This Christmas story about St. Thérèse’s saintly father is a lesson for dads everywhere

(LifeSiteNews) — A Christmas story about St. Thérèse’s father, St. Louis Martin, has two lessons for dads everywhere.

First, we will get frustrated at our children one day and then another day make a 1,000-mile trip to the Vatican so they can meet the Pope and pursue their vocation.

Here is the scene.

It is early on the morning of Christmas Day 1886, as the Martin family has just returned from Midnight Mass. St. Thérèse of Lisieux is 13 years old, but just a week shy of turning 14.

Still in some ways a child, she puts her shoes out by the fireplace to be filled with gifts, a Christmas tradition – but her father sees this as too childish for his youngest daughter.

As the Little Flower recounts in Story of a Soul: “[Jesus] permitted Papa, tired after the Midnight Mass, to experience annoyance when seeing my shoes at the fireplace, and that he speak those words which pierced my heart: ‘Well, fortunately this will be the last year!’”

But soon after, he recovers and begins “laughing,” as his daughter relates. However, the message is still clear from her father and the Little Flower credits this moment with helping her mature.

In the New Year soon to begin, her father will take her to meet the bishop and Pope Leo XIII all so she can pursue her vocation to enter Carmel at a young age.

We can imagine what was going through the saint’s mind.

As a watchmaker by trade, he had probably worked countless hours leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

He had some daughters at home and some in a convent. He feels the burden of raising his daughters as a single father, even though he has the help of in-laws. He also mourns the loss of his wife Zélie, also a saint, as he considers the life he thought they would live together and how she is no longer there at Christmas.

He was hoping his youngest daughter would be more mature as a teenager and finds the shoes by the fireplace annoying. But he quickly overcame those frustrations and apologized for how he reacted.

The second lesson then is this: Saints are not saints because they never had any imperfections or sins, but rather because they overcame those inclinations and mistakes.

When we as dads ponder the difficulties of our life, we should really be thankful we have it so easy.

Particularly at Christmas, we should be thankful we don’t have to worry about a murderous king trying to kill our son, nor do we need to pack up our wife and child and ride a donkey into Egypt and start a whole new life.

For dads, St. Joseph is of course a great example of holiness, and we should ask for his intercession in our life.

Additionally, if St. Thérèse is “the greatest saint of modern times,” according to Pope St. Pius X, it is only fitting we look to the man who raised her.

He also displayed courage and lived out his values in the public square. As related in The Story of a Family, “[St. Louis Martin] did not hesitate to take it upon himself to remove the hat from a certain wag, would be ‘strong-minded’ personage, who with his cap crammed down on his head, seemed to be sneering at the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, and contemptuously surveying the monstrance.”

He also was a Catholic organizer and charitable to those in need, committing to a Holy Hour of Adoration and giving generously to those in need.

The saint has lessons for us as dads, and so to him also should we turn.

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Citations: St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, ICS Publications, pg. 98

Piat, Fr. Stephane-Joseph, The Story of a Family, TAN Books, pg. 154-156