Therese’s First Communion “was a complete fusion” with Jesus and so filled her with heavenly joy that she wept. Those around her thought she cried because of something on her conscience or because her mother was dead and not attending. She felt that, “As all Heaven entered my soul when I received Jesus, my mother came to me as well.” She longed for the next time when he would come to her again [Communion was distributed mainly on Holy Days at this time].

Later that day Therese witnessed Pauline, dressed in white as Therese had been earlier, become a bride of Christ with perpetual vow at the Carmel, and she longed to be by her side. She recited St. Paul’s words to herself from Galatians (2:20), “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Upon reflecting on the suffering of the Cross and her future crosses, Therese wrote, “My soul was filled with such a flood of consolation as I have never had in all my life.” “Suffering began to attract me,” and Therese felt a “great desire: to love God only and find my joy in Him alone.”