St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, known as the “The Little Flower”, St Thérèse of Lisieux – inspired our parish earlier this year when we had the honour of the visit of her relics and the relics of her parents Saints Louis and Zelie.

Thérèse was a Carmelite nun, who lived a cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of Lisieux, France. Life in a Carmelite convent is indeed uneventful and consists mainly of prayer and hard domestic work. Thérèse said she came to the Carmel convent “to save souls and pray for priests.” And shortly before she died, she wrote: “I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.”

Thérèse was canonized in 1925. On October 19, 1997, St Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, the third woman to be so recognized in light of her holiness and the influence of her teaching on spirituality in the Church.

Thérèse has much to teach our age of the image, the appearance, the “self.” We have become a very self-conscious people, Thérèse, like so many saints, sought to serve others, to do something outside herself, to forget herself in quiet acts of love.

The quotes below are some of St Thérèse’s famous ones which are indicative of the love she showed to others in her life and the importance she placed on love: a lesson for us to learn.

Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.

I understood that all we accomplish, however brilliant, is worth nothing without love.

Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.