All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri

Episode: St. Thérèse & Trauma: The Real Story of Her Soul (Part 2)

Date: September 30, 2025
Host: Dr. Edward Sri

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the deep psychological and spiritual wounds of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, focusing on the underappreciated traumas of her early life. Dr. Sri explores how these experiences shaped Thérèse’s “Little Way,” demonstrating that sanctity is not about erasing wounds but finding Christ’s healing strength amid them. The episode also offers reflection on how our personal wounds can become arenas of holiness.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Unpacking the Suitcase – Why We Get "Stuck"

• [00:00–06:30]
  • Dr. Sri uses a personal TSA story as a metaphor: we often carry unconscious hurts (“water bottles”) that prevent us from progressing spiritually, no matter how hard we try or pray.
  • Many faithful Catholics struggle with recurring anger, anxiety, perfectionism, or defensiveness, despite sincere efforts.
  • The root, Dr. Sri suggests, often lies not in insufficient effort or prayer, but in unaddressed wounds from the past: “There’s something in our suitcase that we need to unpack... something we need to unpack in our souls, something we need to unpack in our story, our life story from our past that's holding us back.” [03:05]

Early Life Trauma of St. Thérèse

• [06:35–11:30]
  • Thérèse lost her mother at age four and a half, marking a dramatic shift from a confident child to being timid, hypersensitive, and emotionally volatile.
  • Two further traumatic events:
    • Boarding School Separation: Despite academic success, Thérèse suffered deep loneliness and described these as “the saddest days of her life,” never revealing her pain to anyone.
    • Loss of “Second Mother” Pauline: After her mother’s death, Pauline became her primary attachment figure. Pauline’s entry into the convent, which Thérèse interpreted as a broken promise, left the child feeling both abandoned and betrayed.

“Pauline was going to leave me to enter a convent. I understood that she would not wait for me. And I was about to lose my second mother.” – St. Thérèse, quoted by Dr. Sri [14:55]

The Layered Abandonments and the “Mother Wound”

• [11:31–25:00]
  • Sri traces a series of abandonments in Thérèse’s youth: separated from her mother as an infant (due to the need for a wet nurse), from her wet nurse at 15 months, reattachment struggles, her mother’s death, and then Pauline’s departure.
  • These accumulated in a profound “mother wound,” rarely discussed compared to father wounds.
  • The repeated pattern: Thérèse never voiced her pain, instead internalizing it until she became gravely ill.
  • Her sickness was both physical and psychological, manifesting in violent headaches, rashes, delirium, and terrifying visions (including urges to harm herself).

“I believe I'd become ill on purpose. I became ill on purpose.” – St. Thérèse, quoted by Dr. Sri [30:00]

The Miraculous Healing and the Search for a Mother

• [25:01–35:00]
  • At rock bottom, Thérèse calls out for her mother and is ultimately consoled by a vision of the Virgin Mary smiling at her:

“What penetrated the depths of my soul the most was the ravishing smile of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” – St. Thérèse, Story of a Soul, quoted by Dr. Sri [33:05]

• Dr. Sri frames the healing as not just physical but deeply emotional—specifically through the gift of spiritual motherhood from Mary.

The Christmas Miracle: Healing, Not Erasure

• [35:01–44:30]
  • Dr. Sri recounts Thérèse’s pivotal “Christmas miracle”: Overhearing her father’s tired, dismissive remark after Midnight Mass—something that would typically provoke an emotional breakdown—Thérèse instead is given sudden interior strength to control her emotions.
  • She notes this was not through her own effort, but a grace from Christ:

“The work I've been unable to do in 10 years, Christ did in that instant.” – St. Thérèse, quoted by Dr. Sri [40:25]

• Dr. Sri emphasizes: God does not always remove our wounds, but gives grace to transform how we engage them.

Key Theological Insight: Wounds as Context for Holiness

• [44:31–end]
  • Drawing from Fr. Mark Foley's The Context of Holiness, Sri highlights that Thérèse’s wounds were not removed but became the context for her sanctity.

“Therese was not healed of her hypersensitivity. Rather, she was given the strength to deal with it... God did not remove Therese from the battle of her emotions, but gave her the fortitude to remain in the battle.” – Fr. Mark Foley, quoted by Dr. Sri [46:25]

• The scars from our past are not obstacles to holiness—they are the very arena where God offers grace and growth.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Need for Deep Healing:

“Our sins, our weaknesses, our wounds are really deep... God has to come in and do a deeper work.” – Dr. Sri [04:45]

• On Unhealed Wounds:

“Sometimes what we didn’t get [in our upbringing] affects us more than what we did receive.” – Dr. Sri [05:50]

• On the Perils of Burying the Past:

“These things from our lives really do affect us... But the challenge is many times, because we don’t want to go back and look at those things, we just bury them.” – Dr. Sri [23:40]

• On Receiving Grace:

“God did not free Therese from her hypersensitivity. He gave her the strength to attend to her emotions well, to redirect them.” – Dr. Sri [43:05]

• On Making Peace with Wounds:

“Therese did not make it a goal to get beyond the effects of her childhood, but to do the will of God in the midst of them.” – Fr. Mark Foley, quoted by Dr. Sri [47:10]

Reflections and Takeaways

• Thérèse’s journey challenges the notion that holiness requires the erasure of psychological or emotional wounds; instead, grace enables us to respond differently to our “battles.”
• The “mother wound” is real and spiritually significant. Thérèse’s story invites listeners to pay attention not just to father wounds, but also unmet maternal needs.
• The episode closes with encouragement for listeners to “open the suitcase” of their own souls, asking what hidden wounds might be shaping their spiritual struggles, and to invite Christ into those spaces—not to “fix” them, but to experience his strength within them.

Segment Timestamps

• 00:00–06:30 — TSA metaphor, struggle despite prayer/effort, need to “unpack” past wounds
• 06:31–11:30 — Thérèse’s mother’s death, emotional transformation, introduction of boarding school/Pauiline separation
• 11:31–25:00 — Analysis of serial abandonment, the “double blow” of boarding school and Pauline’s departure, betrayal, and suppressing injured emotions
• 25:01–35:00 — Thérèse’s psychosomatic illness and spiritual-psychological crisis, search for mother, vision of Mary’s smile
• 35:01–44:30 — Christmas miracle, new strength to manage emotions, grace as healer (not eraser) of wounds
• 44:31–end — Fr. Foley’s insight: wounds as context for sanctity, practical encouragement for listeners

By rooting Thérèse’s story in her trauma and highlighting the supernatural grace she received without erasing her emotional struggles, Dr. Sri offers a powerful, compassionate model for understanding growth in holiness—not as perfection, but as faithful perseverance in the very places we are most hurt and vulnerable.