The “Little Way” of St. Therese

I first learned about St. Therese from a website dedicated to her. I was simply looking for a website where I can read the Daily Mass Readings and found the website.

All I knew about St. Therese were: She died at a young age and her life was ordinary, but she became a saint not through great works but through living everyday life with great humility and trust in Jesus. Some even say that if it weren’t for her autobiography (which she wrote unassumingly and never saw published), she wouldn’t be remembered as she is now.

Toward the end of last year, I read some of her writings while struggling with prayer and humility. Prayer became mechanical and a task I needed to tick on my to-do list. As I prepared to start writing again, I also struggled with what other people would think of me and what I do. I was also afraid of being a beginner again.

The few quotes I read inspired me, and I decided to learn more about St. Therese by reading her autobiography.

I wanted her to be my “Saint of the Year” instead of having a word of the year. And maybe I also want her to be the “Saint of my life.”

I started with a short introduction because I’ll share more excerpts from her autobiography that I want to remember.

Here is the first one:

I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make God loved as I love Him, to teach souls my little way. … the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender.
— St. Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul

What I wish to remember is that loving God and becoming a saint do not require doing great things for Him and others. There is a “little way” to God that requires only being childlike: dependent on God and trusting in Him.

It reminds me of how Jesus also taught about the importance of being childlike to enter the kingdom of heaven:

Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.
— Mark 10: 14–15

Personally, her “Little Way” is also a call for me to do everything, especially my day job and my work on the blog, with humility.

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This post first appeared on carlocruz.org.