The Dove and Rose

S3E3 - A phenomenologically reoriented intellect through the "Thérèsian affect"


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What St. Thérèse is saying is true - I just don't know what she is saying.

We are entering the Dark Forest! In this episode we take our first steps after my conversion to the Catholic Church on the Feast Day of St. Thérèse in the year 1984. I came to understand that what Thérèse was saying was true - I just did not know what it was that she was saying!

I call this phenomenological experience the “Thérèsian affect.”

Reflecting on the past, particularly through journaling, is a way to remove the cover, the hiddenness, from our inauthentic being in the world and reveal our true authentic selves. I am walking the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with you by reflecting on my past as it phenomenologically appears to me. I invite you to do the same. Step out of the mindless, day-today and enter into a reflection.


Thérèse established a new mindset in me. I had been given new life in the Church - the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary - through the “Thérèsian affect.” However, my intellect and sense of meaning and being in the world was still framed in the old inauthenticity of mindless everydayness. I suffered immensely for many years.

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The Dove and RoseBy Walter Emerson