"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies.
To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul." These are the words of
Thérèse of the Child Jesus, a Carmelite nun called the "Little
Flower," who lived a cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of
Lisieux, France. (In French-speaking areas, she is known as Thérèse of
Lisieux.) And her preference for hidden sacrifice did indeed convert souls. Few
saints of God are more popular than this young nun. Her autobiography, The
Story of a Soul, is read and loved throughout the world. Thérèse Martin
entered the convent at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age of 24. She was
canonized in 1925, and two years later she and St. Francis Xavier were
declared co-patrons of the missions.
Life in a Carmelite convent is indeed uneventful and consists
mainly of prayer and hard domestic work. But Thérèse possessed that holy
insight that redeems the time, however dull that time may be. She saw in quiet
suffering redemptive suffering, suffering that was indeed her apostolate.
Thérèse said she came to the Carmel convent "to save souls and pray for
priests." And shortly before she died, she wrote: "I want to spend my
heaven doing good on earth."
On October 19, 1997, Saint John Paul II proclaimed her a
Doctor of the Church, the third woman to be so recognized, in light of her
holiness and the influence on the Church of her teaching on spirituality. Her
parents, Louis and Zélie were beatified in 2008.
P/S: Today is Feast my Mom and my Sister!
1, October, 2014
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