I just finished reading The Happiness Project today. I loved the book. I’m a list-maker and resolution-desirer at heart, and many of Gretchen’s how to’s resonated strongly with me. And her bold and candid self-analysis is something I strive to do as well, even though I am not great at it! I was especially intrigued that Gretchen Rubin who at time described herself as a “reverent agnostic” would be attracted to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. In fact, she actually considered Saint Therese her spiritual master! Saint Thérèse was probably the first Saint that I can remember having a tremendous impact on me after I decided I wanted to live my Catholic faith more intentionally. (And even as I type, I am reminded of Saint Therese’s continued importance in my life as I am wearing a lovely blue enameled medal of her image that I believe belonged to my Belgian grandmother.) Saint Thérèse was a 19th century Carmelite nun who died from tuberculosis at the young age of 24. She had a tremendous desire to do great things for God, having been especially inspired by Saint Joan of Arc, and her wish was to be a missionary and a martyr. Towards the end of her life, Thérèse described her God-given mission as teaching souls “my little way”. Her little way was “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender.” This was her path to holiness, and to ultimate happiness, which she knew could only be found through her love of Jesus and becoming Christ-like through her Little Way. When I found out about The Little Flower, as Thérèse is affectionately called, and read her beautiful autobiography, Story of a Soul, I dearly wanted to imitate her Little Way of making small sacrifices for the love of Christ and of others. Thérèse didn’t shy away from pointing to her own weaknesses, and she felt horribly inadequate at times, even though she was a nun, but she just wanted “to love, to love Jesus with a passion, giving Him a thousand proofs of my love”. Thérèse knew that the greatest way to show that love of Christ was to love others, especially through her own suffering. Thérèse’s life inspired me to want to grow in holiness and to intercede for my loved ones by self-denial, even if just in mundane, little ways. But even when the intentions are noble, the journey can be hard — very hard! Especially because I am so imperfect and my human nature leads me to oh-too-quickly forget how tough it can be to let go of all of my own tendencies that make me self-centered and not focused on others. My holiness project, recognized as a life-long endeavor, but also broken down into specific spans of times, such as 40 days (which I have done in the past) and 40 weeks (which is a new endeavor that I am undertaking with this blog), is a way for me to make more intentional efforts towards understanding and striving for personal holiness.
At the end of The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin encourages her readers to create their own happiness project, because everyone’s will look different. That is what “my holiness project” really is — my own personal happiness project, because it is my belief that, like Saint Thérèse discovered, true happiness is found in loving God passionately and learning to become more holy is the means by which we do so day-by-day, hour-by-hour, moment-by-moment.