St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face1
(Excerpt from the article by Bishop Guy Gaucher Thérèse and the Priests, published in the collection Teacher of Simplicity by the Carmelite Publishing House in Kostelní Vydří in 1997, pp. 36-37.)
We know how decisive the significance was for Thérèse of her "conversion" at Christmas 1886. She was almost 14 years old, always overly sensitive, “she cried because she had cried before,” and she wondered how with such weakness she would one day be able to enter Carmel. That night, however, God’s power flooded her soul and Thérèse began to “run like a giant”. Finally, she stepped out of herself and opened up: “love entered my heart” (AS 96).
The Pranzini affair was an opportunity for her to engage for sinners. She fully devoted herself to save a murderer from the street of Monraigne in Paris who had killed two women and a little girl. At the moment he was led to the guillotine, Pranzini kissed the crucifix offered to him by the chaplain, although he had previously refused any religious act. For Thérèse, this sign was decisive: yes, she must take refuge in Carmel to pray and save sinners. Pranzini is her “first child” (AS 98).
As she became more familiar with Carmel, she realizes that one of the main intentions of the reformed Carmel by Teresa of Avila is to pray for priests. She does not understand this: praying for Pranzini – of course, yet praying for priests, when they are angels – there is simply no reason for that. When she looks at the image of the Crucified, she says: “I wanted to give drink to my Beloved, and I felt consumed by thirst for souls... I was not yet attracted to the souls of priests, but the souls of great sinners. I burned with the desire to snatch them from the eternal flames” (AS 97).
What made her change her mind? The pilgrimage to Rome. Everything comes in its own time. This month spent traveling was a valuable experience for her. It left a strong impression on her, especially what she realized about priests. The pilgrimage included 197 pilgrims, among them 75 clergy. In this environment, Thérèse experienced one month. She traveled with them by train and stayed with them in the best hotels. She realized that priests are not “angels”: they knew how to eat well, their conversation after meals was not always uplifting, they had their little quirks. During the pilgrimage, there were also rumors, as the twenty-eight-year-old abbé Leconte, a poet and artist, did not leave the two beautiful sisters Martin, who were, after all, his parishioners, for a moment. And Thérèse does not even mention the countless Italian priests she encountered in all the sanctuaries she visited. In her memories, we find the result of these encounters:
“Oh, in Italy I understood my vocation! I did not go unnecessarily far for such useful knowledge! I lived with many holy priests for a month and saw that while their noble dignity elevates them above angels, they are still weak and fragile people... If the holy priests whom Jesus calls in his gospel ‘the salt of the earth’ show by their behavior that they need prayers most significantly, what then can be said of those who are lukewarm? Did not Jesus also say: ‘But if the salt loses its flavor, with what will it be salted?’ Dear mother, how beautiful is the vocation whose goal is to preserve the salt destined for souls! This is the vocation of Carmel, for the sole aim of our prayers and sacrifices is to be an apostle of the apostles and to pray for them, while they proclaim the gospel to souls with their words and especially their example... I must stop, for if I continued to speak on this subject, it would never end!...“ (AS 119)
