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2. Let us enter into the heart of St Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower! Who doesn't know "Little Thérèse," declared by Pope Pius XI as "the greatest saint of modern times"? And yet, she never did anything extraordinary like St Teresa of Avila or St John of the Cross did. But she achieved the extraordinary by pouring the maximum amount of love into the simplest and most insignificant acts of daily life, something within everyone's reach. Not feeling capable of heroic deeds and knowing herself to be loved to the extreme by God, she conceived in her heart a very simple way to walk with certainty on the path to holiness and throw herself into the arms of God with the same confidence as the great saints. "I have no desire, except to love Jesus madly" she says. |
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During her short life, the Holy Spirit inspired her with a path, her famous “little way,” so short and so straight, intended for little souls who cannot climb the steep staircase of perfection... "What a sweet joy to think that the Good Lord is just, that is to say, that He takes our weaknesses into account, that He knows perfectly the fragility of our nature. What then should I be afraid of?... [Ms A, 84r°] I understand so well that only love can make us pleasing to the Good Lord, that this love is the only good I aspire to. Jesus delights to show me the only path that leads to this divine furnace, this path is the abandonment of the little child who falls asleep without fear in his father's arms... [Ms B, 1v°] ‘Whoever is little, let him come to me!'" (Prov 9:4) "Therefore, I came! [Ms C, 3r°].… and this is what I found: ‘As a mother caresses her child, so I will comfort you; I will carry you in my bosom and rock you on my knees!’ (Is 66:12-13) Ah! Never have more tender, more melodious words come to delight my soul; the elevator that will lift me to Heaven is your arms, O Jesus! For this, I have no need to grow; on the contrary, I must remain small, becoming smaller and smaller more and more so. O my God, you have exceeded my expectations, and I want to ‘sing your mercies.’” (Ps 89:2) Thérèse had nothing left to do but abandon herself to the Lord, in that childlike spirit that is her unique characteristic. It is in this divine word that she discovered her little path, this marvelous shortcut to holiness and to Heaven. "Abandonment alone guides me; I have no other compass," she said. [MsA 83r°] Why talk about her today? To talk about her is to speak about love, it is to put ourselves in the school of love, as Our Lady has been teaching us for 44 years. She taught us how to truly love, and we need it so much! Are we not like those persons thirsting for love who do not see the well of living water offered to them? Speaking of the signs of the times, Our Lady asks us: "Do you not recognize that everything around you, everything that happens, comes from the fact that there is no love?" (Oct 2, 2014) Echoing these words of Jesus: "In the latter times, love will grow cold among many." (Mt 24:12) |
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3. According to the visionary Mirjana Soldo, Mary calls us to pray above all "for those who do not yet know the love of God." Thérèse had already understood this and she gave her life for it: "Jesus made me a fisher of souls," she said, "I felt a great desire to work for the conversion of sinners... In a word, I felt charity entering my heart, the need to forget myself in order to please (God and others), and since then, I have been happy." [MsA 45v°] On the Feast of the Holy Trinity (June 9, 1895), Thérèse waded into deep waters... "I received the grace to understand more than ever how much Jesus desires to be loved. I thought of the souls who offer themselves as victims to God's Justice. This offering seemed great and generous to me, but I was far from feeling inclined to make it. “Oh my God,” I cried deep in my heart, “will it be only your Justice that will receive souls immolating themselves as victims? Does not your merciful love also need them? On all sides it is misunderstood, rejected… Oh my God! Will your despised Love remain in your heart? It seems to me that if you find souls offering themselves as Victims of holocausts to your Love, you would quickly consume them, it seems to me that you would be happy not to repress the floods of infinite tenderness that are in You… If your Justice loves to be satisfied, that which extends only on earth, how much more does your Merciful Love desire to set souls ablaze, since your Mercy rises up to the Heavens… O my Jesus! May I be that happy victim! Consume your holocaust by the fire of your Divine Love!” (MsA.84v°) Similarly, in Medjugorje, Our Lady seeks us and calls us: “Dear children, I need you. I need hearts that are ready for an immeasurable love. Hearts that are not weighed down by vanities. Hearts that are ready to love as my Son loved, that are ready to sacrifice themselves as my Son sacrificed Himself. I need you!" (July 2, 2009) On June 11, 1895, with Mother Agnès' (Pauline) permission, Thérèse led her sister Geneviève (Céline) with her, and together they recited the Act of Offering to Merciful Love before the Statue of the Blessed Mother who had smiled at her one day, when she was sick. (pr. 6) How many souls did she bring back to the Lord through this total offering of herself? |
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4. A little-known event then occurred three days later. “Well,” she recounts, “I was beginning my Way of the Cross and suddenly I was seized by such a violent love for God that I can only explain it by saying that it was as if I had been plunged entirely into fire. Oh, what fire and what sweetness at the same time! I was burning with love and if I had felt that for one more minute, one second longer, I would not have been able to bear this ardor without dying. I understood then what the saints say about these states that they have experienced so often. For me, I only experienced it once and for one moment, then I immediately fell back into my usual dryness.” [CJ, 7/07/1897] This is how, with everyday words, Thérèse describes this “wound of love,” this remarkable grace she received from the Lord, a fire that secretly engulfed her heart and of which she would speak again to Mother Agnès shortly before her death: “My dear Mother, you who allowed me to offer myself thus to the Good Lord, you know the rivers, or rather the oceans of grace that have flooded my soul… Ah! Since that happy day, it seems to me that Love penetrates and surrounds me, it seems to me that at every moment this Merciful Love renews me, purifies my soul and leaves no trace of sin there, so I cannot fear purgatory…” [Ms A, 84v°] |
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