Spiritual Childhood - #2/4 St. Therese's Little Way - Fr Terrance

[Music] glory be to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen saint torres pray for us one thing I will indicate to you guys is that is this is one this is the book that mainly I used for the conference's for today at least the first conference in the last conference this is a book by a a Carmelite named Rev father Francois jamar jean-marc I know if anyone speaks French here I had trouble ICJ AMA RT so I say Jim Mart right but then I what I do is I go to Google Translate and I hit French on it and listen it says Jamaat right map okay it's just beautiful like the French language so father JAMA he's the complete spiritual doctrine of saint torres of this you this is a book i think they have a couple of these in the bookstore it's an older book it was printed i think in the 50s or 60s but it's very good because what he does is he takes saint torres and he chapter each chapter is basically a different aspect of her spiritual doctrine so confidence love of God love of neighbor littleness abandonment to God simplicity suffering so it's a very good way of looking at the different aspects of her spirituality today we will talk about in general the spiritual childhood what st. Torres considers spiritual childhood and I thought it was appropriate to begin with passage from the Gospel of Matthew Matthew 18 verses 1 through 4 word says this at time the disciples came to Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and calling to him a child he put him in the midst of them and said truly I say to you unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven whoever humbles himself like this child he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven there's a quote from Cardinal Ratzinger that someone shared with me once which I thought was appropriate to use here the quote is a bit long and I've got it in the printout if you want to read it afterward but he wrote a book when he was Cardinal the god of Jesus Christ and he says this about Jesus in his book I want to quote what he says he says the orientation of his life meaning Jesus the route from which it sprang in the goal that marked it all this bears the name Abba dear Father Jesus knew that he was never alone his whole existence until his final cry on the cross was one single act of reaching out to that other whom he called father this is the only possible explanation of the historical fact that when a name was sought that expressed Jesus's dignity no attribute such as king or Lord won the day but rather a noun that could be translated as child we are therefore entitled to affirm that if Jesus's own preaching so strongly emphasizes being a child this is because of the profound correspondence between this and his own personal mystery namely his sonship his highest dignity which points to his divinity is ultimately no power that he possesses on his own it is rooted in the fact that his existence is oriented to the other namely to God the Father there that's a quote where it would be good just to meditate on that quote Cardinal Ratzinger a future Pope Benedict the 16th said that the orientation of Jesus's earthly life was towards his Heavenly Father and that means that his sonship his being a child of the Father was as it were central to his identity it was not peripheral it was central it was in the middle of who he identified himself as st. Torres picked up on that in her own way and she made that truth hers she made being a child of the heavenly father a central to her own identity central to understanding who she was and she also translated that into what we call and what she even called the little way the little way I thought of a is a song I don't know if you've heard of Peter Kreeft it was a teacher at Boston College he's very famous as an apologist he has a lot of books and a lot of some videos as well he said that - in hell the song that they sing is I did it my way by Sinatra have you heard him say that meaning that those who spend eternity eternity in Hell live their life on earth in the way that they wanted to live their life not the way that God wanted to live I thought about that and I said well it might be true that they sing Sinatra in Hell but I think I'm pretty sure that in heaven st. Torres can sing the same thing she can sing I did it my way because her way is actually the way which was blessed by God it's actually the way that God Himself traced out for her so if you go to heaven or if you go to hell I think you will have the opportunity to listen to Sinatra if you actually like him some of his songs I enjoy I would st. Torres her way was the spiritual way of childhood which we'll discuss specifically in this conference this conference will just give an overview of what st. er has meant when she talked about spiritual childhood with her understanding of spiritual childhood was and then we'll use the last two conferences today we'll do the second and third conference to explain a little bit in more more in depth about some of the aspects of her spirituality the Carmelite father Jamar in his book the complete spiritual doctrine of saint torres he says this he says the question which has often been asked is what constitutes the fundamental characteristic of st. Teresa's doctrine what's the most important fundamental characteristic he says some affirm that the fundamental note is simplicity others say it's confidence for others it's love or a sum of several different virtues taken together now the true characteristic of the Therese Ian doctrine is not found he says in this or that particular virtue nor in any summer virtues when we carefully look for the dominant character of st. Teresa's doctrine we find that it does not consist in any particular virtue he says but it consists in a special attitude of mind a special attitude of mind everything is based on and flows from an attitude of spiritual childhood it's this which gives unity to her teaching and imparts to it that simplicity which is so striking says father JAMA so he says above all it's a special attitude of mind it's a special way of looking at herself it's a special way of looking at God and looking at the world that is central to st. Teresa's little way our next conference is going to deal with the idea of having the right mindset being able to see things from the right perspective as st. Torres would want us to do in order to follow her little way for now we're just gonna say that the special frame of mind that she had is even present in her definition of what it means to be holy st. Torres gave a definition of what it means to be holy and you can even see her way of thinking in that definition if any of you aren't sure about what the will of God is for your life if any of you have doubts about what it is that God wants from you remember that st. Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 4:3 he says for this is the will of God he says your sanctification your sanctification so if you're not sure what God wants from you always remember that first and foremost he wants me to become a saint sanctity says st. Terez is an interior disposition which makes us humble and little in God's arms conscious of our weakness and trusting even to audacity in the goodness of our father she says sanctity is an interior disposition which makes us humble and little in God's arms conscious of our weakness and trusting even to audacity in the goodness of our father so sanctity is she saying is primary primarily interior it's not something that you can always see so much on the outside and it consists in having the right understanding again of who we are and if who God is and then living our life based on that right understanding again having that right mindset about life so if we were to ask st. Terez what is the way of spiritual childhood what would she say if you were to ask her what does it mean what is the way of spiritual childhood well one day in the convent where she was living mother Agnes who was her older sister Pauline who was the mother at the time she asked Saint to rest explained the way she desired to teach Souls after her death st. er has already had in mind that this is something that God has put on her heart that she's going to be teaching others about even after this life saint torres replied this she says as far as the way of spiritual childhood it is the way of spiritual childhood the way of and abandonment to God I want to teach them meaning she wants to teach us the little means which I have proved so perfectly which have proved so perfectly successful for myself I want to tell them that there is only one thing for us to do here below to throw at Jesus's feet the flowers of little sacrifices to win him through our caresses that's the way that I have taken hold of him and that's why I'm sure I'll get such a good welcome when I enter heaven she says her simplicity shines forth in almost everything she says a few days later she was asked what she meant by remaining a little child so the mother and the sisters were kind of smart they knew that they had to actually pull out of her what she had inside they had to keep asking her questions what do you mean by that she says what does it mean to be a little remaining a little child she said it means that we acknowledge our nothingness it means that we expect everything from the good lord as a child expects everything from its father it means to worry about nothing to worry about nothing not to build upon fortune it means to remain little seeking only to gather flowers and she says it again the flowers of sacrifice and to offer them to the good Lord for his pleasure it also means to not attribute to ourselves the virtues that we practice not to believe that we're capable of anything but to acknowledge that it's the good Lord who has placed that treasure in the hand of his little child that he may use it when he needs but it remains always God's own treasure finally it means that we must not be discouraged by our faults for children fall frequently children fall frequently she says that's a beautiful explanation those two those two questions that were posed to her and her answers are in themselves a lot from it and those two exchanges between st. Therese and her sisters we can find all the fundamental characteristics of her spiritual childhood and we'll just name some of them and one thing I will mention that comes to mind is you know when Jesus John's Gospel chapter 3 Nicodemus he encounters Nicodemus and and he tells Nicodemus you have to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God and Nicodemus says how can I enter into my mother's womb again I'm an old man I'm growing up I can't do that you know born again of course we understand that to be too mean as being born of the Spirit and of water baptism so through faith and baptism we are born again we become children of God through those but it also means something else and I think st. Therese is trying to point this out to us it means that you have to learn to see life from a different perspective you have to learn to see life differently as a child of God you know we are raised to see and we're trained and we're brought up even if we're brought up in Catholic homes we tend to are taught to see life in a certain way when you have we have a conversion when we actually take to heart our faith and become closer to the Lord he wants us to start seeing life in a different way and part of it is through this spiritual childhood this becoming like a child to relearning life itself from God's perspective and that's what st. Torres is trying to teach us being born again means also real it relearning how to live life from God's perspective for Saint her as the first of all in her description of the spiritual childhood the first virtue is littleness or humility littleness or humility acknowledging our nothingness in attributing nothing good to ourselves that word humility comes from the Latin who me lease who me lease means of the ground or homeless means who must means Earth so some someone who's humble is someone who is of the ground it's earth it's you know there what is that Earth is the most humble thing there is this what we walk on all the time there's nothing that earth can really exalt itself in a little child is naturally weak and powerless he can do nothing of his own strength except maybe cry and scream and hopefully have mom or someone else carry him around can't do anything a little child depends completely on the mother and the father for everything of course when a child is very little can't walk and take care of himself it's that littleness or humility in that respect translated into the spiritual life that doesn't mean of course that we're not responsible for anything that we do of course the child here is not responsible for what he does but we can't have that attitude when we're older we have to be responsible it doesn't mean also that we just sit around and do nothing and cry and God does everything for us no that's not necessarily what it means it means basically being conscious of our limitations being conscious of our defects being conscious of the fact that if god were to forget about us for a split second we would disappear and into nothingness we would do we would no longer exist being conscious of the fact that every good thing again comes from God everything good comes from him not from us knowing that without God's grace we can't do anything to please him there's nothing that we can do to please that's pleasing to God without His grace but it also doesn't mean focusing on ourselves doesn't mean focusing on our limitations as well it means focusing on the one who is unlimited the one who is infinite the one who is goodness himself means focusing not on me but on the Lord if you watch how a little baby focuses on their mother or father when they're in the child's arms that's that'll give you an idea of what st. Torres means when she talks about littleness or humility I was focusing on your Heavenly Father I was focusing on our Heavenly Mother almost learning to look at and depend on God as a little child does when they're in their parents arms when st. Terez was dying when she was on her deathbed and the sisters were caring for her and they weren't at times very careful in what they were doing they weren't caring for her in the best way she did get impatient and a bit frustrated with one of the sisters but then what did she do she st. Torres stopped and instead of beating herself up for losing her patience she said and I put this in my own in my own words she said basically well the fact that I am impatient and and lacking in virtue all that does is just prove that I need a Savior it proves that God came from me because jesus said he came not for the righteous but sinners so the fact that I still have faults and defects it just proves that Jesus came from me and so she turned that around instead of focusing on herself and beating herself up for her imperfections she used even her imperfections to turn and focus on how good god is and how he came for her in spite of her misery as he came even to rescue her from human her miseries that's humility that's the little way that's acknowledging my own misery but not focusing on my misery not focusing on the bad that is in me rather than focusing on the good that's in God focusing on him and his love so that's the first characteristic of the little way it's littleness or humility the second characteristic is poverty we know that Jesus says in the Gospels blessed are the poor blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God he says that in Matthew 5 verses 3 and also Luke verse chapter 6 verse 20 poverty a child owns nothing a child earns nothing child doesn't have a pension doesn't have a 401k doesn't have any particular gifts or abilities per se in order to make a living a child only has what's given to him or her and again the child depends at for everything upon their parents in the act of oblation as a victim of divine love which Saint Torres wrote she wrote this she said when the evening of life comes I shall stand before you I shall stand before you Lord with empty hands because I do not ask you my God to take account of my works I will stand before you with empty hands and then she said this to one of her novices she said there is but one means of compelling God not to judge us and it is this to appear before him empty-handed she says and how can that be done ask the novice the novice is trying to understand what she's saying st. Torres said it is quite simple lay nothing by spend your treasures as you gain them where were I to live to be 80 she said I should always be poor because I cannot economize all my earnings are immediately spent on the ransom of souls she says so all the good and all the graces that she receives she says she doesn't hold on to them for herself but she actually gives them away to those who are needy so st. Therese was telling the novice that all of her earnings again all the graces she merited were immediately given back to God for the good of souls she immediately gave them back to God it's a beautiful way of looking at spiritual poverty that's why st. Torres said that when she goes to heaven she'll appear before the Lord empty-handed because whatever good she's done she did it for others and she also know that whatever good she did it was God who did it through her God who did it through her now obviously of course st. Torres had many merits that she had stored up for herself in heaven that's not a question she had a tremendous amount of merits but she didn't count on her merits to get her into heaven she didn't count on the good that she did to get her into paradise she counted on her Heavenly Father to get her there she counted on God himself to get her there as she I would say to take her up in her arms and and actually bring her to where she couldn't get to with her own strength she was exactly what a little baby does a little child does that's Theresa and characteristic with a virtue of childlike poverty I have nothing everything I received is from my Heavenly Father whatever he gives to me I give back to him for love of others for the salvation of souls for love of him that's the second characteristic poverty the third one is what she's probably most famous for confidence confidence the word confidence comes from the Latin word convey today Latin word is a compound word that means you put two words together you get one word the first part is con which means in Latin is with it doesn't mean someone who's in prison you know con it's not it means with and fee today means trust fee that it means trust with trust so confidence is an attitude of trust towards someone or some thing even a child of course even a little child has confidence towards saw mr. confidence towards saw me as a lack of confidence towards others if I were to go up to the little child right now and probably say hi to him he'd probably be a little frightened because he doesn't know who I am but he has confidence in his mom and also in the others who know him and take care of him is it a him or her I want to make sure it's a her okay that makes sense okay it's a her okay it's a her I'll try to remember that they're all all the girls okay great so confidence is an attitude of trust towards someone or something a child has confidence child knows them their mother knows their father and I do think when you we say child we talk about st. Therese I honestly I do think the best kind of age range that we should think about is someone who's as old as your daughter what does she maybe a year old less than a year old six months I think that's probably what st. Torres is thinking about not necessarily a child who can start walking around and you know the to the terrible twos or though over the horrible threes or whatever they call them I think someone who basically is completely dependent that's what she has in mind child knows that if if he or she has nothing he knows that the parents are there to help them to feed them to give him all that he needs in order to live and grow and mature so he doesn't fail to ask them for what he wants and what he needs he isn't and when he isn't also anxious about anything the child tends not to be anxious or shouldn't be anxious about anything if the parents are good parents the good parents are good parents the child knows that they'll take care of them with love and devotion the child knows that everything will be okay so in the spiritual life our parents of course are God the Father our Heavenly Father also our Heavenly Mother our Lady as well as far as having recourse to our parents goes jesus says in the gospel he said your father knows what you need before you ask him he says in Matthew 6 verse 8 and he adds this if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask in Matthew 7 verse 11 keep in mind that Jesus and that our Heavenly Mother and then our Heavenly Father they have no defects these are people who have no defects whatsoever our earthly parents certainly had defects they have defects of course our Heavenly Father our Heavenly Mother our Lord the Holy Spirit none of these people have defects in them so we have to always keep a distinction and make that distinction that distinction between our earthly parents and our heavenly parents we can have all the confidence in the world in our Heavenly Father because he has no defects he is perfect he's all good he's all loving and he only wants the best for us he only wants the best for us and with Mary you can think of the memory prayer where we pray remember almost gracious Virgin Mary that never wasn't known that anyone who fled to your protection implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided inspired by this confidence I fly unto the Oh Virgin of virgins my mother to thee do I come before the I stand sinful and sorrowful Oh mother of the word incarnate despise not my petitions but in your mercy hear and answer me that's the prayer of a child who's dependent completely dependent on their mother or even the oldest known Marian prayer the subtool it's the oldest known prayer that we have of Our Lady comes from about the third century we fly to your protection Oh Holy Mother of God do not despise our petitions in our new set necessities but deliver us always from all dangers Oh glorious and Blessed Virgin amen so you know from the beginning of Christianity from the beginning of the church the disciples of Jesus have known that Mary is our spiritual mother and so we have recourse to her I have recourse to her because she is that she's my mother and I know that she hears and she answers me as well I can have confidence in her Jesus I know in the the Divine Mercy image I'm not quoting this verbatim from the the book that intimacy of the divine mercy diary I'm not quoting this verbatim because I've told you I've never read the whole thing but I have heard this basically that you know st. Faustina was told to have the image of Jesus painted jesus wanted the image painted for for devotion and once it was painted by the first version came out and and st. Faustina basically told our Lord she didn't like the image it wasn't very attractive he said she said you're much more handsome than that basically to put it in our language and he said to her and it said in essence he said you know I don't really worry about that you know what the image looks like he said what's important is that the words that I told you are on the image what are the words that are on the image Jesus I trust in you and he even told her that what hurts him the most is lack of confidence lack of trust in him more than anything else regarding our st. Pio Pio of Pietrelcina his famous saying was pray hope and don't worry you know worry is useless he said worries useless God is merciful and will hear your prayer so why shouldn't I worry why shouldn't I be anxious because I'm a child of the king of heaven because I'm a child of the queen of heaven I'm not a child of the one who you know the king of heaven who made heaven and earth I have absolute confidence I can have absolute confidence in God the Father absolute confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ also in Our Lady as well in the Holy Spirit because I know they'll take care of me they've promised to do so when I know that they're that they are trustworthy that's why st. Terez had complete confidence in God because she knew his character she knew he was completely trustworthy another fundamental characteristic of the little way is the virtue of love the virtue of love Father Jamaat it says however small and poor child maybe he already possesses one thing in a charming way and that is love he has a heart cut to his size he said but it's very much alive and very tender he loves his mother and father tremendously he hugs them because he loves them he abandons himself to them which is another pillar of spiritual childhood the child abandons himself to their parents so love and abandonment are the other two important characteristics the little way st. Terez of course had the grace for those of you who know her story she had the grace of being born and raised in a family which was very loving her house was so full of love her parents both of them are canonized now her parents and her four sisters were very loving and tender towards each other and so that helped st. Torres catch a small glimpse of the love of God and especially with her father her father would call her as my queen yeah so she got a good sense of God's love reflected in her earthly family saint torres adored her father her love was reciprocated by him so God placed her as it were in very good soil in such a loving environment why because he wanted her to be a witness of his tender love he wanted her to actually be able to have a glimpse or have a scratch the surface of the tender love of God because it's not that case with everyone not everyone grows up in a loving home even some homes which people are devout some homes aren't necessarily very loving sometimes parents know how to be more givers of the law than givers of grace and I said you know some in some houses the law rules more than grace and sometimes even some parents can even be outright abusive they can even be absent overly harsh demanding they can also have addictions as well they can have a lot of different problems or they can be very self-centered it can be hard for someone who grows up in background or in a home like that which is difficult or dysfunctional it can be hard for them to understand God's love oftentimes there needs to be healing that takes place in order for that to happen fortunately we know that God does specialize in healings we see that all the time in the Gospels so if anyone has a broken heart then what we do is we need to turn to Jesus because he is I say a bit facetiously but I say you know he's the best heart surgeon in the world as far as any broken hearts or broken homes our Lord is an expert at healing in those areas the more we learn to see ourselves through God's eyes and the more we learn to understand God's true character then it's easier for us to actually learn to love him it's easy for us to actually learn to embrace his love and to actually learn to abandon ourselves to him the more you learn the true character of the Heavenly Father the easier it is to have complete confidence in him and also keep in mind that God specializes in bringing good out of evil he specializes in that that's one of the proofs that he's God he allows evil because he is always gonna bring the greater good out of it why is there evil wires or such suffering in the world because God will bring the greater good out of it he proved that where did he prove that the most on the cross exactly the greatest evil that ever happened God brought the greatest good out of that if he can bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil then all of the other evils in the world God absolutely can and will bring good out of them so we have confidence if we know the character of our Heavenly Father last characteristic that we'll mention of the little way of saint torres the child is simple simple father Jamarcus the shaman says everything in him everything in the child is simple as thoughts his word his actions there's no deceit or duplicity in him little one is capable only of simple little things he says when saint torres wrote about a pilgrimage that she made to rome before she became a Carmelite she said this she said I was well aware that during this journey I should come across things that might disturb me I can attest to that too I lived in Rome for a few years actually when I was there I went the first time I went as a student I went when I was in college for a semester and they stole my wallet when I was on the bus so Rome is a tough place things that would disturb me actually even as a friar we would park next to the main train train station Roma ceremony which is the main train station in Rome we parked there I remember one time we parked there and what happens is there are people who are I don't know if they're homeless or or what they are but they stand and they help kind of guide you into the parking spot they say come here we've got a free spot open for you come Park here so you think this is great right so you go and park there and you go off and you come back an hour later and you have a flat tire you have a flat tire and the same guy who helped you into the spot he says oh I saw that you have a flat tire let me let me fix that for you I'll let me help you and fix that for you you know what they do is that once you park they take out a knife and they flatten your tire and they wait for you to come back and they say oh let me help you fix that so that you will give them some money so that they will actually so Rome when Saint Torres says that she said there would be things that would disturb her in Rome things haven't changed very much she says nothing knowing nothing of evil about herself she said I feared I might discover it as yet I have not experienced that to the pure all things are pure says st. Paul in Titus 1:15 that a simple and upright soul does not see evil in anything because evil only exists in impure hearts and not in inanimate objects she says so her simplicity and her purity heart is seen there and later on when she was in Carmel she wrote this she wrote one of the older nuns seemed to understand what I felt before she once said to me during recreation this is the nun that said spoke to Saint Therese during recreation she said I should think child that you have not much to tell your superiors why do you think that dear mother said st. Torres and the nun replied because your soul is very simple but when you are perfect you will become even more simple still the nearer one approaches God the simpler one becomes said the wise old nun so simplicity becomes a characteristic more and more of those who are closer and closer to the Lord translation God loves simplicity God loves honesty and the further you go along in the spiritual life the more everything as we said will become simplified the more things become one the more things become unified not so much in a pantheist extensa that's not the oneness that we're talking about but really the further you go on and more you realize that everything reduces the love of God and love of neighbor everything is seen in that optic and it becomes easier to do that to love God and love neighbor the more we grow spiritually so those are the qualities of childhood which st. Torres brought and the qualities of childhood as a as a natural child as a simple normal child she looked at what was natural and she brought those things into the supernatural order into the spiritual life those characterize her way of childhood and she says that we have to reproduce those qualities in our relationship with the Lord if st. Paul can say in Galatians 5:22 23 st. Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control if he can say that about the fruit of the Spirit we can say that the fruit of living the little way of Saint Torres what is it it's humility it's spiritual poverty it's confidence it's love its abandonment its simplicity pope pius xi who canonized saint Torres in 1925 he said in the homily of his Mass at her canonization he said that spiritual childhood consists in feeling and acting under the impulse of virtue as a child feels and axed by nature so becoming a virtuous by nature as a child is acting when it acts by nature you you become virtuous by nature that's what spiritual childhood consists in said pope pius xi however all the qualities that we've mentioned are not equally characteristic of the little way so when we're asked which among these virtues explains the essential characteristic of the little way which well on the one hand there is humility there is confidence there's spiritual poverty or its fundamental disposition so humility confidence spiritual poverty fundamental dispositions on the other hand love really is the soul love is the heart of the little way nevertheless says father JAMA what really jumps out is that attitude of confidence again confidence if you had to pick a virtue you would have to say it would probably confidence above all else confidence that's fearless that's boundless that's unwavering confidence in the goodness of our Heavenly Father for those of you who have ever heard the Gospels or listened to the Gospels or have read the Gospels can you remember or recall what it was during Jesus's earthly ministry that he admired the most in people what did Jesus admire the most when he went around in his earthly ministry their faith right faith that what he praised the most is people's faith what his faith mean their trust and their confidence in God that's what he praised the most and also in him as well as he said you believe in God believe also in me Jesus said at the Last Supper discourse again what hurt him the most was his lack the lack of trust lack of faith in him we heard in the gospel a few days ago in Mark's Gospel in chapter 6 where Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth and it says he can't perform he didn't do many miracles there because of the lack of faith of the people there Saint Terez after saying that her way was the way of spiritual childhood she added that it is that it's in a special manner the way of confidence and abandonment so she highlighted those virtues when she talked about her spiritual way confidence and abandonment this was also how her sisters interpreted her teachings so on the last conference we'll focus on those confidence and abandonment a couple of other things if we have we have a few minutes so we'll just mention a couple of other aspects that I wanted to note here where did she get her little way from well some of the sources include Saint John of the Cross also st. Paul but especially the Gospels one day she was asked who had taught her this her doctrine and she replied Jesus alone she said no book no theologian taught it to me and yet I feel in the depths of my heart that I possessed the truth so she attributed it to Jesus himself would taught her the spiritual doctrine her way according to her own testimony is also a reproduction of the life of the Holy Family as it was lived at Nazareth the life of Jesus Mary and Joseph as Saint Terez saw it it was just she saw it as being very ordinary with her little way you're not gonna have a lot of extraordinary graces or miracles or spectacles or way as very is an ordinary way of growing in holiness for her it consisted the life of Nazareth of the Holy Family consisted merely of performing well daily tasks practice of common virtues and also perfect abandonment to the will and to wishes of God and it was above all animated by great love was a family animated by tremendous love for each other this at least is the way that st. Trez conceived it and it's that kind of life which she desired to live herself and to teach others so again st. Torres wasn't big on extraordinary things like charismatic gifts or miracles or private revelations or spiritual ecstasy's some of those things did happen in her life the miraculous healing that she received when she was about nine years olds as one of them statue of Our Lady that smiled at her but nevertheless she didn't focus on extraordinary things like that she focused on what Mother Teresa herself would say mother Teresa would say do ordinary things with extraordinary love that was her focus and that was the path to her Saint to it and it's also the path to sainthood for us as well I'll finish with a prayer glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen Saint Terez pray for us [Music]

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Keywords: anxiety, childlike, conversion, Fr. Jamart OCD, Grace, Jamart, Lisieux, little way, love, love of GOd, sanctification, sin, spiritual childhood, St Therese Retreat 2020, St. Therese, Story of a Soul, trust, trust God, Conferences, Fr. Terrance Chartier, Franciscans of the Immaculate, Religion, Christianity (Religion), Catholic, Spirituality, Salvation, Faith, God, Church, Gospel, Catholic Church, Jesus Christ, Christ, Jesus, Teresa of Avila, Mystical

Id: fMTu0P2OQnM

Length: 45min 48sec (2748 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020