St. Elizabeth of the Trinity - Feast - November 8th

Blog St. Elizabeth of the Trinity - Feast - November 8th
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Apostoli_Viae

Nov 7, 2024

Our beautiful, inspirational saint started life on an air base, appropriate for a person whose soul flew to Heaven within while she was yet on earth. She was born Elizabeth Catez on July 18, 1880. Her army officer father died when Elizabeth was seven. That same year, she made her first Confession and discovered that Her Father in heaven was merciful. Although she had been a proud, hot-tempered child, she began to change upon making Confession and this change deepened and she grew in self-control after her first Communion in 1891. Interestingly, in connection with the Novena we did to St. Michael the Archangel, she celebrated this sacrament at Saint Michel (Saint Michael). Her Confirmation followed at Notre Dame a year later. All along, she studied music, being educated at home. She was a talented pianist and the Dijon Conservatory awarded her a certificate. She had one sister, Marguerite (Guite) Chevignard, who had two children. St. Elizabeth wrote in joy about their births to her sister upon receiving the news of their births. Her love for those around her, including those in the cloister with her was real and genuine infused by her love of God, and given from a heart that was so close to Jesus that His love poured through it, based on the tenderness of her wishes for those near to her in that time and her wishes to bestow blessings on all souls from Heaven by bringing all into the silence where God may best be found as He looks for us.
As her love for the Trinity increased in her life, it became visible in her acts of service to those around her, in particular her work catechizing factory children. She rejected all marriage possibilities, for she had a dream of entering Carmel, which began when the Mother Superior happened to give her a circular to read, which happened to be an early edition of St. Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul. When St. Elizabeth’s mother allowed her to enter the Carmel at Dijon upon attaining the age of 21, it was a fulfillment of a call that had begun upon reading her sister Carmelite’s writings where she had begun to understand the movements of God within her.
In the five short years she lived within the cloister, she wrote many letters and several retreats. Her most famous prayer is “O Trinity Whom I adore” which we prayed during our Novena. She lived her life of love and intense prayer despite suffering from Addison’s disease, and felt she lived to be the “praise of the glory” of God. This sense of intimacy with God should move us to ask for her intercession and to be confident of her joyous request of the Lord on our behalf to help us enter into the Divine Intimacy she has found and within which she has realized that the Trinity seeks her even more than she seeks Him. Her name in Hebrew (Elisheba)means “God in Abundance” and her desire is to see more souls realize that abundance in their lives, not waiting to have tears wiped away in Heaven only, but living in the praise of His glory in joy while we are yet here, as she did.Her death came early after three years of suffering from Addison’s disease. She saw the sufferings as a way to be united with Christ Crucified and therefore her last words were,“I am going to Light, to Love, to Life!” (Circular Letter of Mother Germaine Prioress). She entered Heaven on Nov 9, 1906. The Carmelite Order placed her feast on November 8th. She was beatified in 1984 by Pope John Paul II and canonized in 2016 by Pope Francis. She is the patron saint of the sick, those who have lost a parent, and against illness.

Interestingly, in her cell in Dijon, Our Lady of Lourdes graces a corner of it, and it seems appropriate that Mary, Who worshipped the Lord within her Womb would be present there in the cell of St. Elizabeth, who as it says in her propers “devoted her live to profound adoration of the hidden God. Of course, her readings contain the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians (1:3 & 10:13-14) where she found the phrase in praise of His glory. Wonderfully, the Gospel comes from John 14:23-26 verses about the Holy Spirit that she knew enabled her to live out the words in Sacred Scripture. May all of us in Apostoli Viae be joyful in knowing we have given her joy in requesting her assistance and praying the beautiful prayer she wrote without stopping in 1904 that we prayed each day of the Novena we finish today. St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us!

Image in the public domain.

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“Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. These are the words that can start a quest in your heart. Simple to understand. Difficult to live, even in a life where each day begins with mental prayer. It is a singular gift to realize to any depth, much less the depth she realized it, as we see by her pierced heart, that God alone suffices. Or God alone is enough. On this, her Feast Day, as we recite the last of her Novena, let us consider soaking in her wisdom as our Novena prayer has recommended. Remembering Dan’s presentations about her Four Waters may help. Here they are simplified for brevity’s sake and not connected to all their meanings with regard to prayer, but more to God’s actions. In gratitude for her example, consider: First, drawing water from the well was not easy for St. Teresa. She even had to step on the rope that held the bucket as it was slowly brought back up full of water, heavy! Here we work hardest against our distractions, and yet our hard work lets us see clearly it is His grace that allows detachment from the world so as to focus on Heaven. Second, water coming in from a water wheel means less work on our part as the water flows in by its own weight, operating the wheel and pouring it into the garden of our soul. Again, we see God doing the work, pulling out weeds (vices), and planting good plants (virtues). We simply cooperate with His grace. Third, a stream or gentle river that pours his grace into our soul with less noise and less effort yet, where our soul opens to receive the life-giving flow in silence and without many barriers as the water simply soaks into the soil of our soul near the stream causing yet more growth. Fourth, the rain, the gentle rain that falls from above, cleaning all, leaving all new, yet evenly watered, a rain where we do not control where it falls, nor how long it falls, nor how deeply it penetrates for all of that is up to God and we are overjoyed at however He causes it to happen in our souls, for the resulting growth is not predictable but is deeper and less limited by area near it as it is by the flow of a stream. St. Teresa, who lived in a time where water was a precious commodity, and in a country where it can be scarce even in this time, used this very practical, real experience to teach us truths that can be grasped relatively easily with the mind, but take years of time to assimilate into our hearts. St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us to remain in the springs of His salvation as He promised: 37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ Jn. 7: 37-38. Let us thirst for God in community, with clarity and accountability! Image: St. Teresa, pierced heart close up from Avila pilgrimage 2023 Alba de Tormes.

The Annunciation - March 25th, 2025

Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. (St. Luke i. 30.) 1. Mary's life as Joseph's spouse was no less one of devotion and recollection and prayer than her life in the Temple. In their little cottage her time was spent, when her household duties were done, in fervent prayer to God. Thus she is said to have been occupied when the archangel Gabriel appeared to her. Mary's prayers and Mary's longing desires had moved the Heart of God to send a Redeemer for mankind! Oh, omnipotent efficacy of earnest desire and persevering prayer! 2. The message the angel brought bewildered the chaste and humble maiden. Her first thought was one of fear—fear lest the privilege announced to her should be purchased at the cost of her immaculate virginity: she would not sacrifice this even to be Mother of the Messiah: anything rather than forfeit that priceless jewel! 3. But God, Who sent an angel to comfort Christ in His Passion, reassured Mary by the angel's voice: Fear not, thou hast found grace with God: Because thou dost esteem thyself the most unworthy, God will exalt thee to a dignity which seems almost beyond the power of God to confer. He will make thee the Mother of His Son. Oh, wondrous dignity of true humility! Mary, it was thy lowliness, Well pleasing to the Lord, That made thee worthy to become The Mother of the Word. Text from "The Devout Year" (Maria Magnificata), by Rev. R. F. Clarke, SJ. (public domain); Image: Annunciation, by William Brassey Hole (public domain) Text Image: Angel Gabriel, Simone Martini in 1330 (public domain, in NGA); Annunciation, Joos van Cleve in 1525 (public domain MET)

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity - Feast - November 8th

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