Maurice and Therese: The Story of a Love

What a wonderful book about a wonderful saint! This book, while not a difficult read, is certainly rich in emotion, beauty, and spirituality. If you have read St.Therese's "Story of a Soul", this is an excellent "second book" to read. It tells of the story of a relationship between a seminarian/priest and St.Therese in her last days. I recommend it for anyone's spiritual edification, especially Catholic Christians.

I had never much cared for St. Therese--largely because her followers made her out to be a somewhat maudlin "little flower." After reading this book, I realized that the "little flower" is actually a giant Sequoia. The passionate love of God and its expression in the support and prayers given to a fellow religious are profoundly moving. I found myself lingering over passages and truly beginning to understand why Therese's "Little Way" has been called "an elevator to union with God." Highly, highly recommended.

Never have I read a book on a saint that was more revealing than this. The correspondence between this beloved Saint and a wonderfully ordinary priest washes away the mystique of St. Therese. What it reveals is a very human woman who through the love of Jesus helps another human being find the love God wants us to share in. It is very intense and emotional. You will find it difficult to put down and easy to re-read.

This is the only book I've ever finished and started over again. I didn't know much about Therese, and less about Maurice, but this book makes you want to read more about Therese. One reviewer called this book a "gift," and I couldn't agree more. The story of a cloistered nun in 19th century France might not seem very relevant today, but God's love is, and that's what this book is about. If Therese had one message, it was "God is love." We need to hear that as much now as a hundred years ago in France.

I am delighted to see the correspondence between Maurice and Therese, which I have appreciated for many years in Therese's letters, so beautifully interpreted here. Rich in insights in Therese's love for her "dear little brother," to whom she wrote, "I see how much your soul is sister to mine . . . "; in insight into her missionary consciousness, her love for the priesthood, her acute compassion for humanity, her extraordinary availability to souls, her theology. Bishop Ahern's luminous appreciation of Therese and Maurice lights the book up. Therese ended her correspondence with these words written on the back of holy picture, "last souvenir of a soul, sister of your own soul," and this book is truly that.