Thérèse does, we gain the childlike trust in his goodness that she demonstrates.Įmbracing smallness, as St. When we acknowledge the greatness of God’s love as St. Of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Thérèse’s message seemed to be a watering down of the demands of the Christian life. I converted to Catholicism guns blazing when I was twenty-five, bringing all my baggage of Protestant spiritual work ethic and academic overachieving with me. Surely, it’s more complicated than that, I thought. In fact, just the opposite: I must stay little and become less and less.”Īn elevator to heaven? I didn’t buy it. It is your arms, Jesus, which are the lift to carry me to heaven, and so there is no need for me to grow up. “But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new.

The young French nun wrote in her spiritual autobiography, Story of a Soul: It seemed to me to be a spirituality for the weak or lazy who wanted to avoid the hard work of spiritual growth. Thérèse’s spirituality-her “Little Way,” which emphasized grace and embracing our smallness-felt like a cop out. You, too, Flannery? I thought to myself with a sigh.įor the longest time, you see, I didn’t understand the fanfare about the ninteenth-century Carmelite saint. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower, staring back at me from the wall. As I walked around one corner, I was surprised by a familiar face: an icon of St. The house is now a museum with the curtains Flannery sewed herself still hanging in the windows, her prayer book and crutches resting beside her bed. I walked around the house on this literary pilgrimage to see what was left of the Catholic novelist’s beloved flock of peacocks and then I climbed the steps up the front porch and pushed open the door. Several years ago, I was visiting Flannery O’Connor’s family home in Milledgeville, Georgia. The new addition to the Word on Fire Classics is the spiritual autobiography Story of a Soul from one of the ministry’s beloved patron saints, the Little Flower, St. Home › Articles › Institute Fellows › “Story of a Soul”: The Little Way to Be Filled with Grace

Saint therese story of a soul