{"id":43867,"date":"2014-02-18T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=43867"},"modified":"2014-02-17T23:14:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T05:14:18","slug":"review-story-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/review-story-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Story of the Little Way (Review: “The Story of a Soul”)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"theresedaisy\"<\/p>\n

If you’ve been reading my reviews here for a while, you know that I love stories. I frequently remind you, dear readers, that I love stories because it helps explain my affinity for movies with bad acting or TV shows with morally objectionable content (which, these days, is all the shows). From the story of how I fell in love with Jesus to the story of salvation history, that basic beginning\u2013middle\u2013end format draws me in.<\/p>\n

You can imagine my disappointment when I realized that The Autobiography of St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul<\/em><\/a> is not actually a story in the customary sense. Then you can imagine my delight and consolation in finding that, in this case, the story I imagined wouldn’t be nearly as good as the wisdom I found.<\/p>\n

Autobiography is a tricky field. There is a debate over how much must be fact and how much can be fictionalized (remember A Million Little Pieces<\/em><\/a>?), and there’s a separate debate over the dividing line between autobiography and memoir. From my perspective, The Story of a Soul<\/em> is a spiritual memoir. It does reveal much about young Th\u00e9r\u00e8se’s life, but her focus is never just to share her history. It’s to share the wondrous working of God throughout her life that led her to her final days in the final pages of her story.<\/p>\n

Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Martin grew up as the youngest of five daughters at the end of the 19th century. Her mother died when Th\u00e9r\u00e8se was very young, leaving her in the care of her older sisters and her loving father. The committed religious faith of the Martin parents (who have been beatified) nurtured Th\u00e9r\u00e8se so incredibly that she showed great piety from the youngest age and eventually followed her sisters into the nearby Carmelite convent at only sixteen. She never emerged, dying at age twenty-four after describing her journey to faith at the urging of her oldest sister, then also her religious superior. It is from this writing that Th\u00e9r\u00e8se earned her title of saint and her patronage of missionaries (despite being cloistered for her entire adult life).<\/p>\n

St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se is best known for her “little way”: her conviction that even the smallest prayers, sacrifices, and love offered to God have infinite worth. She never saw herself as someone great; I think she would be flatly stunned by her book’s worldwide acclaim and her position among the canon of saints. Over and over, she asks God only to do what is best for her, to ignore her completely for the sake of others, and to accept the feeble graces she can offer back to him. If smiling warmly at the sister who most annoys her is what draws her closer to the God who made even self-centered sisters, then so be it. Since her biological brothers all died, she is content to never have a priest for a brother\u2014until one requests a spiritual sister and Th\u00e9r\u00e8se is chosen. Great works are too much for her, but small things with great love are her calling and consolation.<\/p>\n

The story of St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se is a reminder to all of us that what we should be, what we must be, is exactly what God wants of us and nothing more. There is no such thing as just<\/em> offering prayer, as just<\/em> serving one group of God’s children, as just<\/em> raising one child. Even little things done with great love by the littlest of God’s creation add to the glory of the heavenly kingdom.<\/p>\n

Featured image by Doug8888 at Flickr<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been reading my reviews here for a while, you know that I love stories. I frequently remind you, dear readers, that I love stories because it helps explain my affinity for movies with bad acting or TV shows with morally objectionable content (which, these days, is all the shows). From the story of… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[90,87],"tags":[1749,163,2082,2022,734],"class_list":["post-43867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-faith-blog","category-reviews","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-little-way","tag-st-theresa-of-lisieux","tag-st-therese","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":303730,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/303730\/","url_meta":{"origin":43867,"position":0},"title":"Therese of Lisieux & The Marian Jubilee of Mercy","author":"Rachel","date":"October 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It's possible that St Therese of Lisieux is one of those saints of whom we hear so often that we think, well, we already know that story - next! Yet\u00a0I think we often only capture her \"slogan\" of childlikeness, and in skipping over it, we miss the profound and prophetic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image taken from littleflower.org, no image credit information available","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/writing1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1372544,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/an-advent-interview-with-st-therese-of-the-child-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":43867,"position":1},"title":"An Advent Interview with St. Therese of the Child Jesus","author":"Shawn Rain Chapman","date":"December 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u201cThe Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty. You shall see his glory within you.\u201d- Liturgy of the Hours We are sitting in my living room, reflecting silently together in the glow of the blinking lights of the Christmas tree. It looks particularly lovely in the dark. It\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":356960,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/review-a-good-man-is-hard-to-find\/","url_meta":{"origin":43867,"position":2},"title":"Holiness and Horror (Review: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories”)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone loves a happy ending, but the sad ones are way more interesting. That's the basic premise of every story by the incredibly talented Flannery O'Connor. She was one of the greats of Catholic fiction, so for my last regular review for ATX Catholic, I encourage you to give her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A review of \"A Good Man Is Hard to Find,\" at ATX Catholic","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/sxc-angel-525x700.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/sxc-angel-525x700.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/sxc-angel-525x700.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":112702,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/review-loved-as-i-am\/","url_meta":{"origin":43867,"position":3},"title":"The First Steps on the Road (Review: “Loved As I Am”)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"May 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"To love is to do what is best for the beloved. Some people are easy to love, especially when we have great affection for them besides. Some people are rather more difficult to love. Consider God's love for us. We rejected him from the very start of humanity, and we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Loved As I Am: A Review at AustinCNM.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/acnm_lovedasiam-550x366.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/acnm_lovedasiam-550x366.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/acnm_lovedasiam-550x366.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":155143,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/review-the-year-without-a-purchase\/","url_meta":{"origin":43867,"position":4},"title":"Faith, Consumerism, and More (Review: “The Year Without a Purchase”)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Minimalist stories don't usually contain much God-talk. Some have hints of spirituality in their suggestions that you can declutter your soul, make time for what's important, and find peace in a life that's not so full of stuff. On the flip side, there is plenty of writing about how to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Review of \"The Year Without a Purchase\" at Austin CNM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bossfight-vegetables-285x190.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":145339,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/review-arriving-at-amen\/","url_meta":{"origin":43867,"position":5},"title":"Mathing Up the Faith (Review: “Arriving at Amen”)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"September 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I love a good conversion story. 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