Reading the writings of St. Theresa of Child Jesus, we feel wonderful harmony of her vocation and we realize that because of the Holy Spirit, which she filled with. She is a genuine daughter of St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross.
The Holy Spirit introduced her to an understanding of the merciful love of God. To which she has devoted herself on the feast of the Holy Trinity, 9 June 1895. She understood that God is love, which reveals itself to the poor and humble, that He invites us to live in a relationship of trust with him, with us and with nearby people. The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux.
And that He invites us by Christ example to serve our brothers and sisters and we are the witnesses of the good news, and are its messengers.
St. Theresa in Carmel Lisieux
- Teresa is a teacher of internal integrity and a genuine experience of God that is revealed in fellowship and service. She teaches us to come into living contact with the word of God, which is the foundation of her life, as it is evident from her autobiographical writings.
- Pronounced is also Teresa’ church-ness, community orientation, because everything – even the smallest gifts that she receives – relaxed and freely delivers in the service of community. And all lives with the Church and for the Church, which she wants to encompass all possible professions, to preach the Gospel in the outermost corners of the earth.
Finally, at the meditation of the 12th and 13th chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians she discovers her vocation and mission in the Church: “My vocation is love! In the heart of the Church, my mother, I want to be love.” from the The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux.
- For the “little Teresa” is the way of holiness, journey into the depths of awareness of human fragility, smallness, helplessness, sinfulness, path to the “zero” point of the night and the grave, where we can be picked up and lifted only by the Lord’s infinite mercy.
Shrines of the St. Theresa:
- Basilica of St Therese of the Child Jesus, Lisieux
- National Shrine Museum of St Therese de Lisieux
- National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica
- Shrine of St Therese in Fresno, California
- Shrine of St Therese in Juneau, Alaska
On Good Friday, 2 April 1896, it was the first time she spited blood. This was a clear sign of jetik, which was at the end of the 19th century virtually incurable disease. Teresa had eighteen months of severe physical and mental suffering, because she died only in 30 September 1897.
Exactly one year after her death, her notes were published – famous Story of a Soul The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux. The main idea of this book is: you come to God by a way of spiritual childhood. She was declared blessed in 1923, for a saint two years later; then she was also declared as the main patron of the Missions.
Story of a soul
In January 1895, Theresa starts at the behest of the Head, mothers Agneza, writing her memories of her childhood. And on the 20 January 1896 already hands her the manuscript notes, which are preserved as the first part of the autobiographical writings or The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux.
To this was later added the letter to Sister Mary of the Holy heart, her older sister, written between 13 and 16 September 1896. And continued with her childhood memories, and the description of life in the community of the Carmelites, written in June 1897 for mother Mary Gonzago, which then again becomes the head of Carmel. These writings were 40 years after Teresa’s death already translated into 38 languages.
