st therese of lisieux the story of a soul

Thérèse had hoped for more, but soon the local bishop gave his approval, and on April 9, 1888, she entered the convent. “You will enter if God wills it,” the startled pope told the 14-year-old girl. In November 1887, her father took her and Celine on a diocesan pilgrimage to Rome, and she boldly seized the opportunity of an audience with Pope Leo XIII to ask him to tell the authorities to allow her to enter Carmel despite being underage. Seeing her older sisters enter the Carmelite convent in Lisieux, France, Thérèse longed to do the same. Read more articles from the Turning Points series here. Thérèse felt certain that he was saved, and now the desire to save souls became a permanent part of this formerly self-absorbed child’s life. When the time came for Pranzini to die, a priest held out a crucifix to him, and he kissed Christ’s wounds three times. It was the turning point of her life.įilled with “a thirst for souls,” Thérèse took up the cause of Henri Pranzini, a murderer under sentence of death, and stormed heaven with prayers for his repentance.

“I felt charity enter into my soul, and the need to forget myself and to please others.” Rushing downstairs, she took her shoes to her father and joyfully opened her gifts while he watched and laughed. Returning from Midnight Mass, she and her sister, Celine, were going upstairs to put their hats away before opening their gifts when they heard their frazzled father say, “Fortunately, this will be the last year.”įearing her little sister’s reaction, Celine told Thérèse not to go downstairs again. On Christmas Eve in 1886, Thérèse, following tradition, placed her empty shoes on the hearth to be filled with presents and candy.

St therese of lisieux the story of a soul