Empowered by Love

 

 

 

Thérèse of Lisieux: The Way of Love

Empowered by Love

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

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The author Gina Loehr describes how God’s love empowered Thérèse of Lisieux to embrace the fullness of her own humanity and that of others: 

Thérèse’s teachings were never scholarly or academic; they were simply the insights she gained through prayerful reflection on her personal experiences.  

Thérèse’s understanding of the significance of love, for example, grew in part out of her experience of longing to do everything for Christ. She had felt the yearning not only to be a Carmelite, a spouse, and a spiritual mother but also to be a missionary, a warrior, a priest, an apostle, a martyr, a crusader, and a papal guard, among other things. In reflecting on the various parts that make up the body of Christ, Thérèse saw herself in all of them. But Thérèse came to an important realization when reflecting on First Corinthians 13, which explains that all the greatest gifts are nothing without love. This led Thérèse to understand that love enabled the apostles to preach and the martyrs to make their great sacrifices. Love kept the body of Christ alive in the world. She wrote in her autobiography, “I understood that love comprised all vocations, that love was everything, that it embraced all times and places.... In a word, that it was eternal!” [1]  

Saint Thérèse embraced the truth that loving Jesus is the goal of life and our most important task. She said, “There is but one thing for us to do ... and that is to love, to love Jesus with all the energy of our heart.” [2] Her love for Jesus, though deeply passionate, was not purely emotional. It was fundamentally a choice, a response to his love for her…. Hers was an authentic love, not a fanciful illusion, and thus it brought her deep contentment.   

For Thérèse, love of God and love of the other is of one piece:  

From her youth Thérèse loved Jesus with her whole heart, and she never regretted it. In addition to bringing her personal consolation, this love helped her grow in her relationships with others. She understood that when we give ourselves to God, our hearts don’t lose their natural tenderness, rather that tenderness increases as our hearts become purer and more divine. Thérèse wrote, “In loving Him the heart expands and can give to those who are dear to it incomparably more tenderness than if it had concentrated upon one egotistical and unfruitful love.” [3]  

Loving God enriches not only our experience of human love but also our experience of life. Thérèse was able to see the gifts of her Beloved surrounding her. She was passionately engaged in life. She loved to explore nature and absorb the beauties of creation…. The love overflowing from her heart spilled out in her many poems and plays. Her love for God energized her daily life. She lived as a woman in love: joyful, enthusiastic, smiling.