How the Parents of St. Thérèse Can Help You Raise Children for Heaven| National Catholic Register

What the Martins reveal to the world today is that centering one’s marriage and family on Jesus Christ yields immeasurable fruit for the salvation of souls.

Parenting advice is offered by many. You can find no lack of resources online or in books that claim to know the secret for how to raise your children best. For Catholics, we are blessed to have the witness of the saints to guide us. They shine a light on how we are called to live, and they reveal what happens to those around us when we make Jesus the center of our lives.

Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin were the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. They had nine children. Four died in infancy. The five remaining were all daughters who would later enter the Discalced Carmelite Order. Peering into their lives, words and actions can aid parents wherever they are on their parenting journey.

What does it take to be the father and mother of one of the most popular modern saints? How do parents foster faith in their homes to such a degree that all of their children consider and choose religious life? What the Martins reveal to the world today is that centering one’s marriage and family on Jesus Christ reaps immeasurable work for the salvation of souls.

Louis was a watchmaker who also ran a jewelry shop. Zélie ran a lace-making business. St. Thérèse wrote of her parents’ witness saying that “the good God gave me a father and a mother more worthy of heaven than of earth.” Their witness shaped Thérèse and her sisters on a profound level because they pointed to the eternal through the ordinary situations of life.

There are many lessons we can learn from Mr. and Mrs. Martin that can help fuel marriages to create a future generation of saints. However, there are two in particular that stand out prominently: Be examples of personal prayer, and radically depend on God.

Writing of her father, Thérèse said, “I had only to look at him to know how the saints pray.” She writes much of her relationship with her dad because after her mother died when she was just 4 years old, Thérèse became very attached to him and his witness planted the seed of her religious life.

She also wrote: “Each afternoon I went with him for a walk and made a visit to the Blessed Sacrament in one or other of the churches. It was in this way that I first saw the chapel of our Carmel: ‘Look, little Queen,’ my father said, ‘behind that grating there are holy nuns who are praying to Almighty God.’”

It is clear from her words that her father witnessed the blessing of prayer as well as spoke about prayer. Thérèse saw the depth of his relationship with Jesus as a real, living Person. Louis also explicitly spoke about prayer and pointed his daughter to those who devoted their entire lives to prayer. He did this in a natural way. The faith was not one aspect of life for the Martin family. The faith was everything because it was naturally ingrained into their lived experience.

In the footsteps of the Martin family, may we show that one’s prayer is not reserved for Sunday Mass alone, but is something that we should live at every moment.

Regarding radical dependence on God, Zélie once said, “The good Lord does not do things by halves. He always gives what we need. Let us then carry on bravely.”

These words were spoken by a woman who struggled with many health problems and died at 45 years old from breast cancer. She reminds us that in the midst of the challenges of life, we must remember the foundational element of our belief in God: He is a faithful Father who will always take care of us. He does not love his children halfway. Therefore, we can be confident, even amid the scary circumstances of life. What a beautiful lesson to impart to her children — and ours.

The Martin family’s focus on prayer and trust is personified by Thérèse in her writings and her prayer life.

As one of the greatest modern saints, we can confidently say that the seeds of her life of prayer and her “Little Way” were planted by her parents.

May we pray for their help in becoming parents who plant the same seeds in our children as well.

For then, a new generation will arise — a generation that makes Jesus their focus; a generation whose trust in the Risen Jesus will enable them to renew the world in his name.

Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, pray for us!