On Wednesday, June 7, 2023, Pope Francis focused his audience on St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus as another witness of apostolic zeal and passion for evangelization.
St. Thérèse, also commonly referred to as the “Little Flower,” was the patroness of missions. Known for her simplicity in spirituality, she focused her life on doing “ordinary things with extraordinary love”. In this way, her approach is attainable to all of us — to view small acts as opportunities to bring about Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.
St. Thérèse was born 151 years ago in 1873 to a wealthy family in Alençon, France.
She experienced poor health during her life and died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis.
Although she is the patroness of missions and possessed a deep desire to be a missionary, she herself never went on mission. Rather, she was a “spiritual Sister” to several missions, offering her prayers and accompanying those on missions with letters.
Strength and zeal
Pope Francis describes how throughout her time as a Carmelite Nun, Thérèse was poorly treated and misunderstood by her fellow Nuns, living a life of littleness and weakness. All of this she accepted lovingly and patiently, offering her sufferings for the sake of the Church.
One incredibly notable quality of St. Thérèse is the way she remained hidden while showing great love for others. She said, “I desire that, like the Face of Jesus, my face be truly hidden that no one on Earth would know me. I thirsted after suffering and I longed to be forgotten.” Pope Francis remarked, “Without being visible, she interceded for the missions, like an engine that, although hidden, gives a vehicle the power to move forward.”
Pope Francis offered two episodes that he said reveal the source of Thérèse’s missionary strength and zeal.
The first was on Christmas 1886. Up until this point, Thérèse was very pampered and quite sensitive. When her exhausted father remarked “Good thing it’s the last year!” as she opened her presents, she began to cry and fled to her room. There, she encountered Christ. Full of joy, Thérèse left her room, went back downstairs, and cheered her father. From then on her life changed.
“On that night, when Jesus had made himself weak out of love, she had become strong in spirit . . . she had come out of the prison of her selfishness and self-pity,” said Pope Francis. The Holy Father said that instead of seeking consolation for herself, she set out to “console Jesus”.
In her letter to Father Roullan, Thérèse expressed that her daily resolution was to make Jesus known, her desire was to save souls, and she wanted to save souls even after her death (“Letter to Father Roullan”; 19 March 1897). She famously proclaimed, “I will spend my Heaven doing good on Earth.”
The second instance occurred when Thérèse heard about Enrico Pranzini, a criminal who had brutally murdered three people and was subsequently sentenced to death. Thérèse desperately prayed for his conversion, that he would be open to God’s love, and would demonstrate some small sign of repentance before his execution.
The day after his death, Thérèse read in the newspaper that prior to laying his head on the block of the guillotine, “all of a sudden, seized by divine inspiration, turned around, grabbed a Crucifix that the priest handed him, and kissed three times the sacred wounds” of Jesus. Thérèse wrote, “Then his soul went to receive the merciful sentence of the One who declared that in Heaven there will be more joy for a single sinner who repents than for the ninety-nine righteous who have no need of repentance!” (“Manuscript A”, 135).
Reflecting on this story, Pope Francis exclaimed, “Such is the power of intercession moved by charity; such is the engine of mission!”
Thérèse devoted her life to prayer, but she especially interceded for the conversion of sinners.
Her life serves as a beautiful reminder of the necessity of charity and intercessory prayer in spreading the Gospel.
We can all be missionaries
Many of us may associate a missionary as being someone who travels great distances to foreign places to evangelize and proclaim the Gospel. However, Pope Francis explained that “a missionary is also anyone who lives as an instrument of God’s love where they are. Missionaries are those who do everything so that, through their witness, their prayer, their intercessions, Jesus might pass by”.
At the end of his audience, the Holy Father stated, “The Church needs hearts like Thérèse’s, hearts that draw people to love and bring people closer to God.”
Ask yourself, how can you love someone today? What small act can you perform with intentionality and deep love?
Pope Francis urged us to ask St. Thérèse for her intercession, that we would have the grace to overcome our own selfishness so that Jesus might be known.