Thoughts on St. Therese and Washing Dishes

I really dislike washing dishes. There are no worse household chores than those involving the kitchen. Unfortunately, this also happens to be the one chore that must be dome everyday, several times a day. The consequences of neglecting kitchen duty are unmentionable. I often dream of buying less food in order to make room in the budget for disposable paper products. Sadly my “green” conscience won’t let me produce that much waste, even for the benefit of not having to wash dishes.

Another option I’ve considered dates back to colonial times. In those days dishes and utensils were rather scarce. Since there were no Walmarts or Williams-Sonomas in the wild forests of Virginia, the colonists had to make their own eating devices. Just one of their methods involved carving indentations in the tables where the food could be set. When everyone finished eating the table was wiped clean and that was that. NO DISHES TO WASH! The problem is, I’m pretty sure my black pressed particle board table would not be very pretty with sawdust colored grooves carved into it. I don’t imagine it would clean up well either, not to mention the fact that my family would think I’d gone nuts! Other colonists would carve a trencher out of a small log (a sort of rectangular shaped bowl) and then the family would take turns eating out of it. Voila- only one dish to wash! Of course, I would still have to wash it between each eater- no one wants to eat out of a dirty trencher- so scrap that idea. No good. I guess my only recourse is just to wash the darn dishes.

A few months ago I read St. Therese of Lisieux’s autobiography, The Story of a Soul, for the first time. I am kicking myself for not reading it earlier- like when I was a teenager! I connected with her on so many levels, but the idea that struck me most was her “Little Way.” God is everywhere- even in the ordinary, simple details of life. Like washing dishes. God has given each of us a task- our daily duty- and we glorify God by doing that to the best of our ability every single day. Every task can be a prayer offered to God. She said, “What matters in life is not great deeds, but great love.” The smallest action done with love can be more important than any great deeds a person does for personal glory.

When I was younger I had big plans. I was not going to be at home washing dishes. I was going to be out in the world making a difference. I imagined myself as a type of lay Mother Theresa, feeding and educating the poor in developing countries. It was a dream I had since I was a small girl and it was hard to let go. But God had other plans for me. I was dreaming too big. He still wanted me to dream big, but in a “Little Way.”

“Our Lord has deigned to explain this mystery to me. He showed me the book of nature, and I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lesson the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would lose its springtide beauty, and the fields would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues.And so it is in the world of souls, Our Lord’s living garden. He has been pleased to create great Saints who may be compared to the lily and the rose, but He has also created lesser ones, who must be content to be daisies or simple violets flowering at His Feet, and whose mission it is to gladden His Divine Eyes when He deigns to look down on them. And the more gladly they do His Will the greater is their perfection.

I understood this also, that God’s Love is made manifest as well in a simple soul which does not resist His grace as in one more highly endowed. In fact, the characteristic of love being self-abasement, if all souls resembled the holy Doctors who have illuminated the Church, it seems that God in coming to them would not stoop low enough. But He has created the little child, who knows nothing and can but utter feeble cries, and the poor savage who has only the natural law to guide him, and it is to their hearts that He deigns to stoop. These are the field flowers whose simplicity charms Him; and by His condescension to them Our Saviour shows His infinite greatness. As the sun shines both on the cedar and on the floweret, so the Divine Sun illumines every soul, great and small, and all correspond to His care–just as in nature the seasons are so disposed that on the appointed day the humblest daisy shall unfold its petals.” (St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul)

My great works are being done at home, for my family and those around me in my own community. My role for now is to be a wife and mother- the best I can be. I can teach my children about compassion and generosity and love. I can teach the importance of doing God’s will everyday, even when it involves only wiping countertops and cleaning the same dirty dishes everyday, three times per day. I still abhor dish washing. But I can wash them with love for my family and for God and know I am doing exactly what He wants me to be doing.