Today is the feast day of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Last year, I was blessed to lead forty-four pilgrims to France to learn about women saints, including St. Thérèse, also known as the Little Flower. This past month, I was again blessed to lead a group of thirty-five pilgrims to the National Shrine of St. Thérèse in Darien, Illinois. I read her memoir, The Story of a Soul, in preparation for the France pilgrimage but failed to appreciate her story until we visited Lisieux.

Good Soil

Thérèse was raised on good soil. Her parents were both saints, the first married couple to be canonized together. All five of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin’s surviving daughters became nuns. That’s quite a track record! What struck me most about the saints was their quiet but powerful faith. They didn’t push their daughters to become religious sisters or flaunt their religiosity. They lived as humble servants of God and greatly influenced their children. Though Thérèse’s mother died when Thérèse was only four, the child’s memories of her mother were of true love and commitment to God and family.

Bearing Grain

Thérèse watched her sisters become nuns and saw her father lead a pious life. She learned to be obedient to God, to be patient and loving, and to place all her trust in the Lord. As important as her family’s effect on Thérèse was, Thérèse’s effect on the world was equally important.

I often find myself going back to a passage in Thérèse’s book in which she likens herself to a little ball, a mere plaything of the Child Jesus, whom He could pick up or throw down at His choosing. Thérèse was content to be there when the Lord needed or wanted her and to lie in wait when He chose to lift others up or give them better health or easier lives. She understood, far beyond her years and education, that we are all here to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He has in mind, no matter how big or small.

The Little Flower died at twenty-four, a young, sickly girl with little worldly knowledge and none of the sophistication of today’s twenty-somethings. Yet within twenty-eight years of her death, she was canonized, and soon afterward the grand Basilica of St. Thérèse, one of the world’s most breathtaking and awe-inspiring churches, began to rise in Lisieux. The love and admiration the world has for Thérèse is unfathomable. The impact this unknown child and cloistered nun still has on the entire world speaks volumes about the seeds she sowed and the plants she cultivated.

One Hundred Grains

Each of us can learn what Thérèse knew: “What matters in life is not great deeds, but great love.” When we follow her example, we, too, can bear one hundred grains or more.

We must “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

St. Thérèse, help me to always believe as you did in God’s great love for me, so that I might imitate your Little Way each day. Amen.

©2026 Amy Schisler

Images: Amy Schisler

Edited by: PV Babadi