Is the Patroness of Missions not a Missionary?

Francoise-Marie Therese Martin (also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Little Flower of Jesus or Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Teresa of the Infant Jesus – was born in Alencon, France in January 2, 1873. She was 4 years old when her mother died. Sick physically and emotionally, she was healed by Our Lady of the Smile at the age of 8. She felt a call to enter Carmel as a Contemplative Nun, so that she could give herself totally to Jesus. But she was too young. She appealed to the Mother Superior and Priest Chaplain who said, “When you are old enough”. Not content, Therese and her father appealed to the Bishop. Not getting the response she wanted, she appealed directly and personally to the Pope while on a parish pilgrimage to Rome.

Therese, at the age of 15, was allowed to enter the Lisieux Carmel where her two eldest sisters were already nuns. She took the religious name of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Still dreaming of taking on the world as a missionary, she struggled with her vocation. Finally, she came to realize that her “vocation is love.”

St. Therese saw herself as a child of God. She liked to keep things simple and focused as a child does. She developed a simple spirituality, based on child-like trust and confidence in God. Some spiritualties have stressed complicated practices and extraordinary journeys of the soul as it responds to God’s grace and love. St. Therese’s spirituality was simple and she called it her “little way.” She believed that life presents enough challenges and opportunities for grace and that God is everywhere – in every situation and person and in the ordinary, simple details of life.

St. Therese’s life was hidden. To many even in the convent, she seemed like such an average, ordinary person. She did not like long prayers. She fell asleep during community prayer. She disliked the rosary. She prayed from her heart as a child speaks honestly and trustingly to a parent they love. Too often her “Little Way” is understood simply to mean that one does little, hidden, humble, acts of charity for others in the name of Jesus, without expecting anything in return.

“Everything is Grace” could very well be the over-riding theme of her spirituality. St. Therese’s “Little Way” is to do the ordinary things of life with extraordinary love. A smile, a note of encouragement, a phone call, suffering in silence, always having a positive word, a simple unnoticed task to brighten the life of another, and so many other simple deeds, done with love – these are the examples of her spirituality. St. Therese even wrote about how much care she put into folding napkins at the dinner table. She completed the task with as much love and attention as if Jesus Himself was coming to dine with her. St. Therese believed that Jesus is everywhere and is the power for love and goodness operating within everyone.

Pope Pius XI, in December 14, 1927, declared St. Therese of Lisieux as the Patroness of The Missions. Despite never leaving the cloister, she was given this title alongside her co-patron the great St. Francis Xavier who traveled to many lands and converted much of Asia. St. Therese was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997 – 100 years after her death at the age of 24.

Why did Pope Pius XI decide to proclaim St. Therese of the Child Jesus the Patron Saint of the Missions? She never went to the missions! Although St. Theresa never became a Missionary, she spoke of her ardent hope to serve God as a Missionary, saying: “In spite of my littleness, I would like to enlighten souls as did the Prophets and the Doctors. I have the vocation of the Apostles. I would like to travel over the whole earth to preach your Name and to plant your glorious cross on infidel soil. But…one mission alone would not be sufficient for me, I would want to preach the Gospel on all the five continents simultaneously and even to the most remote isles. I would be a missionary, not for a few years only, but from the beginning of creation until the consummation of the ages.”

Legs do not make a missionary. It is the heart! A missionary is a person whose heart burns with love for Christ and zeal for souls and therefore answer to the call of Jesus: Go, teach and baptize! A missionary shares Jesus’ mission of rescuing souls from the clutches of Satan. The means may differ: prayer, writing, preaching, penance; but the goal and the motive remain the same: save souls by love. Saving souls quickly became the life motive of St. Therese.

Toward the end of her life St. Therese of the Child Jesus immortalized these words: I want to save souls even after my death. (Junel Bustamante / Seminarian)

Sources:
CatholicSaints.info
Sanctoral.com
Mission Doctors Association
Saint-Therese.org
Society of Saint Pius X
Wedaretosay.com
SuperiorCatholicHerald.org