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Day 16 of 80

Fear and Love

Chapter VIII·Manuscript C·Trust & Surrender
Context
A single sentence that captures Thérèse's entire revolution: fear paralyzes, but love gives wings. She replaced the spirituality of fear — so common in her era — with a spirituality of radical trust in God's love.

Fear makes me shrink, while, under love's sweet rule, I not only advance — I fly.

Yes, since the day I took my place amid the arms of Jesus, I am like the watchman who from his high tower observes the enemy. Nothing escapes my notice, and I am often surprised at seeing so clearly. The Psalmist's words might serve for my canticle: "Lord, Thou hast not given me up to the enemy, Thou hast set my feet in a spacious place." That spacious place has always been spread for me. I have never been hampered in my course.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux — Story of a Soul, Chapter VIII (Manuscript C). Taylor translation, 1912 (public domain).
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