My Vocation Is Love

This spiritual biography, which emerges from the Carmelite tradition, includes rich commentary on Therese’s reflections. Drawing upon translations of her writings and authoritative sources such as John Paul II, author Jean Lafrance offers glimpses into Therese’s interior life of contemplation and prayer. This biography can be used as a personal companion to deepen your relationship with God, as you are guided to place unwavering trust in Him.

Ordinary actions of extraordinary love are the path to Therese’s “little way” to God. In confessing her powerlessness, she stands before God, ready to utterly abandon herself to him and accept his graces. As a child approaches a parent, Therese approaches God with absolute trust.

Lafrance is particularly adept at capturing the budding of Therese’s spiritual discoveries-from the acknowledgement and acceptance of her own powerlessness and imperfections in everyday life, to placing complete confidence in God, to God’s revelation in which her inadequacy is wholly met by his merciful love. In this portrayal, you see the spiritual growth of Therese, called the “Little Flower,” as she blossoms in God’s garden-the garden of mercy and love.

Lafrance does not detach you from her story, but rather encourages you to approach Therese. In the Introduction, he invites those of us who suffer from a lack of confidence in God, or have incapacitated love through sin, to the “prayer of humble petition.” In the Conclusion, he reminds us that we can relate to Therese, despite our inclination to consider her an exceptional woman impossible to emulate.

Beatified, canonized, and declared a Doctor of the Church, we can look at Saint Therese of Lisieux as a source of inspiration. Like Therese, we are limited and sometimes overcome by fear. By following her way of total trust, we too will experience God’s love, and be able to cry out, “My vocation is love!”

Complete with full bibliographical references and suggestions for supplementary reading, you are invited to further explore the spiritual wisdom of Saint Therese of Lisieux.