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Reflection Journal

Dear Friend of the Little Flower,

Therese knew what every saint and mystic knows, especially in the Carmelite tradition: that God comes to us disguised as our life. Our experiences, relationships, and responses to the people and situations of our lives are the places of revelation. This is where the God Who is always with us IS and reveals!

By being present to our life we are present to the God within us and our life experience. That is why all true prayer is a reflective listening to life - to the God of Life. This is what the Little Flower and all great saints teach us.

As Sr. Therese was sickly and dying, her older sister Pauline, who was Prioress, urged her younger sister to start writing down her life and recollections. She knew there was more than what was obvious! Therese obediently wrote and wrote each night - which is why we have her famous autobiography, the Story of a Soul, which has inspired so many of us.

What Therese was doing was journaling. She wrote down her reflections on life each day. We gain insight into this simple, ordinary young woman and how powerfully God was working within her.

We all need to be more reflective in our busy world. We need to take some time and listen to life. It is a way of listening to God and one of the best forms of prayer - it usually fills our heart with gratitude, humility, and wonder.

I want to help you write your own "Story of a Soul". Our new Reflection Journal is being offered to you and can help you reflect on your journey - your soul - and listen to God in your life. It has 20 pages and each page contains a St. Therese quote. By journaling each day, you may gain a greater insight and faith into the God Who comes to us disguised as our life.

Journaling can also help us understand St. Therese's greatest teaching: "everything is grace!" It was her way of saying: God comes to us disguised as our life and that nothing is really ordinary - grace is everywhere because God is everywhere, if we look and listen.

Request and use this journal booklet.  You need to know the inner secrets of your heart - and maybe others need to be inspired by them. God already knows them and wants you to embrace them with deeper wisdom and faith. Therese will help you remember, reflect, and listen.

May the Story of your Soul shine!

Fr. Bob Colaresi, O.Carm
Director