A Retreat with St. Therese aims to expose the spiritual teaching of St. Therese, known as the Little Way of Spiritual Childhood. The book contains the core of her teaching expressed in the simplest way possible. A Retreat with St. Therese is material for our meditation or teaching the Little Way to others. It can be useful in summarizing St. Therese’s teachings. Will you read the book and do the retreat?
A Retreat with St. Therese Summary
The book was written by Père Liagr and translated by P. J. Owen. It is 125 pages long. The first two chapters discuss the “compassionate love” that was so dynamic in St. Thérèse’s spiritual life. The remaining chapters detail how her reliance on Jesus Christ’s compassionate love influenced her life of virtue—her simplicity, humility, patience, confidence, prayer, and charity.
St. Thérèse sees Jesus Christ’s love for her as the source of her unswering love in A Retreat with St. Therese. In His infinite compassion, Jesus Christ sees the soul’s helplessness to answer with corresponding love and hears its plea to be rescued from its nothingness. Jesus Christ then blesses the soul with the gift of the divine love, which calls for love in return. The soul surrenders and finds its love unlimited “because God implants in that soul His thirst to be loved” (p. 29).
In the chapters on the St. Thérèse virtues, there is a large amount of repetition and didacticism, which are in contrast to the simplicity of her autobiography, which is free-flowing prose. Yet this was necessary to show that the spiritual life is simple when activated by divine love. Followers of St. Thérèse, however, will be delighted with this book.
St. Therese Biography
St. Therese died when she was only 24 years old. She is known as the Little Flower. She lived in a cloistered Carmelite convent for less than ten years. St. Therese never went on missions, never founded a religious order, and never performed great works, though she did write A Retreat with St. Therese. Published after her death, it is a brief edited version of her journal called “Story of a Soul.”
Within 28 years of her death, the public demanded she be canonized, so she was. In subsequent years, some modern Catholics have rejected her because they associate St. Therese with over-sentimentalized piety. Yet, her message for us is still as compelling and simple as it was almost a century ago.
St. Therese was born in France in 1873. She was the daughter of a mother who had wanted to be a saint and a father who had wanted to be a monk. Her parents were married but determined they would be celibate until a priest told them that was not how God wanted a marriage to work! They followed his advice very well because they had nine children.
Tragedy and loss came quickly to St. Therese. Her mother died of breast cancer when she was just 4 years old. Her 16-year-old sister, Pauline, became a second mother to her. Pauline entered the Carmelite convent five years later. A few months later, Therese became so ill with a fever that she thought she was dying.
When Therese saw her sisters praying to the statue of Mary in their room, she also prayed. She saw Mary smile at her, and she was cured. She tried to keep the cure a secret, but people found out and asked her a million questions. Questions about what Mary was wearing and what she looked like. When she refused to satisfy their curiosity, they thought she had made the whole thing up.
Conclusion
A Retreat with St. Therese is a useful book for Lent because it gives Catholics a good source for meditation. This is something they must do (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving). Reading and meditating upon this book satisfies the prayer requirement. With the book, the Little Flower gave us a great gift.
