Dialogue 3: The Holy Face

Turning to the Mystics with James Finley

Center for Action and Contemplation

Spirituality, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this third dialogue session, Jim and Kirsten will focus on the meaning behind Thérèse's second chosen name, The Holy Face. Resources: The transcript for this episode can be found here. The books we will be using this season are: Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Third Edition, translated by John Clarke, which can be found ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series), edited by Mary Frolich⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcasts@cac.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send us a voicemail: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠cac.org/voicemail⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until May 15, 2026. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at https://cac.org/support-cac/ Thank you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation.
0:04.0	To learn more, visit cac.org.
0:08.2	Greetings. I'm Jim Finley.
0:11.2	And I'm Kirsten Oates.
0:13.2	Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.
0:29.4	Welcome, everyone, to season 13 of Turning to the Mystics, where we've been turning to St. Therese of Lesoth. And I'm here with Jim to discuss his third talk. Welcome, Jim.
0:35.9	It's been so rich walking through her teachings and guidance,
0:40.1	and now this session moves towards her death and so on, so it's a lovely ending of her story
0:46.0	of the soul. I loved the third talk. I'm really looking forward to discussing it today.
0:52.0	The overarching theme we've been exploring with
0:54.4	Therese is her little way. And the little way is this idea that God loves us in our
0:59.6	ordinaries, that we don't have to do or achieve great things for God to love us. What we learn
1:05.6	to do is to surrender to God's love that's already present with us and in them with all things.
1:12.2	Yes. And for her and all the saints, the gospels, that surrender of ourselves and our
1:18.4	littleness is the truly great thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's seriously. And then because when we
1:24.2	surrender ourselves in our littleness, it's a response knowing that in Jesus,
1:29.4	God has surrendered to us, that we belong to God, and in Jesus, God belongs to us.
1:34.4	So she's very big on the intimacy of this self-donating surrender, each unto each,
1:40.2	as her path of holiness.
1:43.7	There's a reciprocity to the surrender.
1:46.7	That is.
1:47.6	This reciprocity is the experience of our very being.
	...

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