How to Live "The Little Way" (of St Therese of Lisieux) | LITTLE BY LITTLE w/ Fr Columba Jordan CFR — Transcript

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1. 0:00and lots of people talk about the little
2. 0:01way but you don't always get an
3. 0:03explanation of what it really means
4. 0:17what is the little way of centers of
5. 0:20this year she was a french carmelite nun
6. 0:24in the
7. 0:25like late 1800s she died at the age of
8. 0:2824 from tuberculosis she is considered
9. 0:31one of the greatest saints to have ever
10. 0:33lived
11. 0:34a good few years ago now in ireland they
12. 0:36brought her relics so they brought like
13. 0:39her bones and more than half of the
14. 0:42population of ireland so this was in the
15. 0:44late 90s came to pray
16. 0:46at her relics it was the most
17. 0:48extraordinary thing i i saw it myself
18. 0:50not just during the day and it wasn't
19. 0:51just all grannies and granddads this was
20. 0:54everybody this is all ages i turned up
21. 0:57in the middle of the night like it was
22. 0:58after 12 o'clock at night and the line
23. 1:00of people went out the gate and this was
24. 1:02like a long
25. 1:03long driveway into this place carmelite
26. 1:05place and they were out the gate and
27. 1:07they were coming from the pub after the
28. 1:08pub closed i mean it was amazing and
29. 1:11people had the most extraordinary
30. 1:13experiences there was all of these
31. 1:15miracles it was all testified on radio
32. 1:17and all sorts of things incredible
33. 1:18miracles that happened when her relics
34. 1:21came to ireland and she died at 24 and
35. 1:24everybody knows who she is every
36. 1:26catholic knows centuries most catholic
37. 1:28churches have a statue of centuries the
38. 1:30little flower she's sometimes called who
39. 1:32was she what was the heart of her
40. 1:34doctrine what was it that she did to get
41. 1:36so holy so quickly she called it her
42. 1:40little way and lots of people talk about
43. 1:42the little way but you don't always get
44. 1:44an explanation of what it really means
45. 1:46my understanding of the little way is
46. 1:48it's really the heart of the gospel so
47. 1:50if you understand her little way you
48. 1:51just understand the gospel it's funny
49. 1:53often we can be doing
50. 1:55doing our christian thing but kind of
51. 1:58miss the heart of it maybe ticking lots
52. 2:00of boxes but some of the most important
53. 2:03and sometimes the most simple
54. 2:05stuff that could bring us the most fruit
55. 2:07the most blessing we just miss
56. 2:09she talks really frankly about being a
57. 2:11bit discouraged by all the all the great
58. 2:14saints and she'd read their lives and
59. 2:15she'd read about you know how little
60. 2:18they ate and how long they prayed for
61. 2:20and how incredibly virtuous they were
62. 2:22and how they didn't do anything that
63. 2:24most normal people do they did
64. 2:26everything else and she was just a huge
65. 2:28sort of lose hope just kind of i can't
66. 2:30do that i'm too weak i'm too small yeah
67. 2:33i just can't do it do you ever feel that
68. 2:34way i certainly have so she
69. 2:37really just went to god there's got to
70. 2:39be a better way there's got to be
71. 2:41another way and she went looking in the
72. 2:42scriptures and she went just in in
73. 2:44prayer to god really praying to know a
74. 2:47very simple way to get to god and the
75. 2:50little way was her answer to this when
76. 2:52she was explaining it she would talk
77. 2:54about two
78. 2:55i suppose virtues two attitudes to have
79. 2:58on the one hand humility on the other
80. 3:00hand what she usually called confidence
81. 3:03but you could also call trust so
82. 3:05humility
83. 3:06and trust now they're obviously very
84. 3:08biblical like jesus talked about this
85. 3:10stuff all the time so where is this
86. 3:11rooted in in jesus teaching if you
87. 3:14remember back to when jesus talked about
88. 3:16being like a child there's a couple of
89. 3:18times when the apostles were were
90. 3:20getting a bit full of themselves so he
91. 3:22he took a little little kid put this
92. 3:24little boy in front of them and said you
93. 3:26must become like this little child in
94. 3:28fact one of the words he uses means a
95. 3:31newborn or even a pre-born baby unless
96. 3:34you turn and become like a little
97. 3:37newborn baby you cannot enter the
98. 3:40kingdom of heaven is what he said he
99. 3:42said this a couple of times in different
100. 3:44different gospels it's recorded really
101. 3:46really dramatic statement unless you
102. 3:48change and become like a little child
103. 3:49now most of our lives especially when
104. 3:51we're younger we can't wait till we're
105. 3:53big but now that we're big we really
106. 3:55need to focus on how do what is this
107. 3:57what does it mean to be little what does
108. 3:58it mean to be a child what does it mean
109. 4:00to be a newborn a pre-born baby and what
110. 4:03can we learn from this well newborn
111. 4:04babies they completely depend upon their
112. 4:07their parents especially behind their
113. 4:08mother they can't feed themselves they
114. 4:10can cry they're really good at crying
115. 4:12and sleeping and going to the bathroom
116. 4:13that's like their expertise they've got
117. 4:15like a phd in that everything else being
118. 4:18cute they can be cute but apart from
119. 4:20that they really can't do anything you
120. 4:21have to do everything for them and jesus
121. 4:23says unless you become like this
122. 4:25you can't enter the kingdom of heaven he
123. 4:26backs this up then in john's gospel at
124. 4:28the last supper when he says this
125. 4:30outrageous statement he says apart from
126. 4:33me you can do nothing outrageous right
127. 4:36because you're thinking i can scratch my
128. 4:38nose
129. 4:39look at that jesus didn't turn up and do
130. 4:41it for me putting that aside for the
131. 4:43moment there's something very true jesus
132. 4:45is the truth so when he says something
133. 4:46it is true and if you dig into it and
134. 4:48explore you'll find it is actually true
135. 4:50because right you didn't make yourself
136. 4:51did you no you didn't you didn't make
137. 4:53the finger that scratched your nose nor
138. 4:54the nose that you just scratched he made
139. 4:56it
140. 4:57so apart from him you couldn't do that
141. 4:59right so even on that way it's it's true
142. 5:01but there's something
143. 5:02more important there's more relational
144. 5:04that he's teaching us rather than some
145. 5:05philosophical observation apart from him
146. 5:08we can do nothing what he's saying is
147. 5:10remember you are a little child and i am
148. 5:12like your parent in fact i'm far more
149. 5:14important than your parents and just as
150. 5:16a newborn baby just they don't try and
151. 5:20do things all by themselves they just
152. 5:21rely and when they need something they
153. 5:23cry so that's a great starting point and
154. 5:25that's kind of the starting point of
155. 5:26cynthia's little way she just kind of
156. 5:28almost gave up on trying to do it
157. 5:30herself
158. 5:30she's like i cannot be like one of the
159. 5:32great things and that's where we're
160. 5:34supposed to start but in our pride we're
161. 5:37like oh i have to do this thing and we
162. 5:39get all we enter into striving it's like
163. 5:41i have to make myself holy and then
164. 5:43he'll love me which is the total
165. 5:45opposite of what the gospel is this is
166. 5:48love not that we love god but that he
167. 5:50first loved us saint john tells us it's
168. 5:53not that you do something and then
169. 5:55you're good enough and then he'll love
170. 5:57you it's that you're just there you are
171. 6:00like a newborn baby you've just arrived
172. 6:02plop and you can do nothing to be loved
173. 6:06now you could try and strive right and
174. 6:08get busy and spend the rest of your life
175. 6:09chasing something that he wants to give
176. 6:11you for free but what he says is no stop
177. 6:13just be who you are and realize that i
178. 6:16in my love completely love and accept
179. 6:19you i have done everything for you i've
180. 6:21saved you and redeemed you just receive
181. 6:23it as a baby would have you ever danced
182. 6:25with somebody who isn't a good follower
183. 6:28or
184. 6:29if you're a good follower but they're
185. 6:30not a good leader i can't really go go
186. 6:32anywhere can it it gets really awkward
187. 6:34and if the person's not a good follower
188. 6:36it's just so awkward it's really like
189. 6:39this between us and god so it's like a
190. 6:42dance okay and you don't have to he asks
191. 6:44would you like to dance he's not gonna
192. 6:46force you if you say no you go okay walk
193. 6:48back across the dance for a bit later
194. 6:50would you like to dance now no okay he
195. 6:52keeps trying all your life he keeps
196. 6:54trying and inviting you to dance he is
197. 6:55the best leader ever he knows the dance
198. 6:58moves that you are created to do the
199. 7:00ones that are will make you
200. 7:02look the best in your life and that will
201. 7:04bring the greatest glory to god and the
202. 7:06greatest joy to your soul do you resist
203. 7:08when god tries to maybe move you this
204. 7:10way or or suggest this thing or let's
205. 7:13look at this sin oh
206. 7:14how do you resist or do you go along
207. 7:16with it if you could learn to be like a
208. 7:18child a good follower to to uh humble
209. 7:21yourself and realize i don't know the
210. 7:23dance moves i need someone to help me
211. 7:25but on the other hand to really trust
212. 7:27and let him lead you and when he even if
213. 7:29it's something that's oh that's a bit of
214. 7:30a spin that's a bit scary just trust him
215. 7:32he knows he knows the dance moves he
216. 7:34knows what would be the most amazing the
217. 7:35most beautiful the most fulfilling for
218. 7:37you just trust him because when you do
219. 7:39that when you have a good leader and a
220. 7:40good follower it is so beautiful and
221. 7:43everyone around goes wow and it's it's
222. 7:46glorious and and other dancers nearly
223. 7:48gonna stop like this is this way it's
224. 7:51supposed to be why can't you dance like
225. 7:53that hopefully they don't do that other
226. 7:55people notice and they are blessed by it
227. 7:57and that's what it's like when you see a
228. 7:59saint when you see someone just a
229. 8:01regular catholic who's just doing their
230. 8:03best to follow god other people see it
231. 8:05it's like wow that's really something's
232. 8:07going on there there's like a glow of
233. 8:09that person's life there's a joy there's
234. 8:11a beauty because it's it's they're
235. 8:12letting jesus shine through them in the
236. 8:15dance of their life for me this is how i
237. 8:17understand centuries little way she just
238. 8:19humbled herself realized she she can't
239. 8:22do what she's supposed to do she can't
240. 8:24be a great saint on her own but also
241. 8:26that she doesn't have to so she then
242. 8:27just entirely entrusts herself and all
243. 8:30of her sanctification all of her life
244. 8:32all of her efforts everything to jesus
245. 8:34jesus i can't but you can and then as as
246. 8:38she starts to let him and started to let
247. 8:40him lead her and prompt her she just
248. 8:42went along with everything whatever he
249. 8:44asked she just went along with that's
250. 8:45the scary bit that's the beautiful bit
251. 8:48that's the transformative bit that's
252. 8:49where jesus once again becomes flesh
253. 8:52upon the earth that's what he wants to
254. 8:53do in your life in my life so let's do
255. 8:55our lives you best to let him
256. 8:58god bless you
257. 9:11you