– Customer review on 11/08/2011

I was recommended "Story of a Soul" as the favorite book of a woman I much admired, who worked at a Carmelite monastery. Initially I wondered about the recommendation when I began the book. Therese of Lisieux lived a sheltered life. Her parents were financially secure and devoutly religious (they had to be encouraged by a priest to marry rather than to join a religious order, and later to consummate their marriage). Therese knew she wanted to be a nun from an extremely early age.

My first impression was to wonder why was this book recommended to me, when she has nothing in common with my life, at a time when I didn't known how I would pay the bills and was not sure what God wanted form me in terms of a vocation. True, her health was poor and she suffered the loss of her mother early in her life, so her life was not without sorrow. But she also seemed to have security, love, and an incredible sense of direction, which made me question what I could learn from her life, when these qualities were so missing in my own. Furthermore, I questioned whether some one who lived so holy a life, could be a realistic role model for me; as I have made some pretty unholy decisions in my past.

The book quickly grew on me and eradicated my concerns about it being an inaccessible guide for spirituality. The beauty of the writing is her approach to spirituality, which is accessible to any one in any walk of life. She describes souls as similar to different types of flowers. Some are roses, others lilies, and some like orchids, for example. And all can be equally pleasing to God in their own way, when seeking his role for them. People have different talents and different struggles, but these characteristics do not mean that any type is more valued than the other.