Walking through the sprawling old cemetery as rain clouds gathered, we finally found the grave we were looking for. A tall cross marks the spot where a young French nun was buried on October 4, 1897 after she died from tuberculosis. She was born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin – but the world knows her now as St. Thérèse of Lisieux, affectionately called “The Little Flower.”
Making a pilgrimage to Lisieux was one of the things I looked forward to the most during our trip to northern France. Lisieux is the township where Thérèse grew up … where she entered the cloistered Carmel monastery at age 15 … and where she died just nine years later at age 24.
What's so special about this simple soul who led a brief, unassuming life hidden away behind the cloistered gates at the Carmel? Why do 700,000 people visit Lisieux each year to feel closer to her?
I can't speak for all 700,00 of them, but I can tell you why I wanted to make a pilgrimage here.
The first thing you should know: Before Thérèse died, she promised that “After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth.” She gained widespread recognition after the posthumous publication of her book, Story of a Soul, which became one of the most-read spiritual biographies of all time.
Numerous miracles were attributed to her following her death, including several miracles at her initial burial place. She was canonized a saint in 1925.
For personal reasons, I’ve long felt drawn to The Little Flower. It all started quite unexpectedly and inexplicably. While I was on a business trip to Asheville about 20 years ago, the group I was with wanted to check out a historic old church in the city. Stepping inside the dark entrance to the church, I noticed a small prayer card bearing the name and image of St. Thérèse, along with her vow to send a shower of roses to those who need it.
I had never heard of this saint. And I had never in my life picked up and saved a prayer card. But something – a quiet beckoning, a whisper – told me that I was supposed to keep this one because I might need it someday. So I tucked it in my wallet, brought it home and saved it in my dresser valet box.
About a year later, I learned why I was supposed to have that card. And I was grateful beyond words for the roses that fell when they were needed.
Suffice it to say that I’ve felt Thérèse's presence in profound, life-changing ways and I’ve been deeply inspired by what she humbly called her “Little Way” – the path of spiritual childhood. She taught that climbing the spiritual summit does not require great acts, but simple things done with love.
In Story of a Soul, Thérèse wrote “I can prove my love only by scattering flowers, that is to say, by never letting slip a single little sacrifice, a single glance, a single word; by making profit of the very smallest actions, by doing them all for love.”
It was with love in our hearts that Bonnie and I visited the places where she lived, prayed and died.
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