Therese recounts at age 6 when she offered a poor man on crutches her penny and how, when he kindly refused her, she felt she might of hurt and humiliated him. She resolved that at her First Communion five years later to pray for that man. She tried hard to please Jesus every day and not offend to Him (she does relate a childhood fault of anger and remorse toward the intention of Victoire, the maid, for what Therese mistook as a wicked act that was revealed as a kindly gesture).

Therese makes her first confession, and since Marie had told her she was actually confessing to God not a man, she asks whether she should tell the priest she loves him with all her heart, since she was speaking to God. During confession, Father Ducellier urges Therese to increase her devotion to Our Lady and blesses her rosary. Therese says that she had never experienced such happiness after confession, “a foretaste of eternal happiness.” Afterward, Therese carefully examines the rosary beads under a street light, “to see what a blessed rosary looks like,” much to the amusement of Marie.