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t hirteen-year-old Thérèse as usual anticipating her presents. “Papa had always loved to see my happiness and listen to my cries of delight as I drew each surprise from the magic shoes.” 30 This time, however, he was tired and uncharacteristically irritable. As Thérèse climbed the stairs to put away her hat so that the opening of presents could begin, she overheard him say something in regard to the cherished family custom that pierced her to the soul: “Well, fortunately, this will be the last year!” Thérèse’s normal response would have been a flood of tears. Amazingly, “Thérèse was no longer the same; Jesus had changed her heart!” She recounts what happened next: “Forcing back my tears, I descended the stairs rapidly; controlling the poundings of my heart, I took my slippers and placed them in front of Papa and withdrew all the objects joyfully. . . . Thérèse had discovered once again the strength of soul which she had lost at the age of four and a half, and she was to preserve it forever!” 31 This little episode became a true turning point. “I felt charity enter my soul, and the need to forget myself and to please others. . . . I experienced a great desire to work for the conversion of sinners, a desire I hadn’t felt so intensely before. . . . The cry of Jesus on the Cross sounded continually in my heart: ‘I thirst!’ These words ignited within me an unknown and very living fire.” 32 Soon she heard about a “great criminal” who was about to be executed. “I wanted at all costs to prevent him from falling into hell, and to attain my purpose I employed every means imaginable.” Eventually she discovered her prayers had been answered: “Pranzini had not gone to confession. He had mounted the scaffold and was preparing to place his head in the formidable opening, when suddenly, seized by an inspiration, he turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him and kissed the sacred wounds three times! Then his soul went to receive the merciful sentence of Him who declares that in heaven there will be more joy over one Excerpted from By Way of Grace by Paula Huston. Copyrighted material.