Little acts of love

I scatter flowers

Sweet fragrance of love

In simple and little ways

For that is what a child can do

I scatter flowers for you my friends

In simple and little ways

As only a child would do

Take these my flowers and scatter them too

As others have need of them just as we do

Love is a gift from on high

Flowers of love given from above

Let us scatter many flowers

They are acts of love

Kindnesses shown to one and all

Yes, we scatter them with joy!

And I am reminded of St Therese

whose home in France I had the grace to visit last year

 A beautiful visit it was for me

For it did seem she was there

To teach me how to scatter flowers

Acts of love

Kindnesses shown to one and all

Yes, I want to scatter them with joy!

 

Prompt: In this life I can do small things with great love

Instantly my mind goes to one of the most loved saints of our time – St Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower. Her spirituality focusses on being small, being humble, being a nobody before Almighty God. But that is not to say that she despised herself. It simply tells us that she knew where she stood before a loving Father. She was the child of God who knew what it meant to be held close to the Father’s bosom. She knew that she was deeply loved and frail as she was, she could always count on God to be her strength.

Who would have thought of comparing herself to a little toy so that in moments when she felt abandoned and so alone, she could say that it was fine. Why? Let Jesus do as He pleases. She had only one desire: to please her Lord. Who would have thought that she could have been so passionate about her desire to join the Carmelite monastery that she actually sought permission from the Pope to enter the convent at the age of fifteen? Yes, St Therese never did things by halves. It was all or nothing. All for the love of God!

It is in this way that I can also learn to do small things, but with love. Without love, St Paul says, we are nothing – 1 Corinthians 13, the hymn of LOVE.  And so, let me continue to seek the grace to remain a little instrument and let me strive to act, to speak and to be a person of love. Love alone counts. Apart from love, nothing matters.

St Therese, pray for us!