Today’s Reflection is an excerpt about Therese of Lisieux taken from John Dear’s book You Will Be My Witnesses. Born Therese Martin in Lisieux, Normandy, France, in 1873, she joined her sisters in the cloistered Carmelite convent at the age of 15. She died of tuberculosis when she was only 24 (1873-1889). Her religious name was “Therese of the Child of Jesus and the Holy Face” and she is often referred to as “the little flower.” Therese was a lover of gardens and flowers and this latter name is rooted in comments she made in her writings about seeing herself as a flower of Jesus. Unfortunately, partially because of this designation, Therese and her spirituality are often misunderstood. She was anything but dainty and her spirituality, although grounded in a conscious response to live out Jesus’ command to be childlike, is anything but infantile. Officially named a Doctor of the Church, Therese is one of the most beloved of saints. I remember that she was my dad’s favorite saint and that he always wore her medal around his neck. I’d love to be able to ask him now what it was about Therese that he loved. She is most often portrayed as holding a bouquet of roses. Her spirituality is referred to as “the little way” and is in effect a practice that focuses on the grace of each moment, and bringing love to each single moment whatever it is. It is little because of its intention to bring the fullness of love to bear on the commonplace, the seemingly trivial and the daily difficulties not because it is less than or easy. Quite the opposite as those who have tried to emulate her know. John Dear writes:

Dorothy Day concluded her biography of Therese by comparing the power of Therese’s Little Way with the atomic bomb. “Is the atom a small thing? And yet what havoc it has wrought. Is her ‘Little Way’ a small contribution to the life of the Spirit? It has all the power of the Spirit of Christianity behind it. It is an explosive force that can transform our lives and the life of the world, once put into effect.” According to Therese of Lisieux and Dorothy Day of New York, the smallest act of willing love, united to the God of love, is more powerful than the atomic bomb itself, more explosive than a nuclear weapon. It is a spiritual explosion of love that disarms, heals, transforms, and reconciles.

Given our culture of violence and the world’s wars, I prefer to translate Therese’s spirituality as “the little way of nonviolence.” Through these small acts of great love, we root out every trace of violence within us, allow God to disarm our hearts, and share in God’s disarmament of the world. As more and more people practice this little way of nonviolence, love becomes contagious, wars end, and weapons are dismantled. As we organize our nonviolent love into direct public action, as Dorothy Day did, we can end nuclear air raid drills—and someday, nuclear weapons themselves.

This little way of nonviolence is revolutionary for it demands steadfast inner determination to confront the selfishness and violence within us, to open our hearts to be consumed by God’s love, and to overwhelm those we do not like with good deeds, kindness, and loving service. Her example of taking the tough Sister St. Peter around in her wheelchair, preparing her food, and responding to her snappy remarks with a pleasant smile models interpersonal nonviolence for us.

Therese also exemplifies nonviolence toward ourselves. She refused to hate herself, put herself down or fall into despair because of her own weaknesses and faults. Instead, she loved herself and practiced nonviolence toward herself. “If you are willing to bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to your yourself,” she wrote her sister, “then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.♦

Shalom
Dan

PRACTICE: Become aware of any tendency to put yourself down (“there I go again”) or to belittle (“I knew I couldn’t do this”). Practice nonviolence by gently editing any thoughts, words, or responses to yourself that might be demeaning to you. Branch out from there by paying attention to simple encounters, other people, news stories, or situations that might irritate or anger you and evoke thoughts, words, or actions that are in reality seeds of violence.