of God to something that had to be earned by us. God the Father is willing to tolerate us and grant us forgiveness if we are willing to repent and take on hard penances. Even the smallest sin is an infinite offense against God and to be a holy saint, we must rid ourselves completely of this stain on our souls. God is just and only the holiest souls in heaven deserve to be there.
11. Ibid., 16. 12. Schmidt, 24.
Eckstein 7 Growing up, Saint Thérèse had to deal with the after effects of these heresies. Against the preaching of the day, which was influenced negatively in part by these heresies, Thérèse had her personal relationship with God and through this she was able to discern that God is truly a loving God, and, although He is a just judge, he freely gives out his mercy to those who humble themselves before Him. This firm relationship with God began when she was a young child and her personal relationship with God was greatly influenced b y the family environment in which she was raised. The psychological role of this famil y environment in projecting a loving image of God the Father cannot be ignored. To illustrate how much a positive or negative family environment can be on the spiritual development of the person, let us compare Saint Thérèse with Martin Luther. Martin Luther, of course, is the man who started the Protestant Reformation. Some historians hold that Martin Luther had a strict father with anger problems. Luther’s home life was not easy for him, and becoming a monk offered him an escape of sorts. However, the psychological damage he received as a child had an effect on how he viewed human nature and the fatherhood of God. Luther held that human nature could not be redeemed, and that God the Father was a just and vindictive God. Luther held that God the Father punished Jesus on the cross rather than punishing us. Therefore, instead of the notion that man could truly become holy and pure, Luther held that God covered us with His holiness. Jesus is merciful, whereas, God the Father is more strict and just. Saint Thérèse, on the other hand, as mentioned above, had a very positive family environment. Being the youngest child in the family, she was loved by all and quickly forgiven for anything she did wrong. In this family structure, all she knew was love, never punishment or judgment. As a child, she felt protected, and secure, and never had to be afraid of those who were
Eckstein 8 closest to her. Saint Thérèse attested to this love when she wrote, “God was pleased all through my life to surround me with love, and the first memories I have are stamped with smiles and the most tender caresses. But although He placed so much love near me, He also sent much love into my little heart, making it warm and affectionate.”13 Joseph Schmidt explains why this love and security was very formative for the spiritual growth of little Thérèse: Only a person who had experienced a glimmer of divine love through immersion in human love would be able to proclaim God’s love convincingly. Only a person who had known personal human weakness and experienced a taste of divine mercy through the experience of human forgiveness could assert and manifest God’s mercy and forgiveness in a compelling way. Only a person who had lived the deep human desire to be connected, to be loved, and to live in return could announce with conviction God’s own longing to love and be loved. And divine providence was preparing Thérèse from her earliest years to be just that person.14 Thérèse, based on her human experiences of her father, was able to feel secure and see God the Father as He truly was: merciful and loving. It was from her loving relationship with her father that she developed a foundational characteristic of her spirituality: spiritual childhood.15 Furthermore, by the grace of God and the spiritual formation her family gave her, at an early age she learned never to refuse God anything of what He asks of her and to always strive to be a saint.16 Reflecting back on this subject she wrote, [L]ater on when perfection was set before me, I understood that to become a saint one had to suffer much, seek out always the most perfect thing to do, and forget self. I understood, too, there are many degrees of perfection and each soul was free to respond to the advances of our Lord, to do little or much for Him, in a word, to choose among the sacrifices He was asking. Then as in the days of my childhood, I cried out: “My God ‘ I choose all!’ I don’t want to be a saint by halves, I’m not afraid to suffer for You, I fear only one thing: to keep my own will ; so take it, for ‘ I choose all ’ that You Will!”17 13. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux , 3rd ed., trans. John Clarke, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1996), 17. 14. Ibid., 67. 15. Combes, Saint Thérèse and Her Mission: The Basic Principles of Theresian Spirituality , 29. 16. Schmidt, 67, 71.
Eckstein 9 With this important foundation in mind, we can p roceed quickly through the rest of Thérèse’s years leading up to her entering the convent highlighting the key points. In her autobiography, Thérèse divides her life up into three periods. According to her, the first period “extends from the dawn of my reason till our dear Mother’s departure for Heaven”, which happened when Thérèse was just four.18 Because she was without a mother, she chose her older sister Pauline to be her second mother. Howev er, having already discussed much of this foundational period above, we can turn to the second period. Concerning the second phase, Saint Thérèse tells us, “As I've already said, it's from the end of this phase in my life that I entered the second period of m y existence, the most painful of the three, especially since the entrance into Carmel of the one whom I chose as my second ‘Mama.’ This period extends from the age of four and a half to that of fourteen, the time when I found once again my childhood character, and entered more and more into the serious side of life.”19 After her mother’s death, Thérèse and her family moved from Alençon to Lisieux, to leave near relatives and to provide the girls better maternal support.20 Thérèse continues in her autobiography by describing this new stage, “I must admit, Mother [Agnes of Jesus], my happy disposition completely changed after Mama's death. I, once so full of life, became timid and retiring, sensitive to an excessive degree. One look was enough to reduce me to tears, and the only way I was content was to be left alone completely. I could not bear the company of strangers and found my joy only within the intimacy of the family.”21
17. Thérèse, 27. 18. Ibid., 16. 19. Ibid., 34. 20. Schmidt, 75. 21. Thérèse, 34-35.
Eckstein 10 During this second phase, three very important ev ents happened in her life. First, when Thérèse was ten years old she became very ill due to “the linger ing unresolved disturbances of her mother’s death, the overwhelming anxiety she was experiencing with the loss of Pauline [who entered the convent in Lisieux], the excessive tension and self-doubt in the school situation, the uncertainty she felt about how she needed to act to best please her beloved Lord, and then the upsetting intrusion of her uncle.”22 Thérèse was very sick for six weeks, but on the feast of Pentecost, with her sisters surrounding her bed and praying for her, she received a vision of the Blessed Mother and was healed. In her autobiography Thérèse tells us, “All of a sudden the Blessed Virgin appeared beautiful to me, so beautiful that never had I seen anything so attractive; her face was suffused with an ineffable benevolen ce and tenderness, but what penetrated to the very depths of my soul was the ravishing smile of the Blessed Virgin. At that instant, all m y pain disappeared…”23 The second important event was when little Thérèse received communion for the first time and was confirmed in the Church. The last major event was Thérèse’s Christmas conversion in which she was completely transformed by God’s love. This conversion led her out of her childhood into spiritual maturity. Thérèse tells us, On that night of light began the third period of my life, the most beautiful and the most filled with graces from heaven. The work I had been unable to do in ten years was done by Jesus in one instant, contenting himself with my good will which was never lacking. I could say to Him like His apostles: "Master, I fished all night and caught nothing." More merciful to me than He was to His disciples, Jesus took the net Himself , cast it, and drew it in filled with fish. He made me a fisher of souls. I experienced a great desire to work for the conversion of sinners, a desire I hadn't felt so intensely before. 24 Thus, Thérèse entered the third phase in her life restored and empowered by the grace of God. No longer did she suffer from the weaknesses which plagued her leading up to her grave 22. Schmidt, 92. 23. Thérèse, 65-66. 24. Ibid., 98.
Eckstein 11 illness. She was renewed and God made her strong. The time leading up to entering the Carmelite convent in Lisieux was filled with God’s continual grace being given to her. She was spiritually formed by Imitations of Christ and The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life and received God’s will for her life: to become a Carmelite.25 Although Thérèse had to make a few extraordinary requests to enter the conv ent in Lisieux, nonetheless, she was able to join the convent. On the feast of the Annunciation, April 9th, 1888, Thérèse formally entered.26 Immediately she felt a deep sense of peace which never left her.27 Even though Thérèse was very young to be a Carmelite, she fulfilled her spiritual duties as well as everyone else. In a letter to Céline Guérin, Thérèse’s aunt, concerning Thérèse’s profession of vows, Mother Gonzague wrote, “This angelic child is seventeen and a half, and she has the judgment of one of thirty, the religious perfection of an old pe rfected novice, and possession of herself; she is a perfect religious. Yesterday not an eye remained dry at the sight of her great and entire immolation.”28 As mentioned previously, Thérèse chose to do th e will of God in her ordinary tasks. She did not do extreme outward penances, but rather chose to perform the small tasks in life as penance. She was a faithful Sister, but extremely ordinary on the outside. Yet, on the inside, she was the greatest saint of modern times. She entered the Carmelite order to pray for priests and sinners. However, by the providence of God, her mission became much greater than this. Her mission was to spread the little way which she lived. She did not pray for the simply for the conversion of sinners. Rather, she prayed for the conversion of sinners to that God would receive
25. Schmidt, 130-131. 26. Ibid., 166. 27. Thérèse, 148. 28. Schmidt, 178.
Eckstein 12 more love and be loved as Thérèse loves Him. In her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love she writes, “O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make You Loved , to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Sanctity!”29 To bring God more love was her mission and she fulfilled this mission by writing down her autobiographical account co ntaining the Little Way. Even close to death, Thérèse knew that her mission to spread the Little Way had not yet ceased, and was only beginning. On her deathbed she made her famous prophetic statement, “I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission of making others love God as I have loved Him, my mission of teaching my little way to souls. If God answers my request, my heaven will be spent on earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.”30 With this historical foundation as a basis, we can now turn to the Little Way, itself, and all it entails. Joseph Schmidt broadly defines the Little Way as “the spiritual way of accepting with loving surrender and gratitude all the happen ings of life as sent by divine providence.”31 This Little Way finds its foundation in three scriptural passages: Proverbs 9:4, Wisdom 6:7, and Isaiah 66: 12-13.32 Proverbs 9:4 tells us, “Whoever is a little one, let him come to me.” Wisdom 6:7 tells us, “For to him that is little, mercy will be shown.” Isaiah 66: 12-13 tells us, “As one whom a mother caresses, so will I comfort you; you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they will fondle you.”
29. Thérèse, 276. 30. Ibid., 263. 31. Schmidt, 17. 32. John Clarke, O.C.D., Introduction to Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, xii.
Eckstein 13 In reference to the many scripture passages, in both the Old and New Testaments, emphasizing childlike littleness in relation to God, Benedict XV explains to us, “When a teacher adopts various methods to inculcate the same lesson, does he not thereby seek to emphasize its value in his sight? If Jesus Christ used so many devices to drive home this lesson to His disciples, it is because He wishes, by one means or another, to ensure their thorough understanding of it. From this we must conclude it was the divine Master’s express desire that His disciples should see that THE WAY OF SP IRITUAL CHILDHOOD IS THE PATH WHICH LEADS TO ETERNAL LIFE.”33 Saint Thérèse simplifies our call to holiness and presents the Gospel in a humble manner. “Sanctity is an interior disposition which makes us humble and little in God's arms, conscious of our weakness and trusting even to audacity in the goodness of our Father.”34 What then are the fundamental characteristics of the Little Way? According to François Jamart, “When we carefully look for the dominant character of Thérèse doctrine, we find that it does not consist in any particular virtue but in a special attitude of the mind. Everything is based on and flows from an attitude of spiritual childhood.”35 This spiritual childhood can be reduced down to six fundamental characteristics: littleness, spiritual poverty, confidence, love, abandonment, and simplicity.36 Let us elaborate on each of these six characteristics so that we can get a full understanding of the Little Way.
33. Ibid., xiii. 34. Thérèse quoted by François Jamart in Complete Spiritual Doctrine of St. Therese of Lisieux , 16. 35. Jamart, 27. 36. Ibid., 28-29.
Eckstein 14 First we have littleness. 37 According to Thérèse, littleness “means that we acknowledge our nothingness, await everything from the good Lord, refuse to attribute to ourselves the virtues we practice, but believe that we are incapable of doing anything that is good.”38 This littleness, this humility, allows us to see ourselves as we truly are and allows us to accept ourselves as we truly are, in love. This includes seeing our imperfections and accepting them. We should not beat ourselves up for small imperfections that cannot easily be changed, because we have a human nature, but we also must strive to rid ourselves of these imperfections as best as we can. Abbé André Combes presents us five reasons wh y her spiritual way can be called little39: 1. “Because it is the way that is suitable for all souls who are conscious of their littleness in God’s sight, whether because they have to rely on pure faith, or because, knowing how weak they were to begin with and how weak they remain after their best efforts, they dare not com pare themselves with saints.” 2. “Because it is a way that does not necessarily include any exceptional grace that might be the occasion of vainglory.” 3. “Because it is so short and rapid a route that, of itself, it brings the travellor to the desired end almost as soon as he has started his journey, or even — if he understands well —before he starts.” 4. “Because the soul who travels on this way has not to grow great through her own efforts, but to remain in her littleness and even, in a sense, to be pleased with it, because, being in her nothingness incapable of any supernatural act, she looks to God alone for, and receives from Him, all her greatness, which then is true greatness.” 5. “Because it is a way on which the soul is borne along by Our Lord and, therefore, reduces its activity to a minimum, doing no more than loving and offering to God the numberless sacrifices for which this little way provides the occasion.”
37. Jamart, 35-48. 38. Thérèse quoted by François Jamart, 35. 39. Abbé André Combes, The Spirituality of St. Thérèse: An Introduction, trans. Philip E. Hallett (New York: P. J. Kennedy & Sons, 1950), 136-137.
Eckstein 15 Finally, humility and littleness is important because of God’s loving condescensio n. “It is proper to divine love to lower itself; hence, the lower we are, the more we attract God”.40 By lowering ourselves, there is more room in our hearts for God to possess. Next we have spiritual poverty.41 A child is both little and owns nothing of their own. Everything that sustains that child is provided by h is parent. A child does not have the capacity to survive without parental help. Thérèse explains to us, “In order to remain a little child, we must expect everything from our good Lord, as a child expects everything from his father, without worrying about anything.”42 Because nothing belongs to us, we rely on God that much more. Thérèse gives us personal witness of this, “I am very poor; it is the good Lord who provides me from moment to moment with the amount of help I need to practice virtue.”43 Thérèse even lived in such a state of spiritual poverty that she gave all the graces she merited to God as a gift of love, rather than storing up her treasures in heaven. Third we have confidence in God.44 We cannot truly be little and live spiritual poverty without having confidence in God that he will provide for us in every moment. If we do not fully trust God, our souls cannot find complete peace. Because God is merciful and good, we can never place too much trust in the Lord. We can always have confidence in the Lord. “For God knows our weakness. He remembers that we a re but dust. As a father is tender towards his children, so is the Lord compassionate towards us.”45 Plus if we want to be blessed by God and
40. Thérèse quoted by François Jamart, 35-36. 41. Jamart, 49-57. 42. Thérèse quoted by François Jamart, 49. 43. Ibid., 54. 44. Jamart, 59-72. 45. Thérèse quoted by François Jamart, 61.
Eckstein 16 become saints we must have confidence in the Lord for “He measures His gifts according to the amount of confidence He finds in us.”46 Next we have love of God and love of neighbor.47 Love is essential for us to have a relationship with God. The more we are aware that God loves us, the more we have confidence in Him. This confidence leads to us loving God more and being more aware of His love. “Love is the soul of the Way of Spiritual Childhood…For without love, we will not have either the fidelity or the generosity that are required to bring our efforts to a successful end.”48 Thérèse emphasizes the importance of this love. “I understand so well that it is only love that makes us acceptable to God, that this love is the only good I ambition. Jesus deigned to show me the road that leads to this Divine Furnace, and this road is the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its Father’s arms.”49 For Thérèse love was the easiest way of sanctity. If you love and please God, you will grow holy. Furthermore, we have to sh are this love for two reasons. One, it is right for us to love a person just as Christ loves that person. Two, by loving someone into conversion, God receives more love in return. Fifth, we have abandonment to God.50 Abandonment to God and His divine will is very important for the humble, childlike saint striving for perfection. First, “Whatever the motive or the love that may inspire us in our activities, there is no greater proof of love of and confidence in God to abandon ourselves fully to Him. There is no better means of honoring Him than to acknowledge the supreme role of His providence in the government of the universe and of our
46. Ibid., 64. 47. Jamart, 73-108 48. Ibid., 73. 49. Thérèse, 188. 50. Jamart, 125-132.
Eckstein 17 own lives.”51 Once we abandon ourselves to the divine, God can start working through us, making our work truly fruitful. For Thérèse, we must have complete abandonment because nothing happens without God willing it and if we accept this we will truly be at peace with God. Abandonment to God allows us to find peace no matter what spiritual situation we are going through because whatever we are going through God has a hand in it. For us to be fully abandoned to God, Saint Thérèse recommends that we always strive to be aware of the present moment, because God only gives grace in present moments. Last, we have simplicity.52 By simplicity we do not mean only in doing ordinary everyday acts. Rather it is “an attitude of the mind [which]…considers all things and all events as they are in their relation to God.”53 One who lives in spiritual simplicity converses with God in a simple manner and receives a simple response of love back from God. The relationship between a simple person and God is very natural, and never fake or forced. Thérèse explains how she prays: “I don’t have the energy to hunt for beautiful prayers that are found in books. Not knowing which ones I ought to choose, I act like children who cannot read. I say simply to the good Lord what I want to tell Him, without constructing nice sentences, and He always understands me. For me, prayer is a lifting of m y heart. It is a simple glance heavenwards. It is a cry of gratitude and of love, in the midst of trials as well as amidst joys.”54 Having thus elaborated on the fundamental characteristics of her Little Way, we can now see the beauty and the simplicity of how she lived, and how we can live. All these characteristics shine a light on what it means to be a child of a loving Father. Thérèse offers us a good summary
51. Ibid., 126. 52. Ibid., 133-148. 53. Ibid., 133. 54. Thérèse quoted by François Jamart, 134-135.
Eckstein 18 of all these characteristics acting together as one. Referring to what it means to be a little child, Thérèse tells us, It means that we acknowledge our nothingness; that we expect everything from the good Lord, as a child expects everything from its father; it means to worry about nothing, not to build upon fortune; it means to remain little, seeking only to gather flowers, the flowers of sacrifice, and to offer them to the good Lord for His pleasure. It also means not to attribute to ourselves the virtues we practice, n ot to believe that we are capable of anything, but to acknowledge that it is the good Lord who has placed that treasure in the hand of His little child that He may use it when He needs it, but it remains always God’s own treasure. Finally, it means that we must not b e discouraged by our faults, for children fall frequently.55 It is clear the importance of the Little Way for us. God, through Thérèse, revealed to us a simple way to be saved and to find peace with God. In our over-complex world, this is a breath of fresh air, a breath of divine life into our souls. It is clear why little Thérèse was canoniz ed and later declared to be a Doctor of the Church by Blessed John Paul II. I would like to conclude this paper by once again quoting François Jamart on how he characterizes Thérèse. In a nutshell he explains why she is so relevant for us and why she is so important for our time. [Saint Thérèse of Lisieux] reminds us that we are b ut weakness and powerlessness, that we are unable to accomplish anything without God’s assistance. One the other hand, simplifying the way that leads to holiness, she reduces perfection to its e ssential elements, separates it from all those external manifestations which led souls to believe that holiness is beyond our powers and that it depends on extraordinary graces. St. Thérèse thus made holiness accessible to all. Now, if God in this manner facilitates our access to holiness, it must be also because He wants a greater number to reach that goal. If He makes the road more simple it is because He wishes all souls to follow it.56
55. Ibid., 28. 56. Ibid., 26.
Eckstein 19
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