Twelve Little Ways to Transform Your Heart: Lessons in Holiness and Evangelization from St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s “Little Way” has been embraced by people of all walks of life. In Twelve Little Ways to Transform Your Heart, author Susan Muto explores twelve facets of St. Thérèse’s simple spiritual path as a way to personal holiness and the secret to being a powerful witness to Christ in the world today.

Though she lived only to the age of twenty-four and spent almost her entire life at her family home and in the Carmelite convent, St. Thérèse of Lisieux displayed a love for Jesus and a passion for his gospel that have made her the patroness of the missions. The “Little Flower’s” humility and childlike trust are still powerful examples of how ordinary people can grow closer to Jesus and respond to Pope Francis’s call for a new evangelization.

The calls to holiness and to witness to Christ can seem daunting, but as Susan Muto—renowned speaker and expert on Carmelite spirituality—explains, Thérèse shows us that they are neither difficult nor dramatic. The Little Way can be lived by any of us, even with what Thérèse called the “ministry of the smile.”

With deep insight and warm personal devotion, Muto explains the Little Way and will help you put twelve dimensions of it into practice, drawing others to Christ by living a simple, joyful life. These twelve ways, derived from the example of Thérèse, are:

• Learn to love the hidden life
• Appreciate what a treasure the ordinary is
• Trust in Divine Mercy as little children do
• Receive the sacraments devoutly day after day
• Abandon yourself to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• Foster friendship with God and others
• Take up your cross and follow Jesus
• Pray unceasingly
• Simplify your life
• Let God free you to be your best self
• Commit yourself—body, mind, and spirit—to living the Gospel
• Leave a legacy of evangelical virtues others want to cultivate

Muto features short quotations from the saint’s autobiography, poetry, letters, and prayers, as well as perceptive reflection questions and personal prayers to show how imitating Thérèse can make us a powerful force of love. Muto also offers practical spiritual advice for those who want to deepen their faith and are attracted to the simplicity of St. Thérèse’s Little Way.

Susan Muto, executive director of the Epiphany Association, is a renowned speaker, author, teacher, and dean of the Epiphany Academy of Formative Spirituality.

Muto earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Pittsburgh, where she specialized in the work of post-Reformation spiritual writers. Beginning in 1966, she served in administrative positions at the Institute of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University and taught as a full professor in its programs, edited its journals, and served as its director from 1981 to 1988. An expert in literature and spirituality, she continues to teach courses on an adjunct basis at a number of schools, seminaries, and centers of higher learning.

Muto is a frequent contributor to scholarly and popular journals such as Mount Carmel and Spiritual Life Magazine, and served as editor of Epiphany’s online journals and courses, including Growing in, with, and through Christ. She is the author of more than thirty books, among them Twelve Little Ways to Transform Your Heart and the award-winning Gratefulness. She is the coauthor—with Rev. Adrian van Kaam, C.S.Sp. (1920-2007)—of more than forty books, including Commitment: Key to Christian Maturity, and The Power of Appreciation.

Muto lectures and leads conferences, seminars, workshops, and institutes nationally and internationally. She has received many distinctions for her work, including a doctor of humanities degree from King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She was honored in 2009 with a lifetime achievement award by the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Muto also was the recipient of the 2014 Aggiornamento Award presented of the Catholic Library Association. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Mike Aquilina is a Catholic author, popular speaker, poet, and songwriter who serves as the executive vice president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.