The Little Way
Living a Real Life
We are to live in reality and not according to illusions
What is reality? God is love
What are the Implications of the fact that God is love?
The nature of love is to give itself as a gift to do what is good for others.
So God creates the world and gives us his life
· At the beginning. On the Cross. In Baptism
· What more do you want?
He makes us his children
· He is our Father
Our Father is All-Good: Trust him
· Abandon yourself to him with audacious confidence. He can only do good for you
· There is no other option
Love him in return
· Do all of the little and big duties and tasks of daily life for the love of God
· Accept all that you cannot change with trust and love for God
Offer it for the good of other souls. Work with God to get them to heaven
This is what Jesus lived for 30 years
Sanctity and Perfection
Thérèse of Lisieux was a little soul, indeed. Still, from the time of her youth, she had bold desires: She wanted to become a saint, and not just any saint, but a great saint. A story from her childhood helps us understand this — a story she calls “a summary of my whole life.” One day, Thérèse’s older sister Leonie had decided she’d outgrown some of her playthings. So she offered to her little sisters, Céline and Thérèse, a basket full of such items. Céline chose one item that pleased her. But when it came to Thérèse’s turn, the future saint suddenly exclaimed, “I choose all!” and proceeded to take the entire basket. That story expresses well how Thérèse approached the spiritual life and the path to sanctity in particular. She understood that “there were many degrees of perfection” and she wanted the highest degree, saying to the Lord, “My God, I choose all! … ‘I choose all’ that You will!”
The Son
Later, Thérèse would express her bold desires for holiness in an even more audacious way, saying that she wanted to love God even more than Teresa of Avila, the great Carmelite Doctor of the Church! However, she also realized her weakness and littleness. And so, for Thérèse, saints like the great Teresa of Avila were like eagles, soaring on the heights of holiness; whereas, she simply saw herself as a weak little bird without strength and unable to fly. In fact, she readily admitted, “I am not an eagle.” Nevertheless, she went on to explain, “but I have … an eagle’s EYES AND HEART.” Then, she continued, “[So,] in spite of my extreme littleness I still dare to gaze upon [the Lord], and my heart feels within it all the aspirations of an Eagle.”
Let Them Come to Me
Such is the boldness that led Thérèse to discover the Little Way. I have always wanted to be a saint. Alas! I have always noticed that when I compared myself to the saints, there is between them and me the same difference that exists between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and the obscure grain of sand trampled underfoot by passers-by. Instead of becoming discouraged, I said to myself: God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness. It is impossible for me to grow up, and so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new…We are living now in an age of inventions, and we no longer have to take the trouble of climbing stairs, for, in the homes of the rich, an elevator has replaced these very successfully. I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched, then, in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: “Whoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me.” And so I succeeded. I felt I had found what I was looking for. … The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more.
Our Father
He makes us his children
· He is our Father
Our Father is All-Good: Trust him
· Abandon yourself to him with audacious confidence
· He can only do good for you
· There is no other option
Love him in return
· Do all of the little and big duties and tasks of daily life for the love of God
· Accept all that you cannot change with trust and love for God
Offer it for the good of other souls
· Work with God to get them to heaven