Thérèse of Lisieux: Listener Questions (Part One)

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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James Finley (0:08)

Greetings, I'm Jim Finley.

Kirsten Oates (0:11)

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

James Finley (0:13)

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Kirsten Oates (0:23)

Welcome, everyone, to season 13 of Turning to the Mystics, where we've been turning to St. Thérèse of Lisieux. And I'm here with Jim to reflect on the listener questions that have come in this season.

James Finley (0:38)

Yes, they're really lovely questions, and looking forward to going through them together. Lovely.

Kirsten Oates (0:44)

Before we get started with our listener questions, we have a little fun announcement. I'll hand that to you, Jim.

James Finley (0:51)

Yes.

Robert Ellsberg, who's editor and chief of Orbis Books, who did my memoir, The Healing Path, he listens to these podcasts. And so he's made a decision to publish each one of these mystical podcasts as a book. I'm delighted he's doing that, so it'll be the whole series this way, because some people like to hold it in their hand and underline it and so on. And the first one's out on Thomas Merton. I'm so pleased. And Teresa is next. Teresa of Avila is next. We just keep rolling them out. So I'm very pleased by it, just to let you know that if you're interested, just know that it's there.

Kirsten Oates (1:27)

So how fun is that? So it's Turning to the Mystics, Thomas Merton. And so each season of the podcast will get its own little book.

And it is so wonderful to go back, Jim, and just have the opportunity to read your words, because it's a different way of experiencing the depth through reading. I've loved reading the first book.

James Finley (1:50)

When you're listening to the voice, it's like the oral tradition. It flows. It's like an event. You just listen. But when you read it, you can pause with a single sentence and sit with it as long as you want. Because it's very poetic.

I mean, you kind of slowly walk through it, underline it and sit with it, like internalizing the text.

Kirsten Oates (2:12)

Yes. I found it a wonderful opportunity to really slow down, to slow it way, way, way, way down. You take such small snippets of text at a time, and so it just gives you an opportunity to really sit with the depth of the text that you choose.

James Finley (2:29)

There's another thing too, I think, about the way I teach and why this is significant. I'm very aware poetically speaking, that as I speak, the flow is very wide and very deep, and we could literally stop at each point and consider it. I think there's a certain value, like the musicality of it, like this big sweeping poetic felt sense.

And then to go back and sit with each phrase, each sentence.

Kirsten Oates (2:56)

If you're interested in learning more about the Turning to the Mystics book series, there's details in the show notes.

I wanted to thank everyone who sent in a question, a voicemail. We had poetry come in. We had drawings come in this season. Dorothy and Jim and I read and listen to everything that comes in, and we're so grateful to connect with you this way. And this season, we decided to do two episodes of Listener Questions. So this is episode one.

James Finley (3:27)

Yes. You know, when I speak on the Mystics on Retreat, Silent Retreats, I'm always raised by the presence of the people sitting there, and also touched by the sincerity of their questions. But in my writing, sitting here alone writing, also in the podcast, it just goes out. So it's very lovely then to have it echoed back.

Just moved by the sincerity of your questions, like the circle completes itself. Grace for you to be with me like this, and it's grace for Kirsten and I to be with you. We're woven into this together.

Kirsten Oates (4:00)

Wonderful. Well, let's turn to our first question. First, we had quite a few people send in their feedback that I had been pronouncing Lisieux incorrectly. So I've been saying St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and the actual pronunciation is more like Lisieux and I'm sure that's still not quite correct. But I just wanted to thank people for sending in their feedback. You can tell how much people really care about St. Thérèse and making sure we honor her name and where she was from. And so I want to thank the community.

I hope that you're hearing us respond is helpful.

James Finley (4:41)

It is good to be sensitive to that.