In 1873, Marie Françoise Thérèse Martin was born into a very devout family in France. Just after she turned four, her mother died, and her father, a watchmaker, moved the family to Lisieux where she was taught by Benedictine nuns. At the age of seven she was too young to follow her older sisters and join the Carmelite order, but during a pilgrimage to Italy three years later she asked Pope Leo XIII for—and received—permission to join when she was 15. Thérèse admired St. Teresa of Avila, enjoyed the contemplative life, and her prioress instructed Thérèse to write her autobiography. Shortly after it was finished she contracted tuberculosis, and she suffered joyfully until she died in obscurity at only 24.
CHALLENGE
St. Thérèse of Lisieux had several mystical experiences, and after she discovered her “little way” of approaching the spiritual life she eagerly taught it to others. St. Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church for being “a teacher for our time”. See what she has to teach you. Pick up a copy of “Story of a Soul” and commit to finish reading it by the end of the year.
