Today is the Feast Day of St. Thérèse of Lisieux
The Little Flower, pray for us!
In March of 2019, I had the incredible blessing (along with my wife and daughter Catherine) to spend the day at Lisieux at Thérèse’s childhood home (the place where the Blessed Mother smiled at her), at her childhood church, and the Basilica built in her honor.
It was one of the greatest days of my life.
Thérèse’s spirituality can be summed up in two words: trust and mercy. Her life was a model of what Christ calls us to in the Gospel - to love God and to love our neighbor.
In her memoirs she reminds us that everything good that comes to us is because of mercy. Her desire to seek the most perfect thing to do (to love) and to forget self is the model of holiness we should all strive. She always looked at her life through the lens of how God gave her abundant graces.
When we are grateful (for whatever God chooses to give us), He will multiply blessings to us and fill us with more love. Her constant focus on Jesus gave her the grace to embrace virtue and holiness. She is our model in how to participate in the redemption of Jesus—how to accept whatever He decides to give and to live in His will.
Lastly, Thérèse always thought the way to overcome worldliness is to think more about death. May we have the wisdom to realize that all things come from God and all things lead back to Him.
Thérèse is the patron saint of our family. Her intercessions has showered us with many blessings, answers to prayers and is a constant guide who watches over us. Today in her honor, we will celebrate her feast day with a ‘birthday’ cake (thanks Catherine).
Sweet Thérèse, pray for us today. We love you. Blessed Feast Day to you, our Little Flower.
From the autobiography of St Thérèse of Lisieux
In the heart of the church I will be love
Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of St Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance the 12th and 13th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.
I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others. For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind.
When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognized myself in none of the members which St Paul described, and what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favorably within the whole body. Love appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the necessary and more noble member was not lacking; I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realized that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.
Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.
Today’s Mass Collect
O God, who open your Kingdom to those who are humble and to little ones, lead us to follow trustingly in the little way of Saint Thérèse, so that through her intercession we may see your eternal glory revealed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
© 2025, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.
Loved the pics of all of you, especially your daughter Catherine. Yes, love is the answer. What a great devo to ‘take to heart’ each & every day. Thanks for sharing…
I spent a long weekend in Lisieux, mostly in silence and reading (and re-reading) Story of a Soul. Changed my life.