St. Therese’s Little Way in Action

When I saw that St. Therese of Lisieux’s relics were coming to the Carmelite Monastery in Towson, I was excited. But I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get there.

Although I had never been to the Carmelite Monastery, I had heard that it had limited parking. During a busy Thanksgiving week, it seemed unlikely that I’d be able to slip in for a quick visit. Still, I marked my calendar just in case.

The first day of the two-day visit arrived, and I started thinking maybe it would be possible for me to fit into my day. I just wasn’t sure I would be able to find a parking spot when I arrived. But, I love St. Therese, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to feel close to her, ask for her intercession, and pray with other pilgrims who love her, too.

As the day flew by and a sliver of time in my schedule emerged, I decided to drive over and see. If I got turned away, I figured St. Therese and I could laugh about it. After all, she was turned away herself when she first tried to enter the Carmelites.

As I drove onto the road leading to the monastery, I wondered whether there would be room for me even to get there. The road was just barely big enough for two cars, and I hung to one side to inch past the cars heading the opposite way. I had to trust there was more space than there seemed to be. There must be, since there was a smiling attendant waving us on.

As I got closer, there were even more attendants—smiling people guiding the cars at every curve. One man directed me to pause in a bit of driveway off to one side while he waved other cars past me. Then he pointed me toward the next cheerful attendant who was wearing a lovely hat—with a pale pink rose crocheted in the center.

A rose for Therese! It all felt too good to be true.

I carefully followed the driveway past the chapel, through a gate, down into a grassy field, where there were still more attendants, eagerly making sure everyone got where they needed to go. I parked and climbed out of my car. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised that an attendant was nearby—showing me how to walk easily through the field toward the chapel.

Each of the people I spoke to—or waved at—was friendly and apparently delighted to be there. They were people with a purpose, people who wanted to be part of my pilgrimage to see the relics, people who knew that their task might look simple to some, but was actually abundant in holiness.

When I entered the chapel to visit the relics, I was struck by the peaceful joy in that sacred space. People knelt, sat, and stood in quiet prayer—separate in their thoughts and intentions, but also united in prayer and in that intimate space. Whenever I caught someone’s eye, I realized they were smiling at me. The whole encounter radiated warmth and connection and love. My cup was full.

As I walked back to my car, I tried to greet each of the parking attendants, thanking them and complimenting them on how easy they made the visit. Their careful attention to their roles brought me—and so many others—to a beautiful spiritual encounter with Jesus through my friend (and yours), St. Therese.

In fact, the way the attendants embraced their task reminded me of how St. Therese inspires us to take on everyday actions with humility, with love, and with devotion to God.

“Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them,” St. Therese said.

What a gift those people gave me—and so many others—by helping us navigate a field-turned-parking-area so that we could spend time in prayer. As I inched back down the driveway and headed home, I was full of gratitude for the experience and the people who made it possible.

And I imagine St. Therese was enjoying it all, too, from heaven.

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Find information on when the relics are visiting the Carmelite Monastery in Towson, Md., on Nov. 25-26 in this Catholic Review story.

Also see full Catholic Review coverage of the visit:

Tears and prayers greet St. Thérèse relics in Towson

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