It is this attitude—this unblinking alertness to the meaning of each moment— that probably accounts for the intense compression of Thérèse’s spiritual development. She just didn’t miss a beat. As a novice, she was exerting special effort not to excuse herself (“I will take pains to humble my arrogance”). She could not bear to be criticized. So when she was wrongly blamed for breaking a vase (no great fuss was made, she was just asked to be more careful), and she managed not to protest or excuse herself, it does not seem trivial at all. We concur when she says, “Here was my first victory, not too great, but it cost me a lot” (Story of a Soul 159). (We concur, and we realize, suddenly, that our own lives are filled with just such opportunities. Teresa [of Avila] has already told us how much hangs on “small things,” but only with Thérèse do we learn just how small!)
–Carol Lee Flinders, Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics
