Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

 In its article "Il Papa, santa Teresa e le sorelle: «Madri»" (May 10, 2013), L'Avvenire quoted recorded words of St.  Therese I'd never seen before. Commenting on Pope Francis's words to women religious:

"But, please, [make it] a 'fertile' chastity, which generates spiritual children in the Church. The consecrated are mothers: they must be mothers and not 'spinsters'! Forgive me if I talk like this but this maternity of consecrated life, this fruitfulness is important!

 the publication writes:

Well then, it’s worth the trouble to note, smiling like he smiled when speaking [the Pope using the term “old maid"], that in a letter dated 15 September 1972, Fr. Louis Augros, the first superior of the famous “Mission of  France," recalls that Celine, the sister of Therese, confided in him that when she entered the Carmel and realized all the faults of the community, she reproved Therese for not telling her about them before, and that, smiling, Therese answered her like this:

“I hadn’t wanted to tell you anything ahead of time, but now you see for yourself that you’ve landed in the middle of quite a crew of old maids, and you can see what you shouldn’t become!”

Now here is a great precedent: a holy Doctor of the Church, along with Pope Francis, wanting her sisters to be “mothers,” not old maids . . .

When Celine entered the monastery on September 14, 1894, Therese had already been there for more than six years.  During those years the two sisters had visited and written often, but clearly Therese had left much untold.