I first came across The Story of A Soul in a very unexpected place. The book was sitting on the desk next me, with no apparent owner, in the back of a secular classroom filled with 11 year olds. It first caught my eye when I saw Therese’s photograph on the front cover. I felt as though she was looking at me, daring me to pick up the book! While skimming through, I found a little card that said, “Love”. Intrigued, I decided to buy a copy for myself. In the book, Therese writes her memories out of obedience to her sister’s wishes. Her sister was the Mother Superior of the Carmelite community she belonged to. Reading these deeply personal, childlike thoughts of this young girl really affected me. I was shown that it is possible to achieve sainthood by simply loving Our Lord, not by any particular merit of our own. She states: ‘I am daringly confident that one day I shall become a great Saint. I am not relying on my own merits, because I haven’t any. I hope in Him who is Virtue and Sanctity itself.” Page after page, Therese speaks about her burning desire to love and please Jesus. She would say daring things about wanting to prove her Love by being a priest, a warrior, or to die a martyr's death, but she came to terms with her own way of expressing her love, like that of ‘a little child’. Toward the end of her life she came to understand that her greatest works would be done after her earthly life. Even after she died, her heavenly vocation would be “love”, bringing a multitude of souls to Jesus. After reading this book and especially on this feast of St. Therese, I feel as though I am one of those souls pursued to be brought closer to Christ by the “Little Flower.”