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On a recent Sunday I attended Mass at Saint Therese in Albuquerque where I visited the Shrine of Saint Therese of Lisieux. I knew little about this Saint but was struck by the devotion of the women who came after Mass to kneel and pray before the life size wax figure of Saint Therese, lying at rest. The shrine itself was relatively modest, befitting what I later learned was Therese's spiritual pathway. The shrine room in the Church's vestibule was small, decorated with photos tracing her life from childhood to her entry into the Carmelite convent at age 16 and to the time of her death from Tb at age 24, when she still appeared younger than her years. There was a photo of her home in France, of the Carmelite convent and its chapel in Lisieux , of her religious art work, and a copy of her treatise on prayer. Her childhood photos all exhibited a wistful smile, what I perceived as genuine happiness. Although she suffered much from illness as a Carmelite nun, the photos from her convent years reveal no anxiety or depression, just a peaceful and prayerful countenance. The Shrine room also contained a holy water dispenser for visitors, of special significance as Saint Therese, when ill, often sprinkled her bed in the convent's infirmary with holy water, to quell the temptations of the devil.
My visit to Saint Therese's Shrine stoked my curiosity about this Saint and so led me to read her spiritual autobiography, "The Story of a Soul", which she wrote during the later years of her life. Her writing, in the form of correspondence to her Mother Superior, reveals a quest for sainthood beginning in childhood, " You know that I always wanted to be a saint; but compared with real saints I know perfectly well that I am no more like them than a grain of sand trodden beneath the feet of passers-by is like a mountain with its summit lost in the clouds." She then came to the understanding, " God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized, so in spite of my littleness I can hope to be a saint." In reading the scriptures, she was struck by the words of Jesus, " Whoever is a little one, let him come to Me." Her search for the pathway to sainthood then led her to these words of the prophet Isaiah, "You shall be carried at the breasts and upon the knees: as one whom the mother caresseth, so I will comfort you." She realized that as a child raises his arms up to his parents happy to be lifted up, so too must we live in our trust of a loving Lord. To her, this meant that we are all children vis a vis God. It meant that there was another path to Heaven which she could follow - what she called the little way. She later writes," I know it, love alone can make us pleasing to God, so I desire no other treasure. Jesus has chosen to show me the only way which leads to the Divine Furnace of love; it is the way of childlike self-surrender, the way a child sleeps, afraid of nothing, in its father's arms." In her quest to draw upon the love of God, Therese thought of herself as one of God's little flowers in a garden, resplendent with roses. She writes," So it is in the world of souls, the living garden of the Lord. It pleases Him to create great saints, who may be compared with the rose: but he has also created little ones, who must be content to be daisies or violets nestling at His feet to delight His eyes when he should choose to look at them. The happier they are to be as He wills, the more perfect they are." She further elaborates this spiritual insight, " Our Lord's love shines out just as much through a little soul who yields completely to His Grace as it does through the greatest". At the end of her memoir and close to the end of her human life she describes the little way she can love Christ, " So my Beloved, shall my life be spent in Your sight. I can prove my love only by scattering flowers, that is to say, by never letting slip a single little sacrifice, a single glance, a single word; by making profit of the very smallest actions, by doing them all for love."
I encourage Christian pilgrims to visit the shrine of Saint Therese in Albuquerque, to pray that like Therese, we too can draw upon the love of Christ to find the "little way" to return this love and to place our full trust in Him.
For directions to Saint Therese Church and Shrine in Albuquerque, click on
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