And Heaven Touched Earth-When St. Thérèse of Lisieux Visited California

“Did you meet Mother?” asked a particularly enthusiastic Sister of the Missionaries of Charity, her eyes bright with expectation.

She’d heard I had spent time in Calcutta and wanted to know if I had met Mother Teresa herself.

“Nope,” I replied. I had been there during her canonization, years after she had passed. I explained that I’d spent hours beside her tomb—praying, writing, simply being, but that was the extent of it.

At this, she burst out laughing, her joy infectious. “Oh! Then you DID meet Mother!” she declared with a certainty that made me laugh.

But her words stayed with me.

Deep within her conviction was a truth…saints are more alive now, in the Kingdom of God, than they ever were on earth. Their souls, radiant in Christ’s glory, continue to walk with us.

That thought came rushing back as my plane touched down at LAX last week.

California, with its Marian blue skies, the thundering surf of the Pacific, and palm trees gently dancing in the warm mid-October breeze, felt like another world compared to the cold, rainy city of New York I’d left behind.

But I didn’t come for the scenery…that was a bonus.

I had come for a sacred reason: the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower who conquered the world with love, were arriving in Los Angeles, and I had been invited to document this historic moment.

St. Thérèse and I have a complicated relationship.

For years, I wanted to read her autobiography, Story of a Soul, but I never seemed to get to it until one day I found a copy on top of a stack of ‘free books’ in a parish rectory.

But every time I would start it, something would get in the way.

So I downloaded the audiobook.

Same thing. I never seemed to be able to find the time.

But this time would be different. I was arriving in Los Angeles a day early, and I was determined to finally immerse myself in her words before encountering her relics.

On the beach.

Where all great reading is done.

So there I was, with the Pacific stretching endlessly before me, finally, finally, reading the autobiography that had eluded me for years.

And when I finished it, I sat there thunderstruck, overwhelmed by the power of what I read.

How could words written by a young, cloistered nun over a century ago reach through time and grab the human soul?

How could her simple phrases so profoundly rearrange something fundamental in a person’s understanding of love and holiness?

I understood, in that moment on the sand with waves crashing and seagulls crying overhead, why millions have fallen in love with this young Saint.

This wasn’t just a book, it’s a miracle in print.

As a young girl entering Carmel at just fifteen, she dreamed of becoming a great saint. Yet she quickly realized her littleness—her weakness, her ordinariness—made that impossible on her own.

And it was precisely there that God revealed to her the “little way”: a path not of grand gestures, but of childlike trust, hidden sacrifices, and simple acts of love.

Her heart ached to live every vocation at once—to be a missionary, a martyr, a contemplative. And then came the revelation that would change everything:

“I understood that the Church has a heart, and that this heart burns with love. I understood that Love embraces all vocations, that Love is everything… My vocation is Love.”

Thérèse wanted to be love at the very heart of the Church, to burn so brightly with Christ’s love that her entire life, and even her heaven, would draw souls closer to Him.

The next day I caught up with the relics at St. Thérèse Carmelite Church in Alhambra—a parish in its 101st year, with nearly forty of those years spent in perpetual adoration, where Christ in the Eucharist is adored day and night.

I’d been to Alhambra before, when the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage passed through on the St. Katharine Drexel Route. The community carried the weight of trial. Just up the road lay Altadena, scarred by the disastrous wildfires that had swept through earlier in the year. Charred hillsides and empty lots where homes once stood.

And yet, in those same streets, thousands processed with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. It was a place touched by both heaven and hell—now marked again by Grace.

And now, that Grace returned in a new and profound way.

The relics of St. Thérèse, the Little Flower who promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth, had come to this parish. As Christ once walked those streets in the Blessed Sacrament, now His saint arrived in the bones that once held her heart.

The procession moved solemnly to the Sacred Heart Retreat House of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles.

The lines to venerate her stretched as far as the eye could see, winding through church grounds and spilling into the street. From dawn until dusk they never ceased.

Many have met Thérèse through her autobiography. Others through her sister Céline’s, Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face’s, famous photographs. And millions have met her through answered prayers, conversions and healings beyond counting.

Her life a testimony that holiness isn’t reserved for the extraordinary few. God can take the smallest, most ordinary soul and make them luminous with Grace.

A cloistered nun who never traveled became one of the most influential voices in modern Christianity. Her “little way” inspired Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and countless others who discovered that greatness lies not in grand gestures, but in doing small things with immense love.

As twilight fell, I thought again of that Sister’s words: “Then you DID meet Mother!”

So if someone were to ask me today, “Have you met St. Thérèse?”

My answer would be a joyful and resounding “Yes!”

Not just through her relics, but by meeting her through her insatiable love of Christ and her desire to draw us all to Him.

She’s waiting, ready to show you her ‘little way’ which begins with simply taking who or what is directly before you, however big or small, and attending to that with great love.

Her relics continue their pilgrimage across America, bringing heaven close to those who seek her intercession. Each stop is an opportunity for encounter, for Grace, for the transformation that comes when heaven brushes against our ordinary lives.

What I witnessed in Los Angeles—the tears, the quiet miracles, the experience of her presence—awaits at every stop.

You should meet her, the encounter will change you.

St. Thérèse is coming.

Don’t miss the opportunity.

Meet her.

Photo Gallery: The Little Way in California

St. Thérèse of Lisieux never dreamed of accomplishing grand feats. Her deepest desire was simple: to love. In every hidden moment, in every small act, she wanted to pour herself out for God.

Her relics, now journeying across America, carry that message to parishes, colleges, and communities. They remind us that sanctity is not beyond reach. It is near, tender, and ordinary. It is the “little way.”

At the Carmelite chapel in Alhambra, banners stretched across the church façade proclaim her message: “Everything is grace.” Children in school uniforms scattered rose petals along the path as priests and sisters processed forward. The arrival was joyful yet hushed, as if heaven itself had bent low to listen.

“I will let fall from heaven a shower of roses.”

Processions spilled into the streets of Alhambra—priests, sisters, children, and families walking together, each step a little act of love offered in her honor.

“Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.”

In the choir loft, Carmelite Sisters raised their voices in chant. Their hidden song recalled Thérèse’s own offering: a life small in the eyes of the world, but radiant with love.

“My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice; these are my invincible arms.”

Inside the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, people pressed their rosaries against the reliquary glass. A woman bowed her head, eyes closed, silently praying. A young girl, rosary in hand, touched the reliquary with childlike faith. Another woman sobbed openly, her pain and prayer poured out together.

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven.”

Soon, it was time to go. The reliquary was lifted with care into the ThereseMobile, handled not as cargo but as a treasure. Even the smallest tasks. The careful tightening of straps, the steadying of hands became offerings of love.

“Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.”

At Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, students carried the reliquary. Their solemn faces bore witness to the continuity of faith. Thérèse’s little way passed into the hands of a new generation.

“I understood that love comprises all vocations… my vocation is love!”

The reliquary entered beneath the California sun, its light casting long shadows across the chapel grounds. The moment seemed wrapped in grace.

“I will be love… I shall be everything.”

Inside the great nave of the chapel, the reliquary rested beneath soaring arches and golden stone. From above, the small wooden casket appeared even smaller, a sign of her humility magnified against the grandeur of the church.

“Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but only surrender and gratitude.”

A single shaft of light fell across the pews, resting upon bowed heads and folded hands. To see it was to remember her constant refrain:

“Everything is grace.”

One by one, pilgrims came forward. A boy pressed his lips to the glass in a tender kiss. Families knelt with children, teaching the next generation that prayer is simple, honest, and close to the heart.

“To remain little is to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from God as a child expects everything from its father.”

Men and women leaned their foreheads against the reliquary, hands trembling, hearts surrendered. Tears, smiles, whispered prayers—all mingled into one act of love.

“Love can accomplish all things. Things that are most impossible become easy where love is at work.”

One young woman gazed at the reliquary intently, her face reflected in the glass among the gilded carvings. Holiness mirrored itself back to her—an image of Thérèse’s little way alive in her own.

“Holiness consists simply in being what God wants us to be.”

Finally, at Thomas Aquinas College, the reliquary stood beneath the towering baldacchino, dwarfed by marble and gold yet radiant with presence. The smallness of Thérèse revealed the greatness of God.

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

At the altar in Alhambra, Carmelite Sisters, Brothers, Priests, and Novices gathered for a group portrait with the relics. A spiritual family, joined across generations and continents, bound together by Thérèse’s promise to “be love in the heart of the Church.”

“In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love.”

Upcoming Pilgrimage Stops:

Visit https://stthereseusa2025.com/ for more details

Royal Oak, Michigan (October 1-8, 2025)
Ten dioceses throughout California (October 10-30)
San Antonio, Texas & Carmels throughout the South (October 31-November 14)
Holy Hill, Wisconsin (November 15-18)
Washington, DC and surrounding areas (November 19-30)

Miami, Florida (December 1-8)

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