In the writings of the Saint of Lisieux we find 23 quotations from Teresa of Avila and at least 100 references to her. It can be said that the influence of the one over the other was made by a slow absorption, by osmosis. Indeed it is in living the teachings of the reformer of Carmel every day that we are infused with her spirituality. As far as the influence of St. John of the Cross is concerned, it was probably a different matter: No doubt the transmission of his spirituality was through the reading of his writings.
In November of 1882, Pauline, Therese’s sister already a Carmelite, sent Therese a holy picture of the flight of the young Teresa de Ahumada to the country of the Moors, in search of life “for ever,and ever, and ever…”  In the letter accompanying this image we read: “I pray to Jesus to make of my little Therese another St. Teresa, except that she will not go to seek martyrdom in the world! Oh no! What I ask is that she may find the ways in which to please the Child Jesus everyday and to offer to Him all the flowers of her little way!” (LC 4) In that quotation, we can already see the germination of the entirety of  her Little Way.
We can find numerous points of contact between our two saints: The desire to love Jesus beyond belief, a sense of Divine Mercy (both autobiographical narrations are dedicated to the Divine Mercy: “Misericordias Domini inaeternum cantabo!”), the love of Holy Scripture, the love of the desert, the love of fraternal life and of the apostolic and missionary dimensions. One of the last photographs of Therese of the Child Jesus in the cloister of Lisieux shows her holding a quote taken from the Way of Perfection of St. Teresa, our mother: “I would have laid down a thousand lives to save one single  soul.”
We can therefore say that the Little Flower helps us to read the Great Saint Teresa in what is essential. Each of them has their own beauty and each highlights the true sense of the mystical life: A life that gives testimony to the same heroic virtues in both of them. Therese can help us to enter more deeply into our Holy Mother, Teresa. Therese’s holiness, hidden in the ordinary life and enlightened by simplicity and confidence, sheds light on and gives an authentic understanding of the mystical way. It is not a matter of  extraordinary phenomena but rather of  a deep tranquility of our soul that unifies and theologically transfigures the whole person, and making  fruitful her prayer and the offering of herself.

(Carmel of Pater Noster)