Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

I recently read a report on the results of a survey of why Catholics have left the Church. The survey was taken in one particular diocese on the east coast of the United States. It elicited one comment that struck the researchers as particularly significant.  One layman, describing his experience in trying to engage his pastor around a personally distressing issue, said: “every time you ask a question, you get a rule.”

 To get a rule is, of course, to get your real concern ignored and often to feel disrespected as well. It is not easy to live with the feelings evoked when “you get a rule;” and those feelings can erupt into all kinds of further difficult feelings and problematic actions – including leaving the Church. In fact, that seems to have been partly what precipitated many to walk from the Church in the past. Church history provides examples.

 At times, in the past, when the faithful sought a way into a deeper spirituality and a richer expression of their relationship with Christ, they received “a rule.” To “get a rule” is quite different than “to get a way.”  And it is significant that the early Christians identified the good news as a “way” (Cf. Acts 9:2). Real questions are answered better by a way of thinking, a way of seeing, and a way of acting than by a rule of thinking, a rule of seeing, or a rule of acting.  The good news of the Gospel is not a new rule or a clarification of old rules, it is a new life in Christ, and a new way to live that life without violence. 

 One of the stepping stones on Therese’s little way is a “new” emphasis on a way of thinking, a way of seeing, and a way of acting. She emphasized faith and love as our contribution to receive and then to live God’s love, which has been poured out to us in Christ. This is “new” not because Therese discovered it. It is new because Therese rediscovered it after it had been hidden under the teaching of Jansenism that permeated the Church in her day

 That is what Pope John Paul II said in 1997 when he made Therese a Doctor of the Church: “she helped to heal souls of the rigors and fears of Jansenism, which tended to stress God’s justice rather than his divine mercy. In God’s mercy she contemplated and adored all the divine perfections.”

Therese’s spirituality does not give us rules; it does not even give us pious devotions.  It invites us to look at life in a spirit of faith, with confidence and love in God’s mercy, and to respond in integrity and compassion without violence to ourselves or others.

Societies and institutions must be built on rules and laws. But spiritual life must be lived from a “way” - a spirit of faith, which, of course, will include obedience to legitimate rules.

 The tension between rules and Christian life is becoming more obvious to me as I continue to experience African life and society, although this tension is true of all life and all societies.   Rules, which must include enforcement, necessarily lead to violence, as Jesus experienced in his own life.

 That we get a “way” and not just a “rule” is another reason why today more than ever we need, personally and socially, Therese’s Little Way of love without violence.  Her life and teaching might offer a better response to those asking questions of the Church today, than just giving questioners “a rule.”

Brother Joseph Schmidt, F.S.C.

Nairobi, Kenya

The English section of the Web site of the archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, which had been scheduled for Monday, March 19, has been postponed due to the serious illness of the Web designer.  Please pray for him. No date has been set for the new opening.  In the meantime, please visit the English guide to the photos of St. Therese and her milieu to enjoy the hundreds of previously unpublished photographs on the site. 

Because Ash Wednesday is only a week away, I recommend to you Fr. John Russell's book "A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and Saint Therese of Lisieux," published by Christus Publishing.  Father John, who has written and spoken about St. Therese for decades, has presented the daily gospel readings for Lent together with an excerpt from St. Therese's writings for each day.  He has added a short reflection and a short prayer for each day.  Father John introduces the book with a short biography of Therese, an overview of  the Carmelite order, thoughts about the Lenten season, a few pages about prayer, Scripture, and lectio divina, and some thoughts about St. Therese and prayer.  If you later want to read the excerpts from St. Therese's text in their original context, an appendix showing where, in her writings, the excerpt for each day of Lent is located makes that easy.  With this book, you can pray with the Church each day of Lent through the gospels, and you can enter into St. Therese's transforming reflection on the gospels through reading her text and through answering Fr. Russell's invitation to pray and reflect. 

For information about the print edition, or to order it, please click the image above.  For information about the Kindle edition, or to order it, please click the image below.

 The Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux invite you to the preview of their long-awaited Web site, which was launched today.  This magnificent site, the fruit of years of work, opens to you the doors of the Archives so that you can discover the treasures they contain, to know everything about Thérèse.   To begin to delve into its treasures, please visit

Please note that the opening of the English site, scheduled for March 19, 2012, has been postponedd due to the serious illness of the Web designer.  But there is a guide for English-speaking visitors to the treasures already posted on the site at http://archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/english/.  On that page, if you click on the small arrow by Thérèse's ear in the photograph, you will be led to a guide for English-speaking visitors to the 2,000 photos already on the site: photos of Thérèse's family and the places they lived, the Carmelite community, the works of art by the Martin sisters and St. Thérèse, and the works of art she loved.  The site is a marvel of detail and authenticity.   To register for e-mail updates about the English archives, please visit that page.

The site has not yet been migrated to its permanent server, so the connection might be slow, or a page might be unavailable.  The French site will become fully functional at the beginning of next week.  Please return regularly.  As documents are translated into English, more jewels will be added.

We congratulate and thank the Carmel of Lisieux and all the partners who worked with the Archives to accomplish this historic achievement, which makes the treasures of the Archives available to the world.  We thank God that the archives have been digitized, and we ask God's blessing on those who contributed to the accomplishment. Please pray that through this Web site, God may draw souls along the "way of confidence and love" Thérèse walked in the earthly milieu now visible to all of us.

On Monday, January 16, 2012, the first chapel in France under the patronage of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin will be dedicated at the Shrine of Notre Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories) in Paris. January 16 is the patronal feast of the Shrine (the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners). The Shrine of Our Lady of Victories was much loved by Louis and Zelie, and Therese prayed fervently here before leaving on her pilgrimage to Rome in 1887.

The inauguration of the new chapel, the first worship space in France dedicated to Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, who were beatified on October 19, 2008, is to be celebrated from January 16 through January 20, 2012 in Paris.  The Mass of inauguration for the new chapel was celebrated at 6:00 p.m. on January 16 by Monseigneur Jerome Beau, auxiliary bishop of Paris.  Each evening from January 17 through January 20, Vespers will be celebrated at 6:00 p.m., followed by a conference, with solemn Mass at 7:00 p.m.  For a detailed schedule in French, please click here.