Thérèse Martin desired to be like a tiny grain of sand, hidden and unknown. In her lifetime, that desire was fulfilled. She died at age twenty-four, after spending nine years in a small, cloistered, Carmelite monastery in the French village of Lisieux. But only a year later, she catapulted to fame when her sisters sent out her writings as a belated obituary to other cloistered Carmels in France, to the heads of religious orders, and to friends of the monastery.
This sending of the “circular letter” about the newly deceased, a common custom, was intended to edify others by the nun’s fidelity. Only this time, the circular letter didn’t fall into oblivion, as they so often did. This time the letter was translated into virtually every language and has now five hundred million copies in print, known the world over as Story of a Soul.
I often smile at the efforts of our consumerist and celebrity culture to sell us a way to become rich and famous without actually doing anything. “Brand yourself!” (That sounds painful.) “Subscribe to this service to boost your standing in search engines, no matter your product!” Why not, I say, learn from a real master of the art of universal recognition, one who said on her deathbed, “The whole world will love me!” and got it right. Why not turn to St. Thérèse for advice? She’s got a twofold secret to success, and she’s not shy about sharing it.
1. The Little Way
Thérèse’s older sister Celine, her companion in childhood and her novice in Carmel, testified at the process for canonization that the only reason she wanted Thérèse officially declared a saint was so her sister’s Little Way would be promulgated. Those in charge cautioned her, “This is a sure-fire way to sink the Cause!” Sanctity, not novel doctrines, makes saints.
Celine insisted. It was the Little Way or no way! And with Thérèse’s help from Heaven, Celine won the day. Not only was her sister canonized, but when Pope Benedict XV declared her heroic virtues and named her Venerable in 1921, he spoke at length about her way of spiritual childhood and expressed the Church’s desire that it be adopted universally.
Every pope since has endorsed Thérèse’s doctrine, to the point that Pope St. John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church in 1997 after decades of appeals from the Bishops’ Councils of the world.
So what is this Little Way? In Story of a Soul, after stating that the Science of Love is the only knowledge to which she aspires, Thérèse explains: “Jesus deigned to show me the road that leads to this Divine Furnace, and this road is the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its Father’s arms.”
Infants are powerless, yet despite, or perhaps because of this, they rule the roost. Their secret is the one Thérèse recommends. God promised us through the prophet Isaiah, “As one whom a mother caresses, so will I comfort you…I shall carry you at my breast, and on my knees I shall caress you.” Her secret here is an invitation to abandonment to God’s love. While we, too, are powerless in the big scheme of things, God is all-powerful. We need to accept and rejoice in our littleness and poverty because God will happily take over.
As Thérèse wrote, “On this earth, indeed, it is rare to find souls that do not measure God’s Omnipotence by their own narrow thoughts.” The final step is to acknowledge that His infinite power, goodness, and love are the solution to our weakness and poverty. We have absolutely nothing to fear. Jesus tells us often in the gospels that we must become like little children, and Thérèse takes Him at His word. We can’t, but He can, so let’s listen and obey when He says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
2. The Shower of Roses, that is, Miracles
When we talk about the worldwide, nearly instantaneous proliferation of Story of a Soul, we’re talking about a miracle, but we’re also telling only a fraction of the miracle story.
St. Thérèse was no stranger to miracles while on earth. Her career began with the conversion of the murderer Pranzini for whom she prayed and sacrificed when she was only fourteen. Today, we can imitate her by praying for the conversion of Charlie Kirk’s murderer, asking Thérèse’s intercession. We have every reason to trust she’ll obtain this conversion because she’s specialized in miracles by the thousands ever since she entered eternal life.
When she lay dying, her sisters asked if she would watch over them from Heaven. Thérèse promised she would not just watch, she would come down. She explained before she died:
I feel my mission is about to begin, my mission of making God loved as I love Him, of giving my little way to souls. If God answers my desires, my Heaven will be spent on earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my Heaven doing good on earth. This isn’t impossible, since from the bosom of the beatific vision, the angels watch over us.
Thérèse wanted us to know how much God loves us and how powerful His love is, so she promised to spend her time in Heaven (until the end of time) letting fall “a shower of roses.” Hence the thousands of miracles reported to the Carmel of Lisieux since shortly after her death.
Selections of these miracles were originally published as “Pluie de Roses” in French, and many were printed in the closing pages of Story of a Soul up to the 1950s. A new book released in French by the same name, a collection of Thérèse’s miracles culled from the letters sent to her Carmel over the past 120 years, has come out recently in English, titled A Shower of Roses: The Most Beautiful Miracles of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
So what miracles does Thérèse obtain for her clients across the face of the earth?
Miracles of conversion, miracles of physical healing, miracles of financial help…there seems to be no limit, as there’s no limit to God’s love, in which she shares. What I find most delightful are those in which Thérèse herself makes an appearance, whether she’s pulling soldiers out of danger, whispering a message, or sending a fragrance of roses. She often uses an image of herself, or better yet a relic, as a reminder of her nearness and an inspiration to ask her help.
Since 1997, the relics of St. Thérèse, co-patroness of the missions with St. Francis Xavier, have traveled the globe to fulfill her desire to be a missionary in fact as well as in patronage. Starting today, she embarks on a tour of the U.S., coming down again to bring God’s mercy and her compassion to us.
Succinctly, St. Thérèse’s two-fold secret is simply that God loves us, and so does she.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
