By: Marty Afflerbaugh (TEC of Central Texas)
Did you know that the TEC Movement has its own patron saint? Yes, we do: St. Therese of Lisieux.
St. Therese was born in Alençon, France, on January 2, 1873. Her family was very close and loving. Her parents were Louis and Zelie Martin (who, by the way, were the first, and to this date, the only married couple to be canonized together by the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Francis in 2015). She also had 4 other sisters, all of whom became nuns.
Therese struggled in her early years with illness and being bullied at school because of her good grades and being top in her class. She suffered with this alone in silence as the years passed, and her suffering increased as her sisters started entering the convent one by one.
Christmas Eve of 1886 was a turning point in the life of Therese; she called it a “complete conversion.” She said, “I felt, in a word, charity enter my heart, the need to forget myself to make others happy.” It was at this time that she started to feel the call to enter Carmel convent. She desperately tried to get permission to enter the convent but was turned away for being too young. In November of 1887, she went on a pilgrimage with her father and older sister Celine. During a general audience with Pope Leo XIII, she approached the Pope, knelt, and asked him to allow her to enter Carmel at 15. The Pope said: “Well, my child, do what the superiors decide… You will enter if it is God’s Will.” After about a year, the Bishop of Bayeux authorized the prioress to receive Therese. On April 9, 1888, she became a Carmelite postulant.
When she entered the convent, what she found was a community of very aged nuns: some were old and cranky, some were sick and troubled, and some were lukewarm and complacent. This is not what she imaged. Over time, she had come to realize that they all had their human weaknesses. Therese focused on deepening her vocation; she wanted to lead a hidden life of prayer and suffering, especially for priests. She wanted to “die to herself” and her needs and focus on charity to others. She spent her time practicing little virtues, because she felt that she did not have the capacity for great ones.
“Miss no single opportunity for making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love”. St. Therese of Lisieux
The other nuns in the convent started talking behind her back about how she was so young and naïve. At this time, she decided that she would do as much as she could, even the smallest of tasks, with great love for Christ. As she continued to do the menial chores around the convent, her humility grew, and she became known after her death as “The Little Flower” because she blossomed into this wonderful servant of God. Therese died of tuberculosis at age 24, but through her short life, she taught us that to love is to give all we are to God, whether it be on a grand scale or in the smallest and simplest tasks that we are called to do.
