Photo credit: William Hoffmann.

Click on the image to read Frequently Asked Questions about the writing-desk and about St. Therese's writing, including:

• What did Therese sometimes keep in her writing-desk that her novice mistress was not supposed to see?
• Why did Therese once spit into her inkwell?
• Whose photograph did Therese keep hidden in her writing-desk?

 See a photo album of the veneration of the writing-desk of St. Therese of Lisieux at St. James Cathedral in Seattle, September 14, 2013.  I thank Betty Lamantea, Sandy Dawes, Lonnie Small, and Scooty Kellogg, members of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, for the photographs.

The diocese of Orange, California has announced that the writing-desk on which St. Therese of Lisieux wrote Story of a Soul will be present at the eighth annual Orange County Prayer Breakfast on September 18 at Christ Cathedral, where more than a thousand people are expected.  The morning will include a procession and veneration of the writing-desk, which St. Therese used to write the manuscripts that, published in book form, have touched so many souls. The writing-desk will be in the diocese of Orange as part of a national tour sponsored by the Pontifical Mission Societies of the United States.

"We are blessed to have the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux present at this year’s celebration. The life of St. Thérèse offers a lesson for each of us, baptized into the continuing mission of Jesus,” said Bishop Vann. 

I hope very much that all the people who come to pray in the presence of the writing-desk will also read or re-read the memoir that made the desk famous:

In a sense, Therese comes to us on pilgrimage with this artefact.  She, who said "I really count on not remaining inactive in heaven; my desire is to work still for the Church and for souls," does not wait for us to come to France. Instead, through the grace of God, her spirit is poured out on the prayerful gatherings where the little, old writing-case she used is venerated.  Her pilgrimage will be complete only when her writings accompany the pilgrims home, and, as we read her story, she can write to each of us the words she wrote to her sister at the beginning of her first manuscript: "It is to you that I come to confide the story of my soul. . . . I shall begin to sing what I must sing eternally: the Mercies of the Lord!"

If you cannot come to see the writing-desk (see the tour schedule), please read Story of a Soul, the book hat made it famous.  If you plan to come to see it, read the book or Therese's other writings before you come.  Or, if you pray in the presence of the desk before you've read Therese's writings, read them afterward.  She has enabled countless people to read their own lives in the light of her story and to see how God's mercy overwhelms us, as it did her.