“St. Therese has definitely given me a firm foundation of faith to build on... I am more confident in who I am and in who God is, and I think I am more prepared for life than I could have been any other way,” said Quiring.

“(The program is) ultimately a real experience of the love of God through the people, prayer, the work and everything we do here at the school. I feel at home here.”

Jim Anderson, the school’s director, said the school is already “well-established and remarkably well,” and he is looking “forward to the strengthening and deepening of the program” as it heads into its fourth year.

“In three years, we have had students from almost every province, as well as one student from the States and (prospective students from several other countries),” said Anderson.

Anderson said the school offers St. Therese of Lisieux’s accessible and universal “doctrine of spiritual childhood,” where one places complete confidence in the Father of love, thus coming to deep healing and conversion.

The program, Anderson said, aims to provide its students with the what, how and why of a life lived in faith, in the context of a rich community life firmly based in this St. Therese spirituality, study, prayer, Christian fellowship and faithfulness to the Church.

“Ultimately, we’re aiming to establish a habit of holiness that will last throughout the lives of the students... As John Paul II says in Redemptoris Missio, ‘the witness of a Christian life is the first and irreplaceable form of mission,’ ” said Anderson.

The fruit of the program is evident in the school’s graduates, he said, and the most beautiful thing he witnesses as director is conversion.

“Hearts are changing. Lives are changing,” said Anderson. “(As I’ve seen), a student that comes with an openness of heart to God and to the community of St. Therese will experience profound change and growth.

“They will experience the love of God in a way they never thought possible.”

Anderson also noted however, the challenges of running such a unique program.

“It’s difficult to have people recognize the value of the program... We tend to be in a functionally oriented society where we take our identity in what we do,” said Anderson.

He added that the Western mind struggles to get beyond its focus on production, even within the Church.

“As one student noted this year, we’re human beings, not human doings. Without understanding who we are, we can’t do what we’re supposed to do,” said Anderson, emphasizing the program aims first to bring about personal holiness.

At the end of each year, a full-length play is put on, which the students and staff take on tour. An outgrowth of the first-year class’s pilgrimage to the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec, Anderson said the play has become indispensable.

“We found it to be a very effective means of solidifying and exercising the virtues which the students have learned throughout the year,” said Anderson. “It’s a lived (Christian) witness and a beautiful activity in building a culture of life.”

St. Therese is currently accepting student applications for the 2010-2011 year and will re-commence in early September.

(Wolfe, 21, will be pursuing a Master of Sacred Theology degree at the International Theological Institute in Trumau, Austria, this fall.)