The Saint of Great Littleness!

In a magnificent palace, we may quickly and conveniently feast our eyes on the marble and the stone, the cedar, and the iron. But who thinks of the mortar and the nails? And yet, in the entire architecture, mortar and nails are as important as pillars, columns, beams and the rest of it!

Similarly, in the architecture of the world and in the conduct of its affairs, trifles are the mortar and the nails! 
Real success in self-governance is not found in waiting for some special occasion to exert ourselves, but doing the best that can be done in the circumstances of everyday life. Life teaches us never to wait for that perfect moment.
Little things are a better test of character than great things! They come every day; whereas great things do not.  When we look at the first three centuries of Christendom, there had been an interesting spirituality regarding how one should ideally finish off his or her life. The dominant view was that it was normal that a Christian should die a Martyr’s death. 

Until the year 325 A.D., when Emperor Constantine became a Catholic, the persecutions provided plenty of ‘high way’ for Christians to exit the world as Martyrs. However, after the persecutions stopped, Christians began to wonder how one could now die as a Martyr when nobody was any longer ready to kill you for the sake of your Faith.

Saint Therese’s ‘Little Way’ is one such answer – an excellent answer it is! What she maps out, with great warmth and gentleness, is the spiritual path for a certain ‘Martyrdom of Obscurity’. Thus, it is certainly a ‘high way’, an ideal road, certainly not one for the faint hearted! Her ‘little way’ actually prescribes a Martyrdom for the common man – a way of doing ‘ordinary’ things in life with an ‘extraordinary’ love for God and our neighbour.   

The essence of Saint Therese’s spirituality can indeed be captured in the expression of ‘Her Little Way’, but that ‘little way’, as she herself describes, is complex, full of nuances, and ultimately a very mature and sound spiritual path for salvation!

For Saint Therese, the larger system is simply a magnification, a macrocosm of our individual ways of being, doing and living!

 For Saint Therese, this inner, private, moral journey is also ultimately the way towards one another. Thus, we come into unity with everyone and with all things by entering deeply enough inside the order of things where one heart begins beating for everyone! 

Saint Therese’s ‘little way’ also emphasizes being a child before God. It paves the way not to become discouraged over one’s faults; for children often fall, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much. 

Generations of Catholics have admired this young Saint, calling her the ‘Little Flower’. She died after having lived as a Cloistered Carmelite for less than ten years. She never went on missions, never founded a Religious Order or never performed great works! But she became the ‘Saint of Great Littleness’ by following the ‘Little Way’ Spirituality!