Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

The Little Way of Love — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux | Catholic Hymn “The Little Way of Love” is a devotional hymn celebrating Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, the beloved Little Flower of Jesus, Carmelite nun and Doctor of the Church. Born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin in Alençon, France, in 1873, Thérèse grew up in a deeply loving Catholic family. She was affectionate, lively, intelligent and, as she herself honestly admitted, sometimes stubborn and prone to strong emotions. Her childhood was marked by both great love and profound loss. Her mother died when Thérèse was only four, and later several of her beloved sisters entered the Carmelite monastery. These separations caused deep sorrow and helped awaken in her a powerful longing for Heaven. During a serious illness in childhood, Thérèse experienced what she described as a miraculous healing after praying before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The image became known as Our Lady of the Smile. From an early age, Thérèse longed to become a Carmelite and give herself completely to Jesus. At just 15, after remarkable persistence that eventually took her to an audience with Pope Leo XIII, she entered the Carmel of Lisieux. There, her holiness was not expressed through dramatic public achievements. Instead, she discovered what she called her “Little Way.” Thérèse realized that she did not need to perform extraordinary deeds to become a saint. She could love God through the smallest actions—patience with difficult people, accepting inconveniences, performing ordinary duties, offering up suffering and trusting completely in God's mercy. She famously compared this path to an elevator carrying a little child upward: she was too small to climb the difficult staircase of perfection by her own strength, so she placed herself entirely in the loving arms of Jesus. Her spirituality can be summed up simply: Do little things with great love.