Leadership Lessons From Two Women of Carmel

“Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love” (St. John of the Cross).

I have had a devotion to St. Thérèse of Lisieux for 17 years, since I chose her as my Confirmation saint. In that time, the Carmelites have been following me. Every time I read a story about heroic religious, it seems, they are Carmelites. (Have you heard of the Martyrs of Compiègne?! Seriously amazing women.)

I discovered St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known by her pre-Carmel name, Edith Stein, in 2018 through the session of the FemCatholic book club that discussed Anne Costa’s book “Embracing Edith Stein.” After that book, I read Waltraud Herbstrith’s biography of her and then her “Essays on Woman.” I constantly reference those essays for my writing, and I always find richness there.

Last fall, my husband and I invited a member of the St. Teresa of Jesus community of Discalced Secular Carmelites, the Raleigh-area third order Carmelites, to a meeting of the “Spirits & Wisdom” event that we host each month for the Raleigh area Catholic young adults group. Again, I found a treasure in this kind, funny woman who is utterly devoted to God.

I still have a lot to learn about Carmelite spirituality, but I know it can inform my prayer life in wonderful ways. What I have learned is that my two favorite Carmelites — St. Thérèse and St. Teresa (whom, along with St. Teresa of Calcutta, I affectionately and presumptuously call my Teresas) — can inform every aspect of a woman’s life, including her role as a leader.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Quiet Leadership by Example

St. Thérèse does not, at first glance, seem like a saint who would inspire business leaders. After all, she never worked in business, going straight from her father’s home to Carmel at age 15 and dying there at age 24. However, her “Little Way” has much to teach us about how we live our work lives. One lesson for leaders, whether they are leaders in name or not, is her example of quiet servant leadership.

Thérèse is known for her “little way,” her simple path of small holy actions that lead to sanctification. While leaders often have to take big actions, they are often known, at least among the people who work most closely with them, for their small ones — for taking the time to ask a team member how his new college student is doing at school or for their open door policy and their habit of never turning away someone who needs their help.

While at Carmel, Thérèse became the pen pal and mentor of several priests, whom she called her brothers. Her leadership, in the form of humble spiritual motherhood, guided these priests, one of whom wrote her, “Do you know that you open up new horizons to me? … My dear, very dear little Sister, I leave you in the Heart of Jesus, where I often find you, and where I hope to meet you always.”

Thérèse also became the assistant mistress of novices, in charge of training new nuns. Again, she demonstrated quiet leadership through spiritual motherhood. She was firm but never relished correcting others’ behavior; rather, “I would prefer a thousand times to receive reproofs than to give them to others; however, I feel it is necessary that this be a suffering for me,” she wrote in her autobiography, “Story of a Soul.” What better approach to management, particularly managing employee performance, than hers?

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross: No Truth Without Love, nor Love Without Truth

A philosopher and teacher, and then Carmelite nun, Teresa Benedicta also does not seem like a model for business leadership at first. But she has so much to teach women, about all areas of our lives, so why not leadership?

As a writer and editor, my own professional motto comes from Edith Stein: “Do not accept anything as truth that lacks love and do not accept anything as love that lacks truth. One without the other is a destructive lie.” This statement is not only good advice for writers, though; with the preponderance of social media platforms — and good old-fashioned conversations — we all have a responsibility to “[speak] the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

In her writing and her lectures, Teresa Benedicta led with loving truth. She called for an authentic recognition of the dignity and vocation of women, she dramatically changed her life when she discovered Catholicism and her vocation to religious life, and she ultimately offered that life as a sacrifice at Auschwitz.

Edith Stein had a great love of truth. She believed that she found it in Christ when she read St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography (the launching point of her conversion to Catholicism), but she had spent her life to that point searching for it. And, as Jan H. Nota, S.J., writes in his introduction to Waltraud Herbstrith’s biography of Teresa Benedicta, “Not only did she want to hear the truth, even when it was at her own expense, she also had the courage to say it to and about others … The fascinating thing to me about Edith Stein was that truth did not exist as an abstraction for her but as something incarnated in persons and therefore as inconceivable apart from love.”

As leaders, as women, and as Catholics, may we all strive to see truth incarnate in our employees, our colleagues, our friends — and in strangers!

Taryn Oesch DeLong, managing editor of Catholic Women in Business, is an editor and writer in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband and works in digital media. Passionate about supporting women in work, in life, and in health, she is assistant editor and contributing writer at FemCatholic and an almost-certified fertility awareness educator. When she’s not helping writers craft stories and writing her own nonfiction and fiction, you'll find Taryn reading Jane Austen and drinking a cup of Earl Grey tea, playing the flute or the piano, or volunteering. You can follow Taryn on Instagram and Twitter @tarynmdelong, on Facebook, or on her blog.