When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts to him

Please read Pope Francis's Christmas Eve homily, full of themes from St. Therese.

Please see the beautiful photo of the wax doll of the newborn Jesus which was given to the Carmel of Lisieux in December 1895 by Therese's aunt and uncle, Isidore and Celine Guerin.  The doll's hair is Therese's (cut when she was a child), and the Alencon lace on which the child is lying was made by Zelie Martin.  The swansdown which lines the crib was part of the wedding dress Therese wore when she received the Habit on January 10, 1889; so was the child's tunic.

Thanks to the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, we can recreate some scenes from Christmas 1895.  This was the end of 1895, Therese's special year of grace, in which she wrote the first manuscript of Story of a Soul and offered herself to Mericful Love.

Writing to thank her parents, Therese's cousin, Sister Marie of the Eucharist, describes the scene when the gift arrived:

 The reception of the case was an odd scene: all the little novices around the case, the dormitory was filled with our cries. Who would unpack the case: one was shouting: "I see a hand," another: "Oh! a pretty little head," and Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart was objecting and crying out in despair: "You will see, they will break it, they will not be satisfied until they do!"

It was a real comedy, or to express it better an impossible uproar. We could not be quiet until we each gave vent to our joy.

Letter from Sister Marie of the Eucharist to Isidore and Celine Guerin, December 20-25, 1895

On the night of December 25, 1895, the Carmelites gathered for a paraliturgical celebration designed by Therese; it appears in The Plays of St. Therese of Lisieux, titled "The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas: Asking Alms from the Carmelites."  Each nun knelt in turn before this image of the Child Jesus, drew a folded note from a basket, and handed it to Sister Marie of the Eucharist, who sang a verse telling the nun what Jesus asked of her.  Therese drew the verse saying that she would be the little cluster of grapes:  "Jesus will press you very strongly in his beloved hand."  In this little work of art Therese shows that she did not consider the image of the baby Jesus or the feast of Christmas sentimental; instead, the Incarnate God, entering into human history, empties himself so profoundly as to beg the love of his own creatures.

Note that this wax doll no doubt appeared again in Therese's play The Flight into Egypt, produced on January 21, 1896 for the feast-day of the prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus (Therese's sister Pauline). 

See Therese and Lisieux by Pierre Descouvement and Helmut-Nils Loose (Toronto: Novalis, 1996, p. 156 and pp. 162-163) and The Plays of Saint Therese of Lisieux, tr. Susan Conroy and David J. Dwyer (Washington, D.C.: Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, 2008, pp. 221-246.

The Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux has created an illustrated "timeline" (in fact, a photo essay) of the last year of St. Therese.  From October 8-15, 1896 Fr. Godefroy Madelaine, a Norbertine of the Abbey of Mondaye, preached the community retreat.  

(Fr. Madelaine was the first editor of the manuscripts that became Story of a Soul, and, with some difficulty, he obtained from Bishop Hugonin the imprimatur for its publication.  He wrote a preface to the first edition.  The Carmel of Lisieux called him the "godfather of Story of a Soul."  He testified at both inquiries into the sanctity of Therese.  See Fr. Godefroid Madelaine's testimony about St. Therese at the diocesan process in 1910).

Therese confided to him the temptations against faith she had been suffering since Easter.  He advised her to write out the Creed and to carry it with her always.  She was prepared to write it in her own blood.  For the first time, the Carmel has published a beautifully detailed photograph of this document (scroll down to October 1896).  

Together with a narrative, see also photos of Therese during this period, of her writings, her companions, her correspondents, her doctor, the chaplains who visited her, the Saigon Carmel where she had hoped to go, the little music-box sent to entertain her, and a photograph of another sister, several years later, occupying the infirmary where Therese died.  

Below are several books which, together with Story of a Soul, will be useful to you if you are especially interested in Therese's life in 1896 and 1897. the years in which she tried especially to articulate her spirituality:

The Passion of Therese of Lisieux, by Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.

 Light of the Night: The Last 18 Months of Therese of Lisieux, by Jean-Francois Six

 St. Therese of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations, tr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Therese's last words as recorded, and perhaps rewritten, by those around her, with letters of others who were by her sickbed.

Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Volume II: 1890-1897. Therese's rich writings and much information from the last period of her life.

In the time of St. Therese, eight days before Christmas the Carmelites "drew by lot" little "tickets" (small bits of paper).  On each ticket was written the vehicle by which the nun who drew it would "go to the crib" of the newborn Jesus.  The vehicles include a boat, a wheelbarrow, an automobile, an elevator, and more.  Please see the tickets drawn by the Lisieux Carmelites and choose one for yourself. 

An icon of St. John of the Cross by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM

Please click on "St. Therese of Lisieux and St. John of the Cross" to read about John's influence on Therese.  Feast-day blessings!