Select readings from Manuscript A - chapters 7 and 8
And chapter nine often referred to as Manuscript B
Therese entered Carmel on April 9, 1888.
As she crossed the threshold Father Delatroette “said caustically,
"Well, my Reverend Mothers, you can sing a Te Deum. As the delegate of Monseigneur the bishop, I present to you this child of fifteen whose entrance you so much desired. I trust that she will not disappoint your hopes, but I remind you that, if she does, the responsibility is yours, and yours alone."
Fr. D. was Therese’s primary antagonist in her attempts to enter Carmel. He opposed her even after she appealed to the bishop and to the pope. The bishop finally gave her permission, of course, and Fr. D. still opposed her entrance. Fr. D was the bishop’s delegate and served as the ecclesiastical superior of the convent.
One of her early challenges in the convent was not to “become the pet of the community” (p. 233) in which her older sisters were also resident.
Her desire was to be “unknown and counted as nothing.”
In the early days of her novitiate (period of training and preparation for taking religious vows) Therese continued to learn patience and humility. She took the blame for mistakes that were not her fault (p. 244) and was made to wait longer than she desired to make her profession. (p. 242). In addition, the decline in her father’s health brought heartache and anguish.
“I am simply resigned to see myself always imperfect and in this I find my joy.” p. 243
Therese was a student of St. John of the Cross and seems to have taken up his teaching about the relinquishment of consolations. She adopted an active spiritual practice of accepting disconsolations peacefully and began to receive the gift of being “[interiorly illumined in exterior darkness.]” p. 243
Chapter 8 - Therese returns to the mystical metaphor of her soul as a boat in which Jesus slumbers. (Mark 4:35-41)
On the eve of her profession she experiences the anguish of aridity and doubt. She is besieged by feelings of doubt that she should continue her journey to become a nun. She confesses these feelings to the novice mistress who reassured her that she was doing the right thing. On the day appointed for her profession, September 8, she was “flooded with a river of peace.”
She felt a desire for service, a desire to “deliver all the souls from purgatory and convert all sinners.” Her heart is being expanded to “divine proportions.” See dwelling 4 in the Interior Castle
P. 264 - Therese found herself in another “night” during which she was filled with doubt over whether or not God loved her. During this night of no-consolation she visited an elderly nun who was near death, Mother Genevieve. There were already two other sisters at Mother. G’s bedside and as 3 were not permitted T. moved to leave. However Mtr. G. asked her to stay so that she might give her a word of blessing, “Serve God with peace and joy; remember my child our God is a God of peace.” This consoled T. greatly and she felt that Mother. G. had read the state of her soul and offered just the word she needed to hear. It came as pure gift. After assuming a stance of humility T. received just what she needed. This is - the manna of God’s sustaining presence which does not protect us from doubt and disconsolation, but carries us through it if we relax our attachment to being consoled and to getting our way.
Mother G’s was the first death at which T. assisted. After she died T. had a dream in which Mother G. was issuing her last will and testament. She left T. her heart. “To you I leave my heart” she repeated 3 times in the dream.
P. 266 - Therese “stole” Mother G’s last tear and kept it on a cloth in a sacred little container.
P. 269 - “at this time I was having great interior trials of all kinds, even asking myself if heaven really existed.” She was told by her confessor that “her faults caused God no pain and that God was very pleased with her.” This puts one very much in the mind of Julian of Norwich’s revelation that sin has no substance and that all is and will be well.
It seems increasingly clear that Therese’s trials of doubt and anguished worry which are over and over again dismantled and defeated by reassurance of God’s love for her and the foundation of her little way. She is being weaned off her inclinations toward grandiosity and the desire to be perfect and blameless and nurtured in a practice of little acts of love and a rhythm of simplicity. God does not have any expectations of us, but that we love him and seek to do his will….which is to love without need for reciprocation.
Louis Martin, Therese’s father, died in July of 1894. In September of that year Celine entered the convent.
Toward the end of her first season at Carmel Therese is immersed in the teachings of John of the Cross and growing increasingly comfortable in the discomfort of unknowing and more and more convinced of the sweetness of the way of love. P. 276
“I understand and know from experience that the kingdom of God is within you.”
“Never have I heard Jesus speak, but I feel that he is within me at each moment.”
“Oh, how sweet is the way of Love!” p. 279
“I don’t know, but what I am certain about is that God’s mercy will accompany me always…”
Chapter 9 also referred to as Manuscript B
Therese wrote Manuscript B in response to a request from her oldest sister, Marie, who asked her to write a record of her teaching, her little way, or as Marie put it her “little doctrine.” The first part of the manuscript is a prologue to the letter containing her little way.
Therese is humble and deferential telling Marie that she already knows everything she is going to write for it was Marie who taught it all to Therese.
“Do not believe that I am swimming in consolations; oh no, my consolation is to have none on earth.”
“I desire only the science of love.”
“The love that makes us acceptable to God is the only good I ambition.”
“Jesus deigned to show me the road that leads to this divine furnace, and this road is the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its father’s arms.”
“Jesus does not demand great actions from us but simply surrender and gratitude.”
Therese is sold out to love and emphasizes that Jesus has no need of grand gestures or works, but only of our love. When she thinks about the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well Therese sees that Jesus is thirsty for love.
There was a storm raging in Therese’s soul until in a vision of the Venerable Anne of Jesus (a friend of Teresa of Avila’s) she received word that “God asks no other thing from you. He is content, very content!” With that the storm calmed and Therese became fully convinced of her belovedness. That “there was a heaven and that this heaven is peopled with souls who actually love me, who consider me their child.”
Therese is overwhelmed with an insatiable desire to do and be all things to and for Jesus. I want to preach on every continent simultaneously! She exclaims. Then she turns to the 12th and 13th chapters of 1st Corinthians. She stoops to the text searching for relief and an answer and emerges with this discovery, “My vocation is love!”
The way she can prove her love for Jesus is to do all things even the very smallest with love. In this way she will “strew little flowers” everywhere with every word and deed of her life.
P. 306 Therese describes herself as a little bird who cannot fly. She is not an eagle, but she has the eyes and the heart of an eagle. Nothing frightens the little bird b/c she knows that the sun is always shining behind the clouds. “The brightness of the sun is not eclipsed for a single instant.”
The little bird sometimes becomes distracted and is vulnerable to being taken up with the “trifles of earth.” Wings wet with distraction the little bird turns back toward the Sun. She is “happy to be weak and little” even if the Sun pays her no mind. The little bird falls asleep and “when it awakens, it doesn’t feel desolate; its little heart is at peace and it begins once again its work of love.” p. 308
Therese’s little way is characterized by three things:
Her vocation is love. The primacy of love guides her every word and deed no matter how small or insignificant.
She embraces with full surrender her littleness and weakness. She is a little bird with the eyes and heart of an Eagle, but a little bird nonetheless.
The story of the little bird illustrates her commitment to simplicity, weakness, and love.