First tremendous book of the year

I saw a post on The Curt Jester recently that piqued my interest: Archbishop Fulton Sheen's St. Therese - A Treasured Love Story.

Given I've been on a Sheen kick as of late, I filed it away as a possible to-read in the future. Last weekend, I hit my local Catholic bookstore and what did I find in the new releases section? Yeah. The book I came in for wasn't in stock, so I took it as a hint from the Holy Spirit that I should pick the Sheen-Therese book up.

I am so glad I did!

Initially I was somewhat hesitant as I knew little about St. Therese. I swear, I must be the last Catholic in the world to be so ill-informed on her. I knew she's called The Little Flower and advocated The Little Way. That's it. So I was very much a blank slate on St. Therese reading this, which was possibly a good thing.

The book starts with short bios of Sheen and Therese, written by Fr. Andrew Apostoli of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, EWTN, and vice postulator for the Sheen canonization cause. Father then sets the stage, explaining the rest of the book consists of transcriptions of a series of talks Sheen gave in 1973 on the 100th anniversary of Therese's birth.

What follows are 11 talks from Sheen discussing Therese's life and spirituality. They are simply amazing in that Sheen way of breaking down big concepts, applying them to modern life (even though the talks were given in 1973 they're not at all dated) and making them understandable to anyone (even me!).

The last chapter on Therese and her devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus was, simply, amazing. I never understood devotion to the Precious Blood. I certainly do now.

This book is relatively short (185 pages) but page-for-page packs an incredible spiritual punch. It also includes a large photo section featuring pictures of Therese and Sheen (not together, of course, but you know what I mean). I cannot recommend it enough.

And, if you're a St. Therese veteran, The Curt Jester (see link above) says this book is not a retread of other works. You'll get as much out of it as a newbie like me.