“What a joy to be able to suffer for Him whom we love!” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul

Suffering is something that most try to avoid. It is definitely not easy to deal with pain, loss, loneliness, and heartbreak. Most people try hard to avoid it.

But St. Thérèse of Lisieux, born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin, saw suffering differently. She embraced it as a path to holiness—a way to grow closer to the heart of God.

St. Therese was no stranger to suffering. Born on January 2, 1873, to Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin, she was the youngest of nine children (seven girls and two boys). Before her birth, four of her siblings died within a span of just three years: two baby boys, a five-year-old girl, and an infant girl just six-and-a-half weeks old.

The doctors were unsure if Maria would make it past infancy, thus adding more suffering to the family. She survived.

Tragedy struck the family again when her mother died from breast cancer when she was four years old. At the age of ten Maria contracted an illness that left her bedridden for months.

Just before her 15th birthday she gained permission from the Archbishop to join a Carmelite convent and took the name Therese of Lisieux. For the next seven years she lived a quiet prayerful life in the convent.

A few years after she joined the convent her father had a stroke and spent three years in an institution and two years at home before dying in 1894.

In the final three years of her short life, Therese Lisieux started writing her autobiography titled ‘The Story of a Soul.’

Therese contracted tuberculosis and died on September 30, 1897 at the age of 24.

The Little Way: Finding Holiness in the Everyday

“I want to be a saint… I am not perfect, but I want to become perfect.” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. Teresa embraced what many call ’The Little Way.’ Her goal in life was to become a great saint. But not through large gestures but through simple everyday life. A simple smile or a compliment.

Many times we feel we aren’t contributing enough to the world. Whether it is because our jobs aren’t glamorous, or we thought we would be raising children right now but are not.

Theresa viewed nothing as too small and that nothing is too small to be holy.

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Theresa wrote that she can “in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness.” Believing that even though she would never rule a country or invent something she can still aspire to holiness.

“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.” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Suffering as a Way to Love

“Do not imagine that love can be found without suffering, for we carry with us our human nature; and yet, what a source of merit it is!” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Instead of shying away from suffering (though she did not purposely inflict it on herself) she embraced it and instead of seeing suffering as evil she saw it as an opportunity to love and an opportunity to rely on God.

Theresa saw suffering not as an ugly thing to be avoided but a sacred beautiful thing that draws us close to God and to other people.

Though she had a short life, Theresa inspired many and taught the beauty of suffering and finding holiness through the little things.