St. Thérèse teaches trust, love, pope says in document

Pontiff prays to saint, ‘Send us your roses! Help us to be, like yourself’

Published: October 24, 2023

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

CNS photo/ Lola Gomez

Pope Francis carries a white rose as he approaches a reliquary containing the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux before the start of his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican June 7, 2023. He announced he was planning on issuing an apostolic letter dedicated to her for the 150th anniversary of her birth.

CNS photo/ Lola Gomez

VATICAN CITY — St. Thérèse of Lisieux, long one of Pope Francis' favorite saints, teaches Christians "the little way" of love, self-giving, concern for others and complete trust in the mercy of God, the pope said in a new document.

"At a time when human beings are obsessed with grandeur and new forms of power, she points out to us the little way," he wrote. "In an age that casts aside so many of our brothers and sisters, she teaches us the beauty of concern and responsibility for one another."

Published Oct. 15, the pope's letter is titled, "C'est la Confiance," the opening words of her phrase, "It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love."

The papal letter is subtitled, "On confidence in the merciful love of God."

"At a time of great complexity, she can help us rediscover the importance of simplicity, the absolute primacy of love, trust and abandonment, and thus move beyond a legalistic or moralistic mindset that would fill the Christian life with rules and regulations and cause the joy of the Gospel to grow cold," the pope wrote.

In the letter, the pope explained that he chose not to release the document on her feast day, Oct. 1, or the 150th anniversary of her birth last Jan. 2 or the 100th anniversary of her beatification, which was celebrated in April, because he wanted to "transcend" those celebrations and emphasize how her life and writings are part of the "spiritual treasury" of the Church.

Pope Francis has spoken often about his devotion to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who also is known by her religious name, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, or as St. Thérèse, the Little Flower, because she described herself as a little flower in God's garden.

But there is another flower connection as well. While still archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis told journalist Sergio Rubin in 2010, "When I have a problem I ask the saint, not to solve it, but to take it in her hands and help me accept it, and, as a sign, I almost always receive a white rose."

And the pope closed his new exhortation with a prayer: "Dear St. Thérèse, the Church needs to radiate the brightness, the fragrance and the joy of the Gospel. Send us your roses! Help us to be, like yourself, ever confident in God's immense love for us, so that we may imitate each day your 'little way' of holiness."

Although she died at the age of 24 in a cloistered convent, her passion for sharing the Gospel through her prayers and example led Pope Pius XI to declare her patroness of the missions in 1927, and her writings led St. John Paul II to proclaim her a doctor of the church in 1997.

"In the heart of Thérèse," Pope Francis wrote, "the grace of baptism became this impetuous torrent flowing into the ocean of Christ's love and dragging in its wake a multitude of brothers and sisters. This is what happened, especially after her death. It was her promised 'shower of roses.'"

The "little way" of St. Thérèse is a path to holiness anyone can follow, the pope said. It is about recognizing one's own smallness and trusting completely in God's mercy.

"This is the 'sweet way of love' that Jesus sets before the little and the poor, before everyone. It is the way of true happiness," the pope said.

In place of a notion of holiness that is individualistic and elitist, one "more ascetic than mystical, that primarily emphasizes human effort," he said, "Thérèse always stresses the primacy of God's work, his gift of grace," trusting that he would bring her to heaven one day.

Bishop Taylor wants you to know more about your faith and the Church: Sign up for Arkansas Catholic's free digital edition.