The Story of a Soul: The
Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux
by St. Therese of Lisieux
Completed June 2001
I have spent a fair amount of time reading and researching the apparations of the Virgin Mary, and one of my conclusions about what Mary comes to teach humanity is that we must be "little." She repeats this one word -- "little" -- so frequently and so intensely. What does it mean? I think that in The Story of a Soul, St. Therese of Lisieux -- known as the "Little Flower" -- lived a life which embodies the "littleness" of which Mary speaks.
Therese was a cloistered Carmelite nun in France in the late 1800s. She died very young, after an intensely spiritual life which was defined by one burning desire and passion: love for Jesus Christ. Early in the book, St. Therese (while meditating, I think), begins to think about how there are no souls in Hell to love Jesus. This moves her deeply, causing her great anguish -- to the point that she says to Jesus that if it will give Him pleasure, He should send her to Hell so that there might be at least one soul in Hell who loves Him. In relating these thoughts, St. Therese doesn't strike me so much as desiring martyrdom as in purely and completely wanting to make Jesus happy: to love Him.
While I found this incident to be the most moving and powerful for me (establishing a whole new perspective on how I should think about and approach my relationship with God), St. Therese's simplicity manifests itself in many simple, powerful comments. For instance, St. Therese quotes one of the older Carmelites as saying to her: "You have an extremely simple soul; however, it will be even more simple when you become perfect. The closer we come to God, the more simple we become" (p. 108).
St. Therese took this to heart and over the course of the book (and her life -- it was written progressively as she grew older), she indeed becomes simpler and closer to God through a deepening love for Him and for His creation: "I learned by experience that true happiness on earth consists in being forgotten and in remaining completely ignorant of created things. I understood that all we accomplish, however brilliant, is worth nothing without love" (p. 130).
Toward the end of the book, her writing is even more simple and clear: "I know it; love alone can make us pleasing to God, so I desire no other treasure" (p. 192). Shortly following this comment, she explicates the Gospel story of the Samaritan woman in this context, which I found so beautiful, as well: "He [Jesus] who declares that He need not tell us if He is hungry, does not hesitate to beg the Samaritan woman for a drop of water. He was thirsty! But when He said, 'Give Me to drink' (John 4:7), it was this unhappy woman's love that the Creator of the Universe was seeking; He thirsted for love, and He is more thirsty than ever now. Indifference and ingratitude are all He finds among the world's disciples; even among His own, He finds so few surrendering themselves without reserve to the tenderness of His infinite love" (p. 193).