What goes through my head upon reading Brother Joseph F. Schmidt’s biography of Saint Therese of Lisieux entitled Everything is Grace is “All of the nutrition without any of the sugar.” Early in the book, Brother Schmidt repeats a question asked by another recent biographer of Therese (Ida Fredericke Gorres in The Hidden Face), “Let us be honest with ourselves; who among us normal Christians has ever read The Story of a Soul for the first time without being disappointed? It is though we have entered a world where everything is sweet, pale and fragile.” He recognizes that it takes some effort to cut through the late 19th-century Romantic Era syrupiness. He writes, “If the reader is willing to get beyond the sentimentality of expression, the reader enters a world of simple holiness, courage and profound Gospel wisdom.” This is the task Brother Joseph has set out to accomplish, to retell Therese’s story in our 21st century pragmatic, tell-it-like-it-is language. He succeeds at this task, and succeeds well. He indeed gives us “all the nutrition” of A Story of a Soul but with “none of the sugar.” In this biography, though, he accomplishes so much more.

In Part I of the book, he gives excellent summations of what he understands to be ‘everyday mysticism’ and what he understands to be Therese’s “the Little Way.” For everyday mysticism he writes, “Everyday mystical experiences are where God is present in everyday experiences, as if slightly under the surface, awaiting our notice.” This is where Therese finds God and finds her “Little Way.” Brother Joseph writes, “The one capacity Therese possessed is actually often an obstacle to holiness rather than a contributing factor; namely, a capacity to be self-preoccupied and self-reflective. Therese noticed everything about herself and she was willing to share that, not as a display of ego-centeredness, but as a manifestation of God’s work in her.” He continues, “The difference between these two attitudes is a very fine line, and the temptation to cross the line is always lurking. Therese’s glory is that she did not give in to that temptation.” By the way, this is exactly my definition of Carmelite spirituality, but Brother Joseph says it much clearer than I ever could. Part I of the book also provides lots of Therese trivia.

Here are some things I learned:

• There were so many calls to make Therese a Doctor of the Church immediately after her canonization that Rome had to declare a ‘silence’ on the issue in 1932.

• Therese is revered also by the Orthodox Church, various Protestant churches, and even among Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

• Over 5000 biographies of Therese have been published.

• Therese is the most quoted woman in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

• The Catechism defines prayer using Therese’s description.

In fact, Brother Joseph’s ‘unpacking’ of Therese’s description of prayer is excellent and if he accomplished nothing else, this alone would have made this book well worth reading.

Then in Part II, Brother Joseph retells Therese’s story. Here he again shows his mastery of the material because he weaves everything— her Story of a Soul, her poems, her letters, the material her sister, Celine, captured in Her Last Conversations, and the recollections from those who knew Therese personally—into a seamless biography while using Therese’s own words from all those sources to illustrate her spiritual growth and development. Masterful! You will need to have pen and paper handy to write down all the good quotations.

I have not read all 5000 biographies of Therese that have been published, but I suspect that Brother Joseph’s Everything is Grace may have surpassed them all. This book is an essential volume in any Carmelite’s personal collection of books, in every Carmelite library, and for anyone embarked on the search for God.