the Little Flower

*picture from humanflowerproject.com

So once upon a time, not too long ago, there was this little girl. She didn't seem like much when compared to great world leaders or millionaires or inventors, and she only lived to be twenty-four years old. But in those short twenty-four years of her life, she lived beautifully and accomplished something that some people never even dream of. She became one of the four female doctors of the Catholic Church and she found her own "little way" for others to follow to get to heaven.

Today we celebrate the life of Saint Therese of Lisieux. She was born in France in 1873. When she was only four years old, her mother died. She grew up with five older sisters and was raised by her the father she adored. When she was fifteen, she entered a convent just like her other sisters and became a Carmelite nun. She was too young to join the convent, but when her father took her to Rome for a visit, she got close to the Pope and begged him to let her become a nun. She was carried off by two guards, but the Vicar General was impressed, and not soon after, 

she was admitted into the convent.

For almost ten years, she lived a simple life as a nun. She meditated very often on the faith and the last four things (death, judgment, heaven, and hell). She had always wanted to become a saint and live a life only for God. She found her own way to get to heaven - 

a short and straight way to God's arms.

"I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new."

*picture from
carmelourladysdovecote.wordpress.com

"We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs; in well-to-do houses there are lifts. And I was determined to find a lift to carry me to Jesus, for I was far too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. 

So I sought in holy Scripture some idea of what this life I wanted would be, and I read these words: "Whosoever is a little one, come to me." It is your arms, Jesus, that are the lift 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."

When Therese was on her deathbed, her biological sister who was the prioress of the order ordered Therese to write down the story of her spiritual life. Therese's writings became a book that is still widely read today: Story of a Soul.

She was an absolutely amazing saint and her works still inspire many people to be saints today.