Reflecting on a day of self-directed pilgrimage to Lisieux, France, and the spaces where St Therese grew up, prayed, became a Carmelite, and died at the early age of 24.

So many statues, chapels and shrines, mosaics and gilded edges, and this is the one that draws me in. Just a damp, cold corner in one of the side chapels in Lisieux Cathedral – the church where St Therese and her family worshipped before she entered the convent at age 15.

Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to be here, but somehow “the show” pales against the story of her life as she shared with us in The Story of a Soul.

These are a few of her words that still speak louder to me, and with more love than what the finest of architects or Popes can display.

– I am your sister and your friend. Forever I’ll watch over you.

– Have confidence in the infinite mercy of the Good God.

– An amiable smile often suffices to make a sad soul bloom.