The essence of her sanctity, as John Beevers points out, is in the realization that great love, not great deeds, is what makes us holy. Nevertheless, with each present moment – no matter what we are doing – we have the opportunity to grow in grace and holiness by performing our duties faithfully and for the love of God. I remember that the smallest act of love is more…than every other work put together….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 of actions for love.”ġ5.Therese understands that so many of the activities we do in life are boring and hum-drum. She states: “Charity gave me the key to my vocation. Paul writes about the primacy of love, she comes to the insight that even small acts done with love are very pleasing to God.

This realization of her “littleness” and “weakness” does not weaken her resolve to love and serve Jesus. Yet she realizes that, given the circumstances of her life, including her ill health, great deeds do not seem to fit within God’s plan for her life. I should like to wander through the world, preaching your Name and raising your glorious Cross in pagan lands” (153). Therese also desired to perform “heroic deeds.” She states: “I want to be a warrior….I should like to die on the battlefield in defense of the Church. A famous picture of Therese in Carmel (her convent at Lisieux) shows her dressing up as the great Saint Joan of Arc. She had a great yearning in her heart to be a missionary or a martyr for God. Therese attributed her sudden cure from this illness to a prayer she made while gazing at a statue of the Virgin Mary – a prayer in which she asked the Virgin to have pity on her. Therese developed a debilitating nervous condition when her sister, Pauline, left the family home to enter the convent at Carmel (Pauline had become Therese’s “second mother” upon the death of Zelie Martin – Therese’s mother – in 1877).

She would die nine years later.Īs is not uncommon with the great saints, Therese had a profound devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Carmelites are under the patronage of Our Lady of Mt.

The early part of her autobiography recounts her childhood years and the many steps she took to gain early admission to the convent at Carmel at the age of fifteen. She grew up in a very loving and Catholic household and her faith development was greatly influenced by her parents and older sisters. She was a cloistered Carmelite nun (Born: 1873 in Alencon, France) who from as early as age three had an intense longing for God (a key element of her spirituality).

Therese of lisieux books