Littleness is at the heart of the Gospel.
Marie-Joseph Le Guillou OP (1920–1990)
It’s a word that is part of the treasure of St Therese and Br Charles, But how do you translate and explain it for people today? To be little. I always want to ask my cloistered Carmelite nuns what do YOU think Therese means when she says we need to be little. Is it just a spiritual ideal of 19th century French spirituality??
Amadeus617 I was asking myself that very same question today about Dina Belanger. Therese, Elizabeth of the Trinity and Little Brother Charles all caught on to something that I think is bigger than a particular time or phase of spirituality. Jesus is the first to speak to us about the importance of become like little children to enter the Kingdom, this speaks, it seems to me to Little Brother Charles and many others of the relationship we need to enter into of children in their Father’s Hands and Heart. The concept is more difficult for us today because we have lost so much of the “order” that existed in the 19th century. The break down of the family, the absence many times of fathers, the seculariztion of society do not make littleness impossible but it does challenge us perhaps on a deeper level of trust to abandon ourselves into the Loving heart and Will oof our Loving Father God-Trinity who wants to make us one with Himself as He and Jesus were/are one. I think your Carmelite nun friends would say the same thing my Carmelite nun friends say about There’s idea of littleness, its about trust and confidence in the Love of God for us no matter how rich or poor, good or bad we may be. Trust in the Merciful Enduring Love of a God Who Loves us and wants us to be united to Him forever in Love.
The question is our we up to the invitation/challenge of the death to self that needs to take place for the growth in that trust and loving relationship which is childlike but not childish to actually take shape in our lives? I pray God that we are and that we are never afraid to be counter cultural, to Cry Out the Gospel with Our Lives.
Father Le Guillou was a friend of Saint Thérèse and Blessed Charles de Foucauld. I think he’d explain littleness similarly to what lb Michael said.
Just abandonment, accepting humility (often through humiliation), preferring simple things and simple people, trust in a Father who knows what he’s doing, not needing or wanting to be first or even to (in any human terms) succeed, just to be little and go where the Father leads, joy, joy in little things because of where and Who they come from.
Ultimately, if I wanted to “translate” it and “explain” it for people today, I think the most authentic and understandable communication is to live it!
Contemplative in the Mud 