Thérèse of Lisieux: Session 2

Turning to the Mystics with James Finley

Center for Action and Contemplation

Spirituality, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the second session which focuses on Thérèse of Lisieux. In the tenor of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, James Finley reads passages from the John Clarke translation of Thérèse's Story of a Soul, reflects on core themes, and finishes with a meditative practice. 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/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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.
0:11.9	Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.
0:31.5	Greetings, everyone, and welcome to our time together, turning for trustworthy guidance in our search for God to the teaching is found in Teresa's story of a soul.
0:36.5	In this session, I want to single out three passages in Teresa's story of a soul. In this session, I want to single out three passages in
0:39.8	Teresa's story of a soul that helps us to understand her insight into the divine child. When she entered
0:48.3	the monastery at 15, a few months later she began her novitiate, which means she took the habit of the cloistered
0:55.6	Carmelite sister. She took the name of the devotional name of Therese of the child Jesus and of the
1:03.0	holy faiths. In our next and last talk, I'll be talking about the meaning to her of the holy face,
1:10.7	which is really the presence
1:11.9	of love and suffering and death.
1:14.7	But here I want to explore her meaning of the child Jesus.
1:18.9	Anyway, just as she's known as the Little Flower, she's also known as Therese of the Child
1:24.3	Jesus.
1:25.4	So I'd like to explore three passages in which she shares her understanding
1:30.3	of the qualities of childhood in which we experience God's presence in our life. This emphasis on
1:39.9	childhood, the Child Jesus, it doesn't at all suggest that we're not to mature into adults,
1:47.6	but rather to see that there's certain childlike qualities that are the essence of spiritual maturity.
1:55.5	So how can we as adults cultivate these childlike qualities as a way to deepen our experience and response to
2:03.8	God's presence in our life. That's the theme that we're looking at. So we'll begin with the first
2:09.5	text. This first passage in the story of a soul is on page 188. This is the first text. She says on page 188,
	...

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