Saint Therese of Lisieux

[SaintMatthew]

St. Therese of Lisieux was the most ordinary person. At age 15 she became a Carmelite sister. The Carmelite Order is named after Mount Carmel and can trace itself back to Elijah who founded a school of prophets on Mount Carmel who meditated on the law of the Lord and night. That is precisely what she did. She could do absolutely nothing extraordinary.

But she did little things with great love. She saw that by cleaning toilets, sweeping and mopping floors, doing laundry, dusting, cooking, and doing chores with great love for God, she could please God , bring grace from heaven to earth, and change the world.

She wrote a book called the little way , and taught the world that God doesn't need us to do great things but do little things with great love.

A Pope declared that she was the greatest saint of modern times, and she was made doctor of the church. She died at age 24, and to most people it would look like she accomplished nothing.

She gives hope to people that live the most ordinary lives. I make money washing dishes and going on liquor store runs for a wet house. I plan on being a janitor again. Therese teaches me that being a nobody and doing ordinary labors can lead to sainthood.

If you believe in spiritual entities, and you feel like you have a lot of ordinary tasks that you attend to, everything you do can be an offering to the heavenly beings that you pray to.

It is all a sacrifice, an offering, and a redemptive cross to offer your higher power, bringing down Grace from Heaven to Earth.

The prayers of one person, Moses, saved the entire nation of Israel. Perhaps you feel like a most ordinary person, but your prayers and ordinary labors are what is needed to save a nation from destruction. If Therese can become the greatest saint of modern times doing ordinary labors, so can you.

[naturesflow]

How enlightening is your share today. An important piece of the whole we each can create and be in this world.

Yes often the ordinary movements and the simplicity of life, can be overlooked, but I am a big believer in all movements as they can be and exist in this world are creating important ripples we cannot always know directly, or in the moment what they mean more as an affect upon the world. So honouring your own life as it is right now, and looking at how it can make a difference even as one's circumstances are as they are, is really an important lesson in living a more connected aware life, that gifts itself to the inclusion of the world just as it is. Just as it can only be.

[jorddy]

If you believe in spiritual entities, and you feel like you have a lot of ordinary tasks that you attend to, everything you do can be an offering to the heavenly beings that you pray to.

It is all a sacrifice, an offering, and a redemptive cross to offer your higher power, bringing down Grace from Heaven to Earth.

Through time I have realized that offering my truest self runs parallel with my desires for sharing love in the most ruthlessly honest manner I possibly can.

There are people who say nice things out of the personal requirement to please others, and there are people who say harsh things out of the personal requirement to please others. Two sides of the same coin, both representative of the human curse. Though, one of those sides is the antidote.

And as always, we do to others as we do to ourselves, the feelings we share are the feelings we acknowledge and the realizations we hold are the perceptions we work from.

Life is not static, it is continuous and with that time-momentum, we are provided reflection and that reflection allows for us to engage with life in new ways which brings us into deeper stages of responsibility.... One who is not a leader, one that does not possess the characteristics of a leader, may not lead the same as one who does... Though, to learn those characteristics, one must aspire in their actions and self-reflections, to become responsible enough, to gain those characteristics in order to one day lead in that manner.....


Love grows, as imagination does through reflection and release of all old negative assumptions... And that love takes form into new imaginations, and those new imaginations affect in greater proportion than previously known, continuously it goes, in this time-scape of reflection :)

[shoni7510]

She showed us thst the ordinary life can be a profound spiritual experience and it is all in our attitude.

[7luminaries]

A beautiful thread - my thanks to all of these wonderful and inspiring contributions.

The aspect of humility is so foundational to love and grace. Humility is so wonderous and powerful that I find it thunderously awe-inspiring.

I am humbled by the love and the good energy here...back atcha, to one and all

Peace & blessings,
7L

[linen53]

I so enjoyed reading your post Matthew.

Yes, I used to think there was a Grand Plan for me out there somewhere but as I got older I realize I'm one of the little people here learning what I came to learn. No biggie.

[7luminaries]

Originally Posted by linen53

I so enjoyed reading your post Matthew.

Yes, I used to think there was a Grand Plan for me out there somewhere but as I got older I realize I'm one of the little people here learning what I came to learn. No biggie.

LOL!
IMO we're all little ppl here and our learning is the grand plan IMO.
Not too shabby...

Peace & blessings
7L