St. Thérèse of Lisieux is known for her teaching called “The Little Way”: doing small, ordinary tasks with great love.
We might assume she always knew that simple things can make a person holy. But she didn’t.
In fact, she worried for years that she could never measure up to the great saints who made large sacrifices and performed heroic deeds.
Thérèse entered the cloistered Carmelite community at age 15. From the start, she desired to become a saint, but the task seemed insurmountable. How could she ascend to the level of the saints she admired, including Joan of Arc?
Eventually, Thérèse realized she didn’t need to follow that exact path. She could carve her own straightforward path to reflect her devotion to God.
“Great deeds are forbidden me,” Thérèse said. “The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers, and these flowers are very little sacrifice: every glance and every word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”
Through the Little Way, Thérèse acknowledged her weaknesses and limitations and relied on God’s mercy to work around them. She focused on mundane chores and everyday prayer with great joy.
Thérèse possessed a wisdom that defied her youth. Although she died at 24 from tuberculosis, her devoutness lived on through the Little Way. It continues to inspire us.
How often do we look at some of the larger-than-life holy men and women throughout history and think we could never be like them? Truthfully, most of us couldn’t replicate their bravery and heroism. But that doesn’t mean we can’t become saints.
Like Thérèse, we can accept our limitations and ask God to show us simple ways to share His love.
We can do housework with a smile on our face. We can give our full attention to someone who needs to talk, even if we’re tired or busy. We can stop in the middle of our work to thank God for a beautiful day.
These seemingly ordinary tasks are the little flowers we can spread around us.
Thérèse reminds us that God appreciates our good deeds, no matter how small. As she said, “Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”
