“Jesus wished to make me taste a joy
as perfect as is possible in this vale of tears.”
– St.Therese of Lisieux

Introduction

Joy of life is the fountain head of every human existence. Joy in religious life is the fundamental truth related to the life of a person who chooses the path of service for the world and life of holiness for oneself. Joy of life is something one does acquire with a sense of satisfaction. The uniqueness of those considered to be great and saintly is that they were joyful in their state of life whatever it had been. St.Therese of Lisieux is considered to be a saint of joyfulness and happiness. What emanated from her life witness is that she found joy in everything which normally ordinary people find it difficult.
As of St Therese of Lisieux, she found joy in her Vocation, joy in her Consecration, joy in Community, joy in her Suffering and joy in the Eucharist. The whole life of St Therese reflected the wholeness of joy overpowering her life and personality. The first beautiful moment in her short span of life was when she received Jesus for the first time in communion. She writes, “the time of First Communion remains engraved in my heart as a memory without any clouds. It seems to me I could not have been better disposed to receive Him than I was and all my spiritual trials had left me for nearly a whole year. Jesus wished to make me taste a joy as perfect as is possible in this vale of tears” (Story of a Soul: p.73). The day of her entry into the Holy Land of her life, – the Cloistered Carmelite Convent – which she lovingly called as ‘holy ark,’ was another occasion of the unbounded joy in her life. “My desires were at last accomplished: my soul experienced a PEACE so sweet, so deep, it would be impossible to express it. For seven years and half that inner peace has remained my lot and has not abandoned me in the midst of the greatest trials” (Ibid: p.148). The First Profession was another flower she added to the crown of her joy and happiness. She admits, “I felt as though I were flooded with a river of peace and it was in that peace ‘which surpasses all understanding’ that I pronounced my Vows. Everything was little that day except the graces and the peace I received, and the peaceful joy I experienced in the evening when gazing at the stars shining in the firmament thinking… that I would be able to unite myself to my Spouse in the bosom of eternal happiness” (pp.166, 167). The joy she experienced through and in the community was one of the spiritual foundations of her consecrated life.

Joy: Received in Vocation

St Therese of Lisieux beautifully explains the finding of her vocation. “To be Your Spouse, to be a Carmelite, and by my union with You to be the Mother of souls… I feel the vocation of the Warrior, the Priest, the Apostle, the Doctor, the Martyr. Finally, I feel the need and the desire of carrying out the most heroic deeds for you, O Jesus” (Ibid: p.192). She is moved by the call to be a Warrior, enamored by the call to be a Priest, powered by the call to be an Apostle and strengthened by the call to be a Martyr. But finally she FOUND her vocation as LOVE. “My Vocation is love,” writes she with passionate words and feelings. “Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus my love, my vocation, at last I have found it. MY VOCATION IS LOVE” (p.194).

Joy: Sustained in Consecration

St Therese of Lisieux found the joy of consecration overflowing on the day of her First Profession. Long awaited day of her total surrender was on 8th September,1890. She recalls in her autobiography, “the beautiful day of my wedding finally arrived. It was without a single cloud… My union with Jesus was effected not in the midst of thunder and lightning..that is, in extraordinary graces but in the bosom of light breeze… I really felt I was the Queen… I offered myself to Jesus in order to accomplish His will perfectly in me without creatures ever being able to place any obstacle in the way” (pp.166-67). She nurtured in her life the advice of Mother Genevieve, who was sick. “Every time you come, you ask for a spiritual bouquet. Well..today I will give this one: ‘serve God with peace and joy: remember my child, our God is a God of peace” (Ibid: p.169). Her consecration was to serve Jesus in peace and joy.
The joy of consecrated life must be sustained with faithfulness to the evangelical counsels which every religious profess and live. The consecrated men and women can become a remedy for the vices of the modern world. To the problems of today, “reply of the consecrated life is above all in the joyful living of perfect chastity as a witness to the power of God’s love manifested in the weakness of human condition. The consecrated life must present to today’s world examples of chastity lived by men and women who show balance, self-mastery, and enterprising spirit, and psychological and affective maturity (Vita Consecreta: No.88).

Joy: Lived in Community

St Therese of Lisieux reveals the joyful living in her ‘holy ark’ – Carmel of Lisieux. As she explains the commandment of Jesus to love, “I understood how imperfect my love for my Sisters was. I saw I did not love them as God loves them” Ibid: p.220). For St Therese, the Carmel was her heaven, the Sisters there were the saints and angelic ones, smile and laughter were the praise and singing. While revealing the human side of community living even in Carmel she writes, “no doubt, we don’t have any enemies in Carmel, but there are feelings” (p.225). “It is only charity which can expand my heart. O Jesus, since this sweet flame consumes it, I run with joy in the way of Your New Commandment” (p.226). She patiently and lovingly bore the agony of little irritants came from her ‘saintly sisters.’
Modern communities are affected and afflicted by lack of communion and communication. Personality cults create conflicts. Selfish and narrow ideologies divide the communities. Excessive outward activities stem the internal and spiritual growth of communities. Micro communities, in the background of lack of vocations and extensive activities, lose the beauty of community life. To stem the widening space, caused by recent technological boom, among the members living together, we need to show a mutual generous love which is luminous sign. Joyless and non-recreational communities lose the members faster than light. To become the promoters of ‘spirituality of communion,’ we need to set New Jerusalem as the ideal.

Joy: Strengthened by Suffering

St Therese of Lisieux, who went through the most agonizing moments of physical suffering during the last months, weeks and days before her solemn entry into the arms of her Beloved Bride on 30th September,1897, was spiritually strengthened by the suffering. The impeccable smile on her face would proclaim the cheerfulness and joy she experienced during her short life on this earthly lawn. The final words of her autobiography are… “through confidence and love.” The weary hands dropped the little pencil and no more could she write the unfinished part of the ‘Story of the Soul.’ The agony and suffering of St Therese did not end in physical sickness but continued even in the spiritual darkness of the soul. “He permitted my soul to be invaded by the thickest darkness… the trial was to last not a few days or few weeks..it was not to be extinguished until the hour set by God Himself… she is resigned to eat the bread of sorrow as long as You desire it…” (Story of a Soul: pp.211-12). “I no longer believe in death for myself: I believe only in suffering,” said she in the midst of her acute pain and suffering. “Everything I have written on my desire for suffering is true.” On the death bed she whispered.
“Down through the centuries and generations it has been seen that in suffering there is concealed a particular power that draws a person interiorly close to Christ, a special grace. To this grace many saints, such as Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and others, owe their profound conversion” (Salvifici Doloris: No.26).
As many religious undergo life threatening sicknesses, the joy reflected in the moments of trials and tribulations in the life of St Therse should embolden us to take unexpected misfortunes in life. Though difficult in itself, courage and consolation can be drawn from the life of this little saint.

Joy: Fulfilled in the Eucharist

For St Therese of Lisieux, the core point of the Consecrated life was that of having a deep rooted relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist. Her life in Alencon and Carmel reveals her ardent, personal and consistent relationship with Eucharist. She writes about the day of her First Communion, “the ‘beautiful day of the days’ finally arrived. The smallest details of that heavenly day have left unspeakable memories in my soul” (Ibid: p.77). “My joy was tranquil and nothing came to disturb my interior peace” (Ibid: p.78).
Communion with the Eucharist remains a priority for every religious. “By its very nature, the Eucharist is at the centre of the consecrated life, both for the individuals and communities. It is the daily viaticum and source of spiritual life. By means of the Eucharist, all consecrated persons are called to live Christ’s Paschal Mystery” (Vita Consecreta: p.95). The religious life is strengthened by the power of the Eucharist and having recourse to the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will enhance the lives of the religious bombarded by a world filled with filth and fury. Religious life is “giving a priority place to spirituality, meaning starting afresh from the rediscovered centrality of the Eucharistic celebration, a privileged place of encounter with the Lord” (Starting Afresh From Christ: p.26).Eucharistic devotion consists in the devotional celebration of the Holy Eucharist, its reception, adoration outside of the Holy Mass and frequent visit to the Blessed Sacrament.

Conclusion

Life of St Therese of Lisieux is the perfect mirror which reveals the happiness of the soul. Saintly life is the manifestation of the interior joy of the soul. Happiness, cheerfulness and joyfulness in religious life can be attained only with the above said petals of spiritual bouquet which adorned the lives of St Therese of Lisieux. Little seed of call ‘to be love’ was sprouted with the spiritual watering of the soul with little deeds of charity and love. The joy of consecration at the moment of her First Profession was the fruit of that seed properly taken care of and protected. She realized that her beloved ‘Ark Carmel’ was the field where that seed of love could grow and flourish. The little sapling could not have produced the abundant fruit unless it was pruned with suffering. But in the finality, there was in the Eucharist, the Eternal Spouse awaiting for her.
Pope Francis challenges us with the call, “apostolic effectiveness of the consecrated life does not depend on the efficiency of its methods. It depends on the eloquence of your lives, lives which radiate the joy and beauty of living the Gospel and following Christ to the full” (Witness of joy:II:1). “Consecrated men and women, old and young alike, live faithfully your commitment to God, in mutual edification and mutual respect” (VC:109).Above all, WITH JOY AND CHEERFULNESS.