“What matters in life, is not great deeds, but great love.” St.Therese of Lisieux. THERESE MARTIN was born at Alencon, France on 2 January 1873. When she entered the Carmelite Monastery to give her life to God, Marie Francoise Therese Martin took the religious name, “Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.” Therese had a great devotion to the Infant Jesus, and her spirituality was a childlike simplicity and trust in God’s love.

Often called ‘The Little Flower,’ St. Therese of Lisieux, inspires us to live a life of simplicity and to put love at the forefront of daily life. The Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Therese, The Little Flower, on October 1st each year. She is the patron saint of missionaries, florists, pilots and priests. She is also invoked on behalf of the sick.

Famous for her autobiography, Story of a Soul, St. Therese of Lisieux, was a 19th century French saint and a Doctor of the Church. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, is a great theologian of the heart of man and uses a very rich symbol, which is the four-string lyre.

She’s often called ‘The Little Flower’ because she imagined herself as a little flower in God’s garden of souls. She wasn’t afraid to be little; she loved her littleness. St.Therese once wrote, “You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.” LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT.

St. Therese of Lisieux, had an unshakable trust in the love of God our Father, that raised her to the heights of sanctity in only 24 years. Her spirituality, “The Little Way of Spiritual Childhood,” is a special gift from God for ordinary people to reach heroic sanctity. Therese, took her motto, the well-known words of the great Carmelite mystic, St. John of the Cross. “Love is repaid by love alone.” With these thoughts ever present in her mind, her heart found courage to endure hours and days of bitterness that few saints have been privileged to undergo. Living a hidden, simple life of prayer, she was gifted with a great intimacy with God. Through sickness and dark nights of doubt and fear, she remained faithful to God, rooted in His merciful love. After a long struggle with tuberculosis, she died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Her last words, “My God, I love you,” are the seal of her life,” said John Paul II.

St. Therese was proclaimed a ‘Doctor of the Church’ by Pope John Paul II in 1997-100 years after her death. She is only the third woman to be so proclaimed, after Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Teresa of Avila.

Since her death, millions have been inspired by her ‘little ways’ of loving God and neighbour. She performed little acts of charity always, and little sacrifices, not caring how unimportant they seemed. These acts helped her come to a deeper understanding of her vocation. Many miracles have been attributed to her intercession. She had predicted during her earthly life that “My Heaven will be spent doing good on Earth.”

She believed and taught us that life presents enough challenges and opportunities for grace. His Son, God came to look for the weak and imperfect, and that He desires to be present and at work especially in the midst of our brokenness and sins. We have only this life to live by faith. She said, “It is true that I am not always faithful, but I never lose courage. I leave myself in the Arms of Our Lord.”

There’s much we can learn from St. Therese. Have confidence in God. Find something small you can do around the house and offer it up to God. Remember – St. Therese, is all about the little things – your little actions when offered up, can make a world of difference. Live each day with an unshakable confidence in God’s love.