Saint Thérèse of the Infant Jesus introduced a spirituality that she called the Little Way. It called for offering up small sacrifices in a big way.
However, the core of the Little Way is the idea that the soul possesses a childhood innocence. It consists of a sense of wonder that gives the child the possibility of flight and reflection. Unfortunately, many people gradually lose this innocence over time due to spiritual decay.
The Little Way is fundamentally about maintaining this spiritual childhood. It calls for preserving the innocence, candor and fortitude found in the soul of a heroic child, and keeping it intact over time until the end.
This does not mean the soul must always act like a child. Rather, it means that one preserves one’s childhood innocences throughout the stages of aging. Each period of life has its unique qualities that add to a soul’s innocence. The person gradually accumulates the qualities of all the ages without losing any of them.
Thus, the person conserves that freshness of soul that comes from childhood innocence. There is the agility and combative energy that comes from youth. Adulthood will add the fullness of maturity. Virtuous old age contributes a high spirit of contemplation and reflection.
This accumulation of innocence is the core of the Little Way.
This core has a corollary effect: when souls have a well-developed sense of wonder and an appreciation of marvelous things, they find it easier to engage in spiritual life. Those things that usually demand great sacrifices can flourish more easily in the presence of wonder. Souls also become capable of reaching greater plentitude, often obtained with less sacrifice.
Therefore, even very weak souls can reach a level of vitality they did not have before, when they have this overwhelming sense of wonder and the marvelous.
Saint Thérèse uses all this reasoning as the basis for the idea of the Little Way.
One final application of these considerations is about overcoming weakness.
All souls, even those not particularly weak, are fragile, especially when it comes to the area of their own flaws.
Since all men have these defects, all souls are small and fragile. If they significantly develop their sense of the marvelous, they will have the potential to overcome their flaws admirably.
Thus, Saint Thérèse explains herself and her Little Way fully.
The above text was adapted from a meeting of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira on May 27, 1974.