Sometimes it seems to me I am unable to do anything to change the world of vices: domination by the wealthy and powerful as my freedoms are undergoing constant attack, forced to pay taxes for schools promoting the pure evils of the day an agenda set to overtake everything good and sacred and replace it with the evil and vile.etc, etc.
Today is the feast day of St Theresa of Lisieux, the Little Flower. When she was a teenager she aspired to do great things: to become a missionary in India and join the Carmelite nuns. She was determined enough that while she and her father toured Italy she asked Pope Leo XIII to enter the Carmelite Monastary at the age of 15.
She lived there within the walls of the contemplative order until her death at 24 years of age. She spent her time doing menial tasks and spending time in prayer with rare visits from her family. She considered herself lacking in the ability to fully live the life of austerity, fasting, etc. In fact she described herself as a little bird wrapped in cotton a creature of comfort. She was in fact quite the opposite; resigned to the suffering she endured at so young an age.
So what is all the fuss about this “little saint”? For one thing a Mother Superior told her to keep a journal and she obeyed. The Story of a Soul became one of the most sold religious books to this day. She has countless devotees throughout the world; one of whom was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her words are lived out in the world today: I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth. Another quote might be worth knowing and acting upon is: You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.
St John Paul the Great declared her a Doctor of the Church, the youngest saint to have that title. Never underestimate what God has planned for you. His ways are far above our ways.
DJ Pasternak, Author 