To be a Little Soul, one would only have to be a child. Not necessarily a child by age but a Child of God. Well, aren't well all children of God? Without a doubt, yes! We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father and thus we are all His little souls. With that being said, just like children as defined by age, we all are working hard at growing! The funny thing about growing in the spiritual life though- its more like shrinking! We actually need to become smaller (dying to ourselves and our own self will) and thus becoming little children that can easily rise to heaven in the arms of our Heavenly Father.
Does all this sound familiar?? Is this starting to sound like one of the greatest saints of modern times? It should, because this idea is definitely not my own! This idea of becoming a "little soul" was taken from St. Therese the Little Flower. She was inspired by the Bible quote: Matthew 18:3 "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (There are other references in the Bible to being "little" that she also contemplated but this one verse really stood out to her.)
St. Therese strove to become littler and littler each day. She did not rely on her own strength to reach the heights of heaven. She called it her "elevator." She wanted to be so little that our Heavenly Father would just lift her in her arms and carry her straight to Heaven rather than relying on her own zeal and virtues to climb the heights of the spiritual life leading to Heaven on her own. We all can follow in her footsteps and take on her "Little Way" to be lifted up to Heaven by our Heavenly Father's arms.
St. Therese had a different approach to gaining virtue as well! She was the novice mistress at her convent and one time a Novice came up to her and said "Oh, I have so many virtues to acquire." To which St. Therese replied, "No, you've got a lot of things to loose."
With The Little Way in mind, my hope for this blog is to be an place of inspiration and a breath of faith for you in the midst of your busy schedules and constant distractions of the world. I hope that my writings and the words and thoughts of St. Therese, can enlighten your minds and speak to your hearts as we are all striving for the same goal together- to be Saints!
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| Statue of St. Therese outside her childhood home Lisieux, France (Taken during my trip there in 2014) |
