The "Little Way" of Spiritual Childhood

HAD Blessed Therese de l'Enfant Jesus remained on earth she would have been fifty years of age this year, 1923, which sees decreed to her the honours of Beatification. Other young saints, it is true, have in as short a time had the happiness of sanctifying themselves and the glory of being beatified. But what is new, we believe, in the history of canonizations is the unprecedented movement to which her cause has given rise throughout the whole world. From every quarter of the universe, in fact, from uncivilized as well as civilized countries, from all classes of society, have come innumerable and most touching supplications begging the Holy See to raise to the honours of the Altar the humble little Carmelite, who, on the last evening of September, 1897, passed gently away at the Monastery of Lisieux, without, however, having done anything remarkable in the ordinary sense of the word, and, at all events, practically unknown to her contemporaries at the time of her death. Such a movement, astonishing though it be, may, apparently, be explained by the extraordinary abundance of favours attributed to her intercession. But these favours in their turn demand explanation. For God does nothing without motive, and, above all, He is not lavish of His miracles without weighty reasons. In the designs of God the miracle is the letter of recommendation that He gives to His envoys in order to accredit them with men; it is the impress of the Divine Seal upon their acts and the authentic proof of their supernatural mission. Had then Blessed Therese de l'Enfant Jesus a providential mission to fulfil? Yes, and the shower of roses that she had announced before her death, and has never during twenty-five years ceased to let fall upon the world, is but the Divine signature certifying her commission. The meaning and purpose of this mission Soeur Therese explained clearly a short time before her death: I feel, she said, that my mission is soon to begin, my mission to make others love the good God as I love Him . . . to give to souls my little way. I will spend in heaven in doing good on earth. This is not impossible, since the Angels from the very heart of the Beatific Vision keep watch over us. No, I shall not be able to take any rest until the end of the world. But when the Angel shall have said: Time is no more! then I shall rest, shall be able to rejoice, because the number of the elect will be complete. And being asked what way she wished to teach to souls, she replied: It is the path of spiritual childhood; it is the way of trust and of entire self-surrender. I want to make known, to them the means that have so perfectly succeeded lor me, to tell them there is one only thing to do here below: to cast before Jesus the flowers of little sacrifices. to win Him by caresses! That is how I have won Him, and that is why I shall be so well received. It is this" little way" of spiritual childhood that the present work proposes to make known. It is addressed to all seriously Christian souls, but particularly to those whom Blessed Therese always called" little souls," designating by this word those who, not being called to imitate the splendid achievements of the great Saints, must for that very reason walk in the simplicity of the common way during their whole life.