Book: Learning How to Love with St Therese - seven windows into true charity

For some reason, I had never read anything about or by St Therese until I read Fr Joseph Spence's Learning How to Love with St Therese. This was despite the fact that Pauline Sexton, my wonderful sponsor when I was welcomed into full communion with the Catholic Church in Maidstone in 1982, had a deep devotion to the saint, and that I later attended Mass at St Theresa's, Horn's Cross, East Sussex, on and off for over thirty years.

Thank Goodness I found this book in Gracewing's catalogue! Fr Spence gives a helpful introduction to St Therese's life and spirituality, concentrating on her extraordinary charity. The book begins with a biographical overview of her spiritual journey and then guides us in turn through her love for God and neighbour and her charity towards her family members, sinners, priests, nun-sisters, holy souls in Purgatory and Heaven, her spiritual sons and daughters, and finally towards all men and women of all time. Yes, the embrace of St Therese's charity was that deep and broad!

Apart from the fact that I was put to shame by the way Therese went out of her way to be kind and respectful towards the people that she found the most difficult to relate to, I found the saint's entire attitude towards other people an inspiration which I hope will transform my own behaviour. She realised, even as a teenager, that the love that Christ asks of us is necessarily sacrificial, that we really do need to be willing to swallow our own pride and set aside our own convenience to make room for other people and to ensure that everyone, including those we find most trying, is treated in accordance with the infinite dignity with which God creates each one of us.

Fr Spence quotes a letter which Therese wrote to Jesus on 8th September, 1896, the sixth anniversary of her profession as a Carmelite. Meditating on the thirteenth chapter of the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, she wrote: 'Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that if the Church had a body composed of different members, the most necessary and noble of all could not be lacking to it, and so I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was BURNING WITH LOVE. I understood it was Love alone that made the Church's members act, and if Love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and martyrs would not shed their blood. I understood that LOVE COMPRISED ALL VOCATIONS, THAT LOVE WAS EVERYTHING, THAT IT EMBRACED ALL TIMES AND PLACES...IN A WORD, THAT IT WAS ETERNAL.'

This passage, says Fr Spence, is the magna carta of her doctrine; and he notes that Pope Francis saw it as the key to her vocation.

If all of us who are trying to follow Jesus were to take this message fully to heart, we would surely transform the world, not only at the level of personal relationships but on the level of politics and economics as well. Inspired by these words, I now intend to read St Therese's own writings, which I wish I had read years ago, in the hope that I might begin to live by them.

Fr Spence finishes the book with the following words: 'My hope is that this study may be useful for "amplifying" Therese's voice in your heart and soul and, in turn, that you also might speak of her message to your neighbour, not so much by words...but rather by deeds.' This is what my dear sponsor, Pauline Sexton, did: her life was full of love, and that love was one of the things that drew me to the Catholic Church. She was a true reflection of the young saint who inspired her.

Learning How to Love with St Therese - seven windows into true charity, by Fr Joseph Spence, FFM, was published in 2026 by Angelico Press Ltd, ISBN 979-8-89280-186-7, 142 pages, available in the UK from Gracewing Publishing, Leominster, Herefordshire, £16.00.