Summary of St. Therese: A Treasured Love Story by Fulton Sheen

In St. Thérèse: A Treasured Love Story, Fulton Sheen reflects on the profound simplicity and depth of St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s spirituality through a series of 11 conferences delivered to a Carmelite community in Ireland in 1973. The core of Sheen’s message revolves around St. Thérèse’s “Little Way”—her revolutionary path to holiness based on love, humility, and sacrifice. This summary captures the essence of Sheen’s interpretation of Thérèse’s teachings in four key areas:

1. St. Therese’s “Little Way” of Perfection

St. Thérèse’s “Little Way” is about sanctifying the ordinary moments of life, transforming them into acts of love for God. She demonstrated that holiness is not reserved for extraordinary deeds but is achieved through simple, everyday acts done with great love. Sheen emphasizes that Thérèse’s spirituality calls for perfection in all things, even the smallest tasks, as opportunities to love God. Sheen said: “There is not need of anyone wearing a hair shirt. Our neighbours are hair shirts! Life is a hair shirt!” (56)

The one thing that interested the Little Flower was being perfect. After her incident of wanting all the dolls, she said: “This became the rule of my life. I wanted everything. I wanted to be perfect. I wanted to be God’s.” Pray now to the Little Flower to not be ordinary.

“One of the nuns in the convent was old Sr. Peter. She was in her eighties. Shew as arthritic. She was cross. She was in great pain and always had to go to the refectory about 10 minutes before the other Sisters because it took her so long to walk on account of her arthritis. Then she had to be aided as she walked, had to sit down in a chair in a special way, and had to have the bread broken for her in the bowl, always in a special way, for she had done it that way for 50 years. Well, every other Sister found it very hard to take care of Sr. Peter, but St. Therese said, “I am going to do this.” One day Sr. Peter said to her, “You’re too young! You’re a young novice. You don’t know how to do anything! I think maybe you want to kill me, the way you are treating me!” And St. Therese would just smile back at her… St. Therese then said: “For all the happiness and joyful music in the world, I would never give up Sr. Peter” (40).

2. St. Therese’s “Little Way” of Love

At the heart of Thérèse’s spirituality is her immense love for Jesus. She sought to love Him as no one ever had, and this love became the driving force of her life. Sheen points out that her “Little Way” of love teaches us that once we fall in love with Christ, everything else—discipline, zeal, and sacrifice—follows naturally. It is this love that transforms routine actions into profound spiritual offerings.

“Fall in love. Then you’ll discipline yourself (once you love Him, then you’ll strive to please Him). Then you’ll be full of zeal. Then when the Lord’s work is to be done, you do it. And when we’re not in love, we’re tired, we’re exhausted. Because she was full of love, the particular action that appealed to her was that of a soldier and the missionary” (102).

“Jesus! I would so love Him, love Him as He has never been loved in the history of the world” ~ St. Therese

Do the same things every day but do them with greater love and intensity, starting now! (55, 51). A saint is one who makes Christ lovable (40). It does not require much time to make us saints, it requires only much love (41). 

3. St. Therese’s “Little Way” of Redemptive Suffering

Sheen delves into Thérèse’s understanding of suffering as an essential component of her love for Christ. Thérèse embraced suffering not for its own sake but as a way of sharing in Jesus’ redemptive love for humanity. Her “Little Way” teaches that suffering, when offered in love, has infinite value. Thérèse understood that every soul has a price tag, and she was willing to pay the price of suffering to win souls for Christ.

Sheen recounts how Thérèse offered herself as “a victim to Divine Love,” highlighting her belief that love only lives by sacrifice. Thérèse’s willingness to embrace pain, illness, and even spiritual dryness is a testimony to her total abandonment to God’s will.

4. St. Therese’s “Little Way” of Humility

Humility, according to Sheen, is the cornerstone of Thérèse’s “Little Way.” For her, true greatness is found in becoming nothing before God. She understood that spiritual childhood means recognizing our littleness and relying entirely on God’s grace. She taught that we should not be discouraged by our faults, but like little children, fall and rise again without losing heart.

Sheen beautifully summarizes this principle with Thérèse’s analogy of being like a pencil in God’s hands: “We have to offer ourselves as pencils. Let Him write poetry. Let Him write prose. Let Him scribble.” Thérèse believed that the true secret of happiness is total surrender to God’s will, allowing Him to work through us in whatever way He chooses.

When St. Therese was asked, “What do you mean and understand by humility and the way of the child?” she said: “To remain little is to recognize our nothingness. To expect everything from the good God and not to be too much afflicted about our faults, for little children fall often but are too small to hurt themselves… The secret of spiritual childhood is to make yourself nothing.”

“We have to offer ourselves as pencils. Let Him write poetry. Let Him write prose. Let Him scribble. What difference does it make? This is happiness” (115). 

“It is the things are the spent, wasted for God’s sake that become remembered through history” (113).

Final Thoughts

Fulton Sheen’s exploration of St. Thérèse’s life and teachings offers a profound insight into her “Little Way” of spiritual childhood. He emphasizes that this path is accessible to everyone, regardless of their state in life. Thérèse’s mission did not end with her death; as she herself promised, she would spend her heaven doing good on earth. Sheen encourages readers to invoke her intercession and put her “to work,” trusting in her powerful prayers to bring souls closer to Christ.

By embracing her simple yet radical way of love, humility, and sacrifice, Sheen suggests that we too can grow in holiness and become instruments of God’s love in the world.

Lastly, put St. Therese to work! Don’t let her rest! “I feel that my mission is now to begin. My mission is to make others love the good God as I love Him, to give to souls my little way. I will spend my heaven in doing good upon the earth” ~ St. Therese