Shalom Times, 07 June 2012 11:40
Written by Super User
“I
prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a
pin for love can convert a soul.” These are the words of Theresa of the
Child Jesus, a Carmelite nun called the “Little Flower,” who lived a
cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of Lisieux, France. [In
French-speaking areas, she is known as Thérèse of Lisieux.] And her
preference for hidden sacrifice did indeed convert souls. Few saints of
God are more popular than this young nun. Her autobiography, The Story
of a Soul, is read and loved throughout the world.
Thérèse
Martin entered the convent at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age
of 24. Life in a Carmelite convent is indeed uneventful and consists
mainly of prayer and hard domestic work. But Thérèse possessed that holy
insight that redeems the time, however dull that time may be. She saw
in quiet suffering redemptive suffering, suffering that was indeed her
apostolate. Thérèse said she came to the Carmel convent “to save souls
and pray for priests.” And shortly before she died, she wrote: “I want
to spend my heaven doing good on earth.” On October 19, 1997, Pope John
Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, the third woman to be so
recognized in light of her holiness and the influence of her teaching on
spirituality in the Church. All her life St. Thérèse suffered from
illness. As a young girl she underwent a three-month malady
characterized by violent crises, extended delirium and prolonged
fainting spells. Afterwards she was ever frail and yet she worked hard
in the laundry and refectory of the convent. Psychologically, she
endured prolonged periods of darkness when the light of faith seemed all
but extinguished. The last year of her life she slowly wasted away from
tuberculosis. And yet shortly before her death on September 30 she
murmured, “I would not suffer less.”
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