Traditional prayer
Prayer to St. Thérèse, the Little Flower
O Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who during thy short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God,
now that thou rejoicest in the reward of thy virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in thy hands.
Make my troubles thine own—speak a word for me to our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love thou wert—to that Queen of Heaven “who smiled on thee at the dawn of life.”
Beg her as Queen of the Heart of Jesus to obtain for me by her powerful intercession the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment,
and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life, defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity. Amen.
About this prayer
Thérèse Martin was born at Alençon on 2 January 1873, the youngest child of Louis and Zélie Martin, whom Pope Francis canonized together on 18 October 2015. She entered the Carmel of Lisieux at fifteen and died of tuberculosis on 30 September 1897, aged twenty-four. Pius XI beatified her in 1923 and canonized her on 17 May 1925; in 1927 he named her patron of the missions with St. Francis Xavier; and on 19 October 1997 John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, the youngest of them all. Her memorial is 1 October.
This prayer was printed with the novena prayers in the American reproduction of Fr. Thomas Taylor’s translation of her autobiography (imprimatur December 1926). It asks her to do what she loved to do: carry a trouble to Our Lady, and through Mary to the Heart of her Son. Name your intention where it says “the grace I yearn for.” The words “who smiled on thee at the dawn of life” recall what Thérèse herself tells of an illness in childhood, when a statue of Our Lady seemed to her to smile and her pain left her: her own account of a private grace, not a matter of faith.
Her “little way” is holiness in the smallest duties done with great love, not in great deeds; Vatican News describes it as love for God practised in everyday, seemingly insignificant acts. That is why mothers love her: almost everything a mother does is small and unseen. John Paul II, naming her a Doctor, wrote that she grasped the Gospel’s hidden wealth “with that practicality and deep resonance of life and wisdom which belong to the feminine genius” (Divini Amoris Scientia, 11).
She promised, in the words of the same translation, “I will spend my Heaven in doing good upon earth.” John Paul II lists the Catechism’s teaching on the intercession of the saints (CCC 956) among the places where her doctrine appears. The roses some people report receiving after a novena to her are private devotion, not a promise of the Church; pray for the grace, and leave the sign to God.
When to pray it
- On 1 October, her memorial, and in the nine days before it.
- When the day is made of small, unseen duties and you need to remember they count.
- For priests and for missionaries, as she did.
- When you feel too small for what your vocation is asking of you.