Thérèse of Lisieux (b. 1873) was a cloistered nun in the discalced Carmelite community in Lisieux in France. She felt called to the religious life very young and entered the cloister as a postulant at age 13 and took her final vows a few years later.
She lived a simple life in the convent while focusing her efforts on what she called her “little way.” This involved expressing her deep love of God through loving those around her (even those she felt were challenging) through small acts of kindness and service. She relied on her deep trust in God to express His love them through her thoughts, words, and actions even when she felt herself unable to do it on her own.
She died in great suffering from tuberculosis in 1897 at age 24. Although she was largely unknown outside of her convent during her life, her autobiography rapidly spread far and wide after her death as many were inspired by her “little way.” She came to be known as the “Little Flower of Jesus,” or even just “Little Flower” as a nickname.
She was canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, and has become one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints today as people continue to find her “little way” inspiring. Her feast day in the church calendar is today, October 1.
This set of prayers for an Anglican rosary is filled with prayers from her writings. The source for each prayer is listed at the bottom of the post.
I hope these prayers inspire you to explore St. Thérèse’s Little Way and to sink more deeply into the kind of love she had for God.
| Cross: | May I look for nothing and find nothing buy You and You only; may creatures mean nothing to me, nor I to them— You, Jesus, are to be everything to me. May earthly things have no power to disturb the peace of my soul; that peace is all I ask of You, except love; love that is as infinite as You are, love that has no eyes for myself, but for You, Jesus, only for You. |
| Invitatory bead: | Dear Lord, You never tell us to do what is impossible, and yet You can see more clearly than I do how weak and imperfect I am; if, then, You tell me to love my sisters [and brothers] as You love them, that must mean that You Yourself go on loving them in and through me. There would have been no new commandment, if You hadn’t meant to give me the grace to keep it; how I welcome it, then, as proof that Your will is to love, in and through me, all the people You tell me to love! |
| Cruciform beads: | I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew my offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face. |
| Week beads 1-7: | O my God, you have surpassed all I have hoped for, and I want to sing of your mercies. |
| Invitatory bead: | In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved. |
| Cross: | My God, I choose the whole lot. No point in becoming a Saint by halves. I’m not afraid of suffering for Your sake; the only thing I’m afraid of is clinging to my own will. Take it, I want the whole lot, everything whatsoever that is Your will for me. Amen. |
Sources of prayers used above:
Cross (1): from Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, translated by Ronald Knox (1958), p. 202.
Invitatory bead (1): from Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, translated by Ronald Knox (1958), p. 266. (Phrase in brackets added by me.)
Cruciform beads: from Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, translated by John Clarke (1975), p.277.
Week beads: from The Story of a Life: St. Thérèse of Lisieux by Guy Gaucher, translated by Anne Marie Brennan (1987), p. 140.
Invitatory bead (2): from Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, translated by John Clarke (1975), p.277.
Cross (2): from Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, translated by Ronald Knox (1958), p. 51-52.
Learn more about St. Thérèse and her little way in Joseph F. Schmidt’s Praying with Thérèse of Lisieux (1992).
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