Who we are Therese's story Reflections on St. Therese Reflections on St. Therese Fr. John Russell, O. Carm. states that St. Therese's message is important to us today because, "Quite simply, her story reveals the truth of the gospel message of love." Fr. John’s scholarly work on St. Therese of Lisieux and her spirituality are well known. He was a popular retreat leader and speaker on the life and mission of St. Therese. Below are some articles he wrote on her. Take time to be enlightened and enriched by St. Therese through Fr. John's spiritual thoughts and writings on the Little Flower A Woman Born to Love Her sense of commitment led her to a profound experience of the love of God and of neighbor. She never had an easy life, but she did live with a great sense of peace and joy. What made such joy possible? Read More St. Therese and Her Little Way St. Therese translated "the little way" in terms of a commitment to the tasks and to the people we meet in our everyday lives. She took her assignments in the convent of Lisieux as ways of manifesting her love for God and for others. Read More St. Therese and Love St. Therese believed that Jesus was with her and loved her from her childhood. She learned of Jesus Christ from the stories read to her and from her own familiarity with scripture as she grew up. Read More St. Therese and Family Life Nineteenth century France is not an answer to today's issues. Yet the Martin family does provide a scenario of life-giving relationships that suggests some alternative living. St. Therese inherited a family environment marked by an identity, a sense of direction, and a way of life. Read More St. Therese and Prayer Prayer, for St. Therese, was a way of walking with God. Whether it was a period of meditative prayer, communal prayer in the chapel with the other nuns in the community or the aspirative prayer of lifting her heart to God in short prayers of intercession or praise, she realized that God was with her. Read More St. Therese on Suffering In suffering Therese always united her heart to Jesus Christ. She believed that even suffering, however difficult, had a place in Gods redemptive love for us. She was convinced that our suffering, in union with the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, could help to transform the world. Read More St. Therese and Spiritual Childhood St. Therese's personal experience led her to recognise that God was at the centre of her existence as Love. In view of the immensity of the world and the complexities of life she saw herself as 'a child,' 'a grain of sand,' 'little' but energised by a God who directed her journey in faith.