Actions and Sufferings

My actions, my little sufferings, can make God loved all over the world!
-St Therese

St. Therese does something unique in her spiritual path. So often we think that suffering (be that events or situations) must be endured passively; that we must simply wait out our suffering with grace and whatever cheer we can muster. But St. Therese goes beyond that. She actively seeks opportunities for "small" sufferings, for little occasions that force herself to overcome herself. Surely these types of occasions come to all of us, frequently and often! St. Therese's "little way" was not to hide and wait. Instead, it was an active path of deliberately finding ways to offer sacrifice. This was not due to a sentimental understanding of suffering because she had not known real suffering, either. Remember that she lost her dearly loved mother to cancer and then her dearly loved sister left her to enter the convent. Then she herself was struck down with tuberculosis at a young age. St. Therese's "little way" gave her the key to turn all of this heartache into an offering that was deeply meaningful and full of purpose. She offered all of her suffering back to God so that he would be loved. She imitated, in her own little way, in the ordinary things of life, Jesus self-offering back to his Father.