"This 'little way' thus consists not so much in 'small,' hidden acts, as in offering up our entire lives, small though they may be, to the hidden suffering of Christ. Or, as Joseph F. Schmidt, FSC, puts it in another gem of a book about Therese, Everything is Grace:
" '[The "little way"] was a matter of allowing the divine will to unfold in the very ordinary, everyday experiences of life and of responding with generosity, confidence, and love. In this way God would stoop down and lift her to that degree of perfection that her Beloved had prepared for her.'
"Still, we are saved by the small, unseen acts of others. 'How often I have thought that perhaps I owe all the graces I have received to some little soul who has prayed God to give them to me, and whom I shall not meet until I reach Heaven.' . . .
" 'When I can feel nothing, when I am altogether arid, I seek tiny occasions, real trivialities, to give joy to my Jesus: a smile, for example, or a friendly word, when I would rather be silent, or look bored,' Therese observed, and 'I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies.'
"I began to see the almost superhuman strength required to refrain from, say, repeating a juicy bit of gossip, or rolling my eyes, or allowing my voice to get harsh when I was upset. I began to sense as well that, just because they're so difficult, such acts perhaps do far more good than we can ever know. Standing patiently in line helped the other people in line to be patient as well. Blessing the other person in traffic, even though nobody heard or saw, somehow encouraged someone else to bless the next person. When the neighborhood noise bothered me, I sometimes took to starting with one corner of my apartment complex, visualizing the person or people who lived there, and working my way around, praying for the inhabitants of each. (Other times I took to tearing out my hair and cursing.)"
