← [[f2-c-04|Determined Determination — Pursuit of a Vocation in Carmel]] | [[formation-II-c-handbook-toc|Table of Contents]] | [[f2-c-06|My Vocation Is Love]] → # Entrance into Carmel — Climbing Mount Carmel **Required Reading:**Story of A Soul, chapters VII and VIII Explanatory note: The day chosen for Thérèse’s entrance into Carmel was April 9, 1888. “On the morning of the great day, casting a last look upon Les Buissonnets, that beautiful cradle of my childhood which I was never to see again, I left on my dear King’s arm to climb Mount Carmel” (pg. 230). Thus, Thérèse became a postulant in the Lisieux Discalced Carmelite Monastery when Mother Marie de Gonzague was the elected Prioress. Two months after Thérèse entered Carmel, her beloved father suddenly disappeared from Les Buissonnets and was found after four days. It was during this time of her father’s illness that Thérèse took real interest in the devotion to the “Holy Face.” She signed her name for the first time as “Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face” the day she received the habit, Jan. 10, 1889. She saw the God of merciful love in the suffering face of her father. Her father was able to attend the clothing ceremony. Thérèse called this day “his day of triumph” (pg. 239). However, the “triumph” was short lived. “I didn’t know that on February 12, a month after my reception of the Habit, our dear Father would drink the most bitter and most humiliating of all chalices” (pg. 241). M. Martin’s health was rapidly deteriorating and on Feb. 12, 1889, her beloved father left Lisieux to enter a mental institution, Bon Sauveur, at Caen. Thérèse’s profession took place on September 8, 1890, without her father by her side. Throughout her ordeal, Thérèse retained her peace: “…everything was sadness and bitterness. And still peace, always peace, reigned at the bottom of the chalice” (pg. 262). This interior peace allowed her to embrace the Cross with all its uncertainties. “Those who have no other goal than the perfect observance of the Lord’s law and carrying of the cross of Christ will be true arks, and they will bear within themselves the real manna, which is God…” (A.I.5:8). “Night” is an encounter of God’s presence — purifying and transforming one’s life. # Essential Points to Discuss • Upon entering Carmel, Thérèse was thrust into the real world. However, she was not surprised by the conflicting daily encounters: “Illusions, God gave me the grace not to have a SINGLE ONE when entering Carmel… When one wishes to attain a goal, one must use the means; Jesus made me understand that it was though suffering that He wanted to give me souls…” (pg. 231). • “Never, whether in adversity or in prosperity, cease to quiet your heart with deepest love, so as to suffer whatever comes along…It is impossible to advance without doing and suffering virtuously, all enveloped in silence” (St. John of the Cross, Letter 10). • Early in her life as a religious, Thérèse understood that Jesus was her Director to guide her soul during the unexpected daily encounters with the Sisters. “I have 25 said that Jesus was ‘my Director.’ … my heart quickly turned to the Director of directors, and it was He who taught me that science hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to little ones” (pg.234235). • The hiddenness that stemmed from the virtue of humility is one of the characteristics of Thérèse’s teaching: “I understood what real glory was. He whose Kingdom is not of this world showed me that true wisdom consists in ‘desiring to be unknown and counted as nothing,’ … Ah! I desired that, like the Face of Jesus, ‘my face be truly hidden, that no one on earth would know me. ’ I thirsted after suffering and I longed to be forgotten” (pg. 235-236). • Thérèse continued to show her profound wisdom in understanding her daily encounters at the monastery. On one occasion, a sister accidentally took Thérèse’s oil lamp from her shelf, leaving Thérèse without light in her cell. Instead of complaining about it, Thérèse surrendered to the true wisdom of God: “Instead of feeling annoyed at being thus deprived of it, I was really happy, feeling that Poverty consists in being deprived not only of agreeable things but of indispensable things too. And so, in this exterior darkness, I was interiorly illumined!” (pg. 243) (emphasis added). Each small sacrifice that Thérèse made became the source of an increase in virtue. • Thérèse was not attracted to physical penances. She knew that her path to union with God was the little way. “I applied myself to practicing little virtues, not having the capability of practicing the great. For instance, I loved to fold up the mantels forgotten by the Sisters and render them all sorts of little services…The penances they [the superiors] did allow me consisted in mortifying my self-love, which did me much more good than corporeal penances” (pg. 244). • Thérèse’s writings consistently show that she was not attracted to any stark spirituality of a wrathful God. She always believed in a loving God. For instance, she didn’t show any guilt about falling asleep during prayer. “…well, I am not desolate. I remember that little children are as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as well as when they are wide awake; I remember, too, that when they perform an operation, doctors put their patients to sleep. Finally, I remember that: ‘The Lord knows our weakness, that he is mindful that we are but dust and ashes’” (pg. 259-260). ** private reflection **: In the light of this truth, Thérèse transformed false guilt into gratitude. Are there areas in your life (besides falling asleep during prayer) where you can do the same? (pg. 287). • Every encounter in Carmel is an opportunity for transformation and purification of one’s desires and motives. The journey goes on without pointing to an “end” in this life. “I learned very quickly... that the more one advances, the more one sees the goal is still far off. And now I am simply resigned to see myself always imperfect and in this I find my joy” (pg. 243). 26 “It is not that I have reached it yet, or have already finished my course; but I am racing to grasp the prize if possible, since I have been grasped by Christ [Jesus]…I do not think of myself as having reached the finish line. I give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what is ahead” (Phil. 3:12-13). • As previously noted, Thérèse was guided by the light of faith that imparted the “loving knowledge” of God Himself to her: “I have frequently noticed that Jesus doesn’t want me to lay up provisions; He nourishes me at each moment with a totally new food; I find it within me without my knowing how it is there. I believe it is Jesus Himself hidden in the depths of my poor little heart; He is giving me the grace of acting within me, making me think of all He desires me to do at the present moment” (pg. 260). “Faith, the theologians say, is a certain and obscure habit of soul… It brings us to believe divinely revealed truths that transcend every natural light and infinitely exceed all human understanding. As a result, the excessive light of faith bestowed on a soul is darkness for it” (A.2.3:1). • Thérèse’s Profession took place on the morning of September 8, 1890. “…I felt as though I were flooded with a river of peace, and it was in this peace ‘which surpasses all understanding’ that I pronounced my Holy Vows. My union with Jesus was effected not in the midst of thunder and lightning, that is, in extraordinary graces, but in the bosom of a light breeze similar to the one our Father St. Elijah heard on the Mount” (pg. 261). • In the year that followed her Profession, Thérèse encountered a retreat director who decisively guided her in the right direction. Thérèse had been suffering from “great interior trials of all kinds. ” Fr. Alexis Prou assured her that her “faults caused God no pain…. ” “Oh! how happy I was to hear those consoling words! Never had I heard that our faults could not cause God any pain, and this assurance filled me with joy… My nature was such that fear made me recoil; with love not only did I advance, I actually flew” (pg. 269). **Note:** Thérèse’s observation reflects the teaching of St. John of the Cross that the involuntary appetites — certain scattered acts of different desires and failures — are not such a hindrance to spiritual growth, because one will fall into imperfections and venial sins without having knowledge or control in the matter. “It is written of these semi-voluntary and inadvertent sins that the just will fall seven times a day and rise up again” (see A.1. 11:3). **Epilogue:** On May 10, 1892, M. Martin was brought into the Lisieux Carmel. It was the last time that Thérèse ever saw her father. It was a heartrending encounter for Thérèse. Louis, once so handsome and dignified, was now gaunt and his faculties were diminished. He was almost mute; when he spoke, he did so only in phrases, “My little queen”, etc. As he left in tears, Louis pointed upwards and said, “Au ciel!” (“In heaven!”). It was the last word that she ever heard her father speak (pg. 251). 27 Thérèse, however, was at peace. She was given the gift of finding peace and happiness in the midst of her daily darkness: “... I always find a way to be happy and to profit from my miseries…” (pg. 268). M. Martin died on July 29, 1894, and Thérèse’s sister Celine, who had cared for their father in his illness, entered Carmel less than two months later, on September 14, 1894. 28 --- **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).