(1873-1897) Francoise-Marie Therese Martin, the Little Flower, the Doctor of Divine Love, was born to middle-class French parents, Saints Louis and Marie-Azelie Guérin Martin. Therese and three of her sisters became Carmelite nuns, and her other sister became a Visitation Sister. She died of tuberculosis at age 24, and, from her rich writing on her “little way” and Divine Love, she was the third woman to be declared a Doctor of the Church.
Saint Therese celebrated our powerlessness before God (Step 1). She put all hope in Him (Step 2) and knew that her vocation is only to love Him. “Through spiritual childhood one experiences that everything comes from God, returns to him and abides in him, for the salvation of all, in a mystery of merciful love” (Pope Saint John Paul II, Apostolic Letter proclaiming Therese a Doctor of the Universal Church, October 19, 1997).
“Jesus points out to me the only way which leads to Love’s furnace—that way is self-surrender—it is the confidence of the little child who sleeps without fear in its father’s arms” (Saint Therese of Lisieux).
Reflection by Brad Farmer