The magnificent Therese

Our Secular community met last night and we started on the discussion of the first materials of Story of a Soul to be sent out this year from Rome. Is it my imagination or is there a special note of reverence when Therese of Lisieux is the subject of the conversation? It was my turn to lead the discussion, and I immediately felt a deep sense of our unity in reverence for the Little Flower. Two members of our community said they were originally brought into Carmel by their encounter with Therese. Another described how she had experienced a kind of unexpected sign from Therese at a moment when she was pondering a big life decision. The fact that Therese brought huge consolation to soldiers in the trenches in World War I was mentioned. So strange and truly miraculous to think of these virile military men trained up for physical battle deriving comfort from this fragile young girl in the midst of the horrors of a war unprecedented in its violence. But then she did have as one of her heroines Joan of Arc....