st therese of lisieux the story of a soul

She sees with the eyes of a child in the way that we are all called by Christ to see in order to enter the Kingdom of God, but she also sees what the path to holiness will cost her. This is why it is to completely misunderstand her writings and her spirituality if one casts her aside as overly sentimental. She was a quiet victim soul offering all of her afflictions for the conversion of sinners and for priests. Therese came to understand that she would have to suffer to become a great saint, her life was marked by interior and physical suffering and pain. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, 67. At that time I did not realize that to become one it is necessary to suffer a great deal but God soon disclosed this secret to me by means of the trials I have related. It is He alone Who, pleased with my feeble efforts, will raise me to Himself, and, by clothing me with His merits, make me a Saint. I am not trusting in my own merits, for I have none but I trust in Him Who is Virtue and Holiness itself. This aspiration may very well appear rash, seeing how imperfect I was, and am, even now, after so many years of religious life yet I still feel the same daring confidence that one day I shall become a great Saint. Our Lord made me understand that the only true glory is that which lasts forever and that to attain it there is no necessity to do brilliant deeds, but rather to hide from the eyes of others, and even from oneself, so that “the left hand knows not what the right hand does.” Then, as I reflected that I was born for great things, and sought the means to attain them, it was made known to me interiorly that my personal glory would never reveal itself before the eyes of men, but that it would consist in becoming a Saint.

St therese of lisieux the story of a soul