As St. John of the Cross had written: In the evening of life we will be judged by our love St. Therese believed that love was everything. She recognized the centrality of love when she read I Corinthians 13; she wanted to embrace that call.

She translated this desire for love by developing her relationship to Jesus Christ. She gave each day to him as a way of manifesting her love for him. When she discovered that life was not easy in the convent of Lisieux, that some of the nuns were coarse and difficult to live with, she came to the conclusion that the condition would be chronic. It was not going to go away. Therefore she had to decide how she would live within this environment. She discovered her little way: to accept that each one came ultimately from the divine artist and thus each one is loved forever by God. Therefore she would love them as best she could, a kind word, a smile, an assist when she was able. In fact, she learned in the process that there is deep down a union between love of God and love of neighbor. She wrote that the more my life is focused in Jesus Christ, the more I am able to love my Sisters.

St. Therese’s personal experience led her to recognize that God was at the centre of her existence as Love. In view of the immensity of the world and the complexities of life she saw herself as ‘a child,’ ‘a grain of sand,’ ‘little’ but energized by a God who directed her journey in faith.

‘Tout est grace’ she had said, ‘All is grace’.

She lived out this commitment in the midst of ‘a dark tunnel’ during the last year of her life and through her affliction and suffering. The child of her beginning had moved into the adult child of mature discipleship. Both phases were identified in the heart of love.

– Reflections by Rev. John F. Russell, O.Carm

Source-  https://www.littleflower.org/therese/reflections/st-therese-and-love

Shri Vinod ji Agarwal, likewise emphasizes-

https://forbeingalive.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/grace.mp3