St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Thérèse, youngest daughter of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, entered the Carmelite convent (a place where nuns live together in community) in Lisieux, France at just fifteen years old. She followed in the footsteps of three of her four older sisters, who had already joined the Carmelite order — her fourth sister, Léonie, answered a different call, entering the Visitation Sisters in Caen. St. Thérèse's dream was to become a missionary in foreign lands — a dream that was a little outlandish for a young girl in a cloistered order (cloistered means you cannot leave the convent), but not for God! She never left Lisieux in her nine years at the convent, and died of tuberculosis at age twenty-four. She was hidden from the world, unknown to most. She did nothing the world would notice. Yet she has become one of the most loved saints in the Church.

Her secret was what she called the "Little Way": you don't have to do great things to become a saint. You have to do small things — a kind word, a hidden sacrifice, a moment of patience with a sister who was getting on her nerves. A hallmark of her sainthood is great love and childlike trust in God. Even though she never left her convent, her witness to Christ among her Carmelite sisters — and her diary — let the world know the tenderness of Jesus' love, and in 1997 she was named a Doctor of the Church. Her desire to be a missionary was realized even after her worldly death. Some things Jesus redeems here on Earth for us, and some things He redeems in His eternal Kingdom of Heaven. With Him, my dear brothers and sisters!