Day 2: The Little Way

The second day of the Saint Therese Novena turns to the spiritual teaching for which she is honored as a Doctor of the Catholic Church: the Little Way of spiritual childhood. Therese articulated this teaching in Story of a Soul as her response to the impossibility of imitating the dramatic spiritual feats of the great saints, and the Catholic Church has preserved it as one of the foundational spiritual doctrines of the modern era.

Today's invocation

Saint Therese, Little Flower of Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Little Way is articulated most clearly in chapter nine of Story of a Soul, in a passage Therese wrote near the end of her life. She had been reading the Lives of the great saints (Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Joan of Arc) and had been overwhelmed by the heroic feats of their sanctity. She knew herself incapable of these feats. She thought at first that she could never become a saint. Then, by her own account, she received a sudden insight: the Lord does not require the heroism of the great saints from every soul; the Lord is just as pleased with the small acts of love offered by the little souls who cannot do great things. Therese resolved to become a saint by this Little Way: by remaining small, by trusting completely in the love of the Lord, by offering every small action with the maximum of love, and by being willing to be lifted into perfection by the love of the Lord rather than to climb to it by her own effort.

She uses several images for this Way. The little elevator of the love of the Lord, which the small soul boards instead of climbing the stairs of perfection. The little ball of cotton in the hands of Jesus, which the Lord plays with as He pleases. The little flower in the garden of the Lord, which is loved as much as the great rose by the same Gardener. Each image expresses the same Catholic spiritual conviction: holiness is not principally about heroic effort but about consenting to be loved.¹

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, ask Saint Therese to teach you the Little Way in your own life. Saint Therese, you walked the Little Way to perfection. Show me how to walk it in my own life. Where I have been trying to climb the stairs by my own strength, help me to step into the elevator of God's love.

Reflection

The Catholic theological tradition has recognized the Little Way as a particular gift to the modern Catholic spiritual life. The pre-modern Catholic spiritual writers tended to assume considerable spiritual ambition in their readers; the medieval and early modern manuals of perfection were addressed to monks, nuns, and serious lay aspirants to mystical union, all of whom were assumed to be capable of substantial ascetical effort. The modern Catholic faithful, in a culture of widespread spiritual mediocrity and cultural pressure against the Catholic life, often cannot find the energy or the time for these practices. Therese's Little Way is the Lord's response: the path of holiness for the soul that cannot do the great things, the path that depends on trust in the Lord's love rather than on effort.

This is not a license for laziness. The Little Way still requires the daily fidelity of small acts: the kind word to the difficult neighbor, the patient bearing of the small daily annoyance, the morning prayer, the Sunday Mass, the Confession of small sins. What it dispenses is the anxiety about whether we are doing enough, replacing it with confidence in the Lord's love. The soul that walks the Little Way does the small things faithfully and trusts the Lord with the rest.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Saint Therese, Doctor of the Little Way, pray for us.

Footnotes

1. Saint Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, chapter 9, on the Little Way. Pope Saint John Paul II, Divini Amoris Scientia (apostolic letter, 19 October 1997), declaring Therese Doctor of the Church. ↩