Story of a bestseller
This humble booklet of 32 pages, in the format of 15 x 10 cm, announces from the first page that "Under the title: Spring story of a little white flower, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus wrote the story of her soul, on the orders of his Superior. "The Call to Little Souls" is for those who cannot read the big Story of a Soul. It is composed of extracts from this autobiography, which have been chosen in such a way as to bring out the particular character of the doctrine of Sister Thérèse: a doctrine intended to lead souls on the Way of Spiritual Childhood and to make them Victims of the Merciful Love of God. »
The Call to Little Souls
DISTRIBUTION: The list of publications is impressive: a bestseller. The 1904 edition of 14.000 copies sold out quickly; a new edition is needed from 1908 and there will be 22 others until 1948, totaling more than 800.000 copies. The covers vary a lot but for 44 years, this humble booklet introduces Thérèse and her message to readers of all ages. These figures are quite comparable to the distribution of the Story of a soul! Indeed, at the end of his book “The Story of a Soul of Thérèse of Lisieux”, Bishop Gaucher presents a table of the 43 editions up to 1955; and, adding up the various presentations of this text, it has more than 900.000 copies.
THE AUTHOR was called Yvonne Daurelle (Sr Isabelle of the Sacred Heart). Entering the Carmel of Lisieux in January 22 at the age of 1904, she already had the project of “making accessible to young people the big book of the Story of a Soul”, which had done her so much good, 3 years earlier. During the first months of her postulancy, she set to work, authorized to compose this booklet for young people of her age, the young people of 1904. Soon the Carmel of Lisieux, without further ado, published "L'appel to little souls", without author's name.
Call to Little Souls and Story of a Soul
Has she succeeded in summarizing the Story of a soul, as announced on the first page?
Here are compared, "The Call to Little Souls" and "The Story of a Soul" 1898 edition, taking the reissue of the NEC (New Centennial Edition) and, for chapter XII and the appendices, a copy of the 1898 edition, the princeps edition.
The list below allows this comparison. From left to right on each line, we find the page of the Call to little souls, the compared text, the page of the HA 1898 (Centennial edition) or, for Chapter XII, pages in parentheses of the 1st edition HA 1898, and finally the current Theresian references.
p.1 Spring story of a small white flower HA 98: (---) / Ms A 2 r°
Way of spiritual childhood HA 98: (---) / DE 13.7.12
Victim of the Merciful Love of God HA 98: 145 / Ms A 84r°
p.2 To his mother: “I would like you to die” HA 98: 55/ Ms A 4v°
p.3 Family evenings HA 98: 54 / Ms A 18r°
p.4 Name written in the sky HA 98: 54 / Ms A 18r°
Line fishing HA 98: 49 / Ms A 14v°
I saw the sea for the first time HA 1: 98 / Ms A 58v°
On the sea, the golden furrow of the setting sun HA 98: 58 / Ms A 22 r°
p.5 Illness of Thérèse as a child HA 98: 66, 67 / Ms A 27v - 29v°
Healing and smile of Marie HA 98: 68 / Ms A 30 r°
p.6 Journey to Alençon, entry into the world HA 98: 72 / Ms A 32 v°
1st Communion HA 98: 75 / Ms A 35 r°
Confirmation HA 98: 77 / Ms A 36 v°
Crisis of scruples HA 98: 82 / Ms A 39 r°
p.8 Image of Jesus on the cross HA 98: 87 / Ms A 45 r°
Prayer for Pranzini HA 98: 87 / Ms A 46r°
p.9 Christmas Conversion 1886 HA 98: 86 / Ms A 45 r°
Throw flowers, small sacrifices HA 98: 199 / Ms B 4 r°
Small virtues HA 98: 131 / Ms A 74 v°
p.10 Pentecost 87: asks his father to enter Carmel HA 98: 94 / Ms A 50 r°
Visit to Bishop Hugonin HA 98: 96 / Ms A 54 r°
p.11 Pilgrimage to Rome HA 98: 103 to 117 A 56 v° to 67
Trust in Jesus who slept in his heart, not to be awakened HA 98: 118 / Ms A 67 r°
Everything he gave me, Jesus can take back HA 98: 374 / PN 54 § 16
p.12 Catechism HA 98: 96 / Ms A 52v°
p.13 Entrance to Carmel HA 98: 120 / Ms A 69 r°
Taking of the habit in the presence of his father HA 98: 126 / Ms A 72 r°
p.14 Illness of his father HA 98: 128 A 73 r°
Religious poverty - small services - small acts of virtue HA 98: 130-131/ Ms A 74 v°
Arid prayer - Jesus slept as always HA 98: 132 / Ms A 75 v°
p.15 Profession with a river of peace HA 98: 133 / Ms A 76 v°
Not the smallest intentional fault HA 98: 134 / Pri 2
Grain of sand and fulfill your will in me HA 98: 134 / Ms C 2v°
p.16 Evening of the Profession HA 98: 134 / Ms A 77 r°
Satisfied desires – Perfection, painting HA 98: 139 A 81 r°
p.17 Entrance of Céline – No other desire than to love Jesus HA 98: 141 / Ms A 82 v°
p.18 It is Love alone that guides me - Abandonment - Compass HA 98: 142 / Ms A 83 r°
How sweet is the way of Love HA 98: (---)/ Ms A 84 v°
Love, knowing how to take advantage of everything... HA 98: 143 / Ms A 83 r°
Take advantage of everything - To me He has given His Mercy HA 98: 144 / Ms A 83r°
p.19 Offering to Merciful Love HA 98: 144 / Ms A 84 r°
Line of fire during the Stations of the Cross HA 98: 145 / DE 7.7.2
p.20 He would not inspire me with these desires if he did not want to fulfill them HA 98: 145 / Ms A 84 v°
New command HA 98: 158 / Ms C 11 v°
p.21 In charge of the novitiate – Impossible by myself HA 98: 172 / Ms C 22 v°
Not satisfying my curiosity HA 98: 173 / Ms C 32 v°
Small virtues HA 98: 131 / Ms A 74 vp.22 God does not refuse the 1st grace to overcome himself HA 98: (---) / DE 8.8.3
To love my littleness and my poverty, blind hope HA 98: (---) LT 197
Pray for the reapers HA 98:275 / LT 135
p.23 Test of faith HA 98: 152 94 / Ms C 5 r°
Never be shy with me HA 98: 374 / PN 54. 16
More acts of faith than ever HA 98: 153 94 / Ms C 7 r°
p.24 Joy of having shown myself imperfect HA 98: (---) / LT 230
It is not because preserved from mortal sin HA 98: 19194 / Ms C 36 v°...
p.25 Converted sinner HA 98: 191 / Note Ms Edit Cent p 420
Abandonment and recognition HA 98: 192 94 / Ms B 1v°
Grain of sand, I can therefore aspire to holiness HA 98: 148 94 / Ms C 2v°
p.26 The Lift HA 98: 148 94 / Ms C 3 r°
Loving Jesus as he has never been loved HA 98: (---) / LT 74
Preach the Gospel everywhere HA 98: 196 94 / Ms B 2 v°
My vocation is Love - In the heart of the Church HA 98: 19894 / Ms B 3 v°
p.27 Helpless child, I offer myself as a victim HA 98: 198 94 / Ms B 3 v°
Love can only be paid for with love HA 98: 19894 / Ms B 4 r°
I like for those who fight HA 98: 199 94 / Ms B 4 r°
Throw flowers HA 98: 199 94 / Ms B 4 v°
Suffer for love, enjoy for love - I love the Church HA 98: 200 94 / Ms B 4 v°
How so imperfect to arrive at the fullness of Love HA 98: 200 94 / Ms B 4 v°
p.28 The Eagle and the little bird HA 98: 201 94 / Ms B 4 v°-5 r°
p.29 O Jesus, what can I not say to little souls your condescension HA 98: 202 94 / Ms B 5 v° finale
Illness and death – Friday St 96: announcement of the arrival of the Bridegroom HA 98: 151 94 / Ms C 5 r°
The death of love that I desire, that of Jesus on the cross HA 98: 250 / DE 4.7.2
Chalice full to the rim HA 98: 248 / DE 30.9.11
p.30 Mission: to make the good God loved as.. I want to pass my sky HA 98: 241 / DE 17.7.1
Teaching confidence and total surrender HA 98: 241 / (---)
The little ones will be judged gently HA 98: 247 / DE 25.9.1
p.31 You who came to smile at me in the morning of my life HA 98: 249 / PN 54. 25
Isn't It Agony HA 98:249 / DE 30.9
On the banner: "Living with love" HA 98: 175 and 306 94 / Ms C 24 v° or PN 17
Draw me in, we'll run HA 98: 187 94 / Ms C 34 r°
p.32 Abbreviated text of the Act of Offering to Merciful Love HA 98: 257 / Pri 6
Compliance
The chosen title, "The Call to Little Souls", recalls the last paragraph of chapter XI of HA 98, which is also the end of manuscript B: "O Jesus, why can't I tell all the little souls how much your condescension is ineffable...” The table above shows that this booklet, composed of extracts from “The Story of a Soul”, 1898 edition, is a faithful compendium of the life and message of Sister Thérèse.
- The Call generally follows the plan of the Story of a soul: the order of the pages of one and the other testifies to this.
- In 4 cases, the Call even reproduces what, in the Story of a Soul, Mother Agnès added to Thérèse's manuscript:
On page 3, the Appeal adds, like HA98 page 54, the reading of the Liturgical Year to the story of family prayer, while manuscript A 18 r° does not mention this reading.
Page 19, after the account of the Act of Offering, the Call adds, like HA98 p. 114, the arrow of fire, which Thérèse receives during the Stations of the Cross, while A 84 does not mention it. It is found only in the Last Interviews: DE 7.7.2
Page 25, the Call tells the story of the forgiven sinner, as HA98 p. 198, while in her manuscript (C36 v°), Thérèse stops writing after the words: “I rise to Him through trust and love”. In the New Edition of the Centenary of the Manuscripts, a note, page 420, recalls that Sr Thérèse, too tired, had asked Mother Agnès to conclude with this story of the forgiven sinner.
On page 30, the Appeal reproduces a dialogue of Mother Agnès with the patient: “What way do you want to teach souls? It is the path of trust and total abandonment etc...”, as HA98 page 241. The Last Interviews, NEC page 169, specify that this text appeared in the Novissima Verba page 82, but is absent from the Yellow Notebook and the Green Notebooks.
Transpositions and divergences
In several passages, the Call to Little Souls does not conform to the corresponding text of the Story of a Soul.
Simple transposition of date: L'Appel, page 9, attributes to Thérèse, aged 14, the desire to "throw flowers" and "to practice the little virtues", whereas, in HA98 as in the Manuscripts, it is after her religious Profession that she made these discoveries (B 4r° and A 74 v°)
Here are some other discrepancies between The Call and Story of a Soul:
The first sentence of the Appeal: "Under the title: Spring story of a little white flower, Sr Thérèse wrote the story of her soul" is not found in HA98 but it is indeed the first words of manuscript A of Thérèse .
And 6 more times, the preceding table bears the sign (---), in the 3rd column, showing that these texts of the Call are not found in HA 98 but are indeed in the authentic writings of Thérèse or in her Last Interviews.
Page 1: "Training souls in the way of spiritual childhood" DE 13.7.12
Page 18: “How sweet is the way of Love! » At 84 v°
Page 22: “God does not refuse the first grace to overcome himself” DE 8.8.3
Page 22: “To love my littleness and my poverty...blind hope. » LT 197
Page 24: “Joy at having been imperfect” LT 230
Page 26: “To love Jesus as he has never been loved” LT 74
Twice, the Call for Little Souls reproduces, better than HA 98, the exact words of Thérèse's manuscript:
At 74 v°: “I applied myself above all to practicing small virtues” becomes in HA98 page 131: “I applied myself above all to small acts of virtue”. The Appeal page 21 quotes more exactly: “She strives to practice the little virtues in the shadows”.
C 5 r°: "It was like a soft and distant murmur which announced to me the arrival of the Bridegroom", becomes in HA 98: "My Beloved made me hear like a soft and distant murmur which announced to me his happy arrival. The Call page 29 finds the biblical language of Thérèse: “Was it not like a soft and distant murmur which announced to me the arrival of the Bridegroom? »
--- How to explain that the editor of the Call thus followed the authentic Teresian writings, instead of copying “The Story of a Soul”, its model? Did she find them more faithfully reproduced in one of the 5 new editions of the Story of a Soul, published before 1904? Did she take advantage of the oral tradition with which the Carmel recreations were sometimes to resound? Or did she have access to the notebooks of Mother Agnès or even to the manuscripts of Sister Thérèse? The trust placed in the young editor suggests that she may have had this privilege...
In any case, the wide distribution of the Appeal at the beginning of the XNUMXth century shows that the wording, style, typography and title, which are astonishing today, corresponded to the tastes of the time and we guess that many readers found their spiritual nourishment.
By Jean Grelier of the Missionaries of the Plain
