I n this photograph at the age of eight, St. Therese is looking into a vague, undefined point, but with a kind of rapt, affectionate, respectful contemplation.
In the final analysis, it is the look proper to a deeply contemplative spirit. Because her gaze has something which is difficult for me to adequately express, but which is that turning of the soul towards things that are entirely superior. Hers was a deeply conscious, meditated, and reasoned childhood. Here is St. Therese of the Child Jesus with all the treasure of meditation that can exist in a child’s soul; she lived her childhood true to herself and continued to be herself until the height of her maturity.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
In the featured photo: St. Therese of the Child Jesus in 1881
