🔥.. in the tradition of lesser-quality writers (non-saints) who don’t quite get to say all they way to say all at once, there’s an Afteward..
One of the things I love most about Therese’s1Story of a Soul, is that we not only see the depth of her soul & her love for God — we see the impact her family had on forming her soul. I want us to see beyond her storytelling, though, beyond the places she describes, the souls she lovingly remembers. I want us to see who, exactly, Therese is talking to in her Manuscripts, why it ended up this way, and what it means for the whole world.
A Holy Writing Family
Therese didn’t become a saint in a vacuum. We know she was raised by a loving, Catholic family who adored her. Her sisters rose to the true title of Mother after their mother’s death when Therese was 4. We also know suffering begets sanctity, so, of course Therese could pour out her perfect soul and pump out an international bestseller at the age of 24, right?
The truth is that Therese came from an intimate family of Catholic writers. To see this another way: Therese’s Catholic family maintained their intimate Catholic connections with one another through letter-writing. They wrote about their trials and joys in acknowledgement of God’s grace that filled their daily lives: everything they wrote returned back to It’s Source and centered on Jesus, on God, on the Blessed Virgin, the saints, and His Kingdom.
Proof of their intimacy in letters are collected in many books.
There’s Theres’s letters, volumes 1 & 2 —
There’s a volume of Therese’s parents’ letters —
.. from which their lives are stitched together —
Their holy life, evidenced through their writing, inspired the Church to open up an inquiry —
On October 10, 1957, Bishop Pasquet of Sées signed an order for research into the writings of Zélie, Saint Thérèse’s mother; on March 22, of the same year, Bishop Jaquemin of Bayeaux did the same for the Cause of Thérèse’s father, Louis Martin..
- Léonie Martin: Difficult Life— the Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Introduction to the 1989 edition
— which lead, no doubt, to proof of their heroic sanctity to merit their Canonization.
The holy spouses Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin practised Christian service in the family, creating day by day an environment of faith and love which nurtured the vocations of their daughters, among whom was Saint Therese of the Child Jesus.
- Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis on the occasion of the Holy Mass and Canonization of the Blesseds Vincenzo Grossi, Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Ludovico Martin and Maria Azelia Guérin, October 18, 2015.
Letter-writing for the Martins was a natural expression of love that mirrored the lively spiritual lives they lead at home. For Therese, this kind of holy conversation in writing started when she was very young. Here’s a letter she wrote when she was 5 —
Lisieux, June 26, 1878
My dear Pauline,
Marie Guérin is at the country since Monday, but I'm enjoying myself all alone with Aunt. I bought some gray stockings with Aunt, and the lady gave me some pearls. I'm going to make a ring with them.
Adieu, little Pauline. Kiss Papa and Marie for me. I kiss you with all my heart.
Your little sister, Thérèse
One can only imagine their conversations in real life: full of holy references, delightful and uplifting not only to the ears of those listening & speaking — but to the hearts, minds, and souls of those in proximity. So steeped was Therese’s family in love and in Jesus, it’s really not a wonder why she became a saint. Wherever two or more are are gathered.. 2
Therese and Her Story of a Soul
Therese’s Story is really another love letter to her family, addressed to her sister Marie who became Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, who asked Therese to write her memoirs.
Notice to whom Therese’s speaks in the first pages of Story of a Soul —
Perhaps you are wondering, dear Mother, with some astonishment where I am going from here, for up until now I’ve said nothing that resembles the story of my life. But you asked me to write under no constraint whatever would come into my mind. …
It is with great happiness, then that I come to sing the mercies of the Lord with you, dear Mother. It is for you alone I am writing the story of the little flower gathered by Jesus. I will talk freely and without any worries as to the numerous digression I will make.
Here you have a young woman in one of her most natural modes of expression, one she has used since she was very, very young. Writing a Story of a Soul is easy because it’s an extension of what is already customary for the young saint — conveying her life in great Love and in great familiarity with those she has spoken to through the written page before. For Therese, writing down the most intimate secrets of her soul is as easy as thinking or speaking aloud to one of her sisters, a reflection of the holy life she already lives with her family.
Had Therese never written, had her family never sent letters to one another, we may never have known the little Carmelite from Lisieux; she may never have had such a great impact on the world. In this sense, she’s almost like a New Testament writer, her letters ordained from heaven, like Paul’s intimate letters to various ancient Churches. What would the world be like had not Mother Church collected these letters and preserved them in her Canon?
World War I soldiers would have have had her as a holy advocate, 19th Century society would not have been charmed into Hope by her innovative Little Way, and our contemporary world would not have a baseline on how to live a simple, prayerful life exemplified through simple correspondence.
What about us?
We are a fragmented world. We know this. We pass our days stringing thoughts along in a series of short sentences and spend much of our time trying to discover connectivity through thoughts that have gone before us — ours or, more usually, someone else’s. In society, ideas have an expiration date, and it’s easy to forget the interior life is not like this. We have an immortal soul that is different than the world that passes, tempting us with brevity as it fleets by.
Therese’s Story of Soul is proof of our immortality and of the longevity of Love borne from it, because the soul, like God and created by God, is timeless. A soul can speak simply and plainly at the root of Truth, so even over the course of over a century, what Therese has to say rings loud and clear, her words hardly an echo of a bygone era —God’s Kingdom is everlasting, so is the writing of His saints.
Therese’s writing is a testament to what holy thought expressed through holy writing can do. It’s a testament of what we think we’ve lost — our ability to think deeply, spiritually and to write cohesive paragraphs with voice, passion, in Love. None of that is gone, it’s simply hidden, cloistered within, like Therese was in her convent. What do we do to expose and free it?
Many of us are afraid to click together 240 characters and it shows. This hesitancy probably emerges in our prayer life, too. What short tweet-like prayer can I address to God? How can I arrest his attention tiktok-like? Do we know how to disembark from the morse-coded roller-coaster of social media and the online world, and take back the craft of contemplation? Of being in Love3, of being with Love, among those we love?
To be a saint like Therese, we can start thinking about becoming more intimate with our families, our communities, or our immediate, intimate circle of friends, creating a sort of Crucible of Love. We can start thinking of communicating well — deeply, overcoming barriers that hinder us from speaking spiritually about God and about our interior lives, so that we can grow in Love among and with one another. To do this, we would have to allow ourselves to confidently grow in Love — in God (let me be explicit) — and allow that Love to be expressed in any form it chooses, in anyway it can. Love is not to be hoarded, after all.. our sanctification is not meant to be kept for ourselves. We are to love God and love neighbor, so that the expression of God’s Love pours through us, as it did through St. Therese. This might be through writing, singing, praying, or simply through joyfully pursuing and completing work. Our chosen expression should be totally immersed in Love, just like Therese’s Story of Soul is. Over time, our love will be purified and perfected in this Crucible of Love, in this little hidden, safe holy world of our choosing — and so will our holy expression, so will those we are closest to, just like Therese and her family.
My friend, Therese lived love, she received love, she abandoned everything to love in return, following the model of Jesus— giving up any fear, any hesitancy, any concerns, any worry for the good of those who read her words. She knew she was dying, she knew what she wrote would be a last testament, a last guide to teach4those the secret of her soul, her Little Way.
Imagine what would happen if we did the same, how we could refresh the world with God’s grace through expressions of love like Therese did. I know, like Therese, we have everything we need. We have been loved well, we know how to love well, we love well still.. and we long for heaven like her.
May God give us the grace and the will to reflect deeply in Truth and Love & to refresh the world with God’s Love like Therese does.. and grace it with Therese’s roses, besides. Amen.
—
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam, 7.28.2021
in Love,
veronica
Afterward
If I could sum up what I really want to say about Therese and the formation of her soul through her writing it would be this:
Therese’s sanctity was nurtured by her family all her life. It is exhibited primarily through her writing. Her soul was sanctified and purified — and refined and perfected — in much the same way we understand about the craft of writing. It wasn’t just her though, it was her whole family, who wrote along with her.
..oo, that would make such a cool blurb.
I’m writing more about this substack post at Begin St. Therese, my ongoing entry as I first begin reading Story of a Soul.
for explanation on why I call St. Therese Therese, see Approach and Receive.
For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. - Matthew 18:20
capital L, Love = God, or more commonly for me, Jesus, who shows me the Father
she was, in fact, the mistress of novices, their teacher responsible for their formation