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 "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.]
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