St. Thérèse shows us that holiness is within the reach of anyone who lives to do God’s will with love in every little moment of his or her life.  Her writings reveal to us how she surrenders herself into God’s providence in all the little moments of her life.

Thérèse called this simple, childlike path her “Little Way.” It is a spirituality of imperfection. She says, “Jesus deigned to show me the road that leads to this Divine Furnace and this road is the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its Father’s arms.” In a letter to priest Adolphe Roulland, Thérèse writes: “Perfection seems simple to me; I see it is sufficient to recognize one’s nothingness and to abandon oneself as a child into God’s arms.” Any Christian “perfection” is, in fact, our ability to include, forgive, and accept our imperfection.

Thérèse Martin was born January 2, 1873, in Alencon, France. Her parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, were a very holy couple – each of them had discerned religious life prior to meeting each other. Their blessed marriage produced nine children – five of whom survived to adulthood. Thérèse Martin’s home had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. Her father was given a statue of the Immaculate Conception as a young man, and Thérèse’s mother consecrated all nine of her babies to the Virgin Mary.  When she was four years old, St. Thérèse’s mother died from breast cancer. At this time, her father and older sisters cared for her. They doted on her and provided for all her needs. This was the saddest time of her life. She became overly sensitive and cried easily.

Thérèse’s sister Pauline was her main caregiver until she was nine. But in 1881  Pauline entered the Carmel at Lisieux. St. Thérèse became unconsolably upset, so much so that she came down with an illness that doctors were sure she would never be cured from. She seemed to be almost constantly in delirium, which perplexed the doctors who treated her.

During moments when the pain was less severe, she loved to weave garlands of flowers for the Blessed Mother.

“We were then in the beautiful month of May, when all of nature was adorned with the flowers of springtime; only the little flower was languishing and seemed destined to die. That is until she received sunlight from above, and that sunlight was the miraculous statue of the Queen of Heaven.” 

Throughout her illness, St. Thérèse gazed upon the statue of Our Lady and asked Our Lady to cure her. Thérèse’s father asked for Masses to be said at Notre Dame Cathedral to cure Thérèse. At the same time a novena was begun to the Blessed Virgin.  Thérèse became steadily worse during this time until she could not even recognize those who stood beside her. Finally, on the Sunday before the novena ended, Thérèse had a spasm of delirious pain while her sisters were praying. Thérèse  recalls turning toward the Immaculate Heart of Mary and “begging her with all my heart to have pity on me. All of a sudden the statue became alive! The Virgin became beautiful, so beautiful that I could never find words to express it…But what penetrated to the roots of my being was her ravishing smile. At that moment all my pains vanished.”