Story of a Soul

She entered a Carmelite convent in Normandy as a teenager. She died of tuberculosis at twenty-four, almost unknown outside its walls. That should have been the end of the story. Instead, the pages Thérèse Martin wrote at her superiors' request were published after her death as Story of a Soul. She was canonized, and St. John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church.

What gave a hidden young nun that kind of reach? The “Little Way.” Thérèse knew she couldn't do great deeds, so she offered God small ones. She gave a smile to a difficult sister, kept patience with petty annoyances, and trusted like a child in her Father's arms. She writes with disarming honesty about her sensitive childhood, her family and her longing to give Jesus everything. Near the end comes a dark trial of faith, when heaven itself seemed hidden from her.

It suits anyone who feels too ordinary for holiness, people wrestling with anxiety or scrupulosity, and those drawn to simple prayer. The style is sweet in the nineteenth-century French manner. Underneath the lace is steel.