St theresa the little flower biography sampler

Theresa was faithful in offering her sufferings in union with Christ. The Saints greatest work was her untireing prayer and suffering for Priests. As a young Nun she desired to be a missionary and when she could not, she became a missionary by offering prayers for the works of mission Priests. Toggle navigation. Photo by DDP on Unsplash.

Recommended Stories. Related Categories:. More Stories By :. Get your Advent Candles for Read more. Therefore Pauline asked Therese to remain a novice, in order to allay the fears of the others that the three sisters would push everyone else around. This meant she would never be a fully professed nun, that she would always have to ask permission for everything she did.

This sacrifice was made a little sweeter when Celine entered the convent after her father's death. Four of the sisters were now together again. Therese continued to worry about how she could achieve holiness in the life she led. She didn't want to just be good, she wanted to be a saint. She thought there must be a way for people living hidden, little lives like hers.

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. 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. And so there is no need for me to grow up: I must stay little and become less and less. She worried about her vocation: " I st theresa the little flower biography sampler in me the vocation of the Priest.

I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love My vocation is Love!

When an antagonist was elected prioress, new political suspicions and plottings sprang up. The concern over the Martin sisters perhaps was not exaggerated. In this small convent they now made up one-fifth of the population. Despite this and the fact that Therese was a permanent novice they put her in charge of the other novices. Then inshe coughed up blood.

She kept working without telling anyone until she became so sick a year later everyone knew it. Worst of all she had lost her joy and confidence and felt she would die young without leaving anything behind. Pauline had already had her writing down her memories for journal and now she wanted her to continue -- so they would have something to circulate on her life after her death.

Her pain was so great that she said that if she had not had faith she would have taken her own life without hesitation. But she tried to remain smiling and cheerful -- and succeeded so well that some thought she was only pretending to be ill. Her one dream as the work she would do after her death, helping those on earth. She herself felt it was a blessing God allowed her to die at exactly that age.

After she died, everything at the convent went back to normal. She offered her last communion, 19 Augustfor Loyson. The chaplain to the Carmel, Father Youf, insisted a lot on the fear of Hell. The preachers during spiritual retreats at that time emphasised sin, the sufferings of purgatoryand those of hell. This did not help. Therese who in experienced, "great inner trials of all kinds, even wondering sometimes whether heaven existed".

One phrase heard during a sermon made her weep: "No one knows if they are worthy of love or of hate. This confirmed her own intuitions. She wrote, "My soul was like a book which the priest read better than I did. He launched me full sail on the waves of confidence and love which held such an attraction for me, but upon which I had not dared to venture.

He told me that my faults did not offend God. She said, "But it is especially the Gospels which sustain me during my hours of prayer, for in them I find what is necessary for my poor little soul. I am constantly discovering in them new lights, hidden and mysterious meanings. Over time Therese realised that she felt no attraction to the exalted heights of "great souls".

She looked directly for the word of Jesus, which shed light on her prayers and on her daily life. Therese's retreat in October pointed to a "downward" path for her. If asked where she lived, she would pause and quote, "The foxes have their lairs, the birds of heaven their nests, but I have no place to rest my head. Like Zacchaeuswe climbed a tree to see Jesus and now let us listen to what he is saying to us.

Make haste to descend, I must lodge today at your house. Well, Jesus tells us to descend? She appointed the former prioress as novice mistress and made Therese her assistant. The work of guiding the novices would fall primarily to Therese. Over the next few years she revealed a talent for clarifying doctrine to those who had not received as much education as she.

A kaleidoscope, whose three mirrors transform scraps of coloured paper into beautiful designs, provided an inspired illustration for the Holy Trinity. Jesus, who regards us through the little lens, that is to say, through Himself, always sees beauty in everything we do. But if we left the focus of inexpressible love, what would He see?

Bits of straw […] dirty, worthless actions". It was an effective means of achieving interior poverty, a way to remove a place to rest her head". In SeptemberTherese, having been a temporarily professed for the standard three years, asked not to be promoted but to continue a novice indefinitely.

St theresa the little flower biography sampler: Little. Flower and experienced translator,

As a novice she would always have to ask permission of the other sisters with perpetual vows. She would never be elected to any position of importance. Remaining closely associated with the other novices, she could continue to care for her spiritual charges. In Jules Michelet devoted the major part of the fifth volume of his History of France to a favourable presentation of the epic of Joan of Arc.

Therese wrote, among others, two plays in honour of her childhood heroine, the first about Joan's response to the heavenly voices calling her to battle, the second about her resulting martyrdom. Therese used Henri-Alexandre Wallon 's history of Joan of Arc — a book her uncle Isidore had given to the Carmel — to help her write two plays, "pious recreations", "small theatrical pieces performed by a few nuns for the rest of the community, on the occasion of certain feast days".

Therese entered the Carmel of Lisieux with the determination to become a saint. However, by the end ofsix years as a Carmelite made her realize how small and insignificant she felt. She saw the limitations of all her efforts. She remained small and very far off from the unfailing love that she would wish to practice. She is said to have understood then that it was from insignificance that she had to learn to ask God's help.

In the notebooks Therese found a passage from Proverbs that struck her with particular force: "Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me" Proverbs She was struck by another passage from the Book of Isaiah : "you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you. As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you".

Isaiah —13 [ 84 ] She concluded that Jesus would carry her to the summit of sanctity.

St theresa the little flower biography sampler: St Therese of Lisieux () was

The smallness of Therese, her limits, became in this way grounds for joy, rather than discouragement. Not until Manuscript C of her autobiography did she give this discovery the name of "little way", " petite voie ". I will seek out a means of getting to Heaven by a little way — very short and very straight little way that is wholly new.

We live in an age of inventions; nowadays the rich need not trouble to climb the stairs, they have lifts instead.

St theresa the little flower biography sampler: The Story of a Soul conveys

Well, I mean to try and find a lift by which I may be raised unto God, for I am too tiny to climb the steep stairway of perfection Thine Arms, then, O Jesus, are the lift which must raise me up even unto Heaven. To get there I need not grow. On the contrary, I must remain little, I must become still less [ 86 ]. In her quest for sanctity and in order to attain holiness and to express her love of God, she believed that it was not necessary to accomplish heroic acts or great deeds.

Great deeds are forbidden me. 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. The "little way" of Therese is the foundation of her spirituality. Sometimes when I read certain spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown through a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a host of illusions, my poor mind gets tired very quickly, I close the learned book which breaks my head and dries up my heart and I take the Holy Scripture.

So everything seems luminous to me, a single word reveals infinite horizons to my soul, perfection seems easy to me, I see that it suffices to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself like a child in the arms of the Good Lord. Leaving to great souls, to great minds the beautiful books that I cannot understand, let alone put into practice, I rejoice in being little since only children and those who look like them will be admitted to the celestial banquet.

At the end of the second play that Therese had written on Joan of Arcthe costume she wore almost caught fire. The alcohol stoves used to represent the stake at Rouen set fire to the screen behind which Therese stood. Therese did not flinch but the incident marked her. The theme of fire would assume an increasing importance in her writings.

At this time some nuns offered themselves as a victim to God's justice. In the Oblation she wrote, "If through weakness I should chance to fall, may a glance from Your Eyes straightway cleanse my soul, and consume all my imperfections — as fire transforms all things into itself". In August the four Martin sisters were joined in the convent by their cousin, Marie Guerin, who became Sister Marie of the Eucharist.

At age 14, Therese understood her vocation was to pray for priests, to be "an apostle to apostles". In Septemberat her canonical examination before she professed her religious vows, she was asked why she had come to Carmel. She answered "I came to save souls, and especially to pray for priests". She wrote to her sister "Our mission as Carmelites is to form evangelical workers who will save thousands of souls whose mothers we shall be.

It is she who consoles and warns, encourages and praises, answers questions, offers corroboration, and instructs the priests in the meaning of her little way". Therese's final years were marked by a steady decline that she bore resolutely and without complaint. Tuberculosis was the key element of Therese's final suffering, but she saw that as part of her spiritual journey.

After observing a rigorous Lenten fast inshe went to bed on the eve of Good Friday and felt a joyous sensation. She wrote: "Oh! I didn't know what it was. Coughing up of blood meant tuberculosis, and tuberculosis meant death. She wrote, "I thought immediately of the joyful thing that I had to learn, so I went over to the window. I was able to see that I was not mistaken.

Therese corresponded with a Carmelite mission in what was then French Indochina and was invited to join them, but, because of her sickness, could not travel. Tuberculosis slowly devoured her flesh. When she was near death, "her physical suffering kept increasing so that even the doctor himself was driven to exclaim, 'Ah! If you only knew what this st theresa the little flower biography sampler nun was suffering!

On 19 Augustshe received her last communion. She died on 30 Septemberaged On her deathbed, she is reported to have said, "I have reached the point of not being able to suffer any more, because all suffering is sweet to me. Therese was buried on 4 Octoberin the Carmelite plot, in the municipal cemetery at Lisieux, where her parents had been buried.

Her body was exhumed in September and the remains placed in a lead coffin and transferred to another tomb. It contains her ribcage and other remnants of her body. Therese of Lisieux is one of the most popular Roman Catholic saints since apostolic times. She is approachable, due in part to her historical proximity. As a Doctor of the Churchshe is the st theresa the little flower biography sampler of much theological comment and study, and, as a young woman whose message has touched the lives of millions, she remains the focus of much popular devotion.

Therese was devoted to Eucharistic adoration and on 26 Februaryshortly before she died wrote from memory and without a rough draft her poetic masterpiece To Live by Love which she had composed during Eucharistic adoration. During her life, the poem was sent to various religious communities and was included in a notebook of her poems. Therese lived a hidden life and "wanted to be unknown", yet became popular after her death through her spiritual autobiography.

She also left letters, poems, religious plays, prayers, and her last conversations were recorded by her sisters. Therese said on her death-bed, "I only love simplicity. I have a horror of pretence", and she spoke out against some of the claims made concerning the lives of saints written in her day, "We should not say improbable things, or things we do not know.

We must see their real, and not their imagined lives". In the face of her littleness she trusted to God her sanctity. She wanted to go to heaven by an entirely new little way. The elevator, she wrote, would be the arms of Jesus lifting her in all her littleness. It is a compilation of three separate manuscripts. The first, in is a memoir of her childhood, written under obedience to the Prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus, her older sister Pauline.

Mother Agnes gave the order after being prompted by their eldest sister, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart. The second is a three-page letter, written in Septemberat the request of her eldest sister Marie, who, aware of the seriousness of Therese's illness, asked her to set down her "little doctrine". While on her deathbed Therese made a number of references to the book's future appeal and benefit to souls.

She authorized Pauline to make any changes deemed necessary. It was heavily edited by Pauline Mother Agneswho made more than seven thousand revisions to Therese's manuscript and presented it as a biography of her sister. Aside from considerations of style, Mother Marie de Gonzague had ordered Pauline to alter the first two sections of the manuscript to make them appear as if they were addressed to Mother Marie as well.

However, it received a much wider circulation, as copies were lent out and passed around. Sincetwo centenary editions of Terese's original, unedited manuscripts, including The Story of a Soulher letters, poems, [ ] prayers and the plays she wrote for the monastery recreations have been published in French. On 10 Januaryshe was given the habit and received the name Therese of the Child Jesus.

On 8 SeptemberTherese made her vows. The ceremony of "taking the veil" followed on the 24th, when she added to her religious name of the Holy Facean attribute which was to become increasingly important in the development and character of her inner life. In her poem My Heaven down herecomposed inTherese expressed the notion that by the divine union of love, the soul takes on the semblance of Christ.

By contemplating the sufferings associated with the Holy Face of Jesus, she felt she could become closer to Christ. The introduction to the consecration begins, "For a little of this pure Love is more beneficial to the church than all these other works put together Thus it is of the greatest importance that our souls be exercised much in Love so that being consumed quickly we do not linger long here on earth but soon attain to the vision of Jesus, Face to Face.

Therese wrote several prayers expressing her draw to Christ's Holy Face in his passion, reflecting her desire to be like Jesus and suffer for the sake of love. She wrote a Canticle to the Holy Face in August 2 years before her death saying: "Jesus, Your ineffable image is the star that guides my steps. You know, Your sweet Face is for me Heaven on earth.

My love discovers the charms of Your Face adorned with tears. I smile through my own tears when I contemplate Your sorrows. She wrote, "He sees it [his face] disfigured, covered with blood! She composed the Holy Face Prayer for Sinners : "Eternal Father, since Thou hast given me for my inheritance the adorable Face of Thy Divine Son, I offer that face to Thee and I beg Thee, in exchange for this coin of infinite value, to forget the ingratitude of souls dedicated to Thee and to pardon all poor sinners.

The impact of The Story of a Soula collection of her autobiographical manuscripts, printed and distributed a year after her death to an initially very limited audience, was significant. Pope Pius XI made her the "star of his pontificate". Pius X signed the decree for the opening of the process of canonization on 10 June Pope Benedict XVin order to hasten the process, dispensed with the usual fifty-year delay required between death and beatification.

On 14 Augusthe promulgated the decree on the heroic virtues of Therese declaring her venerable. She was beatified on 29 April However, the celebration for Therese "far outshone" that for the legendary heroine of France. Peter's with torches and tallow lamps. According to one account, "Ropes, lamps and tallows were pulled from the dusty storerooms where they had been packed away for 55 years.

A few old workmen who remembered how it was done the last time — in — directed men for two weeks as they climbed about fastening lamps to St. Peter's dome. Peter's Aglow for a New Saint". According to the Timesover 60, people, estimated to be the largest crowd inside St. Peter's Basilica since the coronation of Pope Pius X, 22 years before, witnessed the canonization ceremonies.

She rapidly became one of the most popular saints of the twentieth century.