Humility incarnate radiates under lens of love

She never went on missions, never founded a religious order, never performed great works. Marie-Françoise Thérèse Martin was only 15 when she entered the Carmelite Monastery and was given the religious name of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.The only book of hers, published after her death is a brief edited version of her autobiographical journal called “Story of a Soul.” Within 28 years after her death, however, the public demand was so great that she be made a saint that Pius XI canonized her on Oct. 3, 1923.  
Born on Jan. 2, 1873, Therese was content being her daddy’s “Little Queen.” She loved life and the simplicity of that life at Les Buissonets in Alencon in the province of Normandy, France. Yet, this girl who embraced religious life at the age of 15, would die when she was 24, after having lived as a cloistered Carmelite for less than 10 years. Therese knew as a Carmelite that she would never be able to perform great deeds. “Love proves itself by deeds,” she wrote…” so how can I show my love?” She concludes: “The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.” Therese took every chance to sacrifice, no matter how miniscule it might seem. “In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a victim of holocaust to your merciful love, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut upon within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!” [“Story of a Soul, pp. 276-277]
She took the blame for things that she did not do. After her death, this spirituality would become known as “the Little Way of Spiritual Childhood.” Therese used the phrase “Little Way” only once in her writings.  Her sister, Pauline, in editing her journal, added the phrase “of Spiritual Childhood” at a later day. It was this “way” however which convinced then Pope, now St. John Paul II that she should be declared a Doctor of the Church on Oct. 19, 1997, the youngest person and at that time, only the third woman to be so honored. Her feast day is October 1.
During her short life, Therese worried much about how she could achieve holiness in the life she led. Why? She did not just want to be good. She wanted to be a saint. But she knew in her heart that God would not put a desire in her that was impossible to attain. So, in perusing the Gospels, she came across a verse: “Whoever is a little one, come to me.” (Mt 18:3) She writes “it is your arms, Jesus, that are the elevator to carry me to heaven. And so there is no need for me to grow up:  I must stay little and become less and less…” [“Story of a Soul”]
Prior to her death, in her last conversations with her blood sister and Carmelite, Mother Agnes Of Jesus, who was the Prioress, Therese goes into detail about Spiritual Childhood and her vocation. The content of these conversations were documented by Mother Agnes in the latter’s “Yellow Notebooks.” These span the last months of Therese’s life from April 6 to her death on Sept. 30, 1897. These can now be found in a compendium entitled: “Last Conversations.” Here she reveals her spirituality. “I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make God loved as I love him, to teach souls my little way.” [“Last Conversations,” 102]
With so many of her blood sisters in the same Carmel, her sister, Agnes, who became Prioress, asked Therese to remain a permanent Novice since the buzz around the cloister was that the Martin sisters would take over the governance of Carmel in Lisieux. Therese agreed — yet, paradoxically, she would be the Mistress of Novices.
In 1896 she began coughing up blood — which it turned out was tuberculosis. At this time, there was no cure for this disease. The pain that accrued was so great that had she not some faith, she would have taken her own life without hesitation. But she tried to remain smiling and cheerful. Before her death in 1897, she reported that her work would begin in earnest after her death.
“If God answers my desires, my heaven will be spent on earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.  [“Last Conversations,” 102]
Father Comandini is managing editor of “The Catholic Spirit”