Why St Thérèse and Her “Little Way” Will Change Your Life

there's a lesso is fascinating in so many ways hi my name's father mike schmitz  and this is ascension presents so   i was recently reflecting on this young girl she  had her feast day a couple days ago october 1st   her name is saint teresa of lesu the day before  the feast of saint therese in the catholic church   we also have the feast of saint jerome so i think  september 30th the st jerome doctor of the church   like one of the greatest minds the church has  ever known i think saint augustine said about   who is one of the geniuses right saint augustine  said about saint jerome that he if jerome doesn't   know it no one in the world knows it that kind  of a thing so massive mind hugely influential   gave us the translation of the the bible from  greek and hebrew into latin so that people could   understand it and read it um hear it and get  it so good the next day is the feast of this   girl saint therese who um is also a doctor of the  church but it boggles the mind in so many ways why   she's a doctor of the church because saint jerome  makes sense saint jerome yeah translate the bible   teach all these things that you know in the in  the fourth century that no one knew that people   were just trying to still trying to figure out  about god and about jesus and all these things   that makes sense doctor of the church saint  therese she entered the convention when she was   15 years old and she died when she was 24 years  old she heard the nuns outside her window of where   she was dying saying that they were concerned  because they didn't know what are we going to   write about her in her obituary because she's  completely unremarkable she's not done anything   of note why is she a doctor of the church well i  think it was pope paul vi when she was canonized   well she was canonized pope paul vi later on said  that she rediscovered the heart of the gospel   that this girl this french girl who again entered  into the convo when she was 15 died when she was   24 she rediscovered the heart the very heart of  the gospel think about this like so what is that   at the time sanchez was growing up there were  a couple things happening there there was the   the devastation of the french revolution  right where these people this mob rose up   and basically said we're going to tear down the  what's the establishment we're going to tear down   um anything everything from the royalty we're in  tear down also the hierarchy of the church and   not only are they going to tear down the hierarchy  they're also going to going to make it very very   difficult if you're simply a nun or if you're a  priest and so there's this anti-religious movement   that was happening that had happened and had  been growing around you know for for in france in   europe for a while that was really really strong  this rise of this atheism and not just atheism   but a anti-religion atheism and anti-catholic  atheism on the other hand you had the second   most successful heresy of all time that was raging  raging raging throughout um europe it's the heresy   of jansonism and so gent what's gentinism a very  very brief description of jansonism is this when   it comes down to um what does god want for you um  harder equals holier that's if you want to kind of   sum up jansenism really really simply harder means  holier if it's more difficult that's probably what   god wants you to do if it's the thing that you  do not want to do and you'd never do as long as   you live that's probably what god wants you to do  and so harder equals holier and so there is this   this strain if you were to say anti-religion  right just this anti-christian anti-catholic   um strain of atheism but if you were faithful it  seemed like the only option the option that seemed   to make the most sense the option that seemed  i mean think about this why do i say it seem   to make the most sense because if you read the  stories of saints what you read stories of are   people who are doing heroic things they're doing  heroic fasts they're they're they're doing these   heroic penances they're doing these all the all  of these heroic acts and you think well shoot it   seems like harder equals holier if you can do the  heroic acts you better do these in a big big way   so jansenism kind of took took root in people  who were taking god seriously and yet as you   would imagine it's completely deprived of joy  it completely deprives the christian life of the   love and the fullness that jesus said he wanted us  to have he said he wanted us to have fullness or   joy in our hearts that our joy would be complete  he also came that we might have life and have life   to the full and yet jansenism would say yeah you  can't trust any of those things that bring you joy   harder equals holier if you want to do it say  no to it out of love for god but you always   have to say no to it out of love for god you know  there's a place for penances in our lives in fact   every one of us should bring penances into our  lives at least on fridays if nothing else but   that also there's room for pleasure in our lives  like god made a world that's good god made a world   that is full of joys that's full of so many good  things so life isn't just about penance and even   the christian life is not just about penance  but according to jansenism harder equals holier   so here is therese she's caught between these  two worlds of this anti-religious atheism   and this jansenism that says harder equals holier  and what does she do well she looks at herself   and she says i am so small i'm so weak i mean  honestly you go into the convent at 15 years old   you try to keep up with the big kids like you  try to keep up with these other nuns who are   not only stronger they're also more mature  they have this all these things going for   them therese saw all of her weaknesses on  full display in the face of all these other   women who were like legitimately living holy lives  not jazziness lives but holy lives and she was   tempted to this one thing she was tempted towards  discouragement which i think is fascinating   let me sidebar on this one because that's actually  kind of the point i wanted to talk about when it   came to tres when pursuing the lord or letting  him pursue us when we're saying yes to the lord   it is so easy to look at other people and fall  into the the trap of comparison it's so easy to   look at ourselves and find all of our weaknesses  and our sins and our failings and fall into the   trap of discouragement so therese when she was  11 years old after first holy communion she made   three resolutions one of those resolutions  when she was 11 years old was she resolved   to never allow herself to give in to  discouragement to never allow herself   to give into the temptation towards discouragement  and i think that's crazy i remember when i was my   first holy communion and i was not i did not have  the wherewithal i did not have the self-knowledge   to know that oh you know what i'm gonna resolve to  do anything i didn't i was just excited to receive   jesus in the eucharist i didn't even know that it  would whole long another story but for therese to   be so aware of herself and aware of her potential  woundedness that she made this resolution   it's resolved to never give in to the temptation  towards discouragement is phenomenal and i   think it's what's out of many things what  saved her because realizing her weakness   she realized okay now i know that god is real so  i'm not going to fall into the atheist camp even   though later on in her life in her early 20s  she was she was tempted in many ways she was   assailed by by difficulties and sailed by doubts  but the other hand she realized that's not the   way that the chance in this way is not the way  harter is not necessarily holier and especially   especially knowing herself she's like i can't  even if it was the way i couldn't do it so what   do i do knowing myself and knowing my weakness  knowing that i can never give in to discouragement   i'm going to do what i'm going to lean into the  love of god i'm going to trust in the love of god   my brothers and sisters my friends here's one  of the things that when we take god seriously   some of the things it's one of the the thing we  i think we sometimes take least seriously or we   take seriously last is his love because we know  ourselves we know that we need to be reformed   right we know we need to repent from sin we know  we need to to change we need to take god seriously   but so often in the process of that  we fail to take god's love seriously   we say we fail to take it seriously that  god knows your weakness he knows my weakness   and he still loves you he still loves me that god  knows your weakness he knows my weakness and he   still wants us to be great saints god wants you  to be a great saint you say buddy i keep falling   okay god knows that already so don't get  discouraged yeah but it keeps struggling   god knows that already so don't get discouraged  yeah but it's sometimes so hard and i can't do   the hard thing okay sometimes that's true don't  get discouraged rediscovery of the love of god   was that pope paul vi i think it was him who said  about saint tres you discovered the heart of the   gospel which is god's love for you my brothers  and sisters god loves you so much that there is no   room for discouragement god loves you so much that  there's no room for this anti-religious atheism   and there's also no room for like i'm going to do  it on my own and i'm going to do harder as holier   god loves you so much that maybe the hardest  thing he's going to ever ask you to do   is trust in his love for you now obviously if we  love god back what he's jesus said is if you love   me you'll keep my commandments that's real that's  true but today in the face of whatever kind of   discouragement you might experience in the face  of whatever kind of battles you may experience in   the face of whatever kind of whatever kind of of  failing or falling or sinning you may experience   lean into the rediscovery of the heart of  the gospel lean into the love of god for you   trust in it and don't wait sometimes it's  the thing we least trust in and sometimes   it's the thing we last learned but today  trust in the love of god for you that's   my god from all of us here at ascension  presents my name is father mike god bless you

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 265,562

Keywords: Fr. Mike, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents, Ascension, Ascension Youtube, Ascension Press, Father Mike Schmitz, Fr. Mike advice, Father Mike advice, fr. mike schmidt, the little flower, the little flower st therese, the little way therese of lisieux, the little way of st therese, st therese of the child jesus, st therese of lisieux, st therese the little flower, god's love, little flower, the story of a soul, autobiography of st therese

Id: KHYO4qW47x0

Length: 9min 37sec (577 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 06 2021