Customer Reviews

I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teaching of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

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"I Believe in Love" is a wonderful introduction to the wisdom of Therese of Lisieux. Reading it made me more fully appreciate her autobiography "Story of a Soul." Each chapter of the book comprises different topics that she addressed in her writings, and serves well as a meditation. I think the author states that it is his intent to provide the reader with a personal retreat based on the teachings of Therese. I read one chapter a night before I went to bed.

Therese of Lisieux's approach to spirituality is accessible to any one in any walk of life. She describes souls as similar to different types of flowers. Some are roses, others lilies, and some like orchids, for example. And all can be equally pleasing to God in their own way, when seeking his role for them. People have different talents and different struggles, but these characteristics do not mean that any type is more valued than the other.

The chapters are divided according to topics that address needs of everyone; regardless of what type of flower they are. The topics are drawn from examples of Therese's life and writings, but the author also includes many biblical quotes and some writings of other Christians, such as Teresa of Avila, that support the advice given.

It is fitting that the first chapter describes love, as Therese sated that is the Church is one body, then she want to be its heart, that loves every one, because God is love. The chapter instructs how to demonstrate love to God and others through all actions of our lives, regardless of our station or ability. The chapter "Fraternal Charity" speaks in greater details about relations with others and how to fulfill our duties towards them

The chapter "Unshakeable Confidence" outlines advice for people who experience spiritual dryness. It amazed me to learn that Therese of Lisieux experiences dryness, and helps console me when I feel similarly, because if some one who lived as holy a life as she did suffered from this problem, than I should not feel disillusioned from the experience.

"Humble Confidence" is a chapter that provides sound guidance for acting in faith. It seems that there is a fine line between being confident in religion and proud, the latter of which is not a virtue.

"Abandonment to Jesus" and "The Cross" are helpful chapters for people experiencing difficult times, and anxiety about the future; whether it is the daily grind that is wearing one down, or a specific setback. And Catholic may benefit particularly from the chapter on the "Eucharist," as the late Pope has named this year the "Year of the Eucharist."

The book is easy to read and personal. The organization of the chapters, are useful for providing support to people during different struggles. I read the book through once, and return to different sections, depending on my needs, but each chapter is a complete meditation in itself and the book can be skipped around. Each reading makes me appreciate them more.

I BELIEVE IN LOVE is an outstanding book which explores the personal love that Christ has for each individual. It is an answer to the common cry of our modern world, a cry for love. This book delves into the true meaning of love and applies it to how we can love Christ, and how Christ loves us. When read with an open heart, I BELIEVE IN LOVE can change your life.

This book of retreats is filled with amazing insights into the spiritual life - a life of utter confidence in Christ and complete trust in His Love and Mercy. It also gives practical ways to live His Love and spread it among those with whom we come in contact. Draws on teachings of St. Therese, but it's obvious the author lives what he has learned from her as well.

Fr. Elbee invites us to look at our Lord as St. Therese looked at him - through the eyes of child who is loved immensely. Fr. gives practical advice on how to love our Lord boldly and how to have a humble and unshakeable confidence in Him who loved us first. Fr.makes the distinction between fleeting feelings and true love which he explains is a disposition of the soul, the mind and the heart. Fr. is a passionate Frenchman; Therese was a passionate Frenchwoman and so a holy passion for the Lord marks every page of this book. It's easy to read and solidly based on scripture which Fr.quotes frequently. This is a book to awaken or rekindle confidence in Jesus.

One of the previous Amazon reviewers of this book wrote the following (the review in question is to be found in the series of reviews for the other edition of the book, by St. Bede's Publications from 1983):

"And I may add that for the anxious or depressed- this book is a sure remedy."

That is absolutely correct, for the following reason: Anxiety and depression are actually maladies of the heart with SPIRITUAL origins, not "diseases" of the emotions, or "chemical imbalances," as secular psychology and psychiatry would falsely have one believe. These impoverished worldly outlooks cannot diagnose the origins of these maladies accurately, nor can they offer a cure. Quite the contrary, they pose serious obstacles to realizing the only true cure, which consists in the complete abandonment of oneself to the love of Christ, as revealed on the Cross.

Since the cause of these maladies is ultimately spiritual in nature, so too must be the cure, and I BELIEVE IN LOVE is a very good articulation of what this cure involves. The cure essentially consists in the unreserved abandonment of oneself, and of all one's earthly hopes, to God. It is important here to be clear as to what this means: It is NOT the case that one is called to suppress these eartly hopes unnaturally, or to live under the false pretense that these eartly hopes do not really exist. Rather, the book insists that one make them all conditional - EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM, including both the deepest longings of the heart for earthly goods, as well as the most basic physical needs of earthly life. One must be fully willing to make the realization of ALL of them entirey subject to the Loving Providence of God.

This attitude goes hand in hand with a view of suffering and death that is bereft of fear, and that regards both merely as the passageway to eternal happiness in the presence of God. This notion, while profoundly true, is something very radical and alien in today's cultural milieu, which is fundamentally oriented towards avoiding the subject of death entirely, and towards encouraging people to distract themselves from their suffering through the indulgence in and consumption of needless and empty material frivolities.

In view of these considerations, those who aspire to embrace the outlook articulated in this book must be aware that it takes a great deal of courage to do so. There are many elements of what the book counsels that would be met with antagonism and hostility by the false paradigms of secular psychology and psychiatry, and would be seen by them as "masochistic," "psycho-pathological," and the like. Since this type of erroneous thinking pervades our culture to the point of being almost as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, even in many ostensibly Christian settings, these types of false accusations against the true Christian Way that is articulated in this book must be aggressively resisted. As I say, carrying this out takes a considerable amount of courage, especially when one is in a weakened condition due to the very types of anxiety and depression that secular psychology and psychiatry falsely claim to diagnose accurately.

This book was recommended to me by Father Steve Mattson. It has changed my view 100% in regards to how I view God's relationship with me. I was living my life trying to pay back God for all he's done for me. This book really opened my eye's as to how much I'm really truly loved by our Heavenly Father. I'm truly blessed to have been told about this book. I highly recommend it.

Well, I bought this book in my search to read something about the Little Flower. The book actually touches on more than The Little Flower, it also includes other saints...and ALL OF IT, WAS AWESOME! =} I was so happy I bought it that I bought an extra copy to give to a friend as a present. I also tried to google the priest that helped write this book because I loved it so much, but never found anything else by him :{ oh well....

This is a wonderful book based on the teachings of St. Therese of Lisieux that is not just a book to read once but it is a companion book to refer to and reflect and medicate on the amazing love that God has for all of us, His children.

This is a beautifully written piece of work that is based on a soul whose contemplation during her short life on earth was: LOVE. How can I learn how to love better each day on earth? It is about forgiveness, acceptance, surrender and allowing that which is unseen to enter into what is seen and therefore bringing life to every aspect of living on earth.

Author/Speaker Lauren Miller: Hearing His Whisper
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St. Therese was a truly blessed lady. She realized that she is just alittle flower in God's garden but did "little things" for Christ all of her life. Her life was only here to please God and serve others. What a gift she was to all of you, especially Catholics!