The Little Way

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” St. Therese of Lisieux

Today we celebrate one of my favorite saints, St. Therese of Lisieux. I even took her name for my Confirmation. Years ago, we were on our way to Lisieux, France, to visit the Carmel, former convent of St. Therese, and Les Buissonnets, her childhood home. We were driving from Paris, but we were very low on gas. We had driven into Paris, seeing multiple gas stations on the highway, so we figured we would find one on our way to Lisieux. As the arrow marking empty kept getting lower and lower, and with no sign of any gas station in the vicinity, we got off the highway. We had no idea where we were, and we did not speak French. We stopped on the side of the road. I got off, and I stopped a truck that was coming. I had a French dictionary with me, so I looked up the translation for “Where can we find a gas station?” (Ou est l‘essence?). I’m not sure if the driver understood me or not, but I definitely did not understand what he said. At this point, we were a little desperate. We did not have enough gas to start driving around in search of a gas station. GPS had not been invented yet, and we had three kids in the car. My husband decided to go walking in search of a gas station and leave us at the entrance gate of what seemed a very large house. As he was getting ready to go, a car arrived. It seemed to be waiting for the gate to open. I ran up to it and once again, in my poor French, asked the lady driver “Ou est l’essence?” The lady looked at me and replied, “Do you speak English?” My smile must have lit my entire face. I explained to the lady that we were about to run out of gas and needed to find a gas station right away. She told me to wait for her. She drove inside the gate, dropped off an envelope to someone inside, came out, and told us “Follow me.” We drove behind her, in the opposite direction of where my husband was going to walk, and one block away, there was a gas station. I got out of the car to say “thank you,” but the lady had vanished.

By the time we got the gas, it was already too late to head to Lisieux, which was more than three hours away. But I felt in my heart that St. Therese had sent us an English-speaking angel to help us out. St. Therese is known for the “Little Way.” The essence of the Little Way is to do little things with great love. By pouring great love into the smallest acts, St. Therese discovered great joy. We had been the recipient of a small act of kindness, and we felt immense joy, so I could only hope that the lady that had led us straight to the gas station felt even more joy for what she had done.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of St. Therese’s canonization. I am blessed that my parish is the Church of the Little Flower. This is where my children went to school, and this year the school is also celebrating its 100th anniversary. The relics of St. Therese from Lisieux, France, are arriving today in Royal Oak, Michigan. From there they will go to California, Texas, Wisconsin, Washington, and finally, in December, they will be in my hometown and in my parish. I was not able to visit her relics in her hometown, but I will be able to see them in my own hometown because she is coming to us.

For those of you that would like to visit her relics, you can find the full schedule of events on this website:

https://stthereseusa2025.com/

St. Therese taught us to do little things with great love. How different our lives would be if we did the little things that God has called us to do with great love. Leading us to the gas station was a little thing for the lady that led us there, but she did it with such great love, and it meant the world to us. Even though we were not able to make it to Lisieux, we experienced St. Therese’s Little Way in an extraordinary manner.

Copyright © 2025 Christy Romero. All rights reserved. If you thought of someone while reading this, bless them by sharing it with them.