Saint Thérèse: The Little Way of Spiritual Childhood
Introduction to Theresian Spirituality
The young Carmelite places evangelical holiness within everyone's reach by embedding it in everyday life.
Her missionary zeal radiates through the most genuine contemplation that permeates all of her remarkable apostolic fruitfulness.
The Doctrine of Saint Thérèse
The Little Way: Total Trust and Abandonment
The "Little Way" proposed by Thérèse consists of unleashing the dynamism of hope through the dynamic of total trust, so as to reach the end of the journey, so to speak, empty-handed: even though the creature has committed to performing and cultivating all the works of Love, her hands must be filled only by the works and merits of God Himself.
The Mountain of Love
For Thérèse, we are all called to reach the summit of the mountain of Love, and the Saints are those who have succeeded in climbing the mountain whose peak is lost in the sky.
Thérèse never questioned the path that would lead her to the "Mountain of Love," but allowed herself to be led by Jesus in total abandonment.
It is Infinite Love itself which, bending down to the creature, bridges all distances and completes all works—save for the one work that only the creature can perform: total abandonment.
God's Mercy Bends Down on Our Nothingness
Man cannot manage God's Mercy, not even through his weakness or his sins; rather, it is God—merciful by His very nature—who bends down on our nothingness.
Thérèse's discovery lies precisely in the need to abandon oneself to Grace, because she is convinced that it is Love that lifts up and brings forth good works.
The Short Way: Letting Jesus Carry Us
The Mountain of Holiness is therefore a "Mountain of Love," which is as easy to climb as it is easy for parents' arms to lift their children.
For Thérèse, the "short way" consists of being taken into Jesus' arms and carried by Him all the way to the summit of the Mountain of Love.
The "Little Way" intuited by Thérèse is new in that it is incredibly short—so immediate that it almost ceases to exist, since every path is meant to bridge a distance.
In the Little Way traced by Thérèse, there is no distance to travel, no time to wait, other than letting oneself be grasped here, now. Yet even though the way belongs entirely to God, the creature must continually seek the place suited to Mercy and place herself where Mercy can express its fullness.
In other words, in the relationship of Love as understood by Thérèse, even if one party took all the initiative, the other would still have the task of immersing themselves in the intimacy that is offered.
The Five Fundamental Principles
In summary, Thérèse's doctrine consists of the following principles:
- God is Merciful Love; His nature leads Him to bend down toward all that is small and in need of love.
- The creature is most truly herself the more she understands her own "nothingness"—that is, her poverty, her smallness—and feels in her heart God's infinite desires.
- Weakness, poverty, and even sin are not an insurmountable obstacle to Love; on the contrary, they sometimes attract it.
- The Church on earth is the "hearth of Love" in which the encounter between Creator and creature is celebrated.
- When the creature allows herself to be drawn and burned by Infinite Love, she draws with her, in her ascent, all those whom God has entrusted to her.
The Trinitarian Foundation of Mercy
Thérèse understood, through the charitable movement of her heart and through the eyes of faith, the Trinitarian foundation of Mercy.
The face of the Father and that of the Son almost overlap in her heart and mind: she understood that Mercy is rooted in the very mystery of God's nature.
Thérèse taught us that Jesus is not only ready to lift us up and support us at every fall, but is willing to remove every weakness and sin of ours, provided we ask for His help.
God's Merciful Love
In the end, Thérèse would like to pass on to us the Merciful Love of God that embraces all things—like an ocean in which a drop is lost, like an abyss into which it is sweet to plunge.
She understood that there is a great limit in creatures "in giving love," but that they can all nonetheless be "infinite in receiving love and in letting themselves be loved."
John Paul II on the Little Way
John Paul II at Lisieux (Homily of June 2, 1980):
"To be children, to become like children, means entering right into the heart of the greatest mission that runs through the very heart of man.
Thérèse knew this perfectly well.
This mission springs from the eternal love of the Father. The Son of God, as man, in a visible, 'historical' way, and the Holy Spirit, in an invisible and 'charismatic' way, bring it to fulfillment in the history of humanity."