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(I regret to say that I've not read this thread very closely, so I can't name the source of:) >>Not exactly a lively one but St. Therese of Lisieux struggled long and hard >>with her conviction that she had a vocation and finally settled it by >>creating a spiritual union with a priest/missionary which enabled her to >>feel that through prayer she cooperated with his priesthood. To which "Br. Alexis Bugnolo" <[log in to unmask]> responded: >What source or evidence to you have for this psycho-spritual analysis of >St. Therese of Liesieux? Although I am by no means qualified to speak to the psycho-spiritual analysis of the above, St. Therese did write: <http://www.tradere.org/biblio/therese/histam/htframe.htm> (from chapter 9 of _L'Histoire_) Je sens en moi la vocation de Prêtre, avec quel amour, ô Jésus, je te porterais dans mes mains lorsque, à ma voix, tu descendrais du Ciel... Avec quel amour je te donnerais aux âmes !... Mais hélas ! tout en désirant d'être Prêtre, j'admire et j'envie l'humilité de St François d'Assise et je me sens la vocation de l'imiter en refusant la sublime dignité du Sacerdoce. (end quote) the first sentence of which the ICS translation of John Clarke renders, "I feel in me the _vocation of_ the PRIEST." (italics for larger script, capitals for capitals in the MS). On the other side is a letter quoted by Hans Urs von Balthasar in his excellent 1953 study _Therese of Lisieux_, in which she wrote, "Our mission, as Carmelites, is to form those Gospel labourers, they will save millions of souls whose mothers we shall be ... What have priests that we need envy!" (p. 135, citing Sheed's translation of T's letters, which I don't have at hand right now). My apologies if this has strayed excessively far from the medieval period, although I'm curious to know if anyone on the list knows whether her namesake from Avila (not quite so far out of period) expressed similar sentiments on either count. John John McChesney-Young ** [log in to unmask] ** Berkeley, California, USA