THURSDAY, TWENTY SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Feast of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus
Is 66:10-14; Ps 131:1-3; Mt 18:1-5
THE GREATNESS OF SPIRITUAL CHILDHOOD
The readings chosen for the feast of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus beautifully express the essence of her “little way.” The prophet Isaiah speaks of Jerusalem as a mother who consoles her children, feeding them with tenderness and peace. This maternal image of God as nurturing, gentle, and abundant in love resonates deeply with Thérèse’s spirituality. For her, God was not a distant judge but a loving Father whose mercy was more powerful than weakness or sin.
The Gospel passage from Matthew presents Jesus setting a child amid His disciples as the model of true greatness in the Kingdom. In a world that values achievement, status, and self-assertion, Jesus points to simplicity, trust, and humility as the real signs of spiritual maturity. The child is not perfect, but receptive; not powerful, but dependent; not proud, but open.
St. Thérèse took these words with radical seriousness. She discovered that sanctity does not lie in extraordinary deeds but in extraordinary love within ordinary life. She called it her “little way of spiritual childhood.” For Thérèse, to be small was not immaturity—it was spiritual realism. She recognized that human strength cannot reach God, but love can. The more she acknowledged her littleness, the more she trusted in the infinite tenderness of the Father. Her life in the Carmel of Lisieux was hidden, monotonous, and marked by suffering, yet through that hiddenness she became a luminous witness to divine love. She lived Isaiah’s vision: comforted by God like a child on a mother’s lap and radiating that same gentleness toward others. Thérèse embodies a theology of trust which is a spirituality where divine grace is not earned but received. Her insight restores balance to Christian spirituality: it reminds us that growth in holiness is not climbing higher but descending deeper into humility and confidence in God’s mercy. To become like a child, as Jesus says, is not regression but transformation which offers the freedom to live without fear, to love without calculation, and to rest in God’s arms with joy.
Response: I believe that I shall see the good things
of the Lord in the land of the living.
Copyright ©2026 ©Springs of Living Water https://springs.carmelmedia.in