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79 pages

English

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328 brief quotations from The Story of a Soul, Counsels and Reminiscences, and her letters, arranged under 20 different topics. Shows her greatness of soul and that she was no Saint by accident. Beautiful and surprising! A book cherished by many. Impr. 192 pgs,

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Christian theology

Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	01 mars 1992
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781618905628
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0224€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Thoughts of Saint Therese
The Little Flower of Jesus Carmelite of The Monastery of Lisieux 1873-1897
Translated from the French Pensées by an Irish Carmelite
Nihil Obstat: Remigius Lafort, S.T.D.

Censor Imprimatur: ✠ John Cardinal Farley Archbishop of New York October 22, 1915
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 THÉRÈSE" 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 Thérèse 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 her—then 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."
—TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.
CONTENTS
About St. Therese
Love of God
Love of Our Neighbor
Faith
Hope
Humility
Detachment
Mortification
Obedience
Poverty
Confidence
Self-Abandonment
Gratitude
Zeal
Simplicity
Prayer
Holy Communion
Suffering
The Direction of Souls
The Blessed Virgin
Various Subjects
Prayers Composed by St. Therese .
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.
XVI LETTER TO HER SISTER CELINE
O N the day of my conversion Charity entered into my heart and with it a yearning to forget self always; thenceforward I was happy.
STORY OF A SOUL, CH. V
I DO not will that creatures should possess a single atom of my love; I wish to give all to Jesus, since He makes me understand that He alone is perfect happiness. All shall be for Him, all! And even when I have nothing to offer Him I will give Him that nothing.
II LETTER TO MOTHER AGNES OF JESUS
O UR LORD is more tender than a mother, and well do I know more than one maternal heart! I know a mother is ever ready to forgive the little involuntary failings of her child.
STORY OF A SOUL, CH. VIII
I KNOW of one means only by which to attain to perfection: L OVE . Let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else. Sometimes I seek another word to express Love, but in this land of exile the word which begins and ends (St. Augustine) is quite incapable of rendering the vibrations of the soul; we must then adhere to this simple and only word: T O L OVE .
But on whom shall our poor heart lavish its love? Who shall be found that is great enough to be the recipient of its treasures? Will a human being know how to comprehend them, and above all will he be able to repay? There exists but one Being capable of comprehending love; it is Jesus; He alone can give us back infinitely more than we shall ever give to Him.
LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GUERIN
T HERE is one ONLY THING to do here below: to love Jesus, to win souls for Him so that He may be loved. Let us seize with jealous care every least opportunity of self-sacrifice. Let us refuse Him nothing—He does so want our love!
VI LETTER TO HER SISTER CELINE
W HEN we really love, we rejoice in the happiness of the loved one and make every sacrifice to procure it for him.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
T RUE love is nourished by sacrifice, and the more th