Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity - Elizabeth and Therese - Part II

BLESSED ELIZABETH
OF THE TRINITY

1880 - 1906

Update 16 (26th March 2006)

ELIZABETH AND THERESE

Part II

Notes	Scope,limitations, disclaimers.
Introduction	©
LIGHT The Love of God for us and our love for God ---------------- Mission	© Measuring up to His Love Embracing His Love Little Way of Spiritual Childhood ------------- ©
DESIRE	© To be in His Love To be purified through His Love To love Him with His Love
JOY, PLEASURE, HAPPINESS	©
Postcript	©

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'ELIZABETH and THERESE'

(Part II)

“I prayed to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, not to cure me
but to give me the use of my legs, and I was able to walk.” [El,1]

NOTES

2. There is no intention of discussing in detail the spiritual doctrine of St Therese, or of contrasting this with that of Bl. Elizabeth. This is covered in: ‘Two Sisters in the Spirit’, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Ignatius, 1992.
3. Although some repetition from other Updates is inevitable, the aim of this Update is to ‘hint at both similar, and dissimilar, lines of thought between the two sisters in topics included within the primacy of love.
4. For ease of identification, in this Update, quotations/references to Sr Therese are prefixed ‘Th’ and those of Sr Elizabeth ‘El’.
5. Note that a translation of Ch XI of HA is included on this web-site.
6. References '[ ]' in this Update are neither 'active' nor provided with 'tool-tips'. Access to the expanded references is obtained by clicking the active track of the twin tracks on the left side of this text.
7. The opinions expressed are those of the site owner and as such may not be assumed to reflect or to represent the official teaching of Holy Mother Church at any time past or present, neither are those opinions intended in any way as criticism by the site owner of Holy Mother Church or her pastors.

PRAYER OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

I give You thanks, O holy Lord, Father almighty,. eternal God, who have vouchsafed, not for any merits of mine, but solely out of the condescension of Your mercy, to satisfy me, a sinner, Your unworthy servant, with the precious Body and Blood of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that this holy Communion be not to me a condemnation unto punishment, but a saving plea unto forgiveness. May it be unto me the armour of faith and the shield of good will. May it be the emptying out of my vices, the extinction of all concupiscence and lust, the increase of charity and patience, of humility and obedience, and of all virtues; a strong defence against the snares of all enemies, visible and invisible; the perfect quieting of all my evil impulses, both fleshly and spiritually; a firm cleaving unto You, the one true God; and a pledge of a blessed destiny. And I beseech You, that You would vouchsafe to bring me, a sinner, to that ineffable banquet, where You, with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, are to Your saints true Light, complete Satiety, everlasting Joy, supreme Pleasure and perfectHappiness. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

INTRODUCTION

At the time of her Profession one would expect there to be very little difference between the doctrine of Sr Elizabeth and Sr Therese. The nuns were both Discalced Carmelites well versed in the works of our holy Mother and Father and the Charism of our Order; and Sr Elizabeth would have loved the opportunity to study ‘Histoire d’une Ame in depth while in the novitiate. As Fr de Meester has pointed out, Sr Elizabeth did not live long enough “to discover fully her personal style and vocabulary” [2]. The important word in this quotation is ‘fully’; for noticeable differences are apparent in some areas of doctrine. For example: both nuns wrote about their ‘heavenly missions’: these are different, but not as different as the respective wording appears to suggest. When examining their ‘earthly missions’, it is important not to ‘label’ either nun: Sr Therese with the ‘Little Way’; and Sr Elizabeth with ‘Praise of Glory’ or ‘Heaven in Faith’. Even a cursory glance at their writings reveals a much wider scope in their respective doctrines.

One aim of this Update is to reveal that scope by ‘broadening the base’: to use a more holistic approach. There is no suggestion that ‘love’ is not central: St Thomas Aquinas writes of the ‘primacy of love’ because God is Love (1Jn 4:8), and our ‘eyes’ are on God. Where God is, there is Heaven and Heaven is in our souls [El,3]. Bishop Hedley writes of the ‘circumstances’ of Heaven – “ideas which assist us, in our pilgrimage, to dwell upon the thought of Heaven”: Light, Satiety, Joy, Pleasure, and Happiness [4]. These five ideas come in the conclusion to St Thomas’s ‘Prayer of Thanksgiving after Mass’ from which one may visualize those ‘circumstances’ in an ‘imperfect’ form, as they exist in our souls. Heaven means Light or Knowledge – now we only see “through a glass in a dark manner” (1 Cor.13:12), even though God may reveal knowledge according to His Will. Here on earth our desires can never be satisfied, while some of those desires no longer exist in Heaven. We long to “know Him”, who is Truth; to “love Him”, who is Love; and to “serve Him” in obedience to His Will; always, more perfectly. Although the remaining circumstances of Joy, Pleasure, and Happiness, are frequently treated as synonyms; in the present context the shades of meaning need to be considered. Again, in the present context of our heaven ‘ici-bas’, it will be more apposite to think of the ‘circumstances’ as ‘aspects of love’.

LIGHT - “The lord is my light” (Ps. 26:1)

God is true Light [5] or Knowledge [6]. Therese was aware at her First Communion that “Heaven itself dwelt in her soul” [Th,7] “He comes down from Heaven “to find another Heaven – the Heaven of our souls in which He takes great delight” [Th,8]. It is not clear when Elizabeth realised the full implication of this truth. “The day I understood that, everything became clear to me” [El,9].

God is the eternal Light that shines within our souls [10]. At Easter we joyously proclaim : ‘Christ, our Light’; believing with St John, that Christ is ‘the Light come into the world’ (Jn 3:19) :’the Light of Life’ (Jn 8:12;9:5;12:46;). Sr Elizabeth wished to bathe fully in the Light, and with an ‘inner silence’, to benefit from that Light [El,11]. The light of faith illumined her path her to Him; a faith so strong and unshakable, as if she had already seen God. [El,12]

As children of the Light, we are alive in Jesus. In Him, we are light and we are life: that is our calling ,our mission [13]. The extent to which we are able to fulfil that mission depends on a relentless quest for Christian Perfection: “the abyss of our nothingness being face to face with the abyss of the Immensity of the All of God” [El,14]. Consistent with the primacy of Love; our mission is to love God above all else, and through Him to love our neighbour.

The Love of God for us, and our love for God.
These notes are not intended as a re-run or a re-hash of previous Updates. The ‘aspects of love’ as illustrated by the lives, and works, of the 2 nuns have been given to us by the Holy Spirit to aid us in our quest.

“Here is the Master I give thee. He will teach thee all that thou shouldst do. I wish thee to read in the Book of Life in which is contained the science of love” [15].

“The science of Love! How sweetly do these words echo in my soul! That science alone do I desire.” [Th,16]. “I do believe that this is the knowledge of the saints, and I want to know no other” [El,17]; “May He Himself teach you the science of love” [El,18].

The science of Love is none other than contemplation [19] the ‘secret wisdom’ which “is communicated and infused into the soul through Love” [20].

Measuring up to His Love. Love is alive with movement: stop the movement and love dies. It would be nice to think that our love for God is always on the increase: that we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Sadly, when we go our own way, when we fall and give way to faults: thereby showing our weakness; our love for God does not increase. However, God is aware of our weakness, and soon heals us with a ‘Divine glance.

“I glory therein, and expect each day to find fresh imperfections”[Th,21], “If through weakness I should chance to fall, may a glance from Thine eyes straightway cleanse my soul” [Th,22], “I beseech Thee, My God, to be Thyself my Holiness” [Th,23] my sanctity [Th,24].

”Perhaps we will see faults, infidelities”[El,25], “He forgives us, His Divine glance purifies us” [El,26], “He wants us to be so pure; but He Himself must be our purity”[El,27], our sanctity [El,28]. Being docile to the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge our weakness [El,29], and seek help. ‘He in me and I in Him’ – Jesus is just waiting for our invitation [El,30] to make us what He wants us to be [El,31], He is there to pick us up when we fall [El,32]: He is our strength [El,33].

However, we need to give Jesus more than just an invitation. On-going purification needs to be accompanied by increased fidelity. Our Blessed Lord revealed to St Gertrude that we must find our fidelity in God. Sr Elizabeth wrote, “I beg Him to be Himself my fidelity.” [El,34] She illustrated the grace of fidelity as “A chain … in which each link, soldered by love, unites us more closely to the Master.” [El,35] The quality of that chain, our fidelity, is tested by our love. Fidelity to our Rule [El,36], to our Charism, to our ‘state of life’ [El,37], is a measure our love for God.

As a result of encouragement by her sister Marie, Sr Therese sought that ideal in everything she did, large or small, in her life: “Fidelity in little things is the way to become holy” [Th,38] At one point she attributed her “great aridity” to a lack of fidelity [ Th,39], but then she realised that Jesus was guiding her from moment to moment and that this was where her fidelity, her faithfulness must lie. She noted that every grace received faithfully brought many others. [Th,40]

Faithfulness is frequently used interchangeably with fidelity [41] and, hence, we must also find our faithfulness in God (1 Cor.1:9,10:13; Apoc.19:11) [El,42]. Sr Elizabeth asks her correspondents to pray that she may be faithful as His Bride [El,43]. “God wants us to be very faithful” [El,44], faithfully enduring sufferings [El,45]. Sr Elizabeth’s prayer was that people should “immerse themselves in the Heaven of their souls, and be faithful to the mission entrusted to them” [El,46]. The heaven of our souls which is an “abyss of Love we possess within us, where beatitude awaits us if we are faithful in returning there” [El,47].

Even in Sr Elizabeth’s farewell letters, ‘faithfulness’ was mentioned: “may He keep you wholly His, wholly faithful in Him” [El,48]; “conform your will faithfully to what God asks” [El,49]. In the very last letter, to her childhood playmate and lifelong friend, Charles Hallo, she wrote, “walk in the valiant faith that keeps the will always faithful” [El,50].

On-going purification always leads to a progressive simplification of ideas, as our experience of divine Love grows; as we grow more fully into children of God. “How necessary is this blessed unity for the soul that craves to live here-below the life of the blessed – that is of simple beings, of spirits! [El,51] Was not Sr Therese an exemplar of ‘simplicity’? Examples abound: the simplicity of the ‘Little Way’; the simplicity in her prayer life; the simplicity of her ‘little sacrifices’; and her simplicity in illness. We all can learn from her, and it would appear that Sr Elizabeth did so as well, as can be seen from the following pairs of quotations.

“Prayer is an uplifting of the heart” [Th,52], “an outpouring of your heart” [El,53]; “Without having lost my simplicity, I am able to express my thoughts with the greatest ease” .[Th,54], ”We must be so simple with God” [El,55]; ”We must wait on God knowing that He refuses nothing to faith” [El,56], “We must approach Him through His Heart – on that side He is vulnerable and defenceless” [Th57]; “If nights obscure our heaven, let us wait in faith” [El,58], “Jesus, as was His wont, slept in my little barque. How rarely do souls suffer Him to sleep in peace!”[Th,59].

Sr Elizabeth presents an excellent development of ‘simplicity and the soul’ in her spiritual treatise ‘Heaven in Faith’ [El,60]. This is also summarised in her ‘Last Retreat’, where she noted: “The soul, by the simplicity of the gaze which it fixes upon its Divine Object, is separated from all around it and, above all, from self” [El,61]. It has entered into “the fortress of holy recollection . By the light of faith it sees its God present dwelling within it, while, in turn, the soul is present to Him in its beautiful simplicity”. [El,62] In her letters from Carmel Sr Elizabeth had referred to the renunciation of self as “the great law of Christian life” [El,63] whereby “we die to self to leave room for God” [El,64].

Sr Therese was introduced to renunciation by her sister Marie, but it would appear that it was through intimate conversations with Celene that this blossomed fully : “little by little, self-sacrifice seemed to come more easily and without hesitation”. [Th,65] Throughout her life Sr Therese had practiced little sacrifices: “I am a very little soul, who can only offer very little things to Our Lord” [Th,66]. “Sacrifice is peculiarly the Christian element of holiness”.[67] Little sacrifices, or big ones, are ‘nothing’ spiritually, it is only Love that makes them ‘something’.

The same is true with suffering, God may, or may not, offer us the gift of suffering. If God, Our Father, offered His Divine Son the Gift of Suffering, and the Son took it up and offered it to His Father; can we do less as adopted sons? “It is all in God’s will, and rejoice in your physical sufferings that affect your soul as well, and remember that if you bear this state of powerlessness with fidelity, with love, you can cover Him with glory” [El,68]. “There is something so great, so divine, in suffering! It seems to me that if the blessed in Heaven could envy anything, it would be that treasure; it is so powerful a lever on the heart of God” [El,69]. Sr Therese expressed the same idea slightly differently: “What joy can be greater than to suffer for Thy Love” [Th,70]. When we offer up our suffering, Jesus suffers with us and His Sacred Heart is wounded. “It is delightful for He is there keeping me company, helping me to suffer, urging me to go beyond my suffering to rest in Him”. [El,71] The outpouring of Love is the source of our on-going purification, which conforms us more and more with Him: “I thank Thee, O my God, … for having purified me in the crucible of suffering” [Th,72].

It is well known that both Sr Therese and Sr Elizabeth ‘suffered’ dreadfully during their short lives, and died from incurable diseases. Their last days on earth were an example: then, to their sisters in religion; and, even now, to all on the way of Christian perfection. They died martyrs of love. In her ‘Act of Oblation to Merciful Love’, Sr Therese asks God “to consume (her) unceasingly, and to allow the floods of infinite tenderness … to overflow into my soul, so that I become a very martyr of Thy Love” [Th,73]. “Above all I thirst for the martyr’s crown. It was the desire of my earliest days” [Th,74]. Undoubtedly, reading these words in ‘Histoire d’une Ame’ prior to Carmel, influenced Elizabeth and inspired a personal note [El,75] “Make me a martyr of Your Love”. There she wrote, “It is so good to suffer for You, with You”.[El,76]

Embracing His Love.

“Burn, burn, O Love, within my soul.
Burn fiercely night and day,
‘Till all the dross of earthly loves
Is burned, and burned away.”
(F.W.Faber, 1814-1863)

One has only to read of the final weeks in the lives of these nuns to realise that each suffered in love what Jesus suffered in His body. Both nuns were crucified in Him and with Him, in spirit, on His Cross: their hearts pierced with His crown of thorns, their souls filled to overflowing with His sorrows. They lived only for God in His Love, with His Love, and for His Love. Truly, each obtained her joyful desire of dying in His arms as a martyr of Love [El,77].

However, in life, neither had assumed that their sanctity would enable them to avoid a ‘purgatory’ in some form. Here, the word was being used in the general sense of a ‘purification [purgation, purification = purgatio; Purgatory = purgatorium Latin]: embracing the conventional idea of ‘Purgatory’ and the ‘fire of Love’. “I know that the fire of Love is more sanctifying than the fire of Purgatory”. [Th,78]; “I often think I will have a very long purgatory, for much will be asked from one who has received much” [E,79], “Let us abandon (our faults, infidelities) to Love: it is a consuming fire [El,80], so let us make our purgatory in His Love” [El,81].

There is a double meaning to the word ‘consumed’ in the present context. These quotations refer to purification, burning away the dross of imperfection, to leave ‘perfection’. Yet, that perfection is itself ‘consumed’ by being ‘oned’ with the Love of God: ”To be truly a victim of Love, one must be totally surrendered” [Th,82] – Sr Elizabeth quoted this verbatim in a letter [El,83], and prayed that “He may consume us in the flames of His Love” [El,84]. She described graphically the result of being ‘oned’: ”our soul will become like a flame of love spreading into all the members of the Body of Christ, the Church”.[El,85]. St Teresa in her ‘Life’ recorded how this ‘oneness’ was revealed to her by Our Lord [86].

Divine Love is not something passive. It is a blazing fire, of indescribable intensity: little wonder that it is a consuming fire. Sr Therese referred to it as ‘burning love’ in her poem to the Sacred Heart. [Th,87 ] It is also referred to as an ‘immense’ burning furnace and no-one can escape its heat [El,88]: “Oh, sweet burn”. [89] Gregory speaks of a ‘furnace of Love’ “which begins to burn here, and will burn more fiercely when we see Him Whom we love”. [90] Sr Therese wrote of being consumed in the furnace of Love that she might love God [Th,91] Sr Elizabeth noted that the furnace of Love burning within us, is none other than “the Holy Spirit Himself – the same Love which in the Blessed Trinity is the bond between the Father and His Word” [El,92]. “Perhaps I will soon go to be lost in the furnace of love” [El,93]. The Holy Mass is a Furnace of Love which draws us into the Heart of God [94]. St Gertrude referred to the Sacred Heart of Jesus being a ‘glowing Furnace of Love’, a phrase which Sr Elizabeth used to conclude one of her letters [El,95].

Divine Love is without bound: “immensity in which I lose myself” [El,96]; “an immensity of Love, who fills us to overflowing” [El,97]. As a teenager on holiday at Carlipa, Elizabeth had been over-awed by “our walks on the Serre in the evening by the moonlight, (and by) that starlit valley” [El,98]. It was an “immensity that spoke to her of God” [El,98,bis]. For Therese, it was a first view of the sea that “spoke to my soul of the greatness and power of God”.[Th,99] Later, she made the link to the immensity of Love [Th,100]. Elizabeth had also been fascinated by the ocean [El,101] and deeply impressed by Sr Therese’s description of her First Holy Communion: “Therese had disappeared like a drop of water lost in the immensity of the ocean” [Th,102]. In Carmel, Sr Elizabeth wrote: “If my gaze remains always fixed on Him … I lose myself in Him like a drop of water in the Ocean” [El,103]; and ‘immensity of the ocean’ [El,104]. Her train of thought connected the 3 ‘immensities: ‘Ocean’ and ‘Divine Love’ [El,106] and ‘Divinity’ [El,106].

The images adopted to give that feeling of ‘immensity’ have a common feature of ‘vastness, as far as the eye can see’: the hills and valleys, and the ocean. Depth can also convey vastness and, it is a short step, to speak of an abyss of Love: ‘abyss’ was very much a vogue word of the times. Sr Therese acknowledged that her love could make no difference in the abyss of Divine Love [Th,107]. She also noted her inability to probe the depth of the abyss [Th,108]; but this was omitted from HA. Sr Elizabeth did write of wishing “to sound to the very depths” [El,109] the Love of God; but her main thrust was with ‘abyss’ [El,110]. The word occurs 3 times in a letter to her sister, where she wrote beautifully about descending into the abyss of our souls in faith where Love is [El,111]. It is in the depths of the abyss of Love, in simplicity, that we will ultimately repose [El,112], and into which Sr Elizabeth longs to plunge. [El,113]. Sr Therese wrote: “Thou wilt plunge me at last into that glowing abyss.” [Th,114]. Watkin comments that the ‘repose of the abyss’[El,115] is “ the last word of human destiny and experience” [116], where we lose ourselves [El,117] or are enveloped [El,118].

The Little Way of Spiritual Childhood. The immensity of Love, the abyss of Love can be experienced here-and-now in faith, in the Heaven of our souls. Suppose that we change the imagery: the vastness and depths of nature; and adopt that of God, Himself, as Sr Therese did [Th,119].

What more lovely thought is there, than resting in the arms of the Good Shepherd with our head on His breast? Both sisters linked death to the resting in His arms: ”It is into God’s arms that I am falling” [Th,120]; “Falling into the arms of Him I love” [El,121]. “God longs for us to take up our role as His adopted children: to act toward Him in the simplicity of unequivocal surrender and abandonment to His Love. Sr Therese showed how we might achieve this with her ‘Little Way’ [Th,122].

Sr Elizabeth had no hesitation in recommending correspondents to pray to St Therese and to practice her Little Way [El,123] and, of course, she prayed during her illness that she might regain the use of her legs [El,124]. Fr Vallee wrote of her, “ From infancy she was simple, yet instinctively profound. Radically candid, frank, and simple, she was wholly taken up by the things of God.” [125]. Mother Germaine noted that she ”uttered the most sublime speeches with the frankness of a child” [126]. Let us “keep the eyes of (our) soul only on the Shepherd who guides (us)” [El,127] In a letter to her sister Sr Elizabeth wrote: “(God) loves the little ones, let’s become His little child and let Him carry us in His arms,” [El,128] This is typical of her many letters with the theme of being carried by Him, who is our all. [El,129].

Mission
It is unlikely that ‘Histoire d’une Ame’ had a lasting influence on Sr Elizabeth’s use of the word ‘mission’. One may conjecture that the first missions that she attended were with her Mother, and that she would have been curious about the meaning of the word ’mission’. Perhaps, she did not consider herself a missionary when she “gave herself to good works in her parish” [El,130], teaching catechism, preparing first communicants, and taking groups to church. Surely, communicating her increasing love of God, of prayer, and of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, are the hallmarks of a missionary. At 18 years of age, she offered herself to Our Blessed Mother as a victim for sinners [El,131] and it is evident from her diary entries that she considered the conversion of souls to be part of her mission.

Towards the end of the 19th century, parish missions were common and their impact on Elizabeth can be judged from the entries in her Diary [El,132] for the ‘great mission’ of 1899 and the mission on the Cross in 1900. It was at this time that Elizabeth was enthralled by ‘Histoire d’une Ame’: in particular Ch XI where Sr Therese writes of her ‘dream to have become a missionary from the ‘creation’ to the ‘end’ of the world [Th,133] and to preach the Gospel in all parts of the world. This would have fired Elizabeth’s imagination, but no more, for her sights were set on entering Carmel. She would conduct her mission from there for the rest of her life. She believed that the grille in no way restricted her soul from ‘coming to’ or ‘going with’ her many correspondents. Her letters from Carmel reveal how she utilized the Charism of prayer and penance for their needs with missionary zeal.

St Paul notes the diversity of spiritual gifts amongst mankind; that we are all members of the Mystical Body of which Christ is the head. Christ was the first Missionary: “His mission is to pardon” [El,134]; and as members of His Body we are all called to follow Him as missionaries: that is our calling, our vocation. Guidance in spreading the faith is vested in Holy Mother Church and her Pastors, but all are called to participate in a variety of ways. All are called to ‘share’ [‘partager’ one of Sr Elizabeth’s favourite words]. Sr Elizabeth wrote that her vocation was love [El,135]; but love must be active, must be spread, or it dies: her ’mission’ was to spread that love while here on earth. She also wrote that her vocation was to be a ‘Praise of Glory’. Was not that also her ‘mission’? What of the many letters she wrote to people both in religious life and in the world, and her conversations with visitors to the Carmel? Are these not further aspects of her ‘mission’, as they were with Sr Therese?

It has been noted several times in past Updates that Sr Elizabeth was skilled in adapting the content of her letters to the recipient. She explains that as a Carmelite nun, her mission is to pray unceasingly [El,136], noting in a later letter to the same person that for the Carmel “to pray is to breathe” [El,137]. Furthermore, a nun can only be faithful to that mission if she immerses herself in her Heaven in faith [El,138]. There is an unforgettable description of the ‘life’ of a Carmelite (i.e., her ‘mission’) in one letter as “an advent that prepares for the Incarnation in souls” [El,139]. She embellishes that ‘life’ by including part of her ‘Prayer to the Trinity in another letter: “What a sublime mission the Carmelite has … to be another humanity for Him … “[El,140]. In other letters, she refers to the ‘mission’ as a Mother [El,141] and for someone taking the place of their parent who had died leaving a family to be looked after [El,142]. One may conclude from her letters that for Sr Elizabeth, being a nun was her primary mission on earth; supporting, her ‘vocations’ of love and as a Praise of Glory, her prayer-life and the communication of her spiritual message. In sum, that message was that everyone should regard every aspect of their out-going composite spiritual lives, as a potential sharing in the mission of Christ: God gives His Gifts that these may be shared, and that the fruits may be a source of glory to Him.

So far, attention has been focused on the use of ‘mission’ in Sr Elizabeth’s earthly life. What about her ‘Heavenly mission’ as expressed in a letter to Sr Marie-Odile: “In Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them go out of themselves to cling to God and to keep them in this great silence within that will allow God to communicate Himself to them and transform them into Himself” [El,143]. A few days earlier, [El,144] Mother Germaine had discussed Sr Elizabeth’s heavenly mission with her [El,145], making specific reference to Sr Therese. One must be forgiven for thinking that Sr Elizabeth was taken by surprise for she gave two answers! Instinctively, she insisted that her heavenly life will be hidden, deeper and deeper, in the bosom of the Holy Trinity, in consonance with her letter to Guite almost 6 months earlier. There, she had informed Guite that in Heaven she would be “Laudem Gloriae before the throne of the Lamb” [El,146]. Then, acknowledging the reference to Sr Therese, she added the remark about a Heavenly mission which subsequently appeared in modified form in the letter to Sr Marie-Odile. However, she was emphatic that her intended mission would be different from that of Sr Therese [El,145,bis]. This was no idle remark for she had read Ch XII of Histoire d’une Ame, in which Sr Therese’s Heavenly mission is recorded [Th,147]. Furthermore, along with other nuns in the Carmel, she would have been aware of the many miracles already attributed to Sr Therese, in less than a decade, starting on the day of her death. Not only was Sr Elizabeth remarkably astute, she was in full possession of her mental faculties right up to her death. It is noteworthy that when Sr Therese spoke of her mission to her Prioress, she said: “Je sens que ma mission va commencer …” [Th,148]; and, when Sr Elizabeth wrote to Dr Barbier, her words were: “Je sens commencer ma mission … “ [El,149].

Yet another element was being added to her heavenly mission, through her ‘farewell’ letters, which she had started to write almost a month before her death [El,150]. These highlight the intention, to be available in death, as in life, to her friends; but with the important difference that she would then be representing them before the Face of God. Father De Meester nicely refers to this intention as a ‘spiritual motherhood’ [151]. “Will you let me help you” [El,152], “I will send you a fine husband” [El,153], “In the furnace of Love, I will be actively thinking of you” [El,154], “I will be your Angel for all eternity … contemplating ideal beauty” [El,155]. Many of these letters had been carefully thought out with the recipient in mind, and then dictated. Clearly, Sr Elizabeth’s ‘spiritual motherhood’ was to be exercised hidden in the ‘furnace of Love’: the Holy Trinity; entirely consistent with her first declared intention of a hidden life.

It remains to show that Sr Elizabeth’s ‘well-known after-thought’ is also entirely consistent with a hidden life. First, there is her own declared intention; then there is the content of her mission. She will ‘draw’ (Attirer (Fr.)) souls: one is almost prepared for a twinkle in her eye as she uses a ‘Theresian’ word ‘draw’ [Th,156](Cant. 1:3) but with her own understanding replacing Sr Therese’s interpretation. When a soul loves God with His own Love in God and through God; those souls who she sees through God and loves, and who love her in the same way are ‘drawn into a deeper, richer, purer, love of God. “To keep them in this great silence within” is a rephrasing of ‘interior recollection’ which Sr Elizabeth used initially in her reply to Mother Germaine. Hence Sr Elizabeth intended to work from within the ‘furnace of Love’ which is consistent with her first instinctive answer. She confirms this in her final letter from Carmel: “recollect yourself in prayer and we will meet each other in an even deeper way.” [El,157]. In her letter to Sr Marie-Odile, she was not being inconsistent when she wrote, “If I see you leave that sole occupation, I will come very quickly to call you to order:” [El,158]: in her letters from Carmel this implied ‘writing you a letter’ without leaving the Carmel; in Heaven, therefore, she would communicate without leaving the furnace of Love.

DESIRE - “Lord, all my desire is before Thee” ((Ps. 37:10)

Although Sr Elizabeth wrote many letters from Carmel, these contain little or no information about those things which she desired for herself. It is necessary to ‘second guess’ her intentions, in reply to a correspondent, to determine whether her desires for them, could spring from desires she has for herself. This difficulty does not arise with Sr Elizabeth’s spiritual treatises or Sr Therese’s Histoire d’une Ame.

The re-alignment of self through purification enables us to shun worthless things, and to desire only the things of God. Desire can be defined as “the mental state of uneasiness awakened by the representation of an absent good” [159], “which arouses in the appetite an impulse to acquire it” [160]. “Human nature, especially when elevated and refined by grace, is full of Divine inspirations, of longing for the True, the Just, and the Beautiful. The soul is aware of its need for God” [161]. In this life that need can be palliated in our Heaven in faith through recollection and, as Sr Elizabeth expressed it, by desiring to die daily to self [El,162], to be associated with the Passion of Christ[El,163], and to surrender to Jesus as His prey. [El,162,bis]

Sr Therese noted that all good desires come from God: “(The Divine Master) has never inspired me with any desire and left it unsatisfied” [Th,164]; “O my God, I know that the more Thou wishest to bestow, the more dost Thou make us desire” ,”In my heart I feel boundless desires”.[Th,165]. God satisfies the desires He imparts to us, as only He can: “He alone can fill the vast abyss of my desires [Th,166]. “I know God answers the desires of little ones, and I am His child” [El,167] “He has fulfilled all my desires” [El,168]

.… to be in His Love. “My soul longs for You, my God”. (Ps.41:2) One might ask why do religious give their lives to God, if they do not desire to love Him. That is the miss the point of this update, which is to take note of their expression of that desire to love Him. Sr Therese was very ‘honest’ about the ‘night of her soul’ “When I sing of the happiness of Heaven and the eternal possession of God, I do not feel any joy therein”; but she never wavered in her love. “I have no longer any desire save to love Him till I die” [Th,169];”To love Him even unto folly” [Th,170], and “Thou knowest that I have ever desired to love Thee alone” [Th,171]. To love Him is to be in His Love. One can sense Sr Therese’s exuberance at this: “Jesus, Jesus! If the mere desire of Thy Love awakens such delight, what will it be to possess it forever” [Th,172].

Note the similarity with Sr Elizabeth’s comment immediately after her profession: “And now I have only one desire, to love Him all the time” [El,173]. A few days later she wrote that she would like to be buried in God with Christ [El,174]. Isn’t that to be buried in Love? ”Remain in My Love” (Jn 15:9) May that be the Divine rendez-vous for our souls on earth” [El,175] In other letters she wrote: “let us believe in love”, (1Jn4)[El,176] “I so wish to love Him” [El,177]: “that I may live only to love with an ever growing passion” [El,178]; and “I have only to love Him, to let myself be loved, all the time, through all things” [El,179]. Yet she was mindful of human weakness, “Oh, pray that I will not sadden this Spirit of Love”.[El,180] “ Let us unite to make Him forget everything by the strength of our love” [El,181] “the goal of love, to give ourselves, to empty ourselves entirely into Him we love” [El,182] “Let us ask Him to make us true in our love” [El,183].

Just before writing her spiritual treatises, she had written to a young friend: “I have been in the infirmary, with nothing to do but love”[El,184], then in the penultimate paragraph of her ‘Last Retreat’, Sr Elizabeth concluded a testament of love with this gem: “The soul faints in a divine swoon before this all-powerful Love, this infinite majesty which dwells within it. It is not that life forsakes it, but the soul itself disdains this natural life and withdraws from it. Feeling such a life to be unworthy of a spirit raised to such dignity, it dies to this life and flows into its God.” [El,185]

Elizabeth always admitted that she would never be able to thank her Mother enough, for preparing her for her First Holy Communion and, obviously, for a life of love. Her words after receiving the Blessed Sacrament are well documented: “Jesus has fed me” [El,186]. Eight years later, she was to read about Therese’s First and second Holy Communion, which made a deep impression on her; as did Therese’s remarks: “We were no longer two. Therese had disappeared like a drop of water lost in the immensity of the ocean” [Th,187] and “I live now, not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Gal.2:20) [Th,188].

Sr Elizabeth had St Paul on her mind in a letter written on the Sunday following the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1903, “It seems to me that nothing better expresses the Love in God’s Heart than the Eucharist: it is union, consummation. He in us and we in Him, and isn’t that Heaven on earth?” [El,189] Sr Therese had given as an example of ‘the Love in God’s Heart’, the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper when Jesus told His Apostles to love one-another as He had Loved them (cf Jn 13:34). She remarked how on reflection, she realised woefully, how far short she had fallen from the ideal.[Th,190] In a letter to her Mother a few days after the Ascension in 1906, Sr Elizabeth wrote: “Your soul is the Temple of God … the Three Divine Persons are living within you. You do not possess the Sacred Humanity as you do when you receive Holy Communion; but the Divinity, that essence the blessed adore in Heaven, is in your soul; there is a wholly adorable intimacy … you are never alone again!” [El,191].

Today, Holy Communion can be received daily at Holy Mass, yet this has only been possible since the ruling of Pius X in December 1905 (Dec.20th). Prior to that time, religious and laity had to show that they were worthy to receive the Blessed Sacrament. Sr Elizabeth’s letters abound with the promise to her friends: “I will offer my Holy Communion for you” [El,192]. She also desired Priests to “wash her in the Blood of the Lamb” during their celebration of Holy Mass [El,193]. In a landmark letter, Sr Elizabeth desired to be consecrated “as a sacrifice of praise to His glory” [El,194]. In the infirmary when she was too ill to receive the Sacred Species, Sr Elizabeth made a ‘Communion of Desire’: “Every morning, (Mother Germaine) comes to make her thanksgiving beside my little bed, so I communicate in her soul, and the same Love flows in the souls of the Mother and her child” [El,195].

“I live now, not I; but Christ liveth in me”, and “Jesus has fed me”: words spoken at the time of the First Holy Communions of two young girls, suggest a very sound spiritual preparation.[196] Marie Catez speaking for her child, could easily have been speaking the thoughts of Louis Martin 7 years earlier, “I saw my child completely recollected, profoundly touched. … I realized that God had taken possession of her heart”. [197] ‘Communion with God’, a desire to be with God: prayer, had been a way of life encouraged by both families: Therese’s sisters, and Elizabeth’s Mother. Prayer of the heart as suggested by Galatians (2:20) and “For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matt.6:21). “How wonderful is the power of prayer!” [Th198] and “With me prayer is an uplifting of the heart; a glance towards heaven; a cry of gratitude and love, uttered equally in sorrow and in joy”.[199] In a word, ”it is something noble, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites it to God.”[Th200]. She spoke of having free access to the King. Where could be more natural than in the Heaven of her soul, which she referred to at her First Holy Communion in connection with the presence of her Mother [Th,201]. Sr Elizabeth was of the same mind, “We must grasp the fact that God is deep within us and go to everything with Him” [El,202]

Srs Therese and Elizabeth make prayer sound so simple: “I simply tell God what I want, and He understands”. [Th,198,bis] and “The Heart of God is so tender, He understands me so well. I am asking Him to take hold of you as He takes hold of me!” [El,203]. Yet no comments on their prayer would be complete without mention of aridity or dark nights. Both sisters were aware of St Teresa of Avila’s remarks on the need to put wood on the fire of love to keep it burning [204] and both sisters experienced dryness prior to their Profession. Sr Therese remarks were made in her letters to Sr Agnes of Jesus, and to Celene: “If Jesus wants to sleep, why should I keep Him from it?” [Th,205]; “I must be detached from all that is not He … If you knew how great is my joy at having no joy”[Th,206] The reason being that Jesus had answered her prayer made the day after her First Holy Communion: “O my God, Who art unspeakable sweetness, turn for me into bitterness all the consolations of earth” [Th,207]. Jesus also answered her prayers when for example, in spite of the dryness, she asked for the soul of Pranzini [Th,208], for her uncle’s permission that she might enter Carmel [Th,209], and that a sister would withdraw her opposition to Celene entering the Carmel [Th,210]. Examples perhaps not of mental prayer but illustrative of her deep love for Jesus: a key to mental prayer. One might think then, that mental prayer had come naturally to her [Th,211] and was a life-long companion. Even in this regard, Jesus had tested her resolve. As a young girl she had had some difficulty in getting people to take her interest seriously and to instruct her: even her own sister Marie. [Th,212]

By comparison, little is known about the prayer life of the young Elizabeth, partly because parts of the manuscript intended for publication in MPA were lost, but also because Elizabeth regarded prayer as a part of her ‘hidden life’. However, her regular attendance at missions, pilgrimages to shrines, and long hours of prayer in her own room, as well as receiving Our Blessed Lord as often as she was permitted, caused Père Vallee to remark in 1900, “It was a real joy to speak … to one who was so pure, intuitive, and also so simple, and whose will as well as intellect, was given to her Master from her earliest years” [213].

It is often said that Sr Elizabeth did not define prayer: in other words, as a statement; but in the questionnaire that she completed shortly after entry into Carmel she was asked to do just that. Her answer was profound: “the union of her who is not with Him Who Is” [El,214] Carmel gave practical expression to her answer: a desire for a life of prayer. This was filled out with her letters from Carmel, together with her spiritual treatises: from when she wrote to her sister, hours before entry, “At the foot of the Cross, where He gave me so much, my little Guite will always find her Sabeth” [El,215]; including “A Carmelite is a soul who has gazed on the Crucified” [El,216]; and her last letter, “When I am close to God, recollect yourself in prayer and we will meet each other in an even deeper way”.[El,217].

Later on, Sr Elizabeth expanded on her definition of prayer, as a desire to “bury herself, so to speak, in the depths of her soul to lose herself in the Trinity who dwells in it in order to transform me into itself” [El,218]. “Since Our Lord dwells in our souls, His prayer belongs to us, and I wish to live in communion with it unceasingly”.[El,219]. Like Sr Therese, she experienced dark nights: when she was 13years old, just before entry into Carmel [El,220] and again some 2 months prior to Profession, Père Vallèe noticed a change in her, “What have you done to Elizabeth?” [El,221]. This last incident was protracted and her anguish was so severe that doubt was cast on whether she could be professed.[El,222]. It would seem that Sr Elizabeth experienced dark nights from time to time for the rest of her life. [El,223]

It is in Elizabeth’s spiritual treatises that we must look for more positive statements of her desires in prayer. Her beautiful ‘Prayer to the Trinity’, is also a most beautiful prayer of desire: “I wish … “, “I want …”; a desire that she might be a channel for the giving of glory to God more completely. The same idea threads through her ‘Last Retreat’. To be effective, any Praise of Glory, must earnestly desire the goal of Christian Perfection. Sr Elizabeth writes of her desires in 25 of the 44 paragraphs which make up her ‘Last Retreat’. [224] In regard to prayer she wished to live in an eternal present [El,225], in solitude [El,226], in the presence of God [El,227]; to deepen her prayer life to be able to adore God with the “mind of God”[El,228], entering more deeply into Him[El,229].

… to be purified through His Love. During one of Sr Elizabeth’s dark nights, Mother Germaine reminded her that “We do not come to Carmel to dream in the starlight! Go to God by faith”.[230] “By an act of faith the soul can at once bring itself in touch with God” [231], but even “for His intimate friends, for His Mother, He did not work miracles till He had proved their faith”.[Th,232]. In the darkest of dark nights, if we look on Him, we shall find that He is looking on us just waiting to warm us with His Love: to purify us. Sr Elizabeth expressed similar thoughts in her letters, “Faith is the face-to-face in darkness”.[El,233] and “We will be purified, by looking at Him who is all purity and holiness” [El,234].

Sr Therese had been told by Pauline that in the Sacrament of Confession it was the tears of Jesus which purified her soul”,[Th,235] and when in Carmel she noted, ”Every moment, this Merciful Love renews me and purifies me, leaving in my soul no trace of sin”. [Th,236] In her poem “Heaven for me”, she wrote, “Your face is my only Home” [Th,237].

As we look on Jesus’ earthly life ‘in faith’, we behold a life of utter annihilation ‘beyond belief’; as we look on the Crucified ‘in faith’, we behold a depth and a warmth of Love ‘beyond belief’; and we experience an insatiable desire to participate in the twin proofs of His love: suffering and humiliation; thereby enabling us to share both the yoke and the joy of His Cross. Therese and Elizabeth each experienced those feelings at their First Holy Communion. When Therese learned about the way of perfection, she had said, “My God … I will not be a Saint by halves, I am not afraid of suffering for Thee”[Th,238] and on the day after her First Communion, “My heart became inflamed with an ardent desire for suffering”, ”Suffering became attractive, and I found in it charms which held me spellbound”.[Th,239] In a letter written when Therese was only 3 years old, Zelie had noted, “Even Therese is anxious to make sacrifices”. [Th,240]

Again there is a paucity of information on Elizabeth’s sacrifices and suffering in her childhood. Much of what is known has been covered in Update 3. By way of comparison, one may note that both children suffered by losing a parent when young; and by having difficulty, for a time, to obtain permission to enter Carmel. In Carmel, both died young after horrendous suffering, joyously borne. We know that Elizabeth’s father died in her arms when she was 7 years of age through her anniversary poem [El,241]; and there are notes in her diary about suffering, culled from the great mission of 1899: “Today I had the joy of offering Jesus several sacrifices over my dominant fault, but how much they cost me!” [El,242]

On Holy Thursday night 1901 she wrote a short personal note straight from the heart: “I suffer … and this blessed suffering purifies me. Give me as much as you wish” [El,243]. Here is the mature Elizabeth. Gone are the hidden misguided attempts at mortification, stopped by Mother Marie. Elizabeth was encouraged to retain the desire to suffer, but to ‘wait on God’ for the means: “Since I cannot for the present impose great sufferings upon myself, I can at least immolate my will at every moment of the day.” [El,244]. “Her love of suffering, too, was purged of any morbidity. She desired it not for itself, but because her Master had suffered and died for her, and it was one way of repaying his love”. [El,245] “When a great suffering or a small sacrifice is offered to us let us think quickly that is “our hour” [El,246]. “All the darkness and the suffering purifies us, sets us free to belong wholly to Him who is our All.” [El,247]; to belong to Him, that God sees in us His own Splendour more perfectly. [El,248]

Sr Therese and Sr Elizabeth would appear to be as one in seeking to perfect their virtues through suffering and humiliation. Jesus Christ is our virtue: our purity [El,249], our sanctity [Th,250]; “learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart: and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt.11:29) We mortify our faults, not by seeking to destroy them, but by learning from Jesus the opposite virtues. This we do by listening to the Word of God in the silence of our souls, then repeating it, docile to the Holy Spirit, in acts of virtue. The measure of our accomplishment is the extent to which we are at peace, and we exude peace, to those to whom we come in contact. As for example, Sr Elizabeth’s practice of absolute silence in her cell, because the nun in the next cell suffered from violent headaches, and could not bear the least noise [El,251]. Mother Germaine noted, “Sr Elizabeth had practiced virtue for so long that she seemed to require no effort to conquer self.” [El,252] This ‘silence of the self’ is humility.

In Histoire d’une Ame, Sr Therese recalling her own thoughts from a time before the death of her Mother, wrote: ”Virtue itself seemed full of charms. Probably my character was the same then as it is now, for even then I had great self-command.” [Th,253], “I trust in Him who is virtue and Holiness.” [Th,254] “The practice of virtue gradually became sweet and natural to me.”[Th,255] Commenting on the aridity of her soul at her profession, “I unconsciously received many interior lights on the best means of pleasing God, and practicing virtue.[Th,256] “I now know that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbour's defects ,,, and being edified at their smallest virtues”.[Th,257], learning from her own experience that small acts of virtue can be mistaken for imperfections: selfishness [Th,258]. As Therese lay dying, Mother Prioress told her that she was ready to appear before God because she understood the virtue of humility. Therese answered her: “Yes ... I have understood humility of heart! [Th,259].

With so much attention given to suffering and humiliation, one might well ask. ‘what about charity?’[260] Like everything else, charity is a gift, and we can only practice the Crucifying virtues of Christ to the extent opportunities are presented to us by the Spirit of Love. In other words, purification can only be achieved in an ‘atmosphere’ of Love, where we love God with His own Love and are progressively conformed with and transformed in Jesus.

The ‘second arm’ of the virtue of charity is a love of our neighbour for God’s sake. Conversion of souls is an important feature of this. Mention has been made of Therese’s prayers for the conversion of Pranzini. It was Christmas 1886, just before her 14th birthday when she experienced a ’conversion’: her ‘night of light’; out of which came a great desire to work for the conversion of sinners. “I longed at any cost to snatch sinners from the everlasting flames of hell.” [Th,261] Jesus had prepared her, now he tested her: with the soul of Pranzini. She passed her test! “It was indeed an exchange of love: on souls I poured forth the Precious Blood of Jesus, and to Jesus I offered these souls refreshed with the Dew of Calvary.” [Th,262] “An exchange of love that she could repeat in Carmel: she “longed for the beauties of heaven. In order to win them for souls I wanted to become a prisoner!” [Th,263] "I came (to Carmel) to save souls and especially to pray for priests."[Th,264] Sr Therese did save souls through the power of the Cross: “a hidden flower which she offered to Jesus for 5 years.” [Th,264,bis] Her love for souls was recognized when Pope Pius XI proclaimed the Saint as a principal patron of the missions in 1927.

As a teenager, Elizabeth was aware that her sufferings could win souls for God [El,265] and she was anxious to secure the soul of Mr Chapuis. Whether he made a death-bed conversion is not known [El,266], but Elizabeth’s prayers for that particular soul, during life, did not achieve the result that she had wished for. As noted in Update 4, “while God always hears our prayers, when, and in what way, He answers them is His to choose”.[winning of souls] In Carmel during her novitiate, she was delighted at being given a missionary spiritual brother and she ‘demanded’ to be an apostle with Him in the mission fields [El,267]. Just after the first anniversary of her entry, she wrote to a young friend about ‘gazing on the Crucified’: a quotation which appears on many prayer cards [El,268]; “… has seen Him offering Himself to His Father as a Victim for souls … “. Is not our on-going quest in life to share (partager) His Cross and to be crucified with Him? Was not Sr Elizabeth crucified by love for Love?[El,269] We must be prepared to answer such an invitation if it comes, as Sr Elizabeth answered it: a victim for souls, for Love. After her profession, she re-affirmed her commitment: “To radiate God, to give Him to souls”. [El,270] ‘To give Him’: to give His Love by being filled, as a spiritual vase might be, with it to overflowing. This theme is repeated yet again in the very important ‘L191’ – the ‘Praise of Glory’ letter [El,271]: ”Yes, let us sanctify ourselves for souls.” [El,272] and so imitate Our Blessed Mother. [El,273] One letter and a phrase therein, stand out, because the letter is from the Mother of her best friend ‘when in the world’, a Mother whom she has always acknowledged as her ‘second Mother’ and who was engaged in ‘lay apostolic activities: “What a consolation to give God to souls and souls to God!” [El,274].

… to love Him with His Love. Anyone who accepts even some of the many opportunities provided by the Holy Spirit to further their purification, increasingly loves God, with His Love, in Him. We are in Him, and He is in us; this is ‘Heaven in faith’: a foretaste of Heaven itself. The young Therese had no doubt about it. She was born into a deeply religious family, 2 brothers and her Mother were already in Heaven; and one by one her sisters where entering Carmel. Young Elizabeth’s Mother had seriously thought about becoming a nun: that she passed on to her children a sound knowledge of the faith is beyond doubt; so that when Elizabeth experienced the deaths of her grandfather and Father, she would have been told that they were in Heaven. Perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that both children would feel a strong desire to enter Carmel: Therese, because of her sisters; Elizabeth because of the close proximity of the Dijon Carmel to where she lived.

First Holy Communion is an unforgettable experience for anyone, and it seems to have activated latent vocations for Therese and Elizabeth. Therese had had a previous experience in which God had invited her to become a ‘hidden’ heroine for Him. [Th275], while, on the same day that ‘God took possession of her heart’[El,276], Elizabeth was told by the sub-Prioress of the Dijon Carmel that her name meant ‘House of God (Elizabeth), of the God of Love’ [El,277]. ‘The die was cast’. Each knew a call to be a nun, to be a saint, to seek the happiness of Heaven[278]. Each experienced difficulties over their entry into Carmel: Celine had stood aside in favour of Therese, promising to look after their Father; while Guite promised Elizabeth that she would take her sister’s place in caring for their Mother.

Sr Therese wrote of her desire to be a saint towards the beginning of her Oblation to Merciful Love and of her need for God to accomplish this [Th,279], and she was aware that this would involve suffering much [Th,280]. She had always desired this [Th,281]; but having been in contact with a saintly novice mistress [Th,282] and with the saintly Mother Genevieve in the infirmary [Th,283], she was convinced of her unworthiness [Th,284]. Nevertheless her faith was so strong, that despite the intensity of her dark nights, she told her sisters in the infirmary that they were looking after a little saint! [Th,285] As one reads the ‘Story of a Soul’, there is an impression that thoughts of Heaven permeate almost every page. In her group of 54 poems, 2 have ‘Heaven’ in the title and 32 end with a mention of ‘Heaven’ in the last verse.[the titles were not necessarily those of Sr Therese]. Elizabeth must have loved the poem “Mon ciel à moi” [Heaven for me, [Th,286] with its reference to the Holy Trinity residing in our hearts. Therese’s reference to the ‘obverse side’: the Heaven of our souls [Th,287], was deleted from HA; but not the very beautiful passage: “He (Jesus) does not come down from Heaven each day to remain in a golden ciborium, but to find another Heaven – the Heaven of our souls in which He takes such a delight.” [Th,288]: although even here a concluding reference to the Trinity was deleted.

The death of Therese’s Mother left its mark and she noted that from a very early age she “longed for the repose of Heaven – the never ending Sabbath of our true Home” [Th,289]. There is a similarity with Sr Elizabeth’s reference to the ‘repose of the abyss’ in LR§7 but Fr de Meester links this to Ruysbroek [290]. This doesn’t mean that Sr Elizabeth did not long for Heaven: she did! After the crisis during Holy Week (1906) she wrote to her Mother, “.. my great disappointment at not going to Him whom I love so much.” [El,291] A ‘disappointment’ because she wanted to be part of the ‘eternal Sanctus’ [El,292]: to be ‘Laudem Gloriae’ [El,293] before the face of God; and not in the veil of faith of her soul, “I am already beginning my Heaven on earth, but sometimes I would like to see the other side so as to see Him … to love Him and lose myself in His Infinity” [El,294]. Jesus had been with her in the crisis in a special way, and He wished her to praise Him for awhile longer on earth. There are some 18 clear references to “His Heaven that I so desire” [El,295] in her letters [El,296].

JOY, PLEASURE, HAPPINESS [297]
“Give me unbounded joy in Your Presence” (Ps16:11)

Joy seems to be the reaction of a living nature which is perfectly happy. In rational natures it is that lifting up of the power of the soul which strives in some way to utter what is felt; whilst in the soul elevated by Divine grace, joy is charity breaking into love, praise and worship – breaking out thus, not as a duty, but as an irrepressible emotion. Joy is in us, then, as God is in us, through His Love and our response to that Love as we seek Christian Perfection: as our soul “gravitates towards its centre, God”.[298] Joy doesn’t originate with us, it comes from God and Pope Benedict XIV made its continued existence in the soul a condition for Beatification [299]. The writings of both Sr Therese and Sr Elizabeth abound with references to joy. Following her Profession, Bl. Elizabeth wrote, “He is my All. And now I have only one desire, to love Him, to love Him all the time … to give Him Joy,” [300]. “Spiritual Joy is the radiance of Love”. [301]

Pleasure is that satisfaction of the being and its powers – that feeling or consciousness of well-being. On earth, we may, perhaps for a fleeting instant, have felt pleasure unalloyed. But the mere onward movement of time breaks up such ecstatic moments before they have lasted more than a moment. In the Heaven of our soul, there is the ocean of the Presence of God - Love – covering us over, immersing the soul in its limitless, fathomless waters. Our ‘God-given’ ability to be able, as creatures, to honour the Indwelling Holy Trinity is the source of the pleasure experienced by our soul; while our reaction to the ineffable happiness is in a joy born in the soul, which we experience (Wis.8:16).

Happiness refers to the effect upon us of our surroundings. We cannot be happy all of the time, for in life we experience death, mourning, crying, and sorrow. Yet, in the Heaven of our souls, God, Himself, longs to be more fully our God – if we would but let Him – to ‘wipe away all tears from our eyes’ (Apoc.21,4) as He suffers with us. Our soul is a home to Love and a Temple of Love; and is fed by Love with Love. That Love gives meaning to the phrase ‘perfect Happiness and, “through the glass darkly” our soul experiences of that Happiness in proportion to the love, praise, and adoration, we show our Divine Guests: in proportion to our desire “ to hear and keep the word of God”. [302]

Joy, pleasure, and happiness tend to be used interchangeably. Frequently, one notices these ‘circumstances of Heaven’ in a person, perhaps through a quiet, but infectious, enthusiasm for the ‘things of God; rather than through reading the person’s own comments.

Witness Mme Vathaire’s comment about Elizabeth as she turned to enter the great Carmel door “I can’t describe what I saw, her looks were almost angelic, no longer human, her eyes were luminous, transparent; they shone with a heavenly light” [El,303]. Eleven years earlier, Mme Vathaire had introduced her to Mother Marie of Jesus and had witnessed the look on Elizabeth's face when she was told that her name meant 'House of God'. Imagine Sr Elizabeth’s joy as a postulant when she wrote, “I have found my Heaven on earth, for Heaven is God and God is in my soul” [El,304]; her pleasure during her illness at being able to spend time with her community during recreation [El,305]; or into the Chapel to hear Holy Mass and to spend time afterwards before the Blessed Sacrament [El,306]; and finally, in death, “leaning on her right side her eyes wide open now and fixed upon a point slightly above our heads, seemed rather in ecstasy than in agony. Her face had an expression of admirable beauty;” [El,307]. The expression ‘holy daring’ is usually associated with Sr Therese, but Sr Elizabeth, picking up Sr Therese’s poem ‘To Live by Love’, wrote in her Last Retreat with ‘holy daring’, “Though I may continually fall, in trustful faith I will ask Him to raise me, knowing that He will forgive me and with jealous care will cleanse me perfectly.” [El,308] Yet, who would gainsay her? As Fr De Meester notes “she was happy! Happy in God!” [El,309]. Page after page of her letters exude joy, pleasure and happiness in everything around her, because her ‘Three’ were, in truth, her ‘All’.

Was Sr Therese any different? Surely not. Again, think of the scene at the great Carmel door when Therese knelt for her Father’s blessing – and as he knelt down with her to bless her, through his tears. As Therese remarked, “It was a sight to gladden the angels” [Th,310]. Think of her ‘double’ joy when Celene entered Carmel and of ‘knowing’ that her Father was in Heaven. [Th,311]. Can we have any idea of the happiness, the pleasure and the joy experienced by Sr Therese as she made her ‘Act of Oblation to Merciful Love’ alongside Celene: ; to satisfy their desire to give expression to their love for the Divine Guests of their souls? Chapter XI in HA|T says it all. As a final example: in death, “she raised herself, as though called by a mysterious voice; and opening her eyes which shone with unutterable happiness and peace, fixes her gaze a little above the statue of Our Lady. No sooner had her spotless soul taken its flight than the joy of that last rapture imprinted itself on her brow, and a radiant smile illumined her face.” [Th,312]

POSTCRIPT

It would be invidious to even think of comparing and contrasting the two sisters: difficult also because they had so much in common in the spiritual sense. For example, an upbringing by deeply religious parents, an unforgettable experience in their First Holy Communions, the joy of a religious vocation, and the suffering of a final illness. The list is incomplete, and we can all add to it with joy, pleasure, and happiness, remembering these holy women who dedicated their lives to God.

This Update would be incomplete without mention of the part played by the sisters of Sr Therese and Sr Elizabeth. Many references show Therese’s love for Celene; and Elizabeth’s love for Guite: ‘devotion personified’. The letters from Carmel to their sisters revealed so much about the interior lives of Sr Therese and Sr Elizabeth. On a personal level, I also call to mind Martha the sister of Mary, and Rosa the sister of Sr Teresia Benedicta a cruce.

This web site is dedicated to Sabeth by the owner for favours received. The aim is to share information about her life and times; to be aware of her Centenary; and to pray in support of the Cause for her Canonization.

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Next Update: Apr.30th 2006

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