This Little Light of Mine

Ok folks!  I come before you today to talk about the Little Way!  Hey!  That rhymes!  I'm a poet and I didn't know it!  Hehehe!  Enough of the corny jokes ('cause it's so hot outside they might pop!)  ;P

My favorite saint is St. Therese, the Little Flower.  I picked her as my confirmation saint because I was attracted by her simple, sweet and pure love for Jesus.  I knew I wasn't capable of performing huge, heroic spiritual feats like Sts. Teresa of Avila or Joan of Arc, I am one of those kinds of people who struggle with even offering up the little inconveniences.  Instead of heroically gritting my teeth and offering up my suffering, I tend to snap at the person annoying me and put an immediate end to it, even though it hurts the other person's feelings.

One story that comes to mind concerns this very issue.  After Therese entered the convent, she was assaulted with small annoyances designed to test her patience and spiritual strength.  While praying evening prayer, she was continually irked by the clink and clank of a sister nun's rosary beads.  She was sure that the nun was clinking them on purpose.  But instead of switching around and telling her to shut the heck up, Therese silently endured the grating noise and focused on how much God loves all His people, especially the annoying sister.

Not all of us are called to be great missionaries and front linesmen for the Church.  Instead, many of us will find our true spirituality serving in the rear guard and offering up the little things for Christ.  St. Therese's Little Way will help us live our lives wholly for Jesus by offering up all our time, joys and sufferings in union with the Church, however seemingly miniscule.

"I had offered myself to the Child Jesus to be His Little Plaything.  I had told Him not to use me like a costly toy which children are pleased to look at without daring to touch; but as He would a little ball of no value, that He might throw to the ground, toss about, pierce, leave in a corner, or else press to His Heart if so it pleased Him.  In a word, I wanted to amuse the little Jesus, and to give myself up to all His childlike fancies." ~ St. Therese of Lisieux