Summary
This video explores St. Therese of Lisieux's 'Little Way' through three passages from 'Story of a Soul,' focusing on the qualities of childhood as a path to spiritual maturity and experiencing God's presence. It highlights childlike trust, unreserved acceptance, and the spiritual growth of facing life's challenges with maturity while retaining inner childlike qualities, all as a means to realize God's boundless love within oneself.
Key Insights
Experiencing God's kingdom requires accepting divine love as a child accepts it, without trying.
Experiencing God's kingdom, which is the sovereignty of divine love, involves acceptance. A child does not try to accept love; they simply are loved. Similarly, we are to accept the immersion in God's love within and around us not by trying, but as a child does.
The infant's helplessness evokes a realization of the mother's own limitless capacity and a momentary mystical experience.
In the presence of the infant's helplessness, the mother realizes her own untapped capacity and experiences a 'momentary mystic' state, unexplainably resting in the limitless nature of herself, infinitely loved by God. This happens not by trying, but through quiet realization.
The mother becomes an 'act of acceptance' by joining her child, leaning into the shared experience.
The mother then closes her magazine and leans in to look out the window with her child, becoming an 'act of acceptance.' This signifies gently leaning into a shared experience, realizing it as one's deepest identity, echoing God's infinite acceptance.
The sole measure of God's love is God's own measureless love, not our ability to measure up.
The core insight is that the sole measure of God's love is God's own measureless love for us, poured out completely amidst our limitations. We should not give authority to our limitations but ask for grace to realize God's infinite love that is already present.
Childlike spiritual maturity involves growing up and embracing one's adult responsibilities with inner childlike qualities.
Children naturally grow up. Spiritual maturity involves growing into adulthood while maintaining childlike qualities. This means embracing the concreteness of life and one's personal mission ('father's business') with inner childlike acceptance and trust.
Sections
Introduction to Therese of the Child Jesus
Jim Finley introduces St. Therese's 'Story of a Soul,' focusing on her insight into the divine child.
Jim Finley welcomes listeners to 'Turning to the Mystics' and introduces the focus on Therese of Lisieux's 'Story of a Soul' for guidance in searching for God. He plans to explore three passages related to her understanding of the 'Child Jesus' and the childlike qualities that facilitate experiencing God's presence.
The concept of spiritual maturity involves cultivating certain childlike qualities.
The emphasis on the Child Jesus and childhood qualities does not negate the need for adult maturation. Instead, it suggests that certain childlike qualities are essential to spiritual maturity. The theme is exploring how adults can cultivate these qualities to deepen their experience of and response to God's presence.
Therese's name connects her to the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, symbolizing love, suffering, and death.
Therese is known as 'Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.' While the Holy Face represents love, suffering, and death, this session focuses on her understanding of the Child Jesus and the qualities of childhood through which we experience God's presence.
The First Passage: Childlike Surrender and Trust
Jesus shows the path to divine love as the surrender of a child sleeping fearlessly in its father's arms.
The first passage on page 188 of 'Story of a Soul' describes the road to the divine furnace as 'the surrender of a little child who sleeps without fear in its father's arms.' This signifies complete trust and safety in God's embrace, where fear vanishes due to infinite love.
The 'divine furnace' represents God's deep, all-consuming love that eliminates fear and sadness.
The 'divine furnace' is a metaphor for God's profound love, akin to a red-hot stove making a drop of water vanish. This deep love and complete trust in God's embrace transcend all sources of fear and sadness, grounding individuals in peace.
Jesus declares that one must receive the kingdom of God like a child to enter it.
A Gospel passage (Luke 18:15-17) is cited where Jesus welcomes children, stating, 'whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.' Jesus links receiving the kingdom of God to a childlike disposition.
The kingdom of God can be understood as eternal destiny, the practice of love, or the sovereignty of God's love within us.
The kingdom of God is presented in multifaceted ways: as an eternal destiny of oneness with God's love, as a life lived in love demonstrated by getting up after falling with mercy, and as the sovereignty of God's love already present within us.
Experiencing God's kingdom requires accepting divine love as a child accepts it, without trying.
Experiencing God's kingdom, which is the sovereignty of divine love, involves acceptance. A child does not try to accept love; they simply are loved. Similarly, we are to accept the immersion in God's love within and around us not by trying, but as a child does.
Spiritual maturity involves moving beyond 'trying' to accept and becoming an 'act of acceptance'.
The challenge lies in moving beyond 'trying' to accept God's love to becoming an 'act of acceptance.' This subtlety is why Therese's path is called the 'Little Way' – it calibrates the heart to realize the divine love that is already present.
The three phases of Jesus' life offer parables for spiritual growth: infancy, acceptance, and coming of age.
The speaker proposes three parables, mirroring phases of Jesus' life, to illustrate becoming an act of acceptance: 1) Jesus as an infant (limit and limitlessness), 2) childhood acceptance without trying, and 3) Jesus coming of age in the temple (responsibility and belonging). These poetic parables help us appreciate and habituate these spiritual moments.
Parable 1: The Infant and Limitless Love
Holding a newborn reveals the infant's limitations and the parent's capacity for boundless, unexplainable love.
The first parable describes a woman holding a newborn infant, recognizing its extreme limitations (inability to feed, dress, or even know itself). Yet, the infant's grasp evokes immense love, revealing the mother's capacity for a love that transcends the infant's limits, mirroring God's love for us.
The infant's helplessness evokes a realization of the mother's own limitless capacity and a momentary mystical experience.
In the presence of the infant's helplessness, the mother realizes her own untapped capacity and experiences a 'momentary mystic' state, unexplainably resting in the limitless nature of herself, infinitely loved by God. This happens not by trying, but through quiet realization.
Moments of subtle, unexplainable acceptance mirror this experience of resting in God's infinite acceptance.
These moments of unexplainable acceptance occur in subtle ways: reading to a child, smelling flowers, or in the silence between poem lines. They are moments of realizing one is in an 'act of acceptance' of God's infinite acceptance of oneself as the beloved.
We can cultivate awareness of this deep place of acceptance, even if we cannot constantly remain there.
While we can't always stay in these moments of pure acceptance, God's grace can help us cultivate the awareness that this deep place of acceptance is always present. Engaging in adult life while being grounded in this childlike acceptance allows the mystery of being God's beloved to shine through.
Parable 2: Leaning into Acceptance
A child's simple acceptance of a 'close enough' answer highlights the need for genuine engagement.
A parable is told of a four-year-old boy on a plane asking if the pilot knows where grandma lives. The mother's dismissive 'close enough' answer is accepted by the child but recognized by the mother as insufficient. This illustrates a surface-level acceptance.
The mother becomes an 'act of acceptance' by joining her child, leaning into the shared experience.
The mother then closes her magazine and leans in to look out the window with her child, becoming an 'act of acceptance.' This signifies gently leaning into a shared experience, realizing it as one's deepest identity, echoing God's infinite acceptance.
Therese's 'Little Way' helps cultivate a habit of childlike acceptance beneath daily complexities.
Like the mother in the parable, we can have glimpses of this deep acceptance. Therese's 'Little Way' helps cultivate the habit of accessing this childlike acceptance, which can shine through unexpectedly in glimpses throughout the day, even amidst life's complexities.
The Measure of God's Love and Our Limitations
Rare souls measure God's power by their own limited abilities, not God's infinite capacity.
A passage from page 209 of 'Story of a Soul' states that 'those souls are rare who don't measure the divine power according to their own narrow abilities.' This highlights a tendency to limit God based on our own perceived limitations.
The sole measure of God's love is God's own measureless love, not our ability to measure up.
The core insight is that the sole measure of God's love is God's own measureless love for us, poured out completely amidst our limitations. We should not give authority to our limitations but ask for grace to realize God's infinite love that is already present.
Being moved by divine intimacy allows us to experience what Therese invites.
When we are touched by the beauty and intimacy of God's love, as described by Therese, we are already experiencing what she invites us to realize: the profound and unconditional love of God poured out upon us.
Parable 3: Growing Up into Spiritual Maturity
Jesus, at 12, asserts his divine identity and mission in the temple, showcasing spiritual maturity.
The third dimension of childhood is presented through Jesus at 12 in the temple (Luke 2:41-52). When found by his parents after three days, he states, 'Do you not know that I must be in my father's house?' This signifies his recognition of his divine identity and mission.
Childlike spiritual maturity involves growing up and embracing one's adult responsibilities with inner childlike qualities.
Children naturally grow up. Spiritual maturity involves growing into adulthood while maintaining childlike qualities. This means embracing the concreteness of life and one's personal mission ('father's business') with inner childlike acceptance and trust.
Therese, at 13, chose spiritual maturity by masking her sadness to delight her father on Christmas.
Therese's experience at 13 on Christmas night is recounted: upon hearing it was the last year she'd receive gifts in her slippers, she felt grief but chose to suppress it, joyfully embracing the gifts to please her father. This demonstrated her growing interior strength and maturity.
Spiritual maturity is outgrowing childish ways to embrace life with courage and consideration for others.
This act of choosing to mask her sadness signifies growing up and outgrowing childish ways. Spiritual maturity involves facing life's situations, including sadness, with interior courage and grace, especially when outgrowing something benefits or reassures those around us, doing 'love's work'.
Therese's 'Little Way' is about the interior intimacy of the heart lived in God's presence, not grand experiences.
Therese's 'Little Way' is characterized by its subtlety – no ecstasies, trances, or miracles. It is about the intimacy and interiority of the heart, learning to live in God's constant presence through small, consistent acts of love and trust.
Conclusion and Meditation
A meditation on stillness and knowing God's presence concludes the session.
The session concludes with a guided meditation encouraging stillness and the realization of God's presence ('Be still and know I am God'). This is followed by a communal recitation of the Lord's Prayer and intercessions to various saints.
The Center for Action and Contemplation offers resources for inner transformation and contemplative paths.
Listeners are invited to learn more about the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) at cac.org, which offers programs and resources for spiritual growth, deepening prayer, and compassionate engagement with the world.
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