← [[f2-c-02|Separation and Transition]] | [[formation-II-c-handbook-toc|Table of Contents]] | [[f2-c-04|Determined Determination — Pursuit of a Vocation in Carmel]] → # The Grace of Christmas and a Vocation to Carmel **Required Reading:**Story of a Soul, chapter V; and The Context of Holiness: The battle of bearing her emotions, pg. 92-96 (Appendix D) Additional Reading: Signs of Spiritual Maturity (Appendix E) Explanatory note: After describing the pain and suffering caused by her over-sensitivity and scruples, Thérèse goes on to describe her progression on the path to spiritual maturity. Chapter V is one of the most well-known and frequently quoted sections of Thérèse’s writings. It contains the story of her Christmas conversion, her adoption of her “First Child,” the criminal Pranzini, and her desire to enter Carmel. “The ‘third period’ of Thérèse’s life dawned on December 25, 1886. When God gave her the grace to control her ‘extreme touchiness.’ Thérèse said that it was the greatest grace that had ever received. It restored her strength of soul that she had lost when her mother died. The centrality of Thérèse’s Christmas conversion cannot be overemphasized. It was the event that changed the entire course of her life. It was the moment when she ‘received the grace of leaving … childhood’” (The Context of Holiness, The Battle of Bearing Her Emotions). # Essential Points to Discussss • “I was really unbearable because of my extreme touchiness… I really don’t know how I could entertain the thought of entering Carmel when I was still in the swaddling cloth of a child” (pg. 151-152). “God would have to work a little miracle to make me grow up in an instant, and this miracle He performed on that unforgettable Christmas day” (pg. 152). • On Christmas day, it was a French tradition to fill the shoes for the baby of the family with little gifts and this custom continued in the Martin household. When the Martin family returned home after attending midnight Mass, Thérèse’s father, Louis, was somewhat annoyed to notice Thérèse’s shoes in front of the fireplace; and sighed to Celine: “Well, fortunately, this will be the last year!” In her father’s mind, Thérèse was getting too old for this sort of thing, and he hoped this would be the last time. Thérèse overheard her father’s remark: • “I was going upstairs at the time, to remove my hat and Celine, knowing how sensitive I was and seeing the tears already glistening in my eyes…She said, ‘Oh, Thérèse, don’t go downstairs; it would cause you too much grief to look at your slippers right now.’ But Thérèse was no longer the same; Jesus had changed her heart! Forcing back my tears, I descended the stairs rapidly; controlling my pounding heart, I took my slippers and placed them in front of Papa and withdrew all objects joyfully. I had the happy appearance of a queen! Having regained his own cheerfulness, Papa was laughing; Celine believed it was all a dream! Fortunately, it was a sweet reality; Thérèse had discovered once again 17 the strength of soul which she had lost at the age of four and a half, and she was to preserve it forever! On that night of light began the third period of my life” (pg. 152-153). • A seemingly insignificant event, yet it was the turning point in Thérèse’s life. “The source of my tears was dried up, [and I received] the grace of leaving my childhood, in a word, the grace of my complete conversion” (pg. 152). “What does it mean to leave childhood? What does it mean to become an adult? It means having the strength not to be ruled by one’s emotions or allowing one’s feelings to dictate one’s choices, and possessing the determination to stand upright in the face of an emotional storm. This was the grace given to Thérèse” (The Context of Holiness, ibid.). • God did not remove Thérèse from the battle of her emotions but gave her the fortitude to remain in the battle. Subsequent pages of the Story of a Soul reveal that Thérèse was given the grace of fortitude to face the unexpected encounters in Carmel. • “I have often told people who come to me for spiritual direction to never make it a goal to conquer their faults. Simply ask for the grace to resist the temptation of the moment. Take it for granted that you will always have tendencies toward certain sins and self-destructive behavior, which will always be opportunities to grow in virtue” (The Context of Holiness, ibid.). • On that night, Therese was transformed: “I felt charity enter into my soul, and the need to forget myself and to please others; since then I’ve been happy!” (pg. 153-154). • Thérèse also understood the cry of Jesus on the Cross: “‘I thirst!’ These words ignited within me an unknown and very living fire. I wanted to give my Beloved to drink and I felt myself consumed with a thirst for souls” (pg. 154). • As Thérèse described, it was not the souls of the priests that attracted her, “but those of great sinners; I burned with the desire to snatch them from the eternal flames” (pg. 154). Thus, Henri Pranzini (a condemned criminal) became her first “adopted child. ” Thérèse prayed fervently for his repentance and conversion. Her desires were fulfilled when Pranzini, moments before he was executed, turned to the priest who was holding out a crucifix and “kissed the sacred wounds three times!” (pg. 155). “I experienced a great desire to work for the conversion of sinners, a desire I hadn’t felt so intensely before” (pg. 153). Since then, Thérèse’s missionary spirit continued to grow even after her death: “I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.” • Another important aspect of her conversion is the greater understanding of herself (self-knowledge). “God was able in a very short time to extricate me from the very narrow circle in which I was turning without knowing how to come out. When seeing the road He made me travel, my gratitude was great; but I must admit, if the biggest step was taken, there still remained many things for me to 18 leave behind. Freed from its scruples and its excessive sensitiveness, my mind developed” (pg. 156). • During this period, Thérèse also showed “extreme desire for learning” (pg. 156). She knew almost all the chapters of the Imitation of Christ by heart. Abbé Arminjon’s conferences “plunged her soul into a state of joy not of this earth.” (pg. 158). Much to her delight, Thérèse also found “Jesus’ footprints” in the writings of John of the Cross. And she confessed: “The way I was walking was so straight, so clear, I needed no other guide but Jesus” (pg. 160). • The night of Christmas Grace also made Thérèse to think seriously of her religious vocation. John’s poem, The Dark Night, led her to see the place to which God was guiding her: “On that glad night in secret, for no one saw me nor did I look at anything with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he was awaiting me — him I knew so well — there in a place where no one appeared.” Thérèse proclaimed: “This place is Carmel!” (pg. 161). (emphasis added) • Thérèse was faced with many trials and disapproval from different quarters before her entrance into Carmel. One of the memorable moments of the Story of a Soul was that of Thérèse receiving approval from her dear father to enter Carmel: “I chose the feast of Pentecost as the day to break the news…Through my tears, I confided my desire to enter Carmel and soon his tears mingled with mine. He didn’t say one word to turn me from my vocation, simply contenting himself with his statement that I was still very young to make such a serious decision…I defended myself so well that he was soon convinced my desire was God’s will” (pg. 164). • In a deeply symbolic gesture, her father plucked some little white flowers in the garden and gave them to Thérèse “explaining the care with which God preserved her to that very day” (pg. 161). Thérèse accepted the flowers as a relic. By giving her the little flowers, M. Martin was giving (unconsciously) his daughter the name “little flower” by which she would be known and loved throughout the world. Thérèse’s identity was shaped by her father’s act of handing her over to herself, so to speak. Is it any wonder that she begins her autobiography by referring to herself as “a little white flower” (see pg. 187). 19 ** private reflection **: How many times have you struggled to overcome a fault in your life but have failed only to wake up one morning to discover that God had removed it? Or have you ever “worked on yourself” in trying to overcome a fault, only to discover that your main fault was that you were taking yourself too seriously? (pg. 184). 20 --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year C: Story of a Soul (The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux)* (US National Formation Program, 2024).