I've read it I think 3 times now. The first two times I read an older translation. When I read it a year or so ago I read the re-translated version with study notes from ICS Publications, the Carmelite publisher, and it was like reading an entirely different book. The older version had sections Therese's sister cut out because she thought it would look bad for the parts to be in there. I highly recommend you read the re-translation because it is much better.
Great article. Thank you! It gives me the courage to confess there are two “beloved” Saints I don’t like at all as saints: Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul. I’m glad their feasts are Optional Memorials and take advantage of the option not to observe them. I’m sure some will find this scandalous but so be it. As people, I neither met nor knew either personally so I have nothing to say on that front. And finally I’m very wary of any canonization that is rushed through as these two were. There’s a reason there used to be a law that at least 50 years had passed before a cause could be opened.
This is a commendable article, not least for identifying the virtue underlying its premise: humility. As Catholics, we can all learn from predecessors whose lives we read about and wonder, this is what God wants from us? Paths to sainthood are varied, and perhaps muddled - or even debatable. But I have yet to read a saint's story I could not learn from, or use to grow my faith. Humility - the absence of ego - is the starting point to making gains from studying them - or from our daily interactions with others. We need to be open to seeing the graces that He has given others, so that our gift of grace may be increased.
I relate to this article. I’ve heard others describe at St. Therese as saccharine, and some of her struggles in childhood (like wanting Christmas celebrate a certain way…I forget the specific incident) I thought petty in my early adulthood.
But as I aged and grew a little in humility I realized I was equally petty, and at an older age than Therese. I’ve come to appreciate more what she is teaching us through her little way and to strive to carry it out in my own life.
Like others here, it took some time to really connect with St. Therese. I read Jacques Philippe's "The Way of Trust and Love" and really liked the spirituality, but when I first picked up "Story of a Soul," I didn't connect. I enjoyed reading about her, I just didn't like her writings. But between a pilgrimage to France and reading the official translation of "Story of a Soul," I grew more devoted to her and her parents, Saints Louis and Zelie. And if anyone struggles with Therese, read about her sister Leonie. She's often regarded as the first disciple of the "Little Way."
The lessons of humility are great here, and I will apply them to saints I struggle with. One in particular is St. Nicholas of Flue, who (with his wife's permission) left his rather large family to live as a hermit. As a husband and father, I just don't get how this isn't a complete abandonment of one's vocation. But God worked through it, or St. Nicholas wouldn't be a saint.
I was the opposite of the author - I never liked St Therese when I was younger, and I really dislike the way she's presented in Catholic children's media. Many of the practices she engaged in as a child she distanced herself from later - the idea of sacrifice beads, for example. (If I recall correctly, she grew up to realize that counting & tallying your good deeds is exactly the wrong way to go.) But reading von Balthazar's description of the Little Way helped me to realize what a revolutionary thinker St. Therese really was, and that completely changed my perspective on her.
I liked Story of a Soul okay-but it was Maurice and Therese, letters between her and her flighty “spiritual brother” priest, that made a profound impression on me. Patrick Ahern’s explanatory chapters were hugely illuminating. Did you know that Therese, the sheltered girl turned cloister sister, was humiliated in front of French journalistic society? A humiliation she felt keenly not just for herself but for the Church; despite being in Carmel she imbibed the atheistic spirit of her age, calling atheists her brothers and experiencing great spiritual darkness. As a young man vacillating between faith and atheism, I could really feel her sympathy and relate to hapless Maurice.
I've read it I think 3 times now. The first two times I read an older translation. When I read it a year or so ago I read the re-translated version with study notes from ICS Publications, the Carmelite publisher, and it was like reading an entirely different book. The older version had sections Therese's sister cut out because she thought it would look bad for the parts to be in there. I highly recommend you read the re-translation because it is much better.
Great article. Thank you! It gives me the courage to confess there are two “beloved” Saints I don’t like at all as saints: Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul. I’m glad their feasts are Optional Memorials and take advantage of the option not to observe them. I’m sure some will find this scandalous but so be it. As people, I neither met nor knew either personally so I have nothing to say on that front. And finally I’m very wary of any canonization that is rushed through as these two were. There’s a reason there used to be a law that at least 50 years had passed before a cause could be opened.
This is a commendable article, not least for identifying the virtue underlying its premise: humility. As Catholics, we can all learn from predecessors whose lives we read about and wonder, this is what God wants from us? Paths to sainthood are varied, and perhaps muddled - or even debatable. But I have yet to read a saint's story I could not learn from, or use to grow my faith. Humility - the absence of ego - is the starting point to making gains from studying them - or from our daily interactions with others. We need to be open to seeing the graces that He has given others, so that our gift of grace may be increased.
I relate to this article. I’ve heard others describe at St. Therese as saccharine, and some of her struggles in childhood (like wanting Christmas celebrate a certain way…I forget the specific incident) I thought petty in my early adulthood.
But as I aged and grew a little in humility I realized I was equally petty, and at an older age than Therese. I’ve come to appreciate more what she is teaching us through her little way and to strive to carry it out in my own life.
Like others here, it took some time to really connect with St. Therese. I read Jacques Philippe's "The Way of Trust and Love" and really liked the spirituality, but when I first picked up "Story of a Soul," I didn't connect. I enjoyed reading about her, I just didn't like her writings. But between a pilgrimage to France and reading the official translation of "Story of a Soul," I grew more devoted to her and her parents, Saints Louis and Zelie. And if anyone struggles with Therese, read about her sister Leonie. She's often regarded as the first disciple of the "Little Way."
The lessons of humility are great here, and I will apply them to saints I struggle with. One in particular is St. Nicholas of Flue, who (with his wife's permission) left his rather large family to live as a hermit. As a husband and father, I just don't get how this isn't a complete abandonment of one's vocation. But God worked through it, or St. Nicholas wouldn't be a saint.
I was the opposite of the author - I never liked St Therese when I was younger, and I really dislike the way she's presented in Catholic children's media. Many of the practices she engaged in as a child she distanced herself from later - the idea of sacrifice beads, for example. (If I recall correctly, she grew up to realize that counting & tallying your good deeds is exactly the wrong way to go.) But reading von Balthazar's description of the Little Way helped me to realize what a revolutionary thinker St. Therese really was, and that completely changed my perspective on her.
I liked Story of a Soul okay-but it was Maurice and Therese, letters between her and her flighty “spiritual brother” priest, that made a profound impression on me. Patrick Ahern’s explanatory chapters were hugely illuminating. Did you know that Therese, the sheltered girl turned cloister sister, was humiliated in front of French journalistic society? A humiliation she felt keenly not just for herself but for the Church; despite being in Carmel she imbibed the atheistic spirit of her age, calling atheists her brothers and experiencing great spiritual darkness. As a young man vacillating between faith and atheism, I could really feel her sympathy and relate to hapless Maurice.