Therese of Lisieux: Spiritual guide

Similarly, despite her youth, Therese brought a depth of direct experience of God to her ministry which enabled her to guide others with confidence. She knew the God of love and mercy from the experience of her own weakness and of the bold entrusting of herself to God. This was quite different from the accepted spirituality of her time that emphasized the satisfying of God's justice. John of the Cross, from his own experience of God through the path of self-emptying, wanted to lead others to see and embrace the blessings flowing from self-denial. So Therese, from her own first-hand knowledge of God's mercy, wanted to help others to enjoy these same benefits in their own lives. In her autobiography she prayed,

O Jesus! why can't I tell all little souls how unspeakable is Your condescension? I feel that if you found a soul weaker and littler than mine, which is impossible, You would be pleased to grant it still greater favors, provided it abandoned itself with total confidence to your Infinite Mercy.20

Indeed, the example of both John and Therese suggests that, of all the qualities of a good guide-learning, discretion, prudence, experience, skill in interpersonal relationships-the experience of God is the most important and reassuring to the people they guide. Guiding others primarily with the theory derived from books and the helping skills learned in training programs enables us to be correct, but often tentative because what we know from theory and training may not yet be validated by our own experience. When our own experience, however, confirms our theoretical understanding and pastoral training, we offer guidance that is more sure and certain. This probably explains why millions of people throughout the world over the last hundred years have turned to Th6r6se for spiritual guidance. They recognize in her the voice of experience when she invites them to embrace the little way and to surrender themselves to God's merciful love.

A Guide for Others

Young though she was, Therese's direct experience of God and her awareness of Jesus guiding her through his mystical body prepared her to guide others. At the age of twenty (five years after entering Carmel), she counseled her older sister Celine who was at home caring for their sick father and undergoing severe trials of darkness about her future. "There is a void around me," wrote Celine to her three sisters in the Lisieux Carmel on July 3, 1893, "and for a moment I saw myself as the last survivor of our shipwrecked family. Oh, my life seems so very sad?' Three weeks later, Therese wrote this letter:

Dear Little Celine, I am not surprised that you understand nothing that is taking place in your soul. A LITTLE child all alone on the sea, in a boat lost in the midst of the stormy waves, could she know whether she is close or far from port? ... My Celine, the little child of Jesus, is all alone in a little boat; the land has disappeared from her eyes, she does not know where she is going, whether she is advancing or if she is going backward .... Little Therese knows, and she is sure she [Celine] is on the open sea; the boat carrying her is advancing with full sails toward the port, and the rudder which Celine cannot even see is not without a pilot. Jesus is there, sleeping as in days gone by, in the boat of the fishermen of Galilee. He is sleeping ... and Celine does not see Him, for night has fallen on the boat.... Celine does not hear the voice of Jesus. The wind is blowing... she hears it; she sees the darkness... and Jesus is always sleeping.... The apostles had given Him a pillow. The Gospel gives us this detail. But in his dear spouse's little boat, Our Lord finds another pillow much softer, Celine's heart. There He forgets all, He is at Home.... Oh, how happy Jesus is!... What a mystery!...