Winning friends and influencing people

I have been invited to give a talk on Therese in a few months’ time, and I was asked to provide the organisers with a title now for purposes of advertising.  It’s actually difficult to provide a title however, until you have the outline of a talk in your head.  This I did not have.  How to say anything about the saint of Lisieux that hasn’t been said many times before?  There are countless books about her.  I was discussing this with a friend, and he said “I would be interested in hearing about her influence after her death”, and I thought, “That’s it!”  For one of the many crazy things about the case of Therese is that she was completely unknown in her lifetime outside the convent.  Her work only began with the publication of her little book Story of a Soul after she died.  Then she started winning over souls, for whom she became a treasured friend.  Her friends talk to her, ask her advice, rely on her guidance in a very special way.  Then a legendary book title popped into my mind – How to win friends and influence people – by the American Dale Carnegie.  And it struck me that this contains a perfect summary of what Therese has been doing since she left this world in 1897 – winning friends and influencing people.  So, by grace, I was given the title for my talk: ‘Winning friends and influencing people: Therese after 1897’.

Intercessions:

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – very seriously ill

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

RIP Anthony Kirke, husband of Judith Kirke OCDS (distributors of the Carmelite Diary)

RIP Roswitha Watson OCDS (former President of St Therese Community, Oxford)