St. Thérèse  of Lisieux

By Peter Ward, C.Ss.R.

The visit of the Relics of St.Thérèse of Lisieux is not primarily about touching the casket or getting the smell of roses. It is really about renewing our faith in God especially through the message of Thérèse as seen in her life and in her writings.

Prayers to St. Thérèse  
St.Thérèse of Lisieux Relics arrive at 
Clonard (Pictures)
Novena Talks Test

The Background of her Writings.  Thérèse is not like the usual canonised saint.

She was not a foundress or a missionary or a martyr. She did nothing extraordinary. Rather she died in 1897 at 25 years of age, unknown, in an obscure Carmelite Convent in Lisieux, in northern France.

She was brought up in a warm hearted family in which there was much love and affection. There seems to have been none of the quarrels and rough language so common in families. However, they kept themselves aloof from others even in their schooling. They were very Catholic, going to Mass every day and to the sacraments regularly. Their conversation was of God and the Church and nuns and priests.  Thérèse used childish imagery which might put us off today because it makes even the hardest things seem effortless, while in reality they demand tremendous courage. She speaks of the spiritual life as if it were about plucking flowers, unpetalling them and strewing them before Jesus. But underneath all the soft words she had a will of steel. Remind yourself of that when reading The Story of a Soul. One of the big influences was that of her father. She went to Mass with him and for walks and fishing. She was his "little queen" and she adored him. The fact that she was not completely spoiled by this background is in itself a miracle. Indeed, she herself talks about her “conversion” in her 13^th year.

Her Conversion. It was Christmas Eve and the family had returned from the Christmas Midnight Mass. She had put out her slippers just as we used hang up our socks for Santa to put gifts in. She heard her father say, "Fortunately this will be her last year". He meant, "surely she is too old for Santa Claus". It cut her to the quick, but she did not cry as she ordinarily would have done. Instead, she accepted that her childhood was over. She referred to this as her conversion. It was this kind of self-control through suffering that was to run through her life. After many disappointments she followed two of her sisters into the Carmelite Convent in Lisieux in 1888. Though she was only 15, from the beginning she was determined to give herself completely to God and to accept whatever suffering came.

Thérèse (Left), 8 years old
with sister Céline

Her Attitude to suffering. When she realised how much her beloved Jesus went through, she wanted to suffer with him. However, she never imposed penances or suffering on herself But she welcomed it when it came. For her it was a sign of love of God. Indeed, she rejoiced when it came. Great suffering was always part of her life. Her mother died when she was 4. Her two older sisters, her surrogate mothers, left to enter Carmel. She had a serious illness and claimed she was cured by a smile from Our Lady .She underwent tormenting scruples for a year and a half. She accepted with great patience all the hardships of convent life. Her beloved father got a stroke and lost his reason, a terrible humiliation for the family. Her last months were a veritable hell. The only remedies for tuberculosis at that time were crude and painful. At the same time, she went into a kind of darkness and struggled with doubts against faith. These sufferings she accepted with extraordinary patience. And all the while she wrote poems about the Love of God and heaven. Yet few realised how much she was suffering. Her willingness to suffer grew as she saw this as a way of saving souls. "Saving souls" was terminology that was common at that time. Today we might say that she wanted to spread the good news of the Gospel to as many people as possible.

The Little Way of Spiritual Childhood. From her earliest years Thérèse wanted to love God. Perhaps her image of God came from her father. She wanted to be a saint. But she looked on the traditional saints as being big and strong while she was little and weak like a child. Gradually she began developing her idea of Spiritual Childhood.

If you were to read through Thérèse's autobiography looking for a definition of her Little Way, you would find none because there is none there. She insisted she wanted to be a saint and united to Jesus, but in a way that would suit her littleness. It is intriguing to see that she would search for words to describe what she meant. She searched to find a little way that is straight and short and totally new, one that will suit her. Imagine her excitement when she discovered this way. She found a marvellous text in the Book of Proverbs that says it all. "Whoever is a little one come to me, let him come to me"'. (Prov. 9: 4). That was just what she wanted. Now she could go to God even though she was a little one. But then she wondered how God would receive this little one. So she continued her search. The answer came in another text  "As one whom a mother caresses, so will I comfort you, you shall be carried at the breasts and upon the knees they shall caress you" (Is. 66: 13). This filled Thérèse with joy. It was God's answer. God was seeking not great people but little ones and he would carry them in his arms as a mother carries her child. So there was no need to be big and strong. She could remain little, indeed, remain a child. But that meant utter and complete trust in God no matter what happened in life.

  But let us not be deceived by these seemingly simple images. Don't too glibly say, "Like Thérèse I accept the will of God in everything! "Life shows us that God allows dark and painful things to happen to us even things that seem beyond our power of endurance. And Thérèse was to be tested to the limit in many different ways. The thought of that can be frightening.

"Mv Vocation is to Love".   Thérèse wanted to be the Warrior , the Priest, the Apostle, the Doctor, the Martyr. She wanted to be all. But then she opened the New Testament at 1 Cor 12 & 13 where St. Paul says each one has his or her own place in the kingdom. We cannot have all these vocations. She tells us she was not too discouraged at this and continued her reading and a later sentence of St. Paul gave her new light. "'Strive after the better gifts and I point out to you a yet more excellent way". Paul goes on to point out the importance of Love. He says that even the most perfect gifts are nothing without Love. So love is the excellent way that leads most surely to God. At last she had found her vocation. And then she writes exultantly in capital letters, "My Vocation is love and to be love at the heart of the Church.”   It was then she saw the other vocations in a different way. She would let her brothers and sisters in the field, on the missions, facing martyrdom, work in her stead while she would stay close to the throne of the King. She will strew flowers of little sacrifices before him.   But how will she show this love? By suffering. She desired suffering to bring people to know God. "Draw me, we shall run after you in the odour of your ointment". She does not run alone. She draws all the souls she loves after her.  And she has no other treasures than souls.

Her Praver and Drvness. From her earliest days she had a great love of God. She experienced great fervour in her prayers and her first communion was one of the great days of her life. But the feelings of fervour did not last. From the time she entered Carmel she usually felt dryness in prayer. True it was relieved from time to time.

Like the time she was beginning the way of the Cross and was seized by a violent love of God as though she was being plunged into fire. That happened only once.

This was undoubtedly a mystical experience. However she never heard God speak, as did Teresa of Avila. But she did see Our Lady smile when she was cured of her mysterious illness in her youth.

Her usual prayer was distracted and dry. She felt no fervour. Indeed, she often fell asleep. But that did not upset her. She explained that children often fall asleep. She admitted she found it difficult to say the rosary alone. 

  But she had no special method of prayer to teach us. When she was dry she would say the Our Father slowly. Or she would repeat words from The Imitation of  Christ like our mantra. Or she repeated the words of St. Paul, "I live, now not I, but Jesus who lives in me". She found lines from scripture helpful and she had wonderful insights into scripture.

  She had a passion to love God so much that that she was ready to suffer anything for him. Even though she was dry , she was constantly aware of God. She said to her sister Marie that it was not difficult to think of someone we love. Then Marie asked her "Do you never lose his presence then?"  "Oh no, I doubt if I have ever been 3 minutes without thinking of Him".

When her cousin Jeanne Guerin got engaged Thérèse was impressed by all the little attentions she lavished on her fiance.  Thérèse immediately realised that she should be as assiduous in her attentions to Jesus. Perhaps her attitude to Jesus could be summed up in that word: affection. She seems always to have had a deep affection for Jesus.

All she did, and especially her suffering was to please Jesus and to win as many souls as possible for God. Her way of "saving souls"' was to spread the good news of the Gospel to as many people as possible. And her method of doing that would be by her Little Way. She wanted more people to love God as she did.

Her Trial of Faith. The most terrible of all her suffering came at the end of her short life. It was both spiritual and physical. From her earliest years Thérèse had a very strong faith. God and heaven were living realities for her. She wanted to love God more and more. Indeed this was her whole life. The thought of heaven gave her encouragement when her suffering was great. As a result she could not understand how Christians could not believe. She felt they must have been doing violence to their own inner convictions. 

But then all that changed. She had her first haemorrhage on Good Friday night 1896. After she went to bed she felt a bubbling stream mounting to her lips and put it into her hankie. She did not look at it until morning. And, just as she expected, it was blood. She knew exactly what that meant. Her reaction was surprising. She was filled with joy at the thought that she could die soon. A few days later she entered into the Night of Faith. What was this dreadful experience? She tried to describe it in terms of her soul being invaded by the thickest darkness. It was then that she understood unbelievers for the first time and imagined herself sitting to eat with them.

She was afraid even to talk of it lest she blaspheme and she heard voices mockingly suggesting that beyond death there was nothing. This was her mystical trial of faith in which, on the level of experience she was one with atheists and sinners. 

It may surprise people to know that she spoke of suicide a few times. She warned her sister Pauline never to leave poisonous medicine beside anyone in great pain. And she presented a deep insight which some people who attempt suicide speak of. She said “I assure you it needs only a second when one suffers intensely to lose one’s reason. Then one would easily poison oneself". Indeed, she remarked in her last conversations that she could not understand why more unbelievers did not commit suicide. Obviously she knew what these temptations were. And yet in spite of her terrible physical and mental suffering she never gave in. Indeed, she wanted to suffer more.

Her Death. Eventually her lungs became choked until at last she was suffocating. Her face became purple, gleaming with sweat. This lasted for two hours. Her last words were "Oh I love him! My God, I love you"'. Then Thérèse 's face became bright and clear, the horrid colour of suffocation vanished, her eyes opened once more, turned upward, radiant and filled with amazed bliss. Eye- witnesses said this lasted about the length of a Credo. Then she closed her eyes, gave a sigh and died. Is it possible that during those last few minutes the trial of faith ended?