Love

Once upon a time a young girl in a little town in France wanted to consecrate her life to God. She applied to the convent, but she was not accepted. We do not know why she was refused. The Prioress gave no reasons. But the girl recorded it in her diary. The page was wet with her tears. She felt that she was offering herself to God, but God did not want her.

In the same town a young man wanted to consecrate his life to God. He applied in the seminary, but was not accepted. The Rector recorded: “This boy has all the qualities you could ask for in a candidate for the priesthood. But his health is so frail that all my consultors, and I myself, feel that he could not bear the burdens of the priesthood.” The young man felt that he was offering his life to God, but that God did not want him.

Every morning the girl went down to the market, to buy for her family. To get there, she had to cross a bridge. One day, as she stepped on the bridge, the young man stepped on the bridge also, on the other side. The girl wrote in her diary: “When I saw him, I was divinely illumined that this was the boy God wanted me to marry!” It was love, at first sight.

She was very comfortable with this boy, when he was courting her. With other people, she was reluctant to confide her thoughts, because her thoughts were pious, and she was afraid they would laugh. For instance, she was fascinated by that little house in Nazareth, where Joseph and Mary lived together at close range, though Mary had a vow of virginity. But when the girl told this to the boy, he thought it was beautiful, also.

And so they married. Immediately after the wedding, they both took a vow of virginity! And they kept it! For nine months. But then the girl wrote into her diary: “I think that we would give more glory to God if we had children.” She told this to her husband. They had the vow removed, and lived together naturally. They had nine children — four boys and five girls. All five girls entered the convent, and the youngest — their baby — was Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower, whose feast day was last Monday, October 1.

Theresa entered Carmel when she was 15 years old. She consecrated her whole life to prayer, as a contemplative nun. She only lived until she was 24, but in that time she became the Patron of the Missions, and a Doctor of the Church. Her first realization of the beauty of prayer came when she was two and a half years old, kneeling beside her father in the parish church, looking up at him when he was praying.

The parents of the Little Flower wanted to consecrate their lives to God. They felt that the best way to do this was by becoming a priest, a nun. But God was calling them to another vocation — just as sacred, just as holy, just as beautiful — the Sacrament of Marriage. God wanted them to serve Him as husband and wife, as father and mother, so the grace that he gave them, on that bridge, was LOVE.

For young people, love is a romantic word. But it is also the holiest word we know. God is Love. And from love springs life. And that is why the world was made. When enough children have been born, and have lived and gone home to God, He will pack up the world like scenery and put it away.

The priesthood is a vocation. Taking vows as a nun is a vocation. The priest and the nun consecrate their lives to God. But that girl and boy, in that little town of Lisieux in France, also consecrated their lives to God, in the Sacrament of Marriage. That is what God wanted them to do!

Marriage is a vocation.

Deep in her heart, every girl knows this. And that is why she prepares for the party much more carefully than she prepares for class. She knows that at the party she might meet the boy whom God wants her to marry, with whom she will serve Him for the rest of her life.

And every serious, thoughtful young man knows that when he stands at the altar and takes this girl “for richer, for poorer; for better, for worse; in sickness and in health until death” he is taking a vow to serve God as a husband and a father, for the rest of his life.

The parents of the Little Flower are not saints. But their lives were just as beautiful, just as holy, as the life of their baby daughter, who was canonized.

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