Prayer according Saint Teresa, the little flower

Archimedes’ lever

At the end of Manuscript C, in her "Story of a Soul", she wrote : All the saints understood this, and more especially those who filled the world with the light of the Gospel teachings. Was it not in prayer that St Paul. St. Augustine, St. John of the Cross, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Francis, St Dominic and many others famous Friends of God have drawn out this divine science which delights the greatest geniuses ? A scholar has said " Give me a lever and a fulcrum and I will lift the world". What Archimedes was not able to obtain, for his request was not directed by God and was only made from a material viewpoint, the saints have obtained in all its fullness. The Almighty has given them as fulcrum : Himself alone ; as lever : prayer which burns as a fire of love. And it is in this way that they have lifted the world ; it is in this way that the saints still militant lift it, and that until the end of time, the saints to come will lift it.

The fulcrum : the power of God

The first question Therese addresses to us is concerned with the realism of our presence in the world. Are we touched by the slaughters in Africa, Aids, wars, and by the fact that billions of persons have nothing to eat ? Prayer is not a flight from the world, it is not seeking a refuge in our tiny chapel, with our little Good God, to try to taste a little spiritual sweetness. If you are concerned for the salvation of the world, and if you have the desire to do something, a powerful strength is at your disposal, this strength that all the saints have used. If you are concerned for the salvation of the world, and if you have the desire to do something, you have in your hands the powerful strength that all the saints have used ; this power has nothing to do with that of the world. Therese announces the preference of God, for the small, the poor and the sick. All those who toil, who suffer and consider themselves useless have in their hands the most wonderful power that exists, the very power of God. They have more influence on the history of the world than a George Bush.

According to John Paul II, prayer is the only means to release the power of God’s love and therefore, it is a priority. Our world is dying because of hatred and a lack of forgiveness. What will defeat war, if not divine love ? Love that believes everything, that is patient and kind, that is not boastful or conceited, that does not take offense or store up grievances (Cf 1 co 13, 4).

Prayer is not only a moment, an hour that is set apart to be offered to Jesus, it has to be an orientation of life, a basic attitude of the whole person, who will thus be grafted onto God and who will live by the power of God.

With this text, we can understand very well the basis of prayer.

"Dear Mother, this is my prayer, Therese also said, I ask Jesus to draw me into the flames of His love, to unite me so closely to Him that He may live and act in me. I feel that the more the fire of love burns within my heart, the more I shall say : “Draw me“, the more also the souls will approach me, -poor little piece of iron, useless if I withdraw from the divine furnace-, the more these souls “will run swiftly in the odor of the ointments of their Beloved, for a soul that is burning with love cannot remain inactive. No doubt, she will remain at Jesus’ feet as did Mary Magdalene, and she will listen to His sweet and burning words. Appearing to do nothing, she will give much more than Martha who torments herself with many things and wants her sister to imitate her. It is not Martha’s work that Jesus finds fault with ; His divine Mother submitted humbly to these works all through her life since she had to prepare the meals of the Holy Family. It is only the restlessness of His ardent hostess that He willed to correct. "

From Martha to Mary

Therese does not say that we have to chose between Martha who is doing much and Mary who does not do anything but sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his words. The teaching of Therese is the mere statement that we all ressemble Martha, troubled by many concerns and worries, and wrongly convinced that the future of the world depends on our ability or competence. The grace obtained in prayer will lead us to the attitude of Mary, who is also living a very active, but fruitful life, because she is established in the presence of Jesus and listen to his word. She is like the Virgin Mary who does not say : "Let us have a child", but "May it be done to me according to your word". According to Therese, to be determined to prayer, and to enter into prayer are two steps that demand a change in our inner attitude. We may be active in the Church without bearing any fruit for the kingdom, if our heart is not in a state of prayer, like Mary of Bethany at Jesus’ feet.

Changing our life

It is the cry of the world that urges us to conversion. To enter into a life of prayer is to reorganize our life so that it may be centered not on our work, or on riches, not even on our family, or our home. It is to turn the focus of our existence from our sufferings and, little by little, to let our soul settle at Jesus’ feet so that he may be the king, the heart of our life. The evil of the world is like an immense rock and our good will is like a nail file which would try to scratch the rock. It is a totally hopeless task ! But with the nail file, we can make a hole in the rock, and put some dynamite in it, i.e. divine love, to blow up the rock. So let us surrender to love, let us take the risk to reorganize our life little by little, in a realistic way.

The gates of prayer

God was pleased all through my life to surround me with love, and the first memories I have are stamped with smiles and the most tender caresses. But although He placed so much love near me, He also sent much love into my little heart, making it warm and affectionate. I loved Mama and Papa very much and showed my tenderness for them in a thousand ways, for I was very expressive. The means I employed at times were strange, as this passage from one of Mama’s letter proves : "Baby is a little imp : she’ll kiss me and at the same time wish me to die ; "Oh, How I wish you would die, dear little Mother !" When I scold her, she answers : "It is because I want you to go to heaven, and you say we must die to go there !" She wishes the same for her Father in her outbursts of affection for Him.

Therese was aware that the center of her experience lay in the experience she had of having been loved and surrounded by the affection and tenderness of her parents. Her logic is the logic of love, and cost her the reproaches of the grown-up. If we want to join her, we have to establish ourselves in this climate of love and benevolence that is offered to us by the Sacred Heart and the Holy Family. We too are the beloved, those who have been looked upon with love, maybe not by our family on earth, but by a multitude : by the Father from all eternity, by the Virgin Mary, by Saint Joseph, and by all the saints.

We cannot progress if we doubt God’s kindness, and if we do not believe that all our life is a story of tenderness and love. Therese could have written a gothic novel out of her childhood, and said : "I went from hardships to hardships, until this tuberculosis and those horrible treatments..." To enter into a life of prayer is to stop complaining ; it is to have a deep insight into our difficulties, and even into our difficulties, deeper than their superficial appearances, to encounter the tenderness and mercy of the Father ; it is making the choice of happiness. Happy the poor, those who suffer, those who are persecuted, those who have chosen prayer, the logic of love. This requests courage and determination : we have to be ready to spend our life in front of a closed tabernacle, that may never open... We have to be strongly determined to put prayer into the center of our life so that the power of forgiveness will be released ; it is to establish ourselves in the heart of Jesus, in the heart of the Holy family, in this climate of love where we are waited for. Maybe we do not look at Jesus every day, but He does look at us each day, with a gaze full of wonder.

Prayer, sacrifice and spiritual sustenance

Therese was lucky enough to receive a very demanding education. Still a very young child, she experienced that reward is attached to virtue : "Virtue had its charming qualities for me, and I was, it seems to me, in the same dispositions then as I am now, enjoying a firm control over my actions". She speaks about this little frustration that she often had : "Celine filled her pretty little basket with daisies and gave them to her when she got back, but Mummy found her little daughter had too many, so she took a large part of them for the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary". This did not please the little Therese, but she would not say anything. Sacrifice, renouncement and prayer were all her strength : "These are the invincible weapons which Jesus has given me...They can touch souls much better than words as I have very frequently experienced."

The Virgin Mary tells us the same things : sacrifice may become a reward in the logic of love. Therese was not afraid to live her prayer as a work, in the midst of her dryness. The heart of Therese intensely fed on the treasures of heaven : the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, the Imitation of Christ, and the lives of the saints. Above all, she found her food in the sacraments of the Church. What about us ?

The desire to be broken

Without being aware of this, Therese was already living a life of prayer when she received the grace of her conversion. When her father took her fishing with him : "Then, my thoughts became very profound indeed"... She had already decided never to quit the presence of Jesus. We have to persevere in our prayer until we receive the grace of being broken. Like Mary Magdalene who broke the vase of perfume, which spread throughout the whole house, we are waiting for the day when at last, God will win our combat against Him and will break our heart, and will spread its perfume of love. This is what happened to Therese on Christmas’Eve. When she heard her Father saying : "Fortunately, it is the last time", her heart was pierced, she had just received Holy Communion and she decided not to show her pain. In an instant, she was changed : "I felt charity enter into my soul and the need to forget myself and to please others ; since then, I’ve been happy." Therese is no longer centered on herself, she has been freed by a pure grace. She became strong : "I have never been defeated in any combat". This grace to be truly broken is really worthy to be asked for.

Therese’ secrets to last

The first secret of Therese is to accept to pray even under difficult conditions, not for herself, but only to please Jesus. She discovered that Jesus needed her prayer. Let us raise our eyes to see how much the Father needs workers ; the Heart that shed all its blood for us needs the prayer of a little soul. Because of the mystery of his love, God needs us.

The second secret is the certainty that Jesus leads the smallest actions of our daily life, and it gives her a great boldness. If we enter into the secret of love, each one of our actions will not only be efficient, but also fruitful. Saint Vincent of Paul began his days of work by four hours of prayer, and Saint Ignatius consecrated eight hours a day to prayer. This time given freely to God made them develop the power of God. The third secret of Therese was her awareness to have only one ennemi, Satan, who tries to do all he can to turn her away from prayer.

She knows the evil one because of the oppressions and anguishes she endeavoured, that were so painful at the end of her life. But she did not fear him. When she was a child, she saw him in a dream, and discovered that only one of her gaze was enough to chased him away. This may happen to anyone who has entered in her little way of spiritual childhood. The most powerful weapon against the devil is to surrender in the arms of the Father. Therese is our master for prayer because she made the difference between the desire for prayer, and prayer itself. The desire for prayer is not yet a prayer. A strong urge for God will be given to us if we give Him some free time so that the little dust of iron will be turned into a furnace of love. Let us be love by Therese, and take for us the words she address to her sister Leonie before passing away:

"If you want to be a saint, this will be easy for you since at the bottom of our heart (...) your purpose is simple : to please Jesus, to unite yourself more intimately to him (...). Be sure that I shall not forget to deliver your messages to Him and also all that will be necessary for you. I shall be able to love you even more."

By Father Francois-Xavier, General Moderator of the Community of the Beatitudes.