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

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.

 A large number of people in the area are, of course, very poor and they do not have money to spend on the upscale advertised merchandise.  They have barely enough to buy the minimum of food.

 What strikes me about this is the patient and generally pleasant spirit even among many of the very poor. Beside poverty that is inflicted unjustly on them, they have been gifted with a certain spirit of poverty that they have willingly adopted.   In that spirit they have found a certain peace that is a blessing.

 Make no mistake about it, though: the many slums around Nairobi, housing probably more than two million people, are ripe for an uprising not unlike what we are seeing in Northern Africa and in other parts of the Arab world.  Whether such an uprising, if it were to take place in Kenya, would be peaceful is difficult to predict, since many of the poor living in the slums are young and aware of the corruption that at least partly causes poverty.  And many of these young poor are harboring feelings of oppression and violence.

 Since most of those living in and around Nairobi are Christians, they will be celebrating Christmas with much rejoicing and with long religious ceremonies.  The Mass that I attended last year at midnight on Christmas was celebrated in the local language and lasted well over two hours, with much singing and dancing.  And the songs tend to have components that are interminably repetitious.

 This year I will be attending a Mass celebrated in English at the local parish.  Many of the students I teach will be present and we will be praying for all the Kenyan people and all the people around the world suffering the oppression of corruption and poverty.  The prayer will be joined with the pope’s plea that he had made during his two visits to Africa, the most recent just last month.  Each time he has warned that corruption in government must be stopped if poverty was to end and justice prevail in Africa.

 The spirit of poverty is a blessing that we all need, and one that Therese has at the heart of her little way; but abject material poverty in a country where there is much squandered wealth is a cruel and violent evil that needs to be brought to an end. 

 “Your Benjamin comes in her turn to wish you a Happy New Year!  Just as each day has its last hour, so each year sees its last night coming also, and it is on the night of this year that I feel drawn to cast a look over the past and on the future.  When I consider the time that has just run out, I feel drawn to thank God, for, although His hand has offered us a bitter chalice, His divine Heart has been able to sustain us in the trial, and He has given us the strength necessary for drinking His chalice even to the dregs . . . .  What is He reserving for us for the year that is about to begin?”

(Letters of St,. Therese of Lisieux, Volume I, tr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1982, p. 600)

May St. Therese obtain for each of you from God graces as powerful as the one she received on December 25, 1886. 

December 24th:  The good news is the calendar is very popular; the bad news is that we can't send out any more till we get more from Lisieux.  Demand for the calendars has been so intense that our first order from France was exhausted in two days.  Lisieux is sending more, but it will be a couple of weeks before you receive them.  We are still taking orders from our customers, so please feel free to order now, and we will give you priority in shipping as soon as the next batch of calendars arrives.  By ordering now, you will also help us know how soon we need to place another order and how many to bring in.  We regret that we could not make them available earlier, but, in this first year of the English calendar, they arrived in the U.S. only this week.  We are assured that the 2013 calendar will be here in the summer of 2012.  Thank you very much for your generous orders.

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1 calendar $12.00 USD 2 calendars $22.60 USD 3 calendars $33.20 USD 4 calendars $44.95 USD 5 calendars $54.95 USD 6 calendars $64.95 USD 7 calendars $74.95 USD 8 calendars $84.95 USD 9 calendars $94.95 USD 10 calendars $104.95 USD