Therese of Lisieux as a souls leader. „Recommendations for novices”

Abstract

The article is an attempt of presenting Therese of Lisieux (based on the autobiographical paper and a witness written by novices entrusted to her care in Lisieux) as a novice mistress and a souls’ leader, with a special regard to advice and directions which she was giving to her novices. In the article there is shown an unusual insight of Therese of Lisieux in the matters of soul, her fluency in souls’ leading and especially her „supernatural gift of psychology”. In those considerations there is presented an enormous Therese’s love to entrusted to her care nuns while the expression of this love was a saint firmness, relentlessness, bravery, care about a religious excellence, sometimes a deliberate external severity in rebuking, kindness but never a weakness. A weapon using by the Saint in an aforementioned spirit fight was „the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17).