During the Process [of beatification], when the Promoter of the Faith asked me why I wanted the beatification of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I told him that it was only to make known her ‘little way.’ That is what she called her spirituality, her way of going to God. He replied: ‘If you speak of a “way,” the Cause will infallibly fail, as it has already happened in several similar circumstances.’ ‘So be it,’ I replied, ‘the fear of losing the Cause of Sister Thérèse cannot prevent me from emphasizing the only point that interests me: to have, in a way, the “little way” canonized,” Thus speaks Céline,1 in religion Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face, the most intimate sister of the little Thérèse.2 It is this “little way” that this book offers you to go through or to go through again, lived and revealed by the little Thérèse herself. Moreover, along this path, you will discover an environment, landscapes, faces, allegories that speak to the soul and the heart, far beyond what words can express. You will be able to appreciate what depth of resonance the language of the greatest artists of her time gives to the simplest words of the little Thérèse. For those who embark on the little path of Love according to Thérèse, there is a road to travel, there are stages to reach... and to cross, crossings that little Thérèse herself sometimes calls a conversion.3 On the way, you will share with her powerful spiritual experiences,4 wonderful joys, but also many trials to go through, and soon the dark night that will surround her until her death. The only things that remain constant along her Foreword FOR LOVE TO BE LOVED Pierre-Marie Dumont “ 6
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