What do these two have in common : Thérèse of the Child Jesus,a young girl of the middle classes who entered Lisieux Carmel at the age of 15 and died in the same Carmel at the age of 24 after living a very simple life, and Fr Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, from a humble Aveyron family, who would exercise important responsibilities in the Carmelite Order, travel the world and found the institute of Notre Dame de Vie ? What spiritual inspiration would lead Fr Marie-Eugene to count Thérèse “among the greatest spiritual masters of the Church” ? Why was Thérèse’s sister Mother Agnès able to say, “I never saw a soul as much like my little sister as Fr Marie-Eugene” ?
Henri Grialou knew the figure of Thérèse of the Child Jesus from childhood, when he was in the little seminary. He read La Rose effeuillée (The plucked rose), which he called “a trivial little book”, and would always keep the book with him, even when he went to war (1914–18). “No other book ever made as much impression on me. I can’t find words to express it. It’s admirable !”’ During the military campaigns, Henri experienced the powerful protection of the one he called his “childhood friend”.
What is this “little way” ?
« The weaker one is, without desire or virtue, the more suitable one is for the workings of consuming and transforming love », writes Thérèse.
A word for today, and for the whole world !
To our sophisticated and indifferent civilization which has lost the sense of the infinite and suffers as a result, God sent a child who, with the charms and shining purity of her simplicity, repeats the eternal message of his love, namely that he created us out of love, that his love is living, that it is still more ardent because we have neglected him, that it waits for us to love him like children, for us to let ourselves be loved like little children.
Thérèse made contact with the love of God by means of prayer, and by prayer she united herself with him and received him in fullness, and Fr Marie-Eugene taught this prayer his whole life long. Through the institute of Notre Dame de Vie he wanted men and women to devote two hours a day to silent prayer, and thus to witness in all social settings to the special love of God for each person.
Just like Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Fr Marie-Eugene had a deep knowledge of the love of God, in particular the merciful and disinterested love which bends down to man, however miserable and wounded he may be, to heal his wounds, comfort him and pick him up again.