Turning to Thérèse of Lisieux

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'll be turning to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. And I'm here with Jim to introduce you to Saint Thérèse. Welcome, Jim.

James Finley (0:37)

Yes, I'm looking forward to sharing her teachings with our listeners, yeah.

Kirsten Oates (0:43)

And you have a way you like to invite us into understanding the mystic's life and spirituality, so I'll hand over to you, Jim.

James Finley (0:50)

Yes, as I always do. We'll begin by understanding who she was historically. It'll help us understand who she is spiritually as our guide to God. And so, a kind of historical overview of her life. Thérèse was born in 1873 in France, where she lived until her death in 1897, 24 years of age. She was born into a large family. She was the youngest of nine children. And by the time Thérèse was born, three of the youngest of us had already died in infancy and child death and so on. So she had four older sisters, so the five living children. And another contributing factor to her, in France at the time, the Catholics saw themselves as a faithful remnant to God in a world that had turned secular. So the kind of separation from the world, in a kind of a piety, a devotional sincerity separate from the world. What's interesting is that Pope Leo XIII, at the time he was Pope when she was living, he wrote an encyclical inviting people to be more aware of God's presence in the world. It was really interesting is that the present Pope, Pope Leo XIV, took Leo's name because of his emphasis on immigration and social justice and poverty. But for Thérèse, that hadn't really touched her. She was still very much in this kind of mindset that they lived in. Another indication of the piety of these five children is that all four of her older sisters entered the Cloistered Monastery. One sister entered the Community of the Visitation, which is cloistered, and then the other three all entered the Discalque's Carmelite House, which was there in Paris. And what's interesting is then that this monastery of Discalque's Carmelite that she entered was a reform of the Carmelite Order that was founded by Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross in Spain in the 15th century. So it was a returning to more of a life of prayer, poverty and simplicity. Also, previously we looked at Brother Lawrence and he was a Discalque's Carmelite lay brother. And you could kind of see the affinity between the two of them that way. When her sisters entered the Carmel, she felt very lonely to Thérèse's because she felt very bonded to them, especially after their mother died. And then in prayer, when she was 14, she felt that God was calling her to enter the Carmel. And she asked her father if she could and he gave permission. But the local bishop said no, said that she was too young. So there was a pilgrimage with her father to Rome. She was instructed that when the Pope would go by giving people blessings, that she was not to speak to the Pope. But instead she showed you something about her personality, the forthrightness of her personality. She stepped out and told the Pope she wanted to enter the Carmelites with her sister. And the Pope said, if it's God's will, it will happen. And when the local bishop heard what the Pope said, the local bishop gave permission. And so Thérèse, one year later, 15 years old, entered the Cloistered Monastery. When she had been living in the monastery at 15, when she was 22 years old, the prioress of the monastery, the superior, her also happened to be one of her older sisters, asked her to write the story of her soul. So that's how it came to be. And so the manuscript of the story of the soul is divided, has three parts to it. The first part and the longest part is the one that she first wrote when she was 22 years old. She took one year to write it. And so you get a lot of her core teachings there about her spiritual guidance about God in our life. At the end of that year, she reports that she was in her room at night herself. A mouthful of blood came up into her mouth from her lungs. And that's how she knew she had tuberculosis. And she also knew it was terminal. And she was going to die a year later. When she finished that first manuscript, a sister asked her to share her insights that she had on a retreat that she was on. And that's this manuscript B, is this retreat. And you get more insights into her and her teachings. And then there's a third manuscript that when she was dying, the prioress, who now happen to be another one of her older sisters, she was elected a priory, she asked her to keep writing. And you could see how she struggled to write it. So she died writing that third manuscript. And so those are the three parts of the volume. What's interesting about her is that at the time of her death, they published, they wanted to release so the world would know about her teachings. The book was read, and by the time she was canonized, made a saint in 1925, the story of a soul had been translated into 20 languages. And by 1957, it was translated into 54 languages.