Brianna Dauby
As the year draws to a close, I am drawn into reflection on the conclusion of the Jubilee Year of Hope and how it coincides with the 100th anniversary of St. Therese of Lisieux’s canonization.
We often use the word “hope” in our daily lives — I hope that the Eagles win; I hope the Phillies make it to the World Series! Yet the Catholic perspective of hope according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church is much more profound.
It is “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1817).
St. Therese’s “Little Way” drew on her understanding of the virtue of hope. She embraced her littleness and trusted that she would become a saint through her small daily works of love and charity, as opposed to the large acts for God that she saw in the lives of other saints.
In St. Therese’s autobiography, “The Story of a Soul,” St. Therese reflected on the smallness of her life in a cloister.
“I concluded that God would not inspire desires which could not be realized, and that I may aspire to sanctity in spite of my littleness,” she wrote. “For me to become great is impossible. I must bear with myself and my many imperfections; but I will seek out a means of getting to Heaven by a little way—very short and very straight, a little way that is wholly new.”
The beauty of St. Therese’s “Little Way” is that she aspired to be like a child — trusting that she would be able to “climb the ladder of holiness” through her trust in God’s will. In embracing her child-like faith, she called to mind the Gospel where Jesus said to let the little ones come to Him.
My husband’s brother, Samuel, had a special devotion to St. Therese, especially after his friend, Anna, passed away at the same age as St. Therese (24).
When Samuel passed away last November, only a year after Anna and at the age of 23, we found his writings and reflections regarding Anna’s death.
In these writings, he spoke with resolution that our lives are meant to be for the service and love of God. After her death he wrote about receiving spiritual consolation, and there was a saint-like peace in the manner that he wrote.
Samuel’s confidence in the mercy and goodness of the Lord was similar to the childlike trust that St. Therese shared with the world. Since his passing, St. Therese has been providing little flowers from heaven for my husband’s family as small reminders of the infinite goodness of the Lord.
As St. Therese said, “If God answers my requests, my heaven will be spent on earth up until the end of the world… Yes, I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.”
The Jubilee Year of Hope, which began on Dec. 24, 2024, began a little over a month after Samuel’s passing. Amidst the waves of sorrow and grief that follow the death of a loved one, this Jubilee Year of Hope beginning so soon after Samuel’s death felt like a reminder from the Lord to hope in the eternal happiness that is waiting for us.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is blessed to have the relics of not only St. Therese but also of her parents, Zelie and Louis Martin, in the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.
On this 100th anniversary of St. Therese’s canonization, her “Little Way” is a reminder that the path to heaven is possible for each of us by offering up our daily works in love for others.
If you have the time in the busyness of this season, visit the relics of the Martin family or pray an extra prayer to St. Therese to end this Jubilee Year with the hope of the eternal life to come for all who trust in the promises of the Lord.
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Brianna Dauby is a freelance writer for CatholicPhilly and a parishioner at Sacred Heart Church in Bridgeport.
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