Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
My favorite St. Therese story comes before she went to Carmel, before she named her philosophy The Little Way, and long before anyone 
beyond her family gave much thought to the girl with the sad eyes.
Therese was spoiled, which is understandable. She was the youngest of the five Martin sisters, and her mother had died of cancer before Therese was five.
At Christmas 1886, she was almost fourteen, well past the age when most French children had stopped putting out their shoes for gifts. But Therese was, well, Therese. She liked presents, the household in many ways marched to her tune, and so out the shoes went.
Therese was upstairs when she heard her father say he hoped this would finally be the last year for this custom. She was ready to default to drama, but one of her sisters advised her to wait a minute. And in that minute, Therese’s heart and soul were changed.
When she went downstairs, she gave no indication she had heard the comment. She was kind, pleasant, playful, and grateful. Within two years, Therese would be a Carmelite postulant.
The opportunity for conversion always lies within us. The Lord holds out His hand again and again and again, regardless of the number of times we reject it. He never tires of gently asking us to grow closer to Him. And I think, if a willful, pampered child can say yes to resisting her kneejerk reaction to a challenging situation… so can I.
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