Amanda writes: “… I have been reading a lot about St Therese lately and you would think that the Daughters of Charity or the Vincentian spirituality would have nothing to do with this cloistered Carmelite saint. At least that’s what I thought…but I was wrong. Zelie was turned down by the Daughters but Louis, her husband, was active in the St Vincent de Paul Society . The two of them would bring their daughters along when they would visit the poor…there’s no way of knowing but these visits to the poor may have come from these exposures to Vincentian spirituality.

“A recent conversation with a friend led me to reflect that exposure and love of the Vincentian spirituality doesn’t mean that a person is called to be a Vincentian priest or a Daughter of Charity.  I think St Vincent called for his spirituality to be foreveryone…and even if God doesn’t call us to those specific communities, if we have a love for his spirituality, we will practice it in our everyday lives – whether we’re married, single or a Carmelite. Even St Therese admits that her parents were a huge part of her religious formation and led to her entering the Carmelite convent. So I think Therese carried with her a small part of Vincentian spirituality as well.

“But that connection to Vincentian spirituality isn’t why I wrote this, although it was an interesting find. I wrote this because…

Read on…http://drinkdeeplymydaughter.blogspot.com/2012/04/god-is-nothing-but-mercy-and-loveand-he.html