“My vocation is love” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux).

St. Therese of Lisieux was born Marie-François-Thérèse Martin in 1873 to her parents, Saints Zélie and Louis Martin. She is a beloved saint and doctor of the Church whose spirituality centered on hidden acts of love and sacrifice.

When I think about infusing my work with the gentleness and love Thérèse is so well known for, I think about offering up my suffering, focusing on the Little Way, and loving the people around me.

1. Offering up Our Suffering

Thérèse offered up her suffering, frequently dedicating it to missionary priests. In this way, her impact went beyond the cloistered walls of her convent and helped spread the Gospel around the world. Thérèse pictured her sufferings as flowers strewn at the feet of Jesus, and many people who pray to St. Thérèse receive flowers, a sign of her grace and intercession.

From quiet, mundane tasks to co-worker friction, most of us can relate to the small annoyances Therese felt as a nun. Despite the pains she felt from her sensitive nature, Thérèse didn’t let these annoyances bring her down or become an obstacle to loving and focusing on Jesus. Instead, through love, she made them into something greater.

We can take the small and great sufferings of our days—laptops bluescreening, co-workers grating on us—and offer them up to the Lord, dedicating our suffering to a special cause or person.

“Offering it up” gives the suffering I experience meaning and, hopefully, lessens the suffering in Purgatory for the people I dedicate my prayers to. I also love that prayer is timeless, meaning we can say prayers now for people in the past, present, or future. What a gift!

Think about a struggle at work you can offer up, and consider whom you can offer it up for. You can even imagine your sufferings as flowers strewn at the feet of Jesus, like Thérèse did.

2. Following the Little Way

Thérèse, who struggled with her health and lived in a cloistered convent, knew that her path to sainthood would have to look different from people with more stamina or people with leadership positions, like Saints Teresa of Avila or Joan of Arc. She focused on finding her own path to Heaven in Scripture, , where the verse Proverbs 9:4 (“Whoever is a little one, let him come to me”) called to her. She realized that her path to Heaven was in her littleness, in making the most of her small actions and cultivating a childlike faith in God.

How can we live out this “Little Way” at work? After joining a large, statewide nonprofit last year, I grew a little frustrated with how small my role was and how seemingly removed I was from concretely supporting our mission. It felt like since I had a supporting role in marketing, instead of a direct role in caring for children, my work wasn’t making an impact. In my transition from being an entrepreneur to starting this new role, I felt like it was unfair not to be able to see the big picture; I disliked being assigned tasks without knowing the “why” behind them.

At this time, I began reading “Story of a Soul,” St. Thérèse’s autobiography. I realized that although I was playing a small role in a large organization, my actions still mattered.

When Thérèse turned 13, she experienced a conversion that made her put away her childish things, determined to overcome her coddled nature. Maybe maturity is realizing you don’t have to be the chief executive officer, the star of a show, or a member of Congress to make an impact. Even in the small and mundane, we can dedicate our actions to Christ, infusing them with gentleness and love.

The Little Way is also about letting go of grandiose visions created by our ego and, instead, following God’s call for us, big or small. I don’t mean we should let go of ambition or stop trying to make the world a better place. Instead, we should take those daily actions of hidden love and sacrifice and make the most of them.

3. Pursuing Love in Our Work

The Little Way reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13. If we are doing good and holy work, does it matter if our interior is rotten? If we begrudge even simple or small tasks? How can we do our work with love, and how can we love the people in front of us (or on our Zoom screen)? The first thing that comes to mind, for me, is extending grace to our co-workers, understanding that we are each human and imperfect. 

It can also help to focus on the “why” behind our actions. For Thérèse, all of her work, much of it mundane and domestic, was centered on Christ. We can all find places in our work where we can create hidden acts of sacrifice, supporting the people around us and pursuing difficult or tiresome tasks with love.

If you would like to learn more about St. Therese of Lisieux, I recommend reading her autobiography, “Story of a Soul,” or “My Sisters the Saints,” by Colleen Carroll Campbell.

Savanna Polasek is a nonprofit communications specialist, freelance writer, and creator of Memoir Ink. She is a Catholic convert and lives with her charming husband in Austin, Texas. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Texas, listening to Catholic podcasts, reading, and writing fiction. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.