The Little Flower of Lisieux

Today is the Feast Day of one of the saints dearest to my heart: St. Therese the Little Flower. I've prayed many a novena to her and received many heavenly roses from her hand. I've read her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, and will forever strive to imitate her "little way," as she calls it, to holiness. Her way simply consists of daily dying to self and living solely for God by loving and serving others. My mom, who is fittingly named Theresa, has a deep devotion to St. Therese and so beautifully models "the Little Flower" every day through small (and big) acts of sacrifice and love. Hopefully, I'll catch on soon and be able to follow in both of their footsteps :) Here is a little excerpt about St. Therese's life that I found inspiring:

Few saints 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. 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 found holiness in quiet, 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." Many people claim to receive miraculous roses from Therese when they seek her intercession. Thérèse has much to teach our age. We have become a dangerously self-conscious people, painfully aware of the need to be fulfilled, yet knowing we are not. Thérèse, like so many saints, sought to serve others, to do something outside herself, to forget herself in quiet acts of love. She is one of the great examples of the gospel paradox that we gain our life by losing it, and that the seed that falls to the ground must die in order to live (see John 12). Preoccupation with self separates modern men and women from God, from their fellow human beings and ultimately from themselves. We must relearn to forget ourselves, to contemplate a God who draws us out of ourselves and to serve others as the ultimate expression of selfhood. These are the insights of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and they are more valid today than ever.

I find it ironic that on this special Feast Day of St. Therese, I am feeling so absolutely unlike her. For weeks I have been battling with serious selfishness, wanting to be loved and served rather than loving and serving others, preoccupying myself with worldly and vain thoughts, and finding it very difficult to be joyful or even to pray. Although it humbles me and troubles me how far I feel from St. Therese's "little way" lately, I am so thankful for her example and her intercession. So from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely pray, St. Therese, pray for me.