Happy Friday, friends! 🌹

This might be our favorite week of the whole year to write to you, because this week, we get to celebrate the saint our newsletter is actually named after: St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and her beautiful spirituality known as "the Little Way."

Thérèse never did anything the world would call impressive. She lived a short, hidden life as a young nun, far from fame or grand achievements. But she believed, and taught the whole Church, that we don't need big, dramatic gestures to grow in holiness. A smile, a kind word, a small sacrifice offered with great love: that's enough. That's everything, actually.

If that sounds familiar, it should. It's exactly what we've been inviting your family into every single week: one small craft, one small prayer, one small act of love at a time.

"We must abandon the future into the hands of God" - St. Therese of Lisieux

Thursday, October 1 — Memorial of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Thérèse entered a Carmelite convent in France at just 15 years old and died only nine years later, at 24, largely unknown outside her small community. But after her death, her autobiography, Story of a Soul, spread her "Little Way", doing small, ordinary things with great love, around the entire world. She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997, one of only a handful of women ever given that title, and is affectionately known as "the Little Flower."

What to tell a preschooler: "There was a nun named Thérèse who found out something wonderful: you don't have to do big, amazing things to make God happy. You just have to do small things, like a smile, a hug, or a kind word, with LOTS of love. She called it the 'Little Way'!"

Virtue to Notice: Love in Little Things

Thérèse taught that the smallest act, done with great love, matters more than we think. This week, notice the small things in your own home: a made bed, a shared toy, a patient answer to the tenth question of the day. None of it needs to be big to be holy.

A Simple Faith Practice: Start a family "Little Way" rose.

Each day this week, when someone in your family does something small with great love such as sharing, helping, being patient, add one paper petal to a growing flower on your fridge or wall. By the end of the week, you'll have a whole rose built entirely out of small acts of love.

"Jesus, help us love in the little things this week, just like St. Thérèse."