I was having a meal with a teaching friend, and for the first time I decided to confide with someone other than my priest, that I was wondering if God was calling me to be a nun. It felt a bit embarrassing but I got it out and told her.

'I must show you something' she said, and went upstairs. 'This ring belonged to St Therese' she said, returning. I held the little thing in my hand.

'It was one of her earrings when she was a girl. My brother has the other. We are related to her and it was passed down to us.' I knew nothing about Therese of Lisieux.

A few weeks before, a friend who is an Augustinian novice had recommended her little book to me: 'A Story of a Soul'. But up to that point I had done nothing.

At the end of the evening I went home and looked up Therese on Wikipedia. Then I ordered her little book, and when it arrived, I read it.

It has had a big impact on my life. I was shaken by its grace and by her life, and what it might cost, to surrender to the fire of holy love.