– Sr Margaret Fung
Today is the third day of our pilgrimage, we will be very busy going from one place to another, without stop. Apart from admiring the scenery of France, this afternoon, we will arrive in Lisieux — the birthplace of St Therese, the Little Flower.
The trip will last about three hours. We will have supper here in one of the diners. Maybe the diners were frequented by Mr Martin, holding the little hands of his daughter, the Little Flower. Maybe, that diner was the place where the family had dinner on Sunday or on particular feast days.
There is a saying that outstanding people come from special places. Really, thinking of the day and a half in Lisieux has brought me back many unforgettable memories. In truth, the place seems to be frozen in time. All seems to be so familiar and yet everything is so quiet, so extraordinary. The place is really full of St Therese.
In one of her poems, she compared herself to a petal that had fallen from a rose. It is very insignificant. She wanted to die for Jesus. She found the thought of dying for Jesus, touching the footprints of the Christ Jesus and also his footprints when climbing up to Calvary filled her with great happiness.
Pour toi je dois mourir, Jesus, beaute supreme,
Oh! Quel Bonheur!
Je veux en m’effeuillant te prouver que je t’aime
De tout mon Coeur.
Sous tes pas enfantins, je veux avec mystere
Vivre ici-bas;
Et je voudrais encore adoucir au calvaire
Tes derniers pas……
Indeed, we often find life very insignificant. Some do not study much and they work hard with their hands. Though some study a lot, they still find imperfections in life. Perhaps life seems a burden for many and they work according to a time table and the routine work simply kills them. They become numb and often wonder about the meaning of their lives.
But St Therese the Little Flower willingly wanted to become insignificant. She was no one and no one knew her but God. Daily, she did all kinds of insignificant tasks, giving them the true meaning of life: she worked for the glory of God because she loved God and God loved her. She taught us the true meaning of life. She taught us that in doing all the little things in life for the love of God and pleasing Him, we are doing marvellous things in life; we are leading an ordinary life with extra ordinary meaning, because we are the children of God the most high.
Today and tomorrow, we will visit the Carmel Convent where she lived, the old house where she lived, her grave and the basilica people built in her honour and where we will celebrate Mass. As we walk along the roads, let us join with the saint, the Little Flower, in her special spirit of doing ordinary things for the love of God the Creator. Though we can hardly consider our pilgrimage to France an ordinary event.
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