Happy Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux!

"Confidence plays a leading part of supreme importance in the holiness of Therese. At the sight of this holiness, so simple and so winning, many good people let a discouraging thought hold them back. 'Therese,' they say, 'was favored by extraordinary graces.' And why do they say this? Because they have not given confidence its rightful place at the very center of Therese's life and doctrine. Once confidence is given its place as the essential and primary foundation of holiness, no soul, however little and needy it sees itself to be, will see anything improbable in the idea of God wishing to raise it to a life of friendship, of intimacy, of love with Himself."

~ Pere Liagre, CSSP, A Retreat with Saint Therese, imprimatur 1947.