Fr Leonard E Dollentas
Last October 1 was the feast day of St Therese. As I browsed through a few pages of a book written about her, I realized there is something very quietening and meditative about looking at those old pictures of this “greatest saint of modern times,” as St Pius X called her.
Those photos of a saint were taken from the camera of her sister, Celine, and they include images of all the Martin sisters in the Lisieux Carmel, and Mother Gonzaga. When Celine entered the Lisieux Carmel in 1894, she brought her photography equipment. Although the camera was banned in many Convents of the time as frivolous, Celine was permitted to pursue the hobby, and so today we have the 41 pictures in which St Therese figured, either alone or in a group.
One of those photos showing the face of Therese was taken in July 1896 in the sacristy patio. During that time, Therese had already been sick for some months with tuberculosis. Pondering at her picture and contemplating at her deep gaze that shows suffering in a serene face with a slight smile, one is drawn close to God. Her face reflected a soul stamped with the tranquil acceptance of suffering. There is a hint of a smile, but also a hidden self-mortification of small irritations and great sufferings she endured in her short life. She maintained this spirit in her years at Carmel.
In her Story of a Soul, she narrates an incident in the convent laundry of Lisieux where she worked opposite a Sister who would splash her with dirty water while washing the handkerchiefs. She refrained from her inclination to draw back and wipe her face to show the Sister how much this annoyed her. This may seem very small, but the self-will is as well denied and curbed in small things as in great things.
She mentioned in the book how she formed the habit of conquering her moods: “When things that are irritable or disagreeable befall me, instead of assuming an air of sadness, I respond by a smile. At first, I was not always successful, but now it is a habit which I am very happy to have acquired.” In the midst of the gradual erosion of her bodily life brought about by the illness she endured, St Therese wrote: “I believe that I have made more acts of faith in this past year than all through my whole life.”
Fr John Russell, O. Carm., an educator and noted writer wrote: “In suffering, Therese always united her heart to Jesus Christ. She believed that even suffering, however difficult, had a place in God’s redemptive love for us. She was convinced that our suffering, in union with the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, could help to transform the world. What is the greatest truth of all may not be the most obvious. There is a hiddenness to the wisdom of God that catches fire in hearts and events and places and over time ever so gradually consumes the earth in love.”
After nine years as a Carmelite religious, having fulfilled various offices such as sacristan and assistant to the novice mistress, and having spent her last eighteen months in Carmel in a night of faith, she died at the young age of 24, following a slow and painful fight against tuberculosis. Her sense of commitment led her to a profound experience of the love of God and of neighbor. She never had an easy life, but she did live with a great sense of peace and joy. (Photo from littleflower.org)
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