The Trial of Faith of St. Therese of Lisieux

For the final eighteen months of her life, as she was literally being suffocated to death by pulmonary tuberculosis, Thérèse of Lisieux experienced a harrowing “trial of faith.” Although never faltering in her profession of faith, she had to struggle to believe in the existence of life beyond the grave. Her struggle to assent to the existence of heaven caused her more agony, she said, than her physical disease. By her own admission, her trial was a veritable martyrdom. Her trial of faith was an intense manifestation of her profound union with Christ in his redemptive suffering for the salvation of the world and reveals a hitherto largely unappreciated facet of her very special mission here on earth, namely, to expiate sins against the faith and to impart and strengthen the gift of faith in members of the Church who find themselves subjected to similar doubts and difficulties by a world that no longer knows what it believes about life after death. This work highlights in particular the co-redemptive role all Christians are called upon to play by virtue of their baptism. In this context, Thérèse, the saint of the “little,” and might we not also add, “universal” way, illustrated by her life and teaching the centerpiece of the Second Vatican Council’s universal call to holiness of all the faithful. This book shows us how.