At Christmastime we all seek to show our love for others, often in expensive fashion, sometimes just in the messages we send in our cards or, in growing fashion, in emails. But we can show it at all times in all sorts of apparently small and insignificant ways.
“Whatever you do, do it with love,” St Paul tells us (1 Cor 16:14). St Therese of Lisieux founded her life as a nun on this saying and developed it into a way of perfection that all of us can follow. In her Autobiography she wrote:
“The only way I have of proving my love is to strew flowers before Thee--that is to say, I will let no tiny sacrifice pass, no look, no word. I wish to profit by the smallest actions, and to do them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love's sake, and for Love's sake even to rejoice: thus shall I strew flowers.”
It is the simplest of philosophies, of ways of living the Christian life: every little thing we do for others, think of others, everything we do as a matter of living our daily lives we can do for love. St Paul, elsewhere in I Corinthians (10:31) says: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”
All we have to do is to do anything with love. But that is difficult. It is easy to do these “smallest actions”, but hard to remember that we should do them for love. Love for whom or what? Love for God who gave us our being, for the other person for whom we act or even for the one who slights us and we welcome that in love. St Therese tells the story of how, when she worked in the laundry in her nunnery, an elderly cranky nun used to repeatedly splash her with dirty water. After reacting at first as most of us would, she came not just to put up with it but even to welcome it as a tiny sacrifice of love.
These small actions are to be found significant also in Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed … Above Tintern Abbey when he speaks of:
“… that best portion of a good man’s life, / His little, nameless, unremembered, acts / Of kindness and of love.”
Let us all scatter flowers with St Therese and not only at Christmas!
“Whatever you do, do it with love,” St Paul tells us (1 Cor 16:14). St Therese of Lisieux founded her life as a nun on this saying and developed it into a way of perfection that all of us can follow. In her Autobiography she wrote:
“The only way I have of proving my love is to strew flowers before Thee--that is to say, I will let no tiny sacrifice pass, no look, no word. I wish to profit by the smallest actions, and to do them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love's sake, and for Love's sake even to rejoice: thus shall I strew flowers.”
It is the simplest of philosophies, of ways of living the Christian life: every little thing we do for others, think of others, everything we do as a matter of living our daily lives we can do for love. St Paul, elsewhere in I Corinthians (10:31) says: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”
All we have to do is to do anything with love. But that is difficult. It is easy to do these “smallest actions”, but hard to remember that we should do them for love. Love for whom or what? Love for God who gave us our being, for the other person for whom we act or even for the one who slights us and we welcome that in love. St Therese tells the story of how, when she worked in the laundry in her nunnery, an elderly cranky nun used to repeatedly splash her with dirty water. After reacting at first as most of us would, she came not just to put up with it but even to welcome it as a tiny sacrifice of love.
These small actions are to be found significant also in Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed … Above Tintern Abbey when he speaks of:
“… that best portion of a good man’s life, / His little, nameless, unremembered, acts / Of kindness and of love.”
Let us all scatter flowers with St Therese and not only at Christmas!
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