The Little Way

It's nearly impossible to turn on the television, listen to the radio, or surf the web and not be bombarded with the many ways in which you and your life need to be improved. What was once reserved for commercials and advertisements has now seeped into news stories and entertainment shows. You've seen the segments on what you should or shouldn't eat, how you can improve this or stop that. Scientific research is used to report how just about everything you have ever done might someday result in a fatal disease. Let's face it, most mainstream messages are designed to make you need something, want something, or just plain feel uneasy enough to search for comfort in things that are packaged and sold.

Is it any wonder that with this as our comfort zone so many of us feel unworthy or somehow less than what we should be? Should we be surprised that this attitude also translates to our faith life? Have you ever asked yourself how someone like you can presume to love God, or be loved by him in return?

Saint Therese of Lisieux died at a very young age. She never acted in any grand or forceful ways. She was not a martyr. In fact, she lived most of her short life within the shelter of her family and the solitude of a convent. However, God used her to work miracles and he allowed the Spirit to speak through her in ways that can offer us great comfort. Her writings and the message of her words are known as "the Little Way." This theology she shared can be best understood through her own words,

"The more one is weak, without desires and without virtues, the more one is suited for the operations of God's consuming and transforming love."

In other words, we are perfectly made by God and for God. There is no need for us to feel incomplete when we unite ourselves with him. Those frailties and weaknesses that the world tells us must be changed, fixed, or covered up are the very elements of ourselves that God loves most and uses to transform the world.

In a book about St. Therese, her Little Way is further explained,

The Little Way is a whole new way of life, a way of holiness that is open to all because it requires nothing from anyone but the ordinary, day-to-day experience of which every life is made. Steeped in her mission of love, Therese saw no reason to take upon herself great penances, which were common in her day. She soon gave them up, content to offer God the small sacrifices which came in the routine of community life, the little occasions to be kind to others, the apostolate of the smile when smiling at another was the last thing she felt like doing. Such opportunities to demonstrate love for God by showing it to others abound in everyone's daily life.

The Little Way finds joy in the present moment, in being pleased to be the person you are, whoever you are. It is a school of self-acceptance, which goes beyond accepting who you are to wanting to be who you are. It is a way of coming to terms with life not as it might be but as it is.

You don't need to change yourself to love and be loved. Are you ready to not just accept yourself, but to really love yourself and want to be the person you are today? How might your life change if you answer yes?

[Source: Maurice & Therese: The Story of Love by Patrick Ahern. Doubleday. © 1998.]