Dorothy Day and the Little Flower

For those who don't know, St. Therese of Lisieux's promise to send roses as a sign of her intercession from heaven led to the affectionate nickname, the "Little Flower." It also reflects her devotion to the little way (that we cannot all do great deeds but all can be holy in the little things in our lives). The flower that she sends most often as a sign are roses.

But the psalmist also says, "In death there is no one that is mindful of thee." So it made me happy that I could be with my mother the last few weeks of her life, and for the last ten days at her bedside daily and hourly. ...

One morning I prayed to the Little Flower, whose picture is over the foot of my bed, that she would especially look after my mother. I reminded her of her own grief at her father's long dying. That night Julia Porcelli brought me some dried blessed roses. The next day, a friend brought a tiny bouquet with lace paper about it made up of roses and carnations, and my mother greeted it with a smile and held it in her hands a few times that afternoon.

A week later, when I went to Poughkeepsie to visit my three aunts, one of whome is a Catholic, and to go with them to offer up a Mass of thanksgiving for my mother's most peaceful death, we came out of St. Peter's Church that misty morning to be greeted by a brilliant roes in the garden next to the church. And when we arrived home for breakfast, there was a bouquet telegraphed to us from Florida, and in the center of the fall flowers were two lovely roses. The Little Flower was prompt and generous indeed in her message.

I wrote the account because I like to show my gratitude by telling others of such favors. Perhaps, too, it may comfort others who have sore and lonely hearts over the approaching death of a near one. "Life is changed, not taken away," and what a glorious change in these sad times, after a long and valiant death.

On Pilgrimage by Dorothy Day