Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Tuesday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

St. Therese, the Little Flower


The Little Flower


God is Love

Love one another as I have loved you 

God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. 

The greatest of these is Love. 

Above all these things put on Love.

There is no greater Love than to lay down one's life for a friend. 


The early Christians knew that Love was the foundation of their spiritual life and the  center of their relationship with God and one another.

That is why the Pagans would remark on how the Christians loved one another.


But as the years and decades and centuries went by love was replaced by penance, mortification, fasting, and methods of spirituality so that holiness became the realm of an elite few and impossible to reach by the ordinary Christian. 


Until St. Therese of the Little Flower.


Therese knew that she could not be an apostle, prophet or teacher. 

She could not be a martyr or missionary. 

She was a simple, young,  cloistered nun who longed to be holy. 

What could she possibly do?


She could Love!

After reading the passage from Corinthians, that Love is the greatest of all, she set set her heart on Love, child like love. 


Therese showed that being holy was not complicated. 

It was as simple as a child loving and trusting God, just as a child loves and trusts it's own  father or mother.


Thus she began her "Little Way" to holiness that even a child could follow. 

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