Meditations on the Little Way: Part 2, Story of a Soul
In fact, when Thérèse died one of her fellow sisters worried that no one would have anything to say at Thérèse’s funeral. Never was a saint more unnoticed. More, let’s remember that Thérèse died when she was 24. What could such a young person have to say to make her a doctor of the church?
.. One of the greatest of saints–even a doctor of the Church on par with Augustine and Aquinas!–can be the person checking you out at WalMart, or the old lady sitting by you at church, or the mom with two toddlers, or the college student, or the janitor taking out the trash in your office.
.. it isn’t necessary to perform striking works but to hide oneself and practice virtue in such a way that the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing.
.. Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
.. Trouble was, Pauline was no longer Prioress and couldn’t order Thérèse to write more. (Why not simply ask your sister to write some more? Because of the monastic call to humility. Thérèse would only write about herself when ordered to.) To get around this, Pauline convinced Mother Marie, the sister who succeeded her as Prioress, to order Thérèse to write about her religious life at Carmel. Thérèse duly wrote two long chapters–Manuscript C–but died before it was finished.
.. Charity consists in bearing with the faults of others, in not being surprised by their weakness.
.. I told myself that charity must not consist in feelings but in works.