St. Therese of Lisieux - The Thoughts of Saint Therese

Thoughts of Saint Therese

The Little Flower of Jesus Carmelite of The Monastery of Lisieux 1873-1897

Translated from the French Penses by an Irish Carmelite

Copyright 1915 by P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York.

Retypeset by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc. Typography is the property of TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 88-50745

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

1988

TO
"LITTLE THRSE"
AND
MOTHER AGNES OF JESUS

A LITTLE TRIBUTE OF REVERENT AND LOVING GRATITUDE FROM THE CARMEL OF KILMACUD

June 9, 1914

St. Therese of the Child Jesus
The Little Flower
1873-1897

ABOUT ST. THERESE

St. Therese of the Child Jesus, known as "The Little Flower," was born January 2, 1873 and baptized Marie-Francoise Thrse Martin. She grew up surrounded by the love of her parents and her four older sisters, who taught her very early to love God. Therese's mind awakened at an early age; she was later to say, "From the age of three I have never refused the good God anything."

When Therese was four and a half years old, her beloved mother died, beginning a most painful time in Therese's life. She became shy and overly sensitive and would cry at the least provocation, despite her valiant efforts at self-mastery. Then at the age of ten she experienced a mysterious illness; this was cured through the miraculous smile of a statue of the Blessed Mother. Therese's cure of over-sensitiveness came on Christmas night when she was almost 14; in an instant she regained the strength of soul for which she had vainly striven during nearly ten years. Therese considered this experience to have been her "conversion"; from that time forward she made great strides in the spiritual life, unfettered by preoccupations with self. Therese saw clearly that the entire spiritual life can be summed up in love.

Entering the Carmelite convent in Lisieux at the age of 15, she received the name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus; soon she was allowed to add to it "and the Holy Face." Therese had great desires for holiness. She admired the great St. Joan of Arc, yet she knew her own path to holiness was to be that of embracing her own littleness and making continual efforts to love God in everything she did, even in very little matters. She would place all her confidence in God, trusting Him to give the victory she was unable to achieve by herself. Therese summed up this way of holiness as her "Little Way of Spiritual Childhood."

Recognizing Therese's spiritual wisdom, her superiors placed her in charge of the novices when she was only 20. She was also filled with far-reaching desires to be a missionary, an apostle, and a martyr, but she knew that God meant these desires to be fulfilled in a hidden, spiritual manner, through prayer, acts of obedience and daily sacrifice performed faithfully with great love for Him. She offered herself to God as a victim of holocaust to Merciful Love, in order that her life might be "one act of perfect love."

When Therese was about 22, her health began to fail from tuberculosis. Though her physical suffering became intense, she suffered spiritually even more, undergoing a darkness of soul in which God and eternity seemed like a hoax. The thought of Heaven, which had always attracted her heart and given her joy and hope, faded into nothingness. She clung to God in sheer faith. Yet during this time, as throughout her life, Therese's hallmark was a constant smile. Pointing to a bottle of brightly colored medicine, she once remarked that her life was similar: appearing sweet and delicious on the outside, but in reality very bitter. Yet she also said that she was always happy; she knew that God loved her and that He would make fruitful her own efforts to love Him unto folly.

Therese died on September 30, 1897 at the age of 24, having promised to send down from Heaven a "shower of roses" after her death. Almost immediately after she died, many people began learning about her, praying to her and receiving favors from herthen clamoring to the Church authorities for her canonization. Therese's account of her life, entitled Story of a Soul , which had been written under obedience, soon was translated into many languages and became known all over the world.

St. Therese was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925. And in 1927, although she had never left her convent, St. Therese was proclaimed co-patron of the missions along with the great St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the Indies, who had converted hundreds of thousands.

The Church has affirmed the value of St. Therese's "Little Way," proclaiming it to be an excellent way of holiness for all. Pope St. Pius X called St. Therese "the greatest saint of modern times."

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CONTENTS

.

THOUGHTS OF SAINT THERESE

LOVE OF GOD

J ESUS!... I would so love Him! Love Him as never yet He has been loved...

IV LETTER TO MOTHER AGNES OF JESUS

(Her sister Pauline.)

T HE science of love! Sweet is the echo of that word to the ear of my soul. I desire no other science. Having given all my substance for it , like the spouse in the Canticles, I think that I have given nothing. (Cant . 8:7).

STORY OF A SOUL, CH. VIII

W ITHOUT love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.

STORY OF A SOUL, CH. VIII

O NE evening, at a loss for words to tell Jesus how I loved Him and how much I wished that He might be everywhere served and glorified, I reflected with pain that not one act of love would ever mount upwards from out of the depths of Hell. Then I cried out that willingly would I consent to see myself plunged into that place of torment and blasphemy, in order that He might be loved there eternally. That could not really glorify Him since He desires only our happiness, but love makes one want to say a thousand foolish things. If I spoke thus, it was not that I did not long for Heaven; but then, my Heaven was none other than Love , and in my fervor I felt that nothing could separate me from the Divine object of my love...

STORY OF A SOUL, CH. V

S EEING the eternal recompense so disproportionate to the trifling sacrifices of this life, I longed to love Jesus, to love Him ardently, to give him a thousand proofs of tenderness while yet I could do so...

STORY OF A SOUL, CH. V

T HE love of God reveals itself in the very simplest soul who resists His grace in nothing, as well as in the most sublime. Indeed, the characteristic of love being to humble itself, if all souls resembled those of the holy Doctors who have enlightened the Church, the good God would not seem to descend low enough in coming to them. But He has created the infant who knows nothing and can only wail; He has created the poor savage who has but the natural law for guidance, and it is even unto their hearts that He deigns to stoop.

STORY OF A SOUL, CH. I

I N order that Love may be fully satisfied it must needs stoop to very nothingness and transform that nothing into fire.

STORY OF A SOUL, CH. XI

I N times of aridity when I am incapable of praying, of practicing virtue, I seek little opportunities, mere trifles, to give pleasure to Jesus; for instance a smile, a pleasant word when inclined to be silent and to show weariness. If I find no opportunities, I at least tell Him again and again that I love Him; that is not difficult and it keeps alive the fire in my heart. Even though this fire of love might seem to me extinct I would still throw little straws upon the embers and I am certain it would rekindle.