Little Doctrines from the Little Flower

I am awed when I see the gift the "good God" had given St.Therese. What has taken me seventy-five years merely to appreciate, St.Therese so readily understood and practiced.
The following is from Two Sisters in the Spirit, by Hans Urs von Balthasar. The text below within quotation marks is taken from St.Therese's writings; all else is Balthasar's.

“Jesus does not demand great deeds but only gratitude and self-surrender. ‘I will not’ he says, ‘take the goats from out of your flocks, for all the beasts of the field are mine …. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks, or shall I drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.’ See, then , all that Jesus lays claim to from us; he has no need of our works but only  of our love.”

It is generally recognized that “cosmetics for the soul”, “that overwrought, incessant measuring, counting, calculating, touching and examining one’s own ‘perfection’, that most dangerous distraction of attention from God to the ego under the pretext of tender conscience, and even humility”, constitute a special danger for those living the monastic life and, particularly for contemplatives, constitute the universal “temptation to perfection”

As a child Therese was trained to “collect” merit; Marie taught her to do so: “I can still hear you saying to me, ‘Look at the shopkeepers, how much trouble they give themselves to make money, whereas we can amass treasure for heaven without giving ourselves so much trouble; all we have to do is to gather diamonds with a rake’. And off I went, my heart filled with joy, overflowing with good resolutions.” And in her early letters, we see the child busy at this work of collecting: “every day I try to do all the ‘practices’ I can, and do my best not to let any opportunity pass. From the bottom of my heart, and as often as possible , I say the little prayers: they are sweet-scented like roses …, my thanks to Sister Therese of St. Augustine for her dear little rosary of practices….”

But gradually, without it being noticed, the meaning of the word changes and surrenders its kernel of Christian truth; the treasure is love, but love is the prodigality that knows neither to count nor reckon. “it’s very simple. Hold nothing back; distribute your goods as soon as you get them. As for myself. If I live to be eighty years old, I shall still be as poor. I do not know how to make economies; everything I have I give away immediately to buy souls.”

Progress does not come through acquisitions but through losing everything; it does not mean climbing, it means descending. A novice sighs: “When I think of everything I still have to acquire!” [Therese] “You mean, to lose! Jesus takes it upon himself to fill your soul in the measure that you rid it of your imperfections. I see that you have taken the wrong road; you will never arrive at the end of your journey. You are wanting to climb a great mountain, and the good God is trying to make you descend it; he is waiting for you at the fertile valley of humility.”