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NOTES
1. No disrespect to Our Blessed Mother should be inferred from the ordering of the title of this Update, which is consistent with that adopted for all previous Updates.
2. Searching the internet for pictures of Our Lady’s shrines in France will be found a rewarding background to these notes. So many of these shrines are unbelievably stunning and beautiful.
2. References for Sr Elizabeth's letters and poems from previous Updates can be found on the Web-site. Go to the 'Index Page', then scroll down to the bottom table for the listing.
3. Where Fr De Meester has been quoted or paraphrased, in translation, any misrepresentation in his intended meaning is unintentional and is regretted.
4. 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.
QUEEN OF CARMEL
“The Queen of Carmel, present though invisible, succoured the child she so dearly loved until the hour when, all being finished, she was to conduct her to heaven.” [2] Jesus loves us so much that in our last hours, He wishes us to be comforted and prepared by His Mother – “the quintessence of affection and forgiveness.” [3] Elizabeth, that child, dearly loved her Mother and Queen; and, in the rich tradition of Carmel, had sought to imitate Mary throughout her life. "Love," said Lacordaire, " lives on two impulses: embracing one's beloved, and sacrificing oneself." Elizabeth was steadfastly aware of her presence, though invisible, in the heaven of her soul: as the ancient axiom put it, ‘keeping Mary in mind, that Jesus would grow in her heart’.[4] As Pius XI noted: “Whether we pray to Mary or not, every grace we receive from God comes only because she asked it for us”. When we receive a favour through another Saint without praying to Our Lady, even this favour is granted because she asked it for us, the other Saint receiving it for us through Mary.
Present aim
The aim of this Update is to examine references to Our Blessed Mother in Elizabeth's writings against a background of the devotion to Mary in France, as a daughter of deeply religious parents, ‘Souvenirs’, and ‘Histoire d’une Ame. It is worth noting that shortly after Sr Elizabeth was professed, Pius X became Pope (1903); and one of his first acts was to stress devotion to Mary, “there is no-one more capable of joining men with Christ”. [5] Notwithstanding, there is a dearth of material, for Mary was “one whose life was so simple, so lost in God, that there is hardly anything we can say about it” [6] In some references, Elizabeth specifically mentioned Our Blessed Mother; in others, a connection has been inferred by conjecture or from supportive evidence: for example, her not infrequent reference to ‘Mother and child’ . The material has been ordered chronologically, to bring out, if possible, the development of (Sr) Elizabeth’s thought; however, in places, it has been beneficial to abandon chronological ordering and to develop a particular ‘thread’, even though this has led to some repetition.
PRE - TEENAGE YEARS
First years
“Elizabeth’s Father belonged to one of those families of Northern France in which religious and high principles were transmitted as the glory of their race [7]. Her Mother was a member of the Rolland family, ... whose name ... was also characterised by devotion to religion, to honour, and to its native country. She possessed a simple yet steadfast faith ... and was an enthusiastic admirer of St Teresa of Jesus. [8] As a Mother she was firm as well as tender, for her affection rested upon a supernatural basis. [9] Elizabeth’s Father had been christened, ‘Joseph’; her Mother, ‘Marie’. Elizabeth’s name in religion was ‘Marie-Elisabeth de la Trinité’, but she was not christened ‘Marie-Elisabeth’ [10].
One can imagine that baby Elizabeth would have soon been taken regularly to church, and that the Christmas of 1880 would have made an impression on the child’s mind: she would have thrilled at the sight of the crib with the Baby and its Mother. Our Lady would have given substance to the scene appropriate to the little imaginative world of the child, enabling her to look on the ‘Child in the Manger’ with joy. It would be so natural for Elizabeth to love them as she loved her own Mother. The hilarious episode of Elizabeth, when barely two years old, and her doll provides an indelible record of early religious upbringing: ‘Elizabeth kissed the Crucifix; and she not only prayed, she was teaching her doll to pray’ [11]. No doubt, she would soon have been teaching her young sister Guite to pray as well. The presence of Guite would have strengthened her love for her Mother, and for Our Lady; so that it seems reasonable to suggest that, as Elizabeth began to vocalize her prayers, one of the first would have been the ‘Salutation Angélique’ – ‘Je vous salue, Marie ... ‘.[12]
Elizabeth really did love her Mother throughout her entire life. As Canon Angles expressed it: “She was absolutely devoted to her Mother”[13]. We see this to begin with from 2 letters written, significantly, at successive Christmas’ when she was 8 and 9 years old [14]. She had realized that some aspects of her behaviour were hurting her Mother. ‘Significantly’, because she made her First Confession during the year before the first letter; and while a child may not fully understand why certain actions are wrong, that understanding is helped if they realize that they are hurting Our Lady. It was noted how her behaviour changed when she was in church [15].
During the year in which she made her first confession, the family moved house to the Rue Prier de la Côte d’Or. From her balcony, Elizabeth could see the Dijon Carmel [16]. It was during a short holiday, soon after [17], that Elizabeth said to Canon Angles, ‘I am going to be nun! I will be a nun!’ The Canon was of the opinion that her vocation was genuine, and in Souvenirs it is noted, ‘She could not understand how people could give themselves to God by halves’ [18]. Surely, Our Lady was her model? Our Lady had a place in everything for her.
First Holy Communion
Elizabeth’s preparation for her First Holy Communion by her Mother made a lasting impression. She could not thank her Mother sufficiently [19]. This preparation would have been helped by a friend of her own age Marie-Louise Hallo, who received her First Holy Communion at the same time as Elizabeth. Both girls were developing a deep love for God, quite early in their young lives. On the great day, Elizabeth wore “a gold medal of Our Lady” and held “a blue rosary with a silver cross”; which would have kept to the forefront of her mind that Our Lady was leading her by the hand to Jesus: as she would do at her death, as well as at many other times in her life. [20] On the great day, quite rightly, she appeared to have ‘eyes for no-one’ except ‘Jesus, who had fed her’.[21] This would appear to be her earliest (extant) prayer.
Jesus had satisfied her spiritual hunger, as she acknowledged He did on many occasions when in Carmel. Who, but Our Lady, had overseen the preparation of her daughter to receive her Son? When we receive the Blessed Sacrament, however sincere our preparation, however sincere our intention; there is a shortfall, because we are human. Yet this does not pose any difficulty. Mary, like a good mother, in her love for her Son and for us as her children, is present and seems to acquire that shortfall; and to offer it to God for us.[22] So it was on the great day for Elizabeth, and it is almost certain that she would have consecrated herself to Our Lady, asking her to watch over her; as Therese had done. [23] Therese knew that on her great day, that ‘in receiving a visit from Our Divine Lord, Heaven Itself dwelt in her soul’, and so Zelie was with her. Perhaps, Elizabeth had received the same catechetical instruction – that ‘Heaven Itself dwelt in her soul’ – a phrase that, later on, she would make her own. [24]
The 'Call'
It was not coincidence that later that same day, Elizabeth visited the Carmel, which she was to enter 10 years later, and met the saintly Mother Marie of Jesus. It was not coincidence that Mother Marie explained the meaning of Elizabeth’s name – House of God. Elizabeth had changed: to all who knew her she was profoundly different in character: in behaviour; but few knew that she was profoundly different interiorly, for she had given herself irrevocably to God [25]. Seven years later, she marked the ‘most beautiful day of (her) life’, ’when in the depths of her soul she heard His voice’, with a commemorative poem [26]. Two lines in the poem provide the mould in which her life was then cast: ‘I only aspire to give my life: to offer back a little of His great Love’. She wished to suffer for Him, and who better ‘to teach (her) to suffer as He did’, than His Mother: Our Lady? [27]
Elizabeth was confirmed 2 months after her First Holy Communion in the Church of Notre-Dame, where she must surely have prayed at the shrine to N.D. du Bon Espoir. [28] Elizabeth was then 10 years of age: old enough for Mary to feature in her prayers and novenas, for every grace.
Over the next few years nothing is known of her hidden life. Her devotion to Jesus and His Mother would have deepened. Mary would have continued to lead her to Jesus. At the same time, however, Jesus would have led her to His Mother to be protected, as He went to His Mother as a child. Mary was her exemplar of virginity, to whom she could, and did, turn to at moments of doubt and uncertainty.[29] It is known that on the Feasts of Mary, Elizabeth asked her to be the guardian of her purity; but when this started in not known.
Some, not of our Faith, might protest that this Catholic devotion to Mary ‘prevents’ direct contact with God: quoting, for example, our belief that “No one goeth to Christ but by His Mother.” [30] How much better that our ‘all holy’ Mother should do this, for no other creature is worthy to stand before Him! However, she does not block our path, but in ‘pardon and Love’, leads her children by the hand along the ‘strait way that leadeth to Life’ (Matt.7:14) – to Jesus. He “employs His Mother to abolish remoteness and to put the human race in direct contact with God.” [31] We are prompted by the Holy Spirit to converse with Jesus, and this we appear to do without reference to Mary. However Mary, as Spouse of the Holy Spirit, as Janua Coeli, has already ‘opened all the doors’ without our being aware of it.
TEENAGE YEARS
Growing up with Our Lady
Little or nothing is known about Elizabeth after her Confirmation, until she was 13 years old. Her prayer life was active and she was obviously aware of the intercessory powers of the Saints. For there is a prayer, from this time, to her patron Saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, not only showing her knowledge of the Saint’s life, but also showing a neat adaptation of the prayer to Our Lady, the Memorare.[32] Our Lady would have been increasingly to the forefront of her mind.
As a child, Elizabeth had gone to Our Lady through the eyes of her Mother. Now she was growing up – in 3 more years, she would be putting her hair up. [33]. She began to picture the life of Our Lady as unfolded in the life of her Son. A life of devotion, a life of service, devoid of self, and the embodiment of purity: “referring all to God” [34]. In those moments of doubt and confusion, Mary was there for Elizabeth, an image so bright that it appeared to outshine all others. [35] At just 14 years of age, she bound herself to God by a private vow of virginity [36]; and Elizabeth went to Our Lady as ‘the guardian of her purity’ on each of her feast-days.[37] It was about the same time, during her thanksgiving after Holy Mass ‘she heard the word “Carmel” uttered “deep within her”.’[38] Was Elizabeth given a perception of Our Lady along with God? Although conjecture, this is entirely possible; because Mary is ‘oned’ with her Son: ‘cor unum et anima una’ [39]; united to Him. Moreover, Our Lady is, in a ‘special way’, ‘Our Mother’ in Carmel. [40] It seems certain, that Elizabeth discussed everything which she had planned, or that had been planned for her, with Our Lady.
Playing the piano was but one example. At 13 years of age, she had won first prize at piano, having played with feeling, having played for God, and God having rewarded her efforts by being in her fingertips; [41] and one might add, having previously asked the blessing of Our Lady. She must have also asked her blessing 6 years earlier (1887) when she first played in public [42]; and especially in the year (1894) when she was stripped of her prize.[43] Elizabeth’s performance at piano pointed to a phenomenal memory in one so young; and to being ‘quick on the uptake’. Her forte was the ability to make a composition ‘her own’: to put her stamp on it; an ability that was to become a hallmark of her written activity when in Carmel. Would it be more correct to write, ‘putting His stamp on it’; because expressing her love for God in this way was, for her, another form of prayer.
A letter written from Carmel, towards the end of her life, confirms that these discussions with Our Lady continued when in Carmel: “I talk over your concerns with the Virgin”. Furthermore, she referred to “a little statue (“my little Virgin”) that I used to carry around with me and that I call my lucky charm”.[44] Her use of the past tense implies that she had possibly worn it as a teenager. [45]
Pilgrimages
The revelation of the word “Carmel”, and her deepening spirituality were part of a very private ‘hidden life’; with almost no hint of it in her letters (extant) over the next 5 years (1893-1898). These were written principally when she was on holiday with her Mother and sister: she was apparently full of the joys of visiting friends. Nevertheless, the family always found time to visit churches and to include pilgrimages. Reference to these activities was factual, no more, except a mention of praying for the recipients at various shrines. These included: N.D. de Fourvières [46], N.D. de Lourdes [47], N.D. de la Garde (Marseille)[48], N.D. de Roc-Amadour [49], l’Enfant-Jésus du Carmel [50]; N.D. des Victoires [51] and S.C. à Paray-le-Monial.[52] The churches included for example, Brou with its magnificent altar screen depicting the 7 joys of Our Lady. [53]
It would be misleading to conclude that shrines of Our Lady were being sought to the exclusion of others. The many shrines are indicative both of Our Lady’s love for her French children and their love for her. Many of these churches and shrines are so beautiful, that one could be excused for including them in an itinerary simply as sight-seeing! One letter, in particular, specifically mentions prayer to Our Lady on the Feast of the Presentation 1900: on this day 4 years later, she composed her ‘Prayer to the Trinity’.[54]
Pilgrimages were a feature of everyday life in France at this time. These were made mostly, but not exclusively, to some of the many shrines to Our Lady. This upsurge in devotion to Our Lady, stemmed from the defeat in 1870 of the predominantly Catholic army: the thought having being ‘put about’ that a more devout army would have been well nigh invincible. These pilgrimages were encouraged by the Church and facilitated by the introduction of cheap rail travel [55]. Elizabeth recorded her visit to N.D. de Domois in a poem [56]. This pilgrimage was an annual event for the region on the first Sunday of May. [57]. When she was 14 years old she visited N.D. d’Etang, where she asked Our Lady for the favour of dying young.[58] Apparently she visited N.D. de Marcielle several times, probably when she was on holiday at Saint-Hilaire in 1896 and 1900. [59] Was the same true, for N.D. de Prouille – associated with St Dominic and the rosary ? This was mentioned in a letter to her, but in her reply, Sr Elizabeth did not hint that she had visited the shrine.[60] She could have done so, because the Basilica is quite close to Carcassonne.
Other features of everyday life at the turn of the 19th / 20th centuries were conferences, retreats, and missions, intended to deepen spiritual life. Elizabeth’s first mission has been mentioned previously [61]; and her early letters mention 2 conferences [62]. At the start of her diary there is a mention of 2 short retreats, as well as the ‘great mission’ of 1899 [63]. Elizabeth’s involvement with her parish church increased [64] as she grew up, and it is likely that her attendance at missions also increased. Since details of her life at this time are sparse, it is not surprising that there is almost no record of the hidden part of that life in Dijon. An important feature of the missions for Elizabeth, was that Our Lady of Perpetual-Succour was Patron of the missions [65]. One result of which is that her diary (extant) abounds with references to her prayer before the statue of ‘N.D. du Perpétual-Secours’ in her parish church of San Michel.[66]
Poems
The statue of Mary in the Lady-chapel at the church in Carlipa [67] was particularly dear to Elizabeth, and also to the inhabitants of Carlipa. Each year the villagers held a procession to the chapel on the feast of the Assumption.[68] Elizabeth’s letters show that she was there for the procession in 1896 [69] and would have played the harmonium [70]; and she may possibly have been present in 1898 [71]. Reading her letters, Elizabeth seemed to have been very relaxed at Carlipa, she was on holiday with her own family at the home of her Mother’s cousins, and she witnessed the unspoilt beauty of God all around her [72]. This could have been a key factor in a veritable explosion of little verses which started in 1894 [73]: the same year that she had composed her prayer to St Elizabeth of Hungary, won a first prize at piano, and written a short ‘poem’ to Our Lady [74]. “The unspoilt beauty of God (was) all around her” – but so much of the world was ‘spoilt’ - , so Elizabeth, for all she was just 14 years old, wished to say “Goodbye” to it forever and be alone with her Lord, in His love and that of Mary. [75]
Elizabeth’s poems were intimate: the outpouring of a loving heart and soul: sometimes recording something quite ordinary, sometimes a feature of her hidden life. Even before her entry, Carmel features more-and-more, as she develops her style. How special, that her heavenly Mother and her earthly Mother feature in the first two little poems. The feast of the Assumption in 1894 was commemorated in her third poem. At about the age of 16 years, Elizabeth wrote her version of the ‘Memorare’ as a poem to Mary.[76] She refers to Mary as ‘infinitely powerful’: in other words, omnipotent by ‘participation’ [77]. This was not poetic licence with Elizabeth. She knew that it was of faith, and several instances are on record of Elizabeth asking Mary for a miracle: for example, she requested the miraculous healing of Aunt Francine’s eyes, “I am assuming the blessed virgin has not yet obtained the requested miracle”. [78] In her poem, Mary was also referred to as the ‘refuge of sinners’. This was very much to the mind of the French people following the defeat in the 1870 war. Its use shows that Elizabeth was aware of Mary’s role in our salvation; and would have probably been very familiar with the Litany of the Blessed Virgin (Loreto); and also (from the poem) the Litany of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin. Elizabeth was longing to enter Carmel and, in a poem written just prior to being banned from visiting the Dijon Carmel, she asked the Virgin Mary to lead her there quickly – Mary was invited to ‘lead her‘, such was her confidence that Mary would facilitate her entry into Carmel. [79]
Elizabeth confirmed her understanding of Our Lady’s unique role in our salvation in her poem, “To Mary Immaculate” written when she was 17 years old. This was a bracket poem in which Mary’s role in leading her children to Jesus was emphasized at the beginning and end.[80] There, as this commemorated a feast day of Our Lady, Elizabeth asked her to guard her purity and to make her weak heart pleasing to Jesus. A place that Jesus would like visit – a beautiful garden tended with only Him in mind, by a gardener who wished to suffer that sinners might be saved. She was alluding to the ban on visiting Carmel, with the possibility that she might never enter Carmel: she was retracting her earlier wish to die young and leaving the duration of her suffering to Jesus. Knowing her ‘weakness’, Elizabeth concluded her poem by offering her ‘desire’ to Our Lady.
In the following May – Mary’s month – Elizabeth made a pilgrimage to Domois, the subject of a poem. [81] In the poem, she passionately addressed Our Lady: as her Mother; and again offered her life for the return of a sinner to the fold. She knew that her prayer would be heard and she wrote of her hope as she leaves the pilgrimage site. One line expressed that hope succinctly: “God gave you such an amount of power”! Elizabeth entitled her next poem, “The month of Mary”: a joyful poem in which we were invited to celebrate with her. [82] She addressed Our Lady as ‘Queen of Heaven’ and as ‘Mary .’. She was the ‘pure and white lily of the valley’, a phrase so full of meaning – more so to the French people. On May 1st is held La Fête du Muguet, and the tradition is to give the ones you love a little bouquet of lily-of-the-valley, for good luck and to celebrate the arrival of spring. [83] Mary is also the mystical ‘Lily of the valley’ by participation. [84] The ban on visiting Carmel did not preclude all visits; and occasionally Elizabeth did join the nuns in their prayer to, and in praise of, Mary. Her poem concluded with a longing for the day when she would join them in Carmel: “then will her heart expand with pious and intoxicating joy”. [85] In Carmel, Sr Elizabeth wrote lovingly of the ‘sweet memories’ (as a teenager) of Mary’s month. [86]
In her poem, “The month of Mary”, Elizabeth had addressed Mary as ‘Lily of Carmel’ [87]; and she repeated this later in the month in a poem anticipating a visit to Lourdes. [88] She was quite confident that the Blessed Virgin would obtain for her the happiness of a ‘Bride of Christ’ in Carmel. In her Pentecost poem, she revealed that she prayed each day to the Holy Spirit, who had given her ‘her vocation’ that the union would be realised, and that her soul would be consumed in the Divine Love. [89]
Elizabeth marked Our Lady’s feast of the Immaculate Conception when she was 18 years old with a 19 verse poem. [90] Elizabeth opened with a reference to Lourdes, lest we forget Our Lady’s own words uttered to Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. She remembered her own visit to the grotto and envied those pilgrims who were fortunate enough to be in prayer at Lourdes on this feast day. Despite the ban, she was able to pray in the Chapel at Carmel to the Virgin of Sorrows, the Queen of Martyrs. In her prayer she poured out her heart to Mary, asking for crosses in her wish to become more like Our Blessed Mother and Jesus. Mary was reminded that Elizabeth had entrusted everything to her, in particular her entry into Carmel: that she might give herself completely to Jesus in the pursuance of her vocation. She was waiting on Jesus to ‘proclaim His Will’. Although confident of the outcome, it was nevertheless a heavy cross to bear and she petitioned Our Lady’s help: a help readily forthcoming, for Mary consoles her children just as she did Jesus. She acknowledged her dependence on Our Lady, “You, that I have invoked so much”. Her deep love for her earthly Mother came across, as she concluded her poem by begging the Queen of Martyrs to keep her Mother ignorant of her daughter’s pain and anguish. As Our Mother, Mary would have been suffering with each member of the Catez family.
Without doubt, Elizabeth’s ‘pain and anguish’ were very real, as evidenced by her poem marking the lifting of the ban on Carmel by her Mother: there was veritably an ‘explosion in verse’. [91] She wrote a bracket poem [92] thanking both Jesus and Mary for the ‘miracle’: “it must be Mary who has obtained this grace for me” [93]. She opened by addressing Mary; led into a most intimate discourse with Jesus; and then returned to Mary at the close of the poem. Many phrases appear from previous poems, but her joy is inescapable. She told Our Lady of Perpetual-Succour that she had not even completed the Novena to her, before the response came: for Elizabeth, this was an illustration of Mary’s undoubted power.
She was a step nearer to entering Carmel and, against the background of the great mission, more than ever over-awed by the grandeur and majesty of the love of her life: Jesus. In her poem, following a linking verse, there were 12 verses in which Elizabeth ‘imagined’ Jesus was talking to her; and then 11 verses of her reply: firstly, to Jesus; secondly in the final verse, to the Mother of Sorrows. There, she appealed to Mary to mitigate the pain that her Mother and sister were then experiencing, and would experience when Elizabeth entered Carmel, by helping them appreciate the wonder and beauty of Jesus’ call to their daughter: “Come to Me”.
The Diary (see Update 4 for general details)
The diary chiefly records details of the Great Mission, but it also includes 2 short retreats.
It is said that ‘there are no coincidences’! Looking back over Elizabeth’s spiritual development as a teenager, one must therefore conclude that the Holy Spirit had been gently preparing her, and that her attendance at the Great Mission was not a coincidence. She was ready for it spiritually; she loved every minute of it: in fact she ‘lived it’. Fr De Meester has noted that, through her music, Elizabeth had an exceptional auditive memory which enabled her to record the sermons, and her other activities, faithfully.[94]
The mission was officially dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual-Succour [95], and Elizabeth placed the retreat, which followed, under her protection [96]. Elizabeth obviously enjoyed the mission, this wonder of God’s Love [97]. She would have discussed the topics: and their impact on her spiritual life; with Mary in her daily prayers [98] to Our Lady of Perpetual-Succour in the parish church [99] and, doubtless, at home as well. Her confidence in Mary’s ‘power’ was unshakable, “You, to whom one never prays in vain, hear my prayer”. [100] There is that Teresian intimacy in her prayers, so evident even from the written word: the overflowing of love of a child for its Mother: a child inviting us also to hold the hand of Our Mother that she may lead us to our Heavenly homeland - for no one is more tender and merciful. [101]
During the mission there were 2 talks on Mary: ‘Confidence in Mary’ [102], and ‘Devotion to Mary’ [103]; and the sermon for the feast of ’Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows’. [104] Apart from diary entries associated with these talks, there are relatively few entries, which refer to Mary. However, all of the entries illustrate that unique relationship between Our Blessed Mother and her children. In other words: love and devotion by Elizabeth, to Mary as Our Mother - “Behold thy Mother” (Jn 19:27); and Mary’s love for Elizabeth, as her child
–“Behold thy son”.
Elizabeth recorded how she always felt close to Mary as a Mother: “I am unable to express my love, my heart overflows with joy”. [105]; and she regularly renewed her dedication to her, particularly on her feast days [106]. She was sad at the ending of the mission, ‘All was finished’, but already savouring the future joys with Jesus in Carmel [107]; then she brought Mary into her prayer. She expressed her love and could not thank her enough: devoting herself to her, asking for her support in her love for Jesus, and promising to pray to her every day [108]. In tears by then, she turned back to Jesus to complete her prayer [109]. Mary was asked to help her Mother and sister in their sorrow as she prepared for Carmel [110]; to continue as the guardian of her purity [111]; and to obtain perseverance for her to become ‘completely perfect’ and holy: ”break my pride”, “send me many humiliations” [112].
Elizabeth sincerely believed that Mary was fully immersed in her role as Our Mother (as well she is!). For the young Elizabeth, then, she was an ‘all powerful’ facilitator (rather than a ‘mediatrix’): frequently petitioned to obtain miracles. Elizabeth credited Mary with having obtained them, in pursuance of her vocation [113]. She prayed determinedly for the conversion of souls: in particular for Mr Chapuis [114]. To begin with, she always petitioned Mary with confidence [115]; she echoed the ‘memorare’ telling Mary that she had never let any one down and could not refuse her [116]. When Mary doesn’t appear to hear (‘exaucer’) her prayers, she invited Our Blessed Mother to name her price: suffering, even her life, for the conversion of souls [117].
The second talk in the mission on Mary, listed 3 ‘devotions’: the scapular, images, and the rosary; and from Elizabeth’s brief record of the talk, one may assume that these were essential adjuncts already to her prayer life. In her poem on the ‘Attributes of a Carmelite’, she referred to the nun’s habit of drugget, and the simple rosary, but the scapular was not mentioned. [118] Again, one may assume that there were holy pictures in her home, and it is known that she had a statue of Our Lady in her bedroom. [119] From what she had written in her diary, and allowing for the fact that these talks were given during a mission; the lack of devotion to Our Lady, as refuge of sinners, appears to have been emphasized; which is understandable, when so many Frenchmen blamed a lack of religious piety for the disasters of the 1870 war and for the deaths, including many religious, in the French revolution.
Comment
These extant pages of the diary should not be read in isolation, for they may be likened to the script of a stage play enacted against the backdrop of a whole life. A mission, or a preached retreat, by its very nature is an opportunity for guided ‘soul searching’. Ideally, one should not arrive with preconceived ideas, but go simply for God. The Holy Spirit is ‘waiting at the gate’ (Apoc. 3:20), we open our hearts to Him, and He sups with us. The Holy Spirit had been guiding Elizabeth towards the mission and the subsequent retreat on the Cross. When she ‘arrived’: her prayer life was already profound, and her longing for a closer union with Jesus and Mary was nigh-on unsupportable. Her spirituality undoubtedly benefited from the ‘intensity’ of the mission, but it would be for Mother Marie and Fr Vallee, during her period as an extra-muros, to help Elizabeth realise more fully the spiritual riches she had received. Her mind was pre-occupied with entry into Carmel and its ramifications, which overshadowed her appreciation of the many talks, even though she faithfully recorded that which she had heard. Fortunately Our Blessed Mother, Mary, was obtaining that grace which would open the eyes of Elizabeth’s soul during the mission, making what may have seemed remote, intelligible. She was enabled to breathe that ‘something’ of the air of heaven itself; which would support her in her anguish for her Mother and sister, and her longing to give herself entirely to Jesus – in whatever way He desired.
There is no indication in Elizabeth’s diary, that Mary figured in the talks given by Fr Hoppenot on the ‘Crucifix’. Although, it seems inconceivable that no mention was made. However, it is known that Elizabeth copied material from his book, ‘Le Crucifix’, so that it is certain that she would have read the material on the ‘Mother of Sorrows’ and viewed the many beautiful pictures in the book of Our Lady.
EXTRA - MUROS
Introduction
At the end of the retreat on the Crucifix, Elizabeth met with Mother Marie, in the Carmel, and later consecrated herself to Mary at the small Altar in the chapel. She concluded her Diary with a prayer to the Master, asking that her life should be a ‘continual prayer’, asking that He would take her, asking that she should be lost in Him – petitions carried on high by Our Blessed Mother.
There was then a dearth of written material by Elizabeth, for the period ‘bridging’ the end of the retreat with her entry into Carmel. It would be an over-simplification to attribute this solely to the fact that she had approval to enter Carmel when she was 21 years of age – although she was prepared to ‘remain in the world’ depending on the severity of her Mother’s illness. For one thing, the ban on Carmel had taken its toll mentally: as only Guite really knew; but this is evident from one letter of the period. [120] Another contributory factor would have been that Elizabeth became an ‘extra-muros’ in this period in preparation for her entry into Carmel, and it is evident that she was given material for ‘private study’ [121]. As an extra-muros she was also a member of a confraternity established by Mother Marie, “in honour of St. Teresa’s charity: the members having to show themselves living examples of what Our Holy Mother was in her conversation.”[122]
In particular, as Our Blessed Mother “kept all these words in her heart” (Lk.2:51), Elizabeth’s hidden life, enriched by her example, would have become more contemplative: “For Elizabeth, contemplation meant a loving intuition that penetrates to the core or global reality because the soul is firmly rooted in Christ”[123]. Phrases, and words, such as: ‘kept .. in her heart’, ‘hidden life’, and ‘contemplative’, are suggestive of detachment.[124] This was not the detachment of isolation, but of enrichment: not withdrawal, but emergence in the image of Christ Himself.[125] Yet paradoxically, to achieve this, the soul must be ‘an enclosed garden, a sealed fountain’ (Cant.4:12) where God can speak to the heart in solitude (Hosea 2:14). [126]
A few month’s earlier, Elizabeth had written in her Diary that in her prayer life she seemed to be doing nothing, while God did everything [127]: Mary was indeed leading Elizabeth to God along the royal road of prayer. In Souvenirs, it is recorded that Elizabeth’s love of prayer was insatiable and that she rose early to have an extra hour of prayer. [128]. As a result, she experienced synovitis from kneeling: one may assume before the statue of Our Lady, and the Crucifix, in her bedroom. [129].
During this period, there were 3 new influences on her spiritual life: Elizabeth had scheduled meetings with the Prioress of the Dijon Carmel; she had acquired a copy of ‘Histoire d’une Ame; and she met with Fr Vallee from time to time. Each of these ‘influences’ has been considered earlier in the notes: Mother Marie of Jesus - Update 5; ‘St Therese’s autobiography’ – Update 15; and Fr Vallee – Update 5. These are examined again in this Update; but highlighting references to Our Blessed Mother, and the possible influence these may have had on Elizabeth’s spirituality.
Mother Marie of Jesus
“The little girl kissed the Crucifix”, “I, too, will be a Religious”, “Our Lord seemed to make her hear His first ‘Veni’.” Words of Elizabeth? – no, the words of Marie Mercier, who would become, Mother Marie of Jesus. There was yet another similarity. Elizabeth had a difficult birth; at birth Marie was so frail, it seemed that she would not live. Her father prayed to Our Lady, “O Mary, my Queen and my Mother, save my child!” – this cry of faith saved her. Years later, her father lay dying and in great pain. Now a grown girl, his daughter remembered – “O my Queen and my Mother, remember he belongs to you. Keep him, defend him as your own.” Instantly all his pain ceased, and he died invoking the name of the Blessed Virgin.[130] Is it likely that that girl would not have a deep devotion to Our Blessed Mother throughout her life?
There are other similarities with Elizabeth’s young life: doubtless with other young lives too. Between the ages of 12 and 16 years, her soul seemed ‘to rise of itself to God’; at 14 years she seemed to be filled with the Holy Trinity and understood the meaning of a life of prayer. [131]
It was not coincidence that Mme Vathaire introduced Elizabeth to Mother Marie on the day of her First Holy Communion; and it was not coincidence that Mother Marie told Elizabeth that her name meant ‘House of God’. During Elizabeth’s time as an extra-muros, Mother Marie would also have communicated her intense love of the Annunciation and the Incarnation. “The motive of the Incarnation, is the motive of abjection, elicited by love. Love alone, with our eyes on the Incarnate Word, humbled and in abjection, can give us the true sense of our littleness, and make us humble of heart, humble, that is, in feeling, affection, and will.”[132] “For Carmelites our whole life is to perpetuate the Incarnation of the Word. The Incarnation is not yet completely realized in all souls: it is not realized unless it is lived, unless we carry in our soul and in our body Jesus crucified. The mystical body of Christ will only be completed when the last of the elect has entered heaven.” [133]
Elizabeth never forgot Mother Marie, always greeting her with ‘Mother, here is your Elizabeth’ [134]. At their final meeting, when Mother Marie visited the Dijon Carmel in July 1906, Sister Elizabeth said to her, ` I am at the springs of infinite charity. I am always close to Him who gives because He loves. . . . I am in the flood of the life of God; and I can tell Him that I love Him, . . . and this is as true as His truth."[135] In death, she kept a promise made at that meeting: Mother Marie was the first to know that the Divine Eagle had taken Sister Elizabeth. Not without reason did Fr Vallee refer to Sr Elizabeth as the daughter of Mother Marie’s soul.
Even before Elizabeth became an extra-muros, it is probable that Mother Marie’s ‘activities’ in the Dijon Carmel were attracting her attention, although there is apparently no record of this. For example: Elizabeth made a pilgrimage to N.D. d’Etang [136] when she was 14 years old. Some 2 years later, in 1896 the miraculous statue of N.D. d’Etang was brought from Velars to Dijon and carried through the town to several churches. From there it was taken to the Dijon Carmel and placed in the choir next to the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. It remained in the Choir for 5 years.
It is known that Elizabeth made many visits to Carmel to help Mother Marie with the music for the services. “My Jesus, I beg Thee to repay the kind Mother for all the good she does me.”[137] So it is not unreasonable to posit that Elizabeth knew that the statue was in the Carmel, and may have prayed before her statue as an extra-muros. It was removed, just over a month before she entered Carmel. Mother Marie attributed the large number of postulants to the Carmel, at this time, as due to the statue: “If the Blessed Virgin goes on sending me daughters, I shall be obliged to give them back to her.” [138]
Elizabeth, indeed the whole of Dijon, would also have been aware of Mother Marie’s pioneering work during 1898, to recover the remains of the nuns who had died in the first monastery of Dijon from its foundation up to the revolution; finding the coffins and an ossuary. One may imagine the joy in 1900 when the body of Mother Marie de la Trinite was brought into the cloisters of the Mount Carmel of Dijon which she had founded.[139]
“Mother Marie de Jésus would not have been the great Carmelite she was, nor so rich in the spirit of her Order, had it not been for her special devotion to Mary. From the dawn to the close of her life she had quite a special love for the Queen of Mount Carmel, immaculate and glorious.”[140] In 1897, Our lord said to her, “I wish to be fed on thyself”. Later He explained His meaning, “Whoever is entirely spent in self-sacrifice, in the doing of My Will, feeds Me”.[141] Surely His Mother would have been the exemplar of these beautiful words. Mother Marie lived on these words, so one may assume Elizabeth knew of them as an ideal. An ideal repeated to her by Mother Marie as a ‘last word’, when Sr Elizabeth was dying.
In a letter to Mother Germaine, following the death of Sister Elizabeth, Mother Marie wrote of the simplicity of Elizabeth’s prayer (as an extra-muros) and of how God was gently forming her. There is no mention of Our Blessed Mother, from which one may assume that each recognised in the other, a deep love for Our Blessed Mother.[142]
Elizabeth’s close friend, Marie-Louise Hallo entered religious life during this period [143]. and, in effect, Mother Marie replaced her, as a ‘friend of her soul’. Elizabeth would have looked to the older woman for confidence and approval in her hidden life. For Elizabeth, Mother Marie was the epitome both of religious life in Carmel, and of love for the Blessed Virgin. While Mother Marie found in Elizabeth a willing and able postulant, one whom she could begin to form: for example, by preventing excesses in mortification.[144]
Histoire d'une Ame
Elizabeth would have identified Mother Marie with her own Mother: an older woman, a ‘living rule’ of the Carmelite way of life, and a future Prioress, she imbued a confidence. On the other hand, Sr Therese, was of her own generation, a contemporary: unknown apart from the pages of her autobiography, she was fast becoming a national heroine. The pages revealed a story that, for the present, Elizabeth could only dream about, but the little she had dreamed and knew about Carmel was confirmed. A story that she would read, re-read, and ‘make her own’ as she would do with a musical score.
It is worthwhile recalling that Therese was born 3 years (or so) after the disastrous war, and that many Frenchmen blamed their defeat on the falling off of religious devotion among their countrymen. This viewpoint played into the hands of the hardliners: for example, there was a resurgence of Jansenism; and the efforts of Lacordaire to preach a God of love seemed doomed. Therese’s parents and sisters were not immune from these external influences; but their strong faith echoes through the pages of Histoire d’une Ame.
It is also worthwhile pointing out that in the 19th century, women did not have ‘equal-rights’. The government of the country was by men, and not only the country. However, many male lives had been lost in the war: as was evidenced by an upsurge in the number of young girls seeking religious life; and women were beginning to make their views heard. It was against this background that the autobiography of an unknown nun took the country by storm. In particular, it made a distinct impression on a girl virtuoso. Elizabeth identified so well with her contemporary: a strong religious background, a profound love of God, an unshakable belief in a vocation to Carmel, difficulties about entry to Carmel, and a wish to suffer for Jesus. In addition, Sr Therese had died young; and Elizabeth had prayed at N.D. d’Etang that she might die young.[145]
Although Therese had a good memory, she was writing about her life in the world, from behind the grilles of Carmel. Her approach would be more mature than in, say, a diary; more confident; more informed; and yes, more humble and self-less – were that possible. On the very first page of her autobiography, she recounted how she knelt before a statue of the ‘Virgin with a smile’: ‘Heaven’s Queen’; and asked her blessing on the undertaking; requesting that Mary would ‘guide her hand’. This was no ordinary request. Therese had always loved Mary; but from the day that the Virgin had first smiled on little Therese in her illness; her love for, and devotion to, Mary developed, “little Therese grew in love for her heavenly Mother,”[146] and “(she) resolved to consecrate (herself) in a special way to Our Blessed Lady”[147].
Zelie, her Mother, was with Mary in Heaven. Therese imitated Mary’s qualities of silence, humility and holiness; as explained to her by her sisters and the nuns. It would not have taken Therese long to realise that if Zelie was present ‘in her’ when she received Jesus in the Eucharist, then Mary must also have been present. ‘Imitation’ gave way to ‘sharing’[148]: sharing “attitudes of faith, openness to the Word of God, seeking Jesus in the night of faith [149], and love” [150] based on the only source open to any of us – the Gospels. ‘Sharing’ was an intimate positive approach, which strengthened faith and love: “Aren’t your virtues and your love mine too”[151]. Whereas ‘Imitation’, being the traditional approach, was seen against a background of the avoidance of hell.
St Paul invited us to ‘share’ with, instead of just ‘imitate’, Jesus, when he wrote: “For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”(Phil.2:5). Applying the same idea to Our Blessed Mother, we seek to ‘shadow’ her inmost thoughts – the thoughts of the ‘real’ Mary: thinking as she thought – in, through, and with, her; and in this way she is ever leading us to her own Son. Some of those inmost thoughts - the thoughts of the ‘real’ Mary are sought in Therese’s poem, “Why I love you, O Mary” [152] written about 4 months before her death. This is not just ‘about’ the historical Mary, it is addressed to Mary and written in the present tense as Sr Therese ‘walks with Our Mother’ through the Gospel narrative [“you made visible the narrow road to heaven”[153]: as Elizabeth would have walked, and as we can walk.
The emphasis is on intimacy with Mary ‘here and now’: the Mary in the mystery of Jesus and of the Church; not simply on the imitation of a rather idealistic figure. The poem is threaded with Mary’s suffering, silence, and humility; with a desire to live a simple, hidden life in faith. [154] Elizabeth may not have had the benefit of Sr Therese’s complete ‘sermon’ on the Blessed Virgin, which emphasized some of the points that she was making in her poem [155]; but one gem, that ‘Mary is more Mother than Queen’, is included in HA [156]. Also included are some of her remarks on her ‘little way’: “In my ‘little way’ everything is most ordinary; all that I do, little souls must be able to do likewise.” [157] Elizabeth would have seen in the Mary of Sr Therese’s poem, the perfect example of the ‘little way’ to embrace the gift of holiness.
Towards the end of Histoire d’une Ame, there are selections from Sr Therese’s letters to Celene which must have delighted Elizabeth. In one of these [158], Sr Therese quoted from St John of the Cross: “...God is mine and the Mother of my God is mine.” (which Sr Elizabeth paraphrased in a letter from Carmel [159]); and in a paragraph addressed to the Blessed Virgin, Sr Therese quoted from the words of the Blessed Virgin to St Elizabeth of Hungary (Elizabeth’s patron Saint) and applied them to herself, “I am not your serving maid but your child, you are Jesus’ Mother and you are my Mother!”.
Sr Therese’s autobiography was not generally available until after the great mission, so that it is possible to compare the traditional devotion to Our Lady: from the ‘snapshot’ of the 2 talks given in the mission [160]; with that adopted in the poem, “Why I love you, O Mary”. Although there is a change in the nature of the devotion to Our Lady, there is no change in Our Lady’s self-effacing role of leading us to Jesus [161]. One must assume that Elizabeth would have made the poem ‘her own’: albeit gradually; for she had not yet met with Fr Vallee, nor was there any mention of the autobiography in her writings of this period. In fact, Elizabeth made no direct reference to Therese’s poem on Mary in her letters, personal notes, poems, or spiritual treatises, but it is referred to indirectly in her letters from Carmel later on.
Father Vallee
Fr Vallee’s devotion to the Rosary, and his recommendations for its use by nuns, has been mentioned in Update 5. There is very little available documentation regarding Fr Vallee’s talks on the Blessed Virgin in retreats, or sermons, in Carmel.[162] Fr Vallee was present on her entry into Carmel and at her clothing. He preached at Sr Elizabeth’s clothing and, although no detail is given about his sermon, its content at the clothing of a religious can be surmised: based on (Apoc.14:1,3,4).[163]. One can certainly assume that Our Lady of Mount Carmel featured in the sermon, especially as the clothing took place on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Elizabeth had read Fr Vallee’s sermon preached for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 1900 [164].
Elizabeth met Fr Vallee during a retreat given by him on the Holy Trinity, at the Dijon Carmel in 1900. “She questioned him on the meaning of the movements of grace of which she had been aware for some time and which gave her the impression of being dwelt in” [165]. Fr Vallee told her about the indwelling of the Holy Trinity “in the most secret recesses of the soul, there to receive ... the (soul’s) interior worship of praise and adoration.” [166]; and to know contemplation when the person remains passive, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here.’(Matt.17:4). Hence: “Elizabeth could yield to her interior attraction, and dwell in the inmost depths of her soul.” [167] as Mary did, “It was in her heart that she lived, and at such a depth that no human eye can follow her.”[168] “ Fr Vallee said of this decisive hour: ‘I saw her borne away as on a tidal wave’.” [169] Sr Elizabeth was to write later, referring to Fr Vallee’s remarks in this meeting: “The day I understood that, everything became clear to me” [170].
Elizabeth’s talk with Fr Vallee, enabled her to put in place a vital piece of her spiritual ‘jig-saw’. Fr Vallee had made it possible for Elizabeth to develop further Sr Therese’s ‘walking with Mary here and now’, into a union of Mary’s soul with that of Elizabeth. However, it would be after her Profession in Carmel before these thoughts appeared in her letters. It is uncertain whether it was at this meeting, that Fr Vallee told Elizabeth that, “there was no distance between souls”. [171]
"Un dernier souvenir" [172]
Elizabeth lived the last 18 months of her ‘life in the world’ against a background of deepening spirituality in preparation for Carmel. Even friends were not privy to her intentions until the last months. She was still uncertain about her Mother’s health, and must have had some concern over her own, when she heard that Marie-Louise Hallo’s health would prevent her becoming a nun. In July 1900 she went on holiday[173] with her family taking in Le Rocher de la Vierge at Biarritz, N.D. de Lourdes (her 4th visit), and on the return journey N.D. des Victoires in Paris. She was at Tarbes for the feast of N.D. du Mont-Carmel during which she renewed her vow of chastity to Jesus, in a personal note. She completed this by asking Our Lady to “offer me, give me, to Jesus”.[174]
By October she was back in Dijon and, with Marie-Louise Hallo, was helping with various church activities for young people. For example, she was invited to instruct a young girl in Catechism and also prepare her for First Holy Communion in May 1901. Later, in Souvenirs, the girl recalled the love with which Elizabeth spoke of the ‘great’ Sacrament; and how she was invited to pray to the Holy Virgin. [175] Three months before her death, Sr Elizabeth wrote to the girl. She quoted Catherine of Siena, “Your measure will be My measure”, and enlarged on it. Importantly, she wrote, “Live with Him wherever you are, whatever you are doing; ...enter into the depths of your soul, for you will always find Him there.” : reminiscent of the words of St Paul quoted earlier, “For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”(Phil.2:5).
Her ‘hidden life’ remained just that until a few weeks before she was due to enter Carmel. Letters to another extra-muros, and meetings with Mother Marie, acted as a safety-valve for the mental strain imposed by the hidden part of her life and her worry over her Mother and sister. On the morning of the day she was to enter Carmel, she wrote to her childhood confidant, Canon Angles, “I love my Mother as I have never loved her before”.[176] Who, but her Mother, led her to the great door of Carmel; who, but Mother Germaine (in the absence of Mother Marie) welcomed her into Carmel; and who, but Our Lady of Mount Carmel was holding her by the hand and leading her to Jesus.
SUMMARY OF THE EARLY YEARS
Elizabeth loved Our Blessed Mother; she really did have 2 Mothers: spiritual and temporal. However, she was a child of her times and her love of Our Lady tended to be “passive”, reflecting her own Mother’s concerns about her daughter being ‘one of the elect’.
Our Lady ‘could work miracles’, and Our Lady was the Mother of her first love: Jesus. Our Lady was the guardian of her purity, everything she planned to do was talked over with Our Lady. She spent hours in prayer before the statues of Our Lady of Perpetual-Succour and that in her bedroom; and at Shrines of Our Lady.
Elizabeth sought intimacy with Our Lady in her virtues and spirituality, like her she had a hidden life to which few were privy. There she could be with Jesus; but it was usually Our Lady who led her there. Reflecting on the Miracle at Cana, Elizabeth was well aware that Our Lady led one to Jesus: that she could anticipate the needs of her children and present these to her Divine son. “Such is the unchangeable Will of Him Who has willed that we should have everything through Mary.” [177]
Elizabeth never lost her childlike devotion to Our Lady; in fact it deepened and became richer with time. Mother Marie was instrumental in shaping that devotion in preparation for Carmel; and in teaching "her to love the Master”[178]. Also the appearance of Histoire d’une Ame, at this time in her life was certainly providential. All in all, a love, previously ‘passive’, was becoming ‘active’.
She would enter Carmel walking with Our Lady ‘along the narrow road to heaven’ – learning to ‘share’ incidents with her, instead of simply imitating her, ‘in silence, humility and holiness’ – in the ‘heaven of her soul’. ‘Sharing’ with Our Lady alone, is not enough! She shares with all her children, and knows a Mother’s joy when they share with her; but the children must also share with each other, through the Beatitudes and guided by the Holy Spirit. Sharing with one Child in particular, Jesus, for then will her joy be complete. Then will we be the ‘privileged of His Heart’, and know the support, the strength, the hope, of the supreme treasure: His Holy Cross; for ‘your measure will be My measure’ [179]
THE POSTULANT
Introduction
No amount of preparation, no intense longing, would have prepared Elizabeth for the ‘shock’ of Carmel and of ‘leaving’ her family: the reality of ‘living with’ Jesus and Mary.[180]. “If He did not fill our cells and our cloisters, ah! how empty they would be!” [181] “(Carmel) seems like a little corner of Heaven.” [182] From the outset, she experienced love: her health improved, and slowly she took more and more part in the daily life of Carmel – thanks to the care of Mother Germaine and Sr Marie of the Trinity. A month after entering Carmel, she wrote to her sister, Guite, “Everywhere there is only Him. We live Him, breathe Him. If you knew how happy I am ...”[183] Her unspoken thoughts, surely, would have been, “for the Queen of Carmel points us to Him, leads us to Him, in her every act”.
Everything in Carmel was a wonder and a joy to her: yes, Jesus was everywhere, but so was His Mother. His Mother led Sr Elizabeth to Jesus; but she was a daughter of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Mary’s feast days were a joy to her, perhaps, none more so than ‘July 16th’ with its “great novena” [184]. Similarly, was there a joy to compare with a ‘Profession’ or a ‘clothing’ in Our Order ? [185] “I am asking the Queen of Carmel to give you the double spirit of our beloved holy Order; the spirit of prayer and penance.”[186] Her letters from Carmel and poems confirm that with the years, her love for Our Blessed Mother deepened, as she gave herself completely to Mary that she might be led to Jesus. A love that was at once beautiful, trusting, and pure. Mary truly was ‘all-powerful’ (as indeed she is, by ‘participation): “I am praying that the Blessed Virgin might send all her Angels to guard him”.[187]
In Carmel Sr Elizabeth would have followed the ageless tradition of living in an ever deepening union with Our Blessed Mother, as her children are led to ‘live Jesus, breathe Jesus’. “She is the life of the Order: she gives us her own life as a model to imitate, as an ideal to obtain.” [188] Not unnaturally then, when ‘something’ is in one’s blood, Sr Elizabeth’s written material rarely included specific mention of Our Blessed Mother; although sometimes mention can be inferred from the context. Also Fr DeMeester’s footnotes to her letters are very helpful. For example: the solemn Salve was sung “on Saturday nights and on the vigils of Marian feasts” [189]; and the rosary was said while working. [190] He also notes that during her last illness, Sr Elizabeth did both needlework and embroidery: one piece (extant) was inscribed by her, “The Virgin remaining in complete adoration of the gift of God”.[191]
Early days
Fr Vallee, who was with Elizabeth on her entry to Carmel, said of her, “Her soul is altogether angelic; there are few like it even among those who enter the cloister.” [192] On being shown into her cell, she felt the presence of the Trinity. [193] Then, on her first evening at the foot of the Crucifix, she told Mother Germaine, “I have entered into the soul of my Christ.” [194]; a phrase which she repeated prior to her Lent retreat in 1902 [195]. In other words, she was consciously “surrendering to Him and His good pleasure” that her soul might “live in communion” with His Soul [196] – and, therefore, also with the soul of Our Lady. A month after entry she wrote, “I feel that all the treasures enclosed in the soul of Christ are mine.”[197] In later letters, the reference to ‘my’ Christ appears as “I am His and He is mine” [198] and also as “The whole Divine world is mine” [199]. This last phrase had also occurred as, “In Him we have all” [200], a shortened version of a saying from St John of the Cross, “... The Mother of God, and all things are mine; ... because Christ is mine. ...” [201]
In this period, Sr Elizabeth’s letters chiefly included little details about her life in Carmel, intended to reassure their recipients, that she was well, and had not been mistaken about her vocation. References to Our Lady were made against this background. She referred to a small ‘altar of the Virgin’ in the outer choir which she cleaned daily, and of speaking to Our Lady as she decorated her altar with flowers. [202] She told her Mother of the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows in the cloister that she spoke to every night, linking the tears of the Virgin with those of her Mother. [203] Sr Elizabeth was overjoyed that her clothing would take place on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, “Mary is going to clothe me” [204], and also that Fr Vallee preached both on the Immaculate Conception and on ‘the virgins who followed the Lamb’ (Apoc.14:3). [205]. In a 10 stanza poem to mark the event, only 1 stanza referred to Mary. Referring to the Apocalypse, those in Carmel would all be re-united one day under the ‘white mantle of Mary”. [206] As her life ebbed away, she asked her childhood confidant “to consecrate her to the Blessed Virgin, for she, the Immaculate One, gave me the habit of Carmel and I am asking her to clothe me again in the fine linen robe in which the bride is dressed to present herself at the marriage feast of the Lamb.”[207] Quite naturally, Sr Elizabeth always remembered the anniversaries of this special day, and Mary’s virginal mantle, with its symbolism. [208]
Union of souls
Sr Elizabeth was at pains to reassure her correspondents that the grilles of Carmel did not create a spiritual separation; neither was distance a separation. In Update 5 reference was made to her use of ‘the union of souls’. She based this principally on 3 texts: Jn 17:22,24; Gal. 2:20; and Acts 4:32. It was a union of Love, in Love: that their souls all might be 'one'; that where (Jesus) was, they were with Him. In faith, they lived in Jesus, and He lived in them: “According to your faith, be it done unto you.” (Matt.9:29). Clearly, the ‘degree’ of ‘union’ depended on the love of the soul for God. ‘They all might be one’ does not affect the ‘identity’ of the soul in ‘union’; furthermore ‘union’ must remain little more than a concept, without being ‘fleshed out’, simply because it is a ‘spiritual’ concept: “(souls) penetrate the Infinity of God, and there in that silence and calm where He Himself is, they hear what flows from one to the other!” [209] Sr Elizabeth used the French “colles” to describe the manner of the union – figuratively, the souls are “knitted” together, but inevitably this begs the question of the ‘spiritual nature of the soul’.[210]
For some, Sr Elizabeth made a definite rendezvous as to place or time: for example, she would meet her sister at anytime at the foot of the small Cross which she gave her [211]; or in the ‘little cell’ at 8 o’clock each evening. For others, she would consciously ‘take their souls with her’: into chapel (say) [212]; and suggest to them later in a letter: “you did feel that, didn’t you”[213] In the 17 letters (extant) she wrote during this period, ‘union of souls’ was either explicit or implicit in 7 letters.
There is one other text, “Woman behold thy son” (Jn 19:26), which relates this ‘union of souls’ to Our Blessed Mother’. Our souls are one’d with her soul, and it is she who facilitates this union though her Divine Son and the Holy Spirit. Was Sr Elizabeth aware of this prior to the Novitiate? For had she known of it, might she not have subscribed in her letters to Sr Therese’s view, “To ask something of the Blessed Virgin is not the same thing as asking it of the good Lord. She knows very well what to do with my little wishes, whether to transmit them (to God) or not. Finally, it belongs to her to see to it that the good Lord be not (as it were) forced to hear me.” [214]
THE NOVICE
Fusion
Sr Elizabeth studied ‘Histoire d’une Ame’ in the Novitiate under the tutelage of Mother Germaine. There are no specific details of this, but, as emphasized above, Sr Therese had a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin throughout her whole life. Sr Elizabeth was enthralled by Sr Therese’s detailing of her First Communion which illustrates so vividly, how Mary was for her, and is for us, the royal way to her Divine Son.
The morning hymn, ‘O Holy Altar, where angels are hovering’ was sung [215]: this would have brought to mind the verse,
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'I want to see you, O my Divine Treasure! I want to fly in the arms of Mary, ... And to receive from my cherished Mother, The sweet kiss for the first time!‘ |
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Letters
In almost all of Sr Elizabeth’s letters written in the novitiate, the concept of ‘union of souls’ appeared. These were not clichés: pious comments. She wanted her correspondents with her, and Our blessed Mother, on the road of Christian perfection: “Mary, the companion of Elizabeth in her journey through life, continues to be that in heaven at the explicit request of the young Carmelite. She is at the door and threshold of heaven not only for Elizabeth but for all the souls devoted to her.” [230] More familiarly to Elizabeth, ‘the door’ also referred to the statue of the Virgin of Lourdes: for her, Janua Coeli. In her deep faith, the gate of heaven: the gateway to heaven [231]; was the ‘active’ (or conscious) union of our souls with that of Mary: “Did the Blessed virgin give you my message”.[232] A union exemplified by the Divine Son and His Mother: “Jesus, Mary loved each other so: all the heart of the one dispersed into the other!”[233]
Sr Elizabeth’s ability to match the content of her letters to recipients: to empathize with them; has often been remarked on, in these updates. This is illustrated so well in a letter, the conclusion of which commends the recipient to the Blessed Virgin, whom she notes was a ‘martyr in her heart’ and whose sweet light shines in the hearts of her children.[234] In the Litany of Loreto, we hail Our Blessed Lady as ‘Stella matutina’: the Morning Star which, if we would but turn to her, can begin to illumine the ‘darkness’ in our hearts as we seek Our Saviour. “The fact that she "preceded" the coming of Christ is reflected every year in the liturgy of Advent. ... For just as (the Morning star), together with the "dawn, " precedes the rising of the sun, so Mary from the time of her Immaculate Conception preceded the coming of the Savior, the rising of the "Sun of Justice" in the history of the human race.[235]
Christ-centred
It is in that Divine Light, radiating through Our Blessed Mother; radiating through: “God’s most beautiful Praise of Glory, and also the one who penetrated most deeply into the holy fortress of holy recollection”[236];“in the power of Him who is from all eternity within the vision, and through Him, (that) we are brought into that same vision, (that) we touch it and live it by faith” [237], until “in His light we will see light” (Ps.35:10) [238].
Sr Elizabeth’s letters were ‘Christ centered’: while ‘knowing’ that Mary is there, one actually must have felt her presence. When a close friend lost her baby, Sr Elizabeth immediately wrote, “I won’t try to bring you human consolation; you should take refuge in a Mother’s heart, the heart of the Virgin. It knew all the breaking, all the tearing, and it always stayed so calm, so strong, for it always stayed leaning on the heart of her Christ.” [239]. This was implicit in her advice to a chronic invalid, ”see Him present living in your soul; He is always with you, be always with Him, remain in His sight.” [240] for where He is, there also is His Mother. The Incarnation was clearly in mind, in a letter written to a lady whose daughter was seriously ill, “I thought of the sword of sorrow that must have pierced your motherly heart.”[241] To another young friend, showing interest in Carmel, she advised, “Ask the Queen of Carmel, Our Mother, to teach you to adore Jesus in profound recollection; she so loves her daughters in Carmel.” [242] “There are two words which sum up for me all holiness, all apostolate: “Union and Love”[243]; and since the context was that of the Mystical Body, Mary would be intimately present.
Twice during her Novitiate, Sr Elizabeth referred to God as, “the Soul of our soul, and the Life of our life.” [244]. The phrase, which did not originate with Sr Elizabeth, does not refer to her union of souls. The meaning, in this context, has been neatly expressed by Pope Benedict XVI. [245]
Annunciation/Incarnation
Sr Elizabeth marked the feast of the Holy Trinity in 1902 with a letter to her sister [246], and a note together with a poem to her sub-prioress [247]. In her poem she refers to the Annunciation, with the Father delivering His Word to Mary, as she is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and all Heaven adoring this sublime mystery. There are 2 very powerful lines: “(Mary’s) heart, like a crystal reflected the Divine,/ the Guest who dwelt there, Beauty without decline.” In a poem, written for the previous Christmas, Sr Elizabeth had taken up the mystical aspect of Christmas for the Christian. The incarnation takes place in the soul of every believer – ‘the new incarnation’.[248] She picks up this theme again in her Christmas poem 12 months later (1902) [249]. In the ‘refrain’, she hears the voice of the Angel saying, “Jesus is incarnated in your soul – He is with you, embrace Him with the Virgin Mother.” [250] The angels’ message invites us to rejoice because Christ is born again in our hearts. The angels sing — but their song only makes sense to those waiting, hoping, and believing.
As if to emphasize the Incarnation; in a letter to mark Christmas 1903, she wrote, “I spent my whole vigil with the Blessed Virgin awaiting the divine Little One, who this time was going to be born no longer in the crib, but in my soul for He is truly Emmanuel, ‘God with us’.” [251] In her poem to mark that Christmas, Sr Elizabeth had asked Our Lady to reveal something about her life after the ‘instant’ of the Incarnation: her ‘contemplation’, and adoration, in silence and ineffable peace in the depths of her soul. This request followed on from the ‘wonder’ expressed by Sr Elizabeth in a letter to Guite, a month earlier: “In what silence, what recollection, what adoration (the Blessed Virgin) must have been wrapped in the depth of her soul in order to embrace this God”. [252] Sr Elizabeth would have marked the next two Christmas’ in a similar manner: “Let us empty our soul so that He can come forth in it.” [253] How she must have loved the picture of the Annunciation given to her in November 1905; focusing, as it did, on the on-going Incarnation within her soul: “I shall unite myself to the soul of the Blessed Virgin at the moment when the Father overshadowed her.” [254]
Interior souls
In these quotations, she was inferring that the Incarnation took place once, and for all time, in the crib at Bethlehem, and thereafter it took place spiritually in the soul of the believer. Holy Scripture is frequently quoted to support this mysticism. “.. until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19) [255] “On Christmas Day, there are 3 Masses, on account of Christ's threefold nativity. Of these the first is His eternal birth, which is hidden in our regard - a Mass is sung in the night. The second is His nativity in time, and the spiritual birth, whereby Christ rises "as the day-star in our [Vulg.: 'your'] hearts" (2 Peter 1:19), and on this account a mass is sung at dawn, and in the "Introit" we say: "The light will shine on us today."(Is.9:2,6) The third is Christ's temporal and bodily birth, according as He went forth from the virginal womb, becoming visible to us through being clothed with flesh - a third mass is sung in broad daylight.[256]
Sr Elizabeth’s love for the Annunciation and the Incarnation began early in life and was intensified by her contact with Mother Marie as an extra-muros. Mother Marie was steeped in the tradition of the ‘reformed’ Carmel of honouring the mystery of the Incarnation. [257] This may have had its roots in the Monastery of the Incarnation where our Holy Mother lived; or in popular devotion “centred around this hidden mystery in the 16th/17th centuries”. [258] “For us Carmelites, our whole life is to perpetuate the Incarnation of the Word.” [259] “To pray is to gaze on God, on Our Lord and His Heart, on the Word speaking in Christ’s soul. To pray in Advent is to lean over the Child-heart hidden in Mary, and there to find God’s gift”. [260] Sr Elizabeth had Mary in mind when she wrote: “(Advent) is very especially the season of interior souls, those who live unceasingly and through everything wholly ‘hidden with Christ in God’ at the center of themselves”.[261]
Such thoughts would surely have been in Sr Elizabeth’s mind as she composed two poems mentioned above [262] and as she listened to Fr Fages preaching during the Community retreat in November 1904 – she was then a Professed nun. In the conclusion to the retreat, he posed two questions – with but a single theme, “Do you want the Word to live in you; do you want the Incarnation to bear its fruit in you?” Minutes later, Sr Elizabeth gave her answer as she poured out her heart in her ‘Prayer to the Trinity’. “... Spirit of Love, come in me, and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word ...... And You, O Father, bend lovingly over Your poor little creature; cover her with Your shadow, seeing in her only the Beloved.....” [263] Triggered by the watching for the Nativity the previous Christmas, the intense atmosphere of the retreat, and the renewal of her vows? Yes, indeed, but the result of a lifetime of devotion to Our Blessed Mother; and illustrating in a very practical manner how Our Blessed Mother led Sr Elizabeth through her Son to the Most Holy Trinity.
“Sr Elizabeth ... felt herself drawn to this mystery (of the Incarnation) .... she delighted to contemplate that blessed moment when the Holy Spirit descended into Mary, and the power of the Most high overshadowed her, and the Word became incarnate within her” [264] “I need no effort to enter into the Mystery of God dwelling within the Blessed Virgin; ..... like her, I adore the hidden God within me”.[265] We may imagine how delighted she was to receive a “magnificent engraving” of the Annunciation “the whole Trinity in action, surrendering themselves, giving themselves” [266], as a gift for her feast-day in November 1905.
'Who is My Mother ... ?'
Sr Elizabeth was ‘watching’ on that ‘night of nights’ with Mary. Mary, our spiritual Mother, would not have been inactive as she watched with Sr Elizabeth. As Christ in His Mother’s womb was naturally dependent on her for the growth of His natural life, so, in the Mystical Body we are spiritually dependent upon Mary in all of the stages of our spiritual life. [267] “This Mother of grace will form my soul so that her little child will be a living, ‘striking’ image of her first-born.” [268] “For there is no more certain and steady way of uniting all to Christ and of reaching that perfect adoption as sons.” [269] Hence Sr Elizabeth in a mystical manner, was to be both a mother and an adopted child. One may note in passing that, a few months before her death, Sr Elizabeth wrote of God having “the tenderness of a Mother”.[270] Fr DeMeester relates this to the ‘transparency’ (with respect to God) of her Prioress. [271] Might not it also have stemmed from a lifetime of love with her own Mother: ”Close to Him, Oh how she thinks of her little mama”[272]; and a lifetime in Love with Our Blessed Mother: the Mother of God?
“My Mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it”, (Lk.8:21) Parallel texts are to be found at (Matt.12:50) and (Mk 3:35); however these refer to the ‘Will’ of God, in place of the ‘word’ of God. [273] The preference for the Luke text is that is follows on, and links to, the parable of the sower. “The seed which falls into the ground, falls, as it were into a Mother’s womb. To speak of the womb of the earth is comprehensible to all peoples of the world. The man living according to nature is, therefore, in regard to the word of God which falls in him, like a Mother who has received the seed of a new life and matures it in her womb. Therefore whoever hears the word of God is like a Mother to Him, however incredible that may seem at first.” The phrase “Christ is born again in your heart”, in the above references, does not necessarily imply the mystical birth just discussed. It can simply be that we have become aware of His presence through an Act of Recollection: Christ having been ‘hidden’ in our hearts [274]; or He may come to us in a Communion. [275](Additional notes on the Scripture text are given in Appendix II).
“The word ... is very near to you, it is on your lips and in your heart.” (Rom.10:8; Deut. 30:14) In other words, if we desire Him with all our heart – and open the door to Him (Apoc. 3:20) – He is already in our heart. Sr Elizabeth desired Him with all her heart, but additionally so at Christmas as she watched and waited – for He would be bringing additional gifts and graces. She would have been no stranger to making Acts of Spiritual Communion, for He brings the same graces that the sacramental Communion confers. St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was afraid that a Spiritual Communion was ‘nothing’ compared to a Sacramental Communion. In a vision of Our Lord, she saw Him hold up two ciboria (the vessel which contains the Sacred Hosts) and say, "In this golden ciborium I put your Sacramental Communions. In this silver ciborium I put your Spiritual Communions. Both ciboria are quite pleasing to Me." – for a ‘communion’ is an act of love.
Sr Elizabeth’s Christmas wish that ‘Christ be born in her heart’ is often associated with everyday life: quite apart from the crib at Christmas, and Acts of Spiritual Communion. For example: Christ is said to be born again in our hearts when we have the faith, hope, and love to see reality differently: and live it differently; to those who do not know Christ; to those who are not docile to the Holy Spirit. Christ is born again when, in quiet, almost invisible ways, our neighbour is loved, experiencing love through the Beatitudes, and can become all God wants them to be. Although Our Blessed Mother is always intimately involved in leading us to Jesus, it is a non sequitur that Christ is ‘therefore’ born again. Far better to think in analogous terms of The Living Flame of Love burning with renewed vigour in the caverns of the soul: that we might hasten the day ‘ici-bas’ when like Sr Elizabeth, every part of our soul is “invaded with eternal Light”. [276].
THE PROFESSED NUN
Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi
Sr Elizabeth marked the feast of the Assumption in 1904 with a letter to a chronic invalid, whose feast day it was. She commended the lady to the Blessed Virgin: “to have Heaven’s sweetest blessings descend upon your soul and to reveal this divine secret to you: “Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi” (my Beloved is all mine, and I am all His)” [277] So speaks the bride in the Song of Songs (2:16). Sr Elizabeth was a Bride and she had written “He is all mine, and I am all His” in 2 previous letters to this same lady, following her Profession. [278]. One may attempt an explanation - ‘Heaven’s sweetest blessings’ : love and grace; poured into the soul by a loving Bridegroom; and for her part: ’I am His’; a desire by the Bride to work for the greater glory of the Bridegroom in conformity with His Will. Yet it is an explanation devoid of both intimacy and understanding.
“This expression ‘Dilectus meus’ is so mysterious and sweet that it seems impossible to give it a true explanation”. [279] Yet as Sr Elizabeth wrote, the Blessed Virgin knows ‘the divine secret’. “O who could ever understand what Mary is to Jesus, and what Jesus is to Mary. If the terms bride, sister, beloved, and all beautiful, are inadequate for the Son of God to express his sentiments for His Church, what words are there which could show us His feelings of love and tenderness for the Holy Virgin. This most lovable Jesus fills her so completely that He does not leave her room to love anything but her Beloved. When she wishes to work, it is always in Him, and through Him ....; and she can have nothing which is not for Him”. “Mary is a model of total commitment to God’s Kingdom”.[280]
In a letter to her Mother, a few days after her feast-day in 1904, Sr Elizabeth revealed that she had asked the Blessed Virgin “to draw the very best from God’s treasures for (her) mama ... (and) to reveal that sweet secret of union with God that makes us remain with Him through everything: it’s the intimacy of a child with its mother, of the Bride with the Bridegroom.”[281] That intimacy of ‘a child with its Mother’ is treasured throughout our lives; and yet it is but a shadow of the intimacy between Our Heavenly Mother and her children. In her feast-day letter to her Mother in 1905, Sr Elizabeth invited the Blessed Virgin to “carry away all (her Mother’s) cares, present, past, and future ... and to carry all (Sr Elizabeth’s) tender affection to (her Mother).” [282]
The feast day in 1906 was one of unbounded joy for two principal reasons. First: “I leave with the Blessed Virgin ... to prepare myself for eternal life ... my novitiate for Heaven”.[283] Second: her Mother’s health had shown improvement, and Sr Elizabeth joyfully believed that God had transferred her Mother’s sufferings to her: as she had asked. The letter to her Mother began: “Here is your Sabeth coming to jump into your arms to tell you with a big kiss...”. The Blessed Virgin was asked to provide a bouquet: by stripping “the heavenly grounds bare”; and, “to obtain an ever increasing improvement in (her Mother’s) health”.[284] In an earlier letter to her Mother, Sr Elizabeth noted that her Mother’s request for the blessed Virgin to ‘perform’ (French: n’a pas fait) a miracle cure of her daughter’s illness had not been successful. [285]
Ineffable Love
One notes this complementary ‘selfless’ intimacy of ‘a Mother with her child’: in particular, of the Blessed Virgin with Jesus and of her martyrdom of Love. This was possibly in the mind of Fr Vallee when he said that, “martyrdom was the response of any lofty soul to the Crucified”. [286] The desire to be a Martyr of Love, in the footsteps of the Blessed Virgin, Our Holy Mother, and Sr Therese of Lisieux, was never far from Sr Elizabeth’s mind, “If I am not a martyr by blood, I want to be one by love.”[287] Sr Elizabeth had no hesitation in invoking this selfless intimacy when, at the end of her ‘Last Retreat’ she asked her Mother to unite with Our Blessed Mother, “to offer your children together to the heavenly Father, at the elevation of Holy Mass”.[288]
Many of the letters which Sr Elizabeth wrote to Guite reflect the ‘oneness’ of the two sisters. Frequently there are intimacies that, perhaps, were never intended for public gaze. Just over a year before her death, Sr Elizabeth must have realised that N.D. d’Etang had ‘heard’ her petition to die young; for she wrote to Guite: “In heaven I will rejoice to see my most beautiful Christ in your soul ..... with a Mother’s pride I will say to Him ...” [289] She also reflected on Divine adoption: “You are a Mother and know what depths of love God has placed in your heart for your children.” A reflection most surely based on Our Blessed Mother at the foot of the Cross, and the experience of her ‘earthly’ Mother’s love for Guite and herself. She invited Guite to reflect also, that “(she) can grasp the grandeur of this mystery: to be children of God.”[290]
On the 3rd anniversary of her entry into Carmel Sr Elizabeth wrote to her childhood confidant, “(Carmel) is like an abyss of love in which I lose myself” [291]; and in a later letter she added, “ where beatitude awaits us”.[292] This is the ineffable love between the Mother of Carmel and her Divine Son: the love we can progressively experience in her, as we learn to carry the Cross of her Divine Son and descend deeper into the abyss. “Have you ever sounded the abyss of Love? Truly you are no longer you, you are becoming Him.”[293] – ‘becoming Him’ by taking His place on the Cross [294]: surrendered to Love. Then, although our surrender is incomplete in this world, we are the children of Our Blessed Mother, for, “the power of the soul surrendered to love is so great”.[295]
How does one attempt to express the inexpressible – the wonder of Love? Images seem to conflict: Jesus carries us in His arms as the Good Shepherd; while Mary carries us in her arms as Our Mother. Yet there is no conflict: Jesus and Mary are as ‘one’ in their loving attention to us – Jesus gave His Mother to us as Our Mother, therefore He acts through her; hence Mary is omnipotent by participation. Sometimes both images appear, ”He carries (the soul) like a mother who takes her child in her arms.”[296]: in the context of the Eucharist, Jesus is our Mother for He feeds us with His own Body. [297]. Again, “If I cannot go to Him. He comes to me to embrace my soul with the tenderness of a mother”.[298] As St John of the Cross noted God only communicates with us, when our souls are in a state of solitude and quiet. What better way than lying in the arms of a Mother? The soul should “simply abandon itself to God”[299]; for “abandonment ... allows us to surrender to God.”[300]
The saying of St Augustine: “Abandonment is the delicious fruit of love”, headed a letter to the chronic invalid mentioned above, who was apprehensive about the outcome of a forthcoming operation. [301] St Elizabeth wrote that we should not be afraid of our ‘last hour’, “Death, dear Madame, is the sleep of the child resting on the heart of its Mother”. If we truly seek to love God with His Love, then we must joyfully abandon ourselves in that Love to His Will, ‘like the drop of water in the ocean’; because, as Sr Elizabeth wrote, we may be confident that the Blessed Virgin, Our Mother, will help us seek that abandonment; and will cradle us in her arms when the ‘hour has come to pass from this world’(Jn 13:1)[302]. What better way is there to appear before the Son, than in the arms of His Mother? As St John of the Cross said, we will be judged in love. [303]
Abbe Chevignard
Sr Elizabeth wrote 13 letters (extant) to Abbe Chevignard [304] and there was mention of the Blessed Virgin in 7 of these. As a Dominican seminarian he would have had a deep love for the Blessed Virgin, and the good fortune that the shrine of N.D. de Bon Espoir was close to the seminary.[305] Although his letters are not available, it is clear that he introduced Our Lady in at least one of these. He wrote of ‘approaching the all-pure, all-luminous Virgin’ (it is not clear whether the next few words are part of the Abbe’s letter, because ‘introduire’ was never used by Sr Elizabeth in her letters), and although his context is lost; Sr Elizabeth picked the phrase up in her reply [306], noting the Virgin’s oneness in love with Jesus, and asking that she lead the Abbe and herself to Him. She did not refer to the ‘union’ of their souls; but, now and increasingly, to the fellowship resulting from that union – “may our life be a continual communion” which will result in “a wholly simple movement toward God”. In other words, their souls washed by the outpouring of God’s Love: as Fr Vallee noted, “their only activity being to be the soul who receives.”[307]
The Abbe’s next letter [308] was to mark the feast day of Sr Elizabeth’s patron Saint. He enlarged on the details of Elizabeth’s name in religion and on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. The nature of her reply was characteristic: first of all to imitate, Our Blessed Mother who ‘kept all things in her heart’ by seeking the Holy Trinity in the bottomless abyss of her soul; and secondly that through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, the Abbe might experience both the ‘great river of Life’ [309], and the ‘springs of living water’ [310]. She signed off her letter, “With you I remain wholly adoring the mystery.” In 2 succeeding years, the Abbe remembered Sr Elizabeth’s feast day in letters, but did not apparently realize that the feast day was close to the anniversary of Sr Elizabeth’s clothing – the feast of the Immaculate Conception. In her replies, she told him of how she was “preparing for the feast of the “Immaculate Mother and Queen” [311]; and the “Immaculate One.” [312] In a letter to Canon Angles, 7 months later, she again referred to Our Lady as the “Immaculate One” - who would prepare her for ‘the marriage feast of the Lamb” (Apoc. 19:7). [313]
Abbe Chevignard again introduced Our Blessed Mother in a letter some 5 months later. In her reply Sr Elizabeth wrote, “I very much like what you said to me about Mary in your letter; that, united “in the soul of the Virgin” was where they would adore the mystery of the Holy Trinity.[314] The Abbe must also have suggested that he saw her Carmelite vocation as ‘Virgin-Mother’ just like Mary; for, agreeing with this assessment, she waxed enthusiastic: “Virgin: espoused in faith by Christ, (as a Professed nun); Mother: saving souls (through loving prayer), increasing the number of adopted children of the Father”.[315] ‘Virgin-Mother may well have struck a chord: perhaps she remembered reading Sr Therese’ poem, ‘Jesus, My Beloved, Remember ...’ [316]
'Priestly-Virgin'
In 2 letters in 1905 [317], Sr Elizabeth referred to the Abbe Chevignard’s impending ordination. She congratulated him on having Our Lady of Good Counsel on his vestment.[318] This was more than just a passing comment. Devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel, at this time of religious persecution in France, sought her help to strengthen the faith and piety of French Catholics, for there were endless healings and miracles attributed to her intercession down the ages. In 1903 ‘Mater Boni Consilii’ was added to the Litany of Loreto by Pope Leo XIII who had a particular devotion to her, and the history of the Icon of Genazzano would have been familiar to the Carmel.
In both letters Sr Elizabeth had referred to Our Lady as the ‘priestly Virgin’ [the translation is priestly Virgin, not Virgin priest – there is a subtle difference] , noting that a Priest should invoke her, look to her, and “draw his heart very close to hers”. [319] Sr Elizabeth was commenting on the parallelism between the miraculous Virgin-birth in Bethlehem, and the priestly action at the Altar when Christ is born anew under the Eucharistic forms. [320] At the turn of the 19th/ 20th Century – that is, contemporary with Sr Elizabeth – ‘Virgin Priest’ was one of Our Lady’s titles. Reference to Our Lady as a ‘priest’ (but not the equivalent of an ordained priest) can be traced back to the 8th Century: attributing this to her offering Jesus as a sacrifice in the Temple (Lk 2:22-38), and acting as a sacrificial priest on Calvary (Lk 23:33); but it was not until 1873 that the title ‘Virgin priest’, Virgo Sacerdos, appeared in a book: Mary and the Priesthood by Msgr. van den Berghe; approved by a Pope. Pius IX justified its use by the fact of Mary's role in the sacrifice of Jesus as divini sacrificii social.
Whether the publication of the book was linked with the call for revitalized religious devotion following the disastrous war of 1870 is unknown; but it was about this time that the idea of living as a victim began to gain popularity in France, especially women religious, who wished to assist the priests through their prayers and sacrifices. Mary was their ideal: praying and offering herself for and with her Divine Son, as the Virgin priest; and a prayer containing the invocation, 'Mary, Virgin priest, pray for us', was indulgenced by Pius X in 1906 However, there is a difference between simply noting the parallelism referred to, and basing a devotion on it; and in 1926 the Holy Office declared that the devotion to Mary Priest ‘is not approved and may not be promoted’. (Additional material is included in Appendix III)
Mediation
Fr deMeester notes that the wider application of ‘virgin-priest’ was well known to Mother Marie, and could have such application in Carmel as, for example, regarding Sr Elizabeth.[321] Mother Germaine had written, “I feel as though I have a priesthood to exercise with the Divine Master”. [322] Sr Elizabeth both acknowledged, and welcomed this ‘priesthood’. Again, a parallel may be drawn with the Virgin-Priest: Mother “Germaine had received Elizabeth’s oblation to God through her religious vows, and she was helping the dying nun to offer her life to the Lord for the Church.” [323] At the same time as Sr Elizabeth was writing to the Abbe Chevignard, overjoyed at his impending ordination to the priesthood, she had written a poem to mark Mother Germaine’s feast-day. [324] This included the phrase: “you might be the Priest, the Sacrificer who offers me”. Fr de Meester refers to this ‘action’ as ‘Sacerdotal mediation’.[325] Sr Elizabeth noted, “From the first day I did everything with her”, [326]; she was her ‘guide’ [327] now. As she told the sub-Prioress, “the victim is about to be sacrificed and cannot do without the Priest”.[328] She used similar words in letters and poems, intended for Mother Germaine, in the weeks before her death: “O my Priest”[329];” Pontiff at the Altar”. [330] “My Beloved Priest”[331]; “your priesthood”[332]; ”consecrating Pontiff”[333].
The Priest as ‘mediator’ had been mentioned by Sr Elizabeth in her letter to Abbe Chevignard, a year before (June 1905); and in the same letter Mary was referred to as ‘Mother of Divine Grace.[334] Earlier, it was noted that the young Elizabeth thought of Our Blessed Mother more as a ‘facilitator’ than as a ‘mediator’: that had now changed. Mary not only became Our Mother at the foot of the Cross, she became the Mediatrix of all graces. All graces of the Redemption are dispensed through her mediation. In other words, Mary is the human instrument of the Holy Spirit.
A ‘mediator’ (mediatrix) is a ‘go-between’: in this instance, between God and man; and, in this instance, “Christ-the-Priest is the One Mediator between heaven and earth.” [335] Christ offered Himself as a Sacrifice to His Father; mystically Mary offered her Divine Son: she is the Mediatrix without equal amongst humanity (the position of Christ is not affected by this statement); by their ‘holy anointing’ Priests offer the sacrifice of the Holy Mass [336] ; and Mother Germaine offered Sr Elizabeth’s suffering as a sacrifice to God, through God. It is no surprise that Sr Elizabeth wrote: “What a sublime mission the Carmelite has; she ought to be a mediator with Jesus Christ, “to be another humanity for Him”: the context here being the religious persecution in France. [337] Sr Elizabeth meant that nuns by pursuing their Profession as Brides of Christ: “belonging wholly to God”[338]; became martyrs of Love, ‘shedding their blood, drop by drop’ (q.v.Col.1:24), through prayer and silent immolation [339] in imitation of the Queen of Carmel. They had answered the call of the Holy Spirit in a particular manner. Yet, in every walk of life, the Holy Spirit, may invite one to be a vehicle in which Jesus Christ “can perpetuate His life of reparation, sacrifice, praise, and adoration.”[340]
These were not meaningless words to either Sr Elizabeth or her Prioress, and in a beautiful letter to her Mother, she placed them in perspective: “God is pleased to immolate His little sacrifice, but this Mass He is saying with me, for which His Love is the priest, may last a long time yet” [341]. Mother Germaine was the open channel of ‘His Love’; her bed of suffering was the Altar. This letter was written shortly after the end of her Last Retreat. In that Retreat, in the ‘never to be forgotten’ prayer of the ‘Fifteenth Day’, Sr Elizabeth returned to theme of the ‘priestly-Virgin’. Our Blessed Mother took the place of Mother Germaine, and the Cross took the place of her infirmary bed. Sr Elizabeth had climbed her Calvary: the Bride with her Bridegroom; attended by His Mother.
Her Calvary and St Gertrude
“He has ... substituted me for Himself on the Cross”. [342] Substituted the suffering Sr Elizabeth for the suffering Christ; yes but the risen, glorified Christ: Christ the King; was with her, as was Our Blessed Mother. [343] Our Blessed Mother in that supreme, intimate, role as ‘consoler of the dying’, and yes, as ‘Virgin-Priest’, sacrificing her daughter to her Beloved; prior to leading her to Him in the Heavenly Courts: “I rejoiced as I heard them say...”. She died 2 months later and in death she had rejoiced: “her face was wonderfully beautiful .. with this radiant expression she had left us”: the words of her ‘beloved priest’. [344] In that 2 months, she loved to hear, “The exercises of St Gertrude” read to her [345]; and she would have delighted in the concluding scene with the Queen of Heaven [346].
There is no mention of St Gertrude in Sr Elizabeth’s letters from Carmel, or in her principal works. However the ‘Revelations of St Gertrude’ would have been familiar to the Carmel, because Mother Marie had a “spiritual affinity with the Saint, whom she greatly loved” [347]. One might also conjecture that in her visit to Sr Elizabeth, a few weeks before her death, Mother Marie could have drawn her attention to the ‘Exercises’. The point has been laboured, because St Gertrude had a singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin. To quote just 2 examples from the ‘Revelations’: Jesus “gave (St Gertrude) His most merciful Mother, the Empress of Heaven, the Mother of the afflicted, for her mother and for her dispenser.”, in her trials [348]; and one wonders, whether Sr Elizabeth knew about the appearance of “the Mother of God to St Gertrude in the presence of the ever-adorable Trinity; when she revealed that “if anyone salutes her devotedly as the white lily of the Trinity and the vermillion rose of Heaven” ..... (she) will appear to them at the hour of their death [349].
Janua Coeli[350]
Something of the intimacy between Our Blessed Mother and her devoted daughter, can be culled from the tone of a charming letter written to comfort a lady seeking a husband for her daughter: “On earth or in Heaven, I won’t give the good Virgin any rest until she sends ....” [351] In a subsequent letter to the lady, Sr Elizabeth, referring to a Novena, wrote: “perhaps soon, under the inspiration of the Blessed Virgin, I will try to send you a little note”. [352] This is also evident in an earlier letter to Guite on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (1906), Sr Elizabeth wrote from the heart, about Our blessed Mother: ”Oh! never have I loved her so much! I weep for joy when I think that this wholly serene, wholly luminous creature is my Mother and I delight in her beauty ... I feel strongly drawn to her, I’ve made her Queen and Guardian of my heaven.”[353]
Sr Elizabeth had pictures of ‘The Annunciation’ [354] and ‘The Mother of Sorrows’, in her infirmary cell [355]: the latter reminding her of, but in a different context to, the statue in the cloister of the Carmel [356], “I love to look at it night and day”.[357] A theme common to two letters written either side of the retreats, which resulted in her spiritual treatises: ‘Heaven in Faith’ and ‘Last Retreat’. The second of these retreats was her ‘novitiate for Heaven’ in which she was to be joyfully accompanied by the Blessed Virgin: “Janua Coeli, ora pro nobis!” [358]. She expressed Mary’s role at the end of her ‘prayer’ for the first day: “This Mother will so shape my soul that her little child may be a living, striking image of her Firstborn.”[359] Towards the end of the retreat, she revealed how this was being achieved: Jesus had put her in His place upon the Cross, with ”Mary ... still there to teach me to suffer as He did ....” [360].
A few weeks later, on the Feast of the ‘Exaltation of the Cross’, Sr Elizabeth expressed the suffering of Christ on the Cross, the part of Janua Coeli at the foot of the Cross, and her own suffering, with a picture of a fortress having a drawbridge. This fortress “of pain and recollection” was home to her suffering Master and to His suffering bride: “a victim of Love”. The drawbridge led to a closed door, near which was pasted a picture of Janua Coeli: ‘Janua Coeli’ – gate of heaven, and gateway to heaven. To enter the fortress, one has to go across the drawbridge: signifying Mary leading us to Jesus; and also have the door opened: signifying Our Blessed Lady’s omnipotence (by participation). Let a conversation between Sr Elizabeth and her Prioress, just days before her death, remind us of the reason why both the drawbridge and the door were narrow. “The time will come when I must traverse that mysterious, solemn passage alone!” “But the Holy Virgin will be there, and will take you by the hand: you will have nothing to fear with so good a Mother.” “Yes, that is true! Janua Coeli will be sure to let little Laudem Gloriae pass through..”[361] The picture was accompanied by a poem. [362]
From these several letters, does it not seem rather incongruous that at about this time, Sr Elizabeth should acknowledge to her sisters in Carmel that her love had not always been so ardent, and for a time she had “thought less frequently of the Blessed Virgin.”? In Souvenirs, this remark is associated with Sr Elizabeth glancing at the picture of ‘The Mother of Sorrows’ [363]. Agreeing with this; Philipon added that, “Sr Elizabeth heard interiorly one of those reproaches that God addresses to the souls of His saints.” [364] Another reference states: "during the silence of a sleepless night, Sister Elizabeth heard within her interior a sweet reproach of the Virgin that she was forgetting to think of her. Sr. Elizabeth recognized this correction saying humbly: “it is true”.[365]
In her ‘self-effacing’ role of leading Elizabeth to Jesus through His Cross, Mary would be unlikely refer to herself. ‘Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ (Lk1:43). In her degree of Christian Perfection, Sr Elizabeth would welcome the interior voice of her Lord in the depths of her soul urging her to greater perfection – as she gazed on His Cross and, crucified by Love, strove to “become according to His likeness a perfect ‘praise of Glory’ of the Trinity”[366]; strove to be all pure with His Purity. Whatever the truth of the matter, Sr Elizabeth asked her Mother for the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, that she had prayed to so often as a teenager. She had, of course, had the statue with her in Carmel some 3 years earlier.[367]. “From that time she always called Our Lady Janua Coeli.” [368] The statue is shown on a table, in the last photograph taken of Sr Elizabeth during her illness. “It was over a foot high and almost too heavy for her in her weakened state, but whenever Janua Coeli was seen, Laudem Gloriae was not far away.”[369] In death, both the statue and the table were beside the open coffin as the body of the Servant of God lay in choir [370]: for “Janua Coeli” had led her “into the heavenly courts”. [371], “as she was sure to do.”[372]
MAJOR WORKS: HF & LR
Introduction
While the spiritual treatises HF and LR are records of 2 retreats, they are more aptly described as personal testaments of Sr Elizabeth, which differ according to their intended recipients. Although reference has been made above to both HF [373] and LR [374], and this is not a detailed examination of these works, it is still useful to note something of how the testaments came to be written.
HF was introduced very briefly at the end of Update 10, in preparation for the Updates on Sr Elizabeth’s 4 propositions for a ‘Praise of Glory’. Fr De Meester has written a splendid introduction to the treatise. Mother Germaine’s original title for the work, ‘How to find Heaven on Earth’, although long, was to the point. After the serious downturn in her health in April 1906, Sr Elizabeth realised that she might die before being able to hand on the mantle of ‘Praise of Glory’ to Guite [375] and she asked permission to write the retreat which was subsequently called HF. As Fr De Meester notes, the central theme was “union with God” [376] or the journey to God, culminating in becoming, “Praise of Glory”. It is only towards the end of HF that Our Blessed Mother is extensively mentioned [377], yet if the object of the treatise is union with God, Mary must be an integral part of the whole for she is the exemplar: of that faith, hope and charity; of that humility, mortification and prayer, which leads one to God. She is the ‘perfect Praise of Glory’[378]; an illusive pinnacle that Sr Elizabeth sought for herself and Guite [379].
Sr Elizabeth began ‘Heaven in Faith’ with Jesus’ words at the Last Supper; “Father, I will that where I am they also ... may be with Me...” (Jn 17:24). He had previously said to the Pharisees, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Lk 17:21), and in the allegory of the Vine, said to His disciples, ‘Remain in me.’ (Jn 15:4). Sr Elizabeth observed, “It is the Word of God who gives this order” [380]; and, “when the soul loves .... Him with all its strength, it has attained to its deepest and ultimate centre in God.”[381]. It remains in God, for “He is (our) soul and (our) soul is He.” [382] “This is the secret cellar in which Love places His elect ... He leads us with no turning back.”[383] That Our Blessed Mother accompanies the soul in the cellar is confirmed, rather than denied, by the fact that the paths He leads ‘us’ along, “are known to Him alone.”[384]
The ‘secret cellar’ or inner cellar is a familiar concept, adapted: possibly from the wine cellar in the Canticle (Ct 2:4); by mystics to their own spirituality. In the ‘Interior Castle’, St Teresa makes it the fifth mansion, from which the soul “emerges changed, unrecognizable, and so strong and inspired”.[385] The Hebrew version “guest chamber” is richer; for there in the “mystical cenacle , the great feast of love is celebrated”[386]. Likewise for St John of the Cross, this inner cellar “is the last and most intimate degree of love to which the soul may attain in this life”.[387]
“In the inner cellar, of my Beloved have I drunk, ... when I went forth ... then knew I naught”. [388]. In comparison, the knowledge of this world seemed as dross. Little wonder, then, that Sr Elizabeth began her last retreat with: “Nescivi! – I knew not”[389] ; which was then enlarged upon: “’Nescivi!’ I know nothing, (and) I desire to know nothing, but ‘Him ... and the fellowship of His sufferings; being made conformable to His death,’(Phil.3:10).” “When I become completely identified with this Divine Exemplar, dwelling wholly in Him and He in me, I shall fulfil my eternal vocation for which God chose me.”[390]. Sr Elizabeth confirmed Our Blessed Mother’s role, “My Master says to me: ‘Ecce Mater tua’. ... Mary is there ... , to teach me to suffer as He did.” [391]
To suffer as He did
“He has substituted me in His place on the Cross, so that I may ‘fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ.’(Col.1:24).” [392]: ‘in His place’, not only physically through suffering; but ‘for Himself’ spiritually as “another Christ” by participation. “That I may be to Him another humanity wherein He renews His Mystery” [393]. In the Knox interpretation of (Col.1:24), Sr Elizabeth’s sufferings were an answering contribution, she was paying something back to Christ who paid our debt in full on the Cross.[394] This can only be realised through Our Blessed Mother: because Christ made us her children; because only she knows the enormity of His sufferings; and because we can only offer them to Christ through her. Mary was asked to teach Sr Elizabeth to suffer ‘as He did’: this was not a plea to increase her sufferings; but to enrich the joy of suffering for Christ and in Christ, from a knowledge of the joy of her Son. A joy, that Christ in His suffering on Calvary, knew as His mission on earth was about to be completed; and which His Mother heard as ‘songs’ of silence in her soul, for He was the soul of His Mother.[395]
When Sr Elizabeth’s sufferings were at an end, she looked to Janua Coeli to lead her to heaven [396]: she had consecrated herself to Mary from childhood, she was a nun in Mary’s Order, she was Mary’s child – who else would lead her to heaven but her spiritual Mother? “Let us go up to the house of the Lord...”, (Ps.121:1) – words that would have been very familiar to her, since these were said on entry to choir in Carmel. Very appropriate words for those at the point of death, for this is a pilgrim’s hymn – the words in the opening verse express pleasure at being invited to make the pilgrimage, and the anticipatory joy on arrival at the glorious city – the heavenly Jerusalem. A City truly holy, filled with the peace of the Prince of Peace. Doubtless, when writing, and meditating on, these words, Sr Elizabeth was recalling with joy, the many pilgrimages which she had made in her youth to shrines of Our Blessed Mother. [397]
Heaven in Faith
Titles such as ‘How to find Heaven on Earth’ or ‘Heaven in Faith’, do not prepare the reader adequately for the content of the treatise. Would ‘God and our soul’, be any better? It is doubtful, although the title is closer to the mark. Sr Elizabeth presents a varied succession of different aspects of the wonder of God’s creation: the soul; which together form a pastiche, or ‘mosaic’[398.]. Without doubt, Sr Elizabeth had Our Blessed Mother by her side, as evidenced by so many indirect references: “the Kingdom of God is within you” [399]; “Love is what unites us to God”[400)]; “to give everything to the one, one loves”[401]; “I call simplicity of intention that which seeks only God and refers all things to Him. This is what placed man in the presence of God”.[402]; “Who then is ‘the most holy’”[403]; “Christ is my life”[404]; “The mysterious voice of our Father! ‘My daughter give me your heart’”[405];”To be plunged into humility is to be plunged into God.”[406]. Who but Mary would lead Sr Elizabeth to Jesus as she “descend(ed) daily (the) pathway of the abyss... in the very depths that the divine impact takes place”; for it is only in company with Mary that “abyss of our nothingness” dare encounter “the Abyss of mercy, the immensity of the all of God”. [407].
Direct references then break forth, ‘like the ineffable and devastating beauty of that moment, very near to the end in the finale of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, when the organ takes over and choir sings, ‘Auferstehn … ‘.[408]: ”Mary became forever God’s prey”[409]; ”The attitude of the Virgin ... is the model for interior souls. The adorer of the gift of God”[410]; “true Praise of Glory“[411]. What better ending could there be to the ‘symphony’ than: “In the heaven of our soul let us be praises of glory of the Holy Trinity, praises of love of our Immaculate Mother”. [412] As Fr De Meester remarked, some quotations may not have been original, but by usage and interpretation. Sr Elizabeth made them her own. It would not have been irreverent had she picked up Jesus’ words, “If you knew the gift of God”[413]; and had applied them to the Blessed Virgin. For will we ever even begin to appreciate the gift on the Cross to mankind, of the Mother of God as Our Mother?
Last Retreat
In July 1906, Mother Marie visited Sr Elizabeth. Sr Elizabeth told Mother Marie:
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"I am at the springs of infinite charity. I am always close to Him who gives because He loves. I am in the flood of the life of God; and I can tell Him that I love Him and this is as true as His Truth." |
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COMMENT
Elizabeth entered Carmel on the commemorative feast of the “Dedication of the Portiuncula of Our Lady of the Angels” at Assisi.[424] Over a sup of 5 years in Carmel: she was clothed on the feast of the Immaculate Conception; Professed at the Epiphany; and began her ‘Last Retreat’ on the eve of the feast of the Assumption.
On the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (1906) just before her death, Sr Elizabeth wrote from the heart, about Our blessed Mother: ”Oh! never have I loved her so much! I weep for joy when I think that this wholly serene, wholly luminous creature is my Mother and I delight in her beauty ... I feel strongly drawn to her, I’ve made her Queen and Guardian of my heaven.” Sr Elizabeth of the Trinity died a martyr of Love.[425]
I have left one endearing letter until the very end of this update. Endearing, because it embodied something Sabeth loved to include in a few very special letters and poems: to adopt the role of the Divine Master [426], or His Blessed Mother, apparently speaking to the recipient.
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"It was in my arms that Jesus made His first oblation to the Father when entering the world, and He is sending me to receive yours!" |
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APPENDIX I
Fusion of souls
Pope John XXIII wrote: "May the spirit of Pentecost prevail over your chosen families and may it unite them in that fusion of souls which was seen in the cenacle where, together with the Mother of God and the Apostles, several pious women were to be found” (Acts 1:14).[428] While Pope Paul VI wrote: "The Church has used and uses Latin as a precious vehicle and instrument for the fusion of souls and for communication between peoples”. [429]
The Christian idea of friendship takes on a supernatural quality which allows for the union of two people on the level of the soul - a fusion of souls , which is the definition laid out by Augustine in his ‘Confessions’: "There is no true friendship unless You [God] weld it between souls that cleave together through that charity which is shed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost."[430]
In an explanation of Augustine's principle, Paul Henry, SJ, says "that God is the perfect, in fact, the only prototype of that which all love between persons tends to achieve -- absolute unity and yet distinction -- to be one with the other, not by losing one's identity but by perfecting it, even at the very source of one's being. That is why Divine existence is the ideal of all personal existence -- to be fully oneself, but only in dependence upon, and in adherence to, another in the communion of unity."
Interestingly, Fr Henry links this to the Holy Trinity. "This tremendous discovery of Augustine came about, I think, owing to the pressure and challenge of the Christian paradoxical dogma of the consubstantiality of the Three Divine Persons which had been defined, though not explained, by the great Trinitarian Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in the fourth century. This pressure and challenge, indeed, operated upon Augustine's mind as a kind of des quaerens intellectum, faith in quest of understanding or rational explanation. In other words, it was in and with Augustine that the Western mind discovered the personality of man, constrained as it was by the necessity to explain, so far as this be possible, the Three Persons of God's Divine Nature. But this procedure, in turn, is bound up with something that possibly represents a greater philosophical and theological departure in the manner of approaching the problem of God." This is the full Christian understanding of friendship as a union between persons in and through Christ." [431]
In the fourth century, St Cyril of Jerusalem had to remind Christians of the true meaning of the kiss of peace in the Holy Mass. He preached: “This kiss joins souls together in search of complete forgiveness from one another. So the kiss marks the fusion of souls, and the expulsion of all resentment from wrongs." [432].
APPENDIX II
Luke 8: 19-21
“Through this magnificent declaration Our Lord has amply shown that He and the word are one and the same. For only then is the statement absolutely true. If He is the word of God, then whoever receives the word as mother earth receives the seed is truly a ‘Mother’ of Jesus – an image of her who received the word of God, the only-begotten of the Father, in all reality in her physical womb and whom as Mother of the Word she bore. But then, when the seed has united itself with the chemicals in the ground, and has germinated and grown from the soil as a distinct form of life, a new symbol develops. It is no longer to be compared with the Mother of Our Lord but henceforward only with Himself, for He, the living Word of God came from His Mother’s womb as a human being, the fruit of her body. Whoever, therefore, does not merely hear and receive the word of God but also forms it out of himself and with himself, and so also ‘does’ the word of God, for He is the word of God made man in all completeness and truth. There is no suggestion that the Mother is placed in the background, because the Mother of the word must be there before those who hear the word and receive it in their hearts and bring it to life can also be called ‘mother’. [433]
APPENDIX III
Mary - the Priest Virgin
Pope Pius IX’s letter was seen as giving official approval to the devotion to Mary, Virgin Priest. To quote just two examples:
“I have rejoiced to see this glorious title of Virgo Sacerdos [=Virgin Priest] vindicated, a title which the growing devotion of the last centuries has built up on a text of ecclesiastical antiquity, then hallowed by the authority of our great Pope Pius IX! It will give a new impulse to the devotion to the priestly Virgin, to Mary Mother of the clergy and Mother of priests.” Cardinal L. Pius, Archbishop of Bordeaux in 1875.
•“[Theologians . . . ] have interpreted with knowledge and piety the thoughts of the Doctors of the Church relating to the mystical priesthood of Mary, and these thoughts are like a concert of praise to our majestic Queen. Without having been invested with the priestly character, Mary was so closely associated with the sacrifice of the eternal Priest that the Fathers of the Church called her Virgo Sacerdos [Virgin Priest] and the Brief of our great Pope Pius IX accepts and hallows that glorious title. I too salute this divine Queen of the Priesthood.” Cardinal V. Vannutelli, Vatican in 1875.
Prayer to which Pope Pius X attached 300 days’ indulgence in 1906
The prayer, drawn up by Cardinals V.Vannutelli (1836-1930) and Vivés Y Tuto, consisted of a litany of invocations surrounding Mary’s priesthood.
“Oh Mary, Mother of Mercy, “Mother and Daughter of Him who is the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation” (1), “Distributress of all the treasures of your Son” (2), “Minister of God” (3), “Mother of our High Priest Christ, both priest and altar” (4), “Immaculate Tabernacle of the Word of God” (5), “Teacher of all Apostles and Disciples of Christ” (6), protect our Supreme Pontiff, intercede for us and for our priests that the High Priest Jesus Christ may purify our consciences, and that we may worthily and piously approach his sacred meal.
O Immaculate Virgin, who not only “has given us Christ the celestial bread in forgiveness of sins (7), but who is yourself ”A most acceptable sacrifice offered to God" (8), “and the glory of priests” (9), and who, as your most blessed servant Saint Antoninius declares, “although you did not receive the Sacrament of Order, you were full of whatever in dignity and grace is given by it”, you are therefore rightly hailed as “Virgin Priest” (10). Please, look down on us and on the priests of your son, save us, purify us, sanctify us, that we may receive the ineffable treasures of your sacraments in a saintly manner and may deserve to obtain the eternal salvation of our souls.” Amen
1. Richard of St. Laurence.
2. St. Bernardinus.
3. Bernard of Busto.
4. St. Epiphanius.
5. Blosius.
6. St. Thomas of Villanova.
7. St. Epiphanius.
8. St. Andrew of Crete.
9. St. Ephraem.
10. Letter of Pope Pius IX (25 August 1873).
| 1.. | LR§41,CW1p161,MPA254. |
|---|---|
| 2.. | PG221;S256. |
| 3.. | HOL168. |
| 4.. | WEL120 - ancient axiom. |
| 5.. | Pius X, encyclical, 'Ad diem illum',1903. |
| 6.. | HF§39,CW1p110,MPA229. |
| 7.. | PG3. |
| 8.. | PG4. |
| 9.. | PG5. |
| 10.. | She first used her name in religion in L28 [see L28,N4] (1st July 1900) and then only in letters to Marguerite Gollot and Berthe Tardy- fellow aspirants – prior to her entry into Carmel. Thereafter, she occasionally signed her letters with her full name in religion. |
| 11.. | HMH5. |
| 12.. | equivalent to the 'Hail Mary'. |
| 13.. | PG12;S13 - a literal translation is 'cherished desperately'. |
| 14.. | L4 (1st Jan 1899); L5 (31st Dec 1899). Elizabeth was born on 18th July 1880. |
| 15.. | HMH10. |
| 16.. | see P33(OC941),P40(OC950). |
| 17.. | Elizabeth was still 7 years of age - HMH9. |
| 18.. | PG14,15;S15,17 |
| 19.. | HMH14,L178. |
| 20.. | HMH13. |
| 21.. | PG8;S9. |
| 22.. | hence the prayer, 'Pray for us, O holy Mother of God that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ". |
| 23.. | HA58,T60,SS78. |
| 24.. | see L122, but note that the wording in this letter does not specify when Elizabeth first became aware of the ‘Heaven in her soul’. |
| 25.. | L178,MPA2. |
| 26.. | P47 (19th April 1898) OC958. |
| 27.. | LR§41,CW1p161,MPA254. |
| 28.. | 'Our Lady of Good Hope'. |
| 29.. | HOL168,169. |
| 30.. | Leo XIII, encyclical ‘Octobri mense’ Sept. 1891. |
| 31.. | TMB176. |
| 32.. | PG9,S10,HMH21. |
| 33.. | L9 (Aug. 1896). |
| 34.. | GV§4,MPA215,CW1p125. |
| 35.. | HOL169. |
| 36.. | PG16,S18,HMH12,CW2p368. The exact date is not clear. |
| 37.. | MPA123. |
| 38.. | HMH19. In MPA2 the timing of the ‘vow of virginity’ and the call to ‘Carmel’ is reversed. |
| 39.. | CSH27 |
| 40.. | This happened to Ven. Marie of St. Therese, a 17th Century mystic from the Netherlands. It is of faith, that Mary is more closely one with God than any other being, therefore if God so wills, the soul could receive a perception of Mary and of God. see: Marie de Sainte-Therese, "L'Union Mystique a Marie," (Cahiers de la Vierge) 15, Cerf, Juvisy, 1936, p. 50, translated as: "Union with Our Lady," Marian Writings of Ven. Marie Petyt, tr. T. McGinnis, Scapular Press, NY, 1954 see also WEL126. |
| 41.. | PG19,S24,HMH17. |
| 42.. | HMH9. |
| 43.. | L7, trans in HMH20. |
| 44.. | L272. |
| 45.. | this should not be confused with the statue known as 'Janua Coeli'. |
| 46.. | L9,10 (Aug. 1896). |
| 47.. | L11,12,14-16,29,30 (P53(OC965),P59(OC972)) and see L11N4. |
| 48.. | L18. |
| 49.. | L34, Set in a spectacular canyon, 150 metres deep, Rocamadour is the site of one of the most celebrated pilgrimages of Western Europe. La chapelle Notre-Dame is the sanctuary of La Vierge Noire de Rocamadour - one of the world's most celebrated Black Madonnas. |
| 50.. | L47 (18th April 1901) at Beaune. |
| 51.. | L35 (7th Oct 1900) N. D. des Victoires, Refuge of Sinners, a pilgrimage to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Note that the Abbe Chevignard said Holy Mass here for Sr Elizabeth in 1905 [L233]. |
| 52.. | L27. |
| 53.. | In the chapel of Marguerite d’Autriche, the altar is surmounted by an alabaster screen depicting the Nativity, the adoration of the Magi, the Risen Saviour, Pentecost, and the Assumption. |
| 54.. | L37 (21st Nov.1900). |
| 55.. | POB249. In the diocese of Dijon, some of the chief places of pilgrimage are: N. D. de Beaune, at Beaune (antedating 1120); N. D. du Bon-Espoir at Dijon, dedicated in 1334; N. D. du Chemin, near Serrigny (twelfth or thirteenth century); N. D. de Cîteaux (end of the eleventh century) visited by many famous rulers of Europe and the East; N, D. d'Etang at Vélars (fifteenth century), visited by St. Jane Frances de Chantal, St. Francis de Sales; and N.D. de Lée (tenth or eleventh century). |
| 56.. | P48 (1st May 1898)(OC960) At Domois Elizabeth offered to sacrifice her life if this would procure a particular soul for Jesus. |
| 57.. | see P48N1. |
| 58.. | PG18,S20,HMH17,MPA124, see also [136][145]. |
| 59.. | L178. |
| 60.. | L180. |
| 61.. | HMH5. |
| 62.. | L19 and see L19N3,L25. |
| 63.. | D4N7(OC812),D3(OC811). |
| 64.. | MPA3,4 |
| 65.. | L22. |
| 66.. | The ‘original’ N.D.du Perpetual-Secours is in fact a picture, showing the Blessed Virgin and her Child. The mystical importance of the picture attaches to the fact that the Virgin in looking directly at us; draws our attention to her right hand which points to Jesus (while holding His left hand). Jesus is looking upward and over his left shoulder to His Father in Heaven. For a history, see for example: HMG149-154. |
| 67.. | L108N4, see also L137,L187. |
| 68.. | which was also her Mother's feast-day. |
| 69.. | L9,L10, and see L171N2. |
| 70.. | HMH20. |
| 71.. | L16. |
| 72.. | see L90,L139,L162,L235; and see P61(OC974). |
| 73.. | 17 ‘single-stanza’ poems (P1a - P17) were written between 11th Aug. and 30th Sept. |
| 74.. | HMH21 (P1) written in Mary’s month: May; P1N1 appears to contradict Dr Lipski’ view that P1 was written at Carlipa, see PET78. |
| 75.. | P10(OC931). |
| 76.. | P27(OC937). |
| 77.. | Alphonsus Ligouri says that Mary is omnipotent by grace (Omnipotentia supplex: omnipotent in the order of supplication) – her Son being Omnipotent by nature – for whatever the Mother asks for the Son never denies her. He quotes St Bridget, who heard Jesus talking with Mary: ‘Ask of me what thou wilt, for no petition of thine can be void’. [GOM146] In L206 Elizabeth wrote: “We see in the Gospel that God sometimes wants to make us wait, but He refuses nothing to faith, to trust, to love”. This is the same as saying that ‘prayer’ is always heard. However, what we receive from God will be that which is for our ‘good’, which need not be the same as what we ask for. Long before this Geoffrey Chaucer (1345?-1400) in his poem “The Well of Pity” had written: “Almighty and all merciable queen, To whom that all this world fleeth for succour,”. |
| 78.. | L216 Mary is ‘in tune with’ the Divine Will and so will not ask her Son for that which He will not grant. The Aunt’s eyes were not healed, but, we may be sure that the Aunt received many graces as a result of Elizabeth’s prayer. |
| 79.. | P33(OC941) ‘The Angelus at Carmel’. |
| 80.. | P43(OC954). Pope Benedict XVI writing of Mary’s role in ‘Deus Caritas est’ – “Show us Jesus lead us to Him.” |
| 81.. | see [56],[57]. |
| 82.. | P49(OC961). |
| 83.. | In the greenhouse, the lily of the valley is in flower for May 1st. Also note that an alternative name for the plant is, ‘The tears of the Virgin Mary’. |
| 84.. | The mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs 2:1, is that Christ is the ‘lily of the valleys’. As His Blessed Mother is more closely bound to her Son, than is any of her children, so she is also addressed by HMC as ‘lily of the valley’. See, for example, verse 2 of the hymn “I’ll sing a hymn to Mary” (extended 6 verses). Saints of Carmel are also referred to as ‘lilies of Carmel’, for example: St. Therese of Lisieux. “ The just shall grow like the lily” (Hos 14:6) is indicative that the lily is associated with humility. Also note:"The Virgin Mother, therefore, as coming so near to God, is associated with His titles—sedes sapientiae, janua coeli, vita, dulcedo, etc.(J.H.Newman,Sermon Notes,July 1, 1849 (Purity and Love). |
| 85.. | Elizabeth is confident that Our Lady will lead her to Carmel. In P50 (OC962) she wrote: ‘Pray, O pray, for a future Carmelite, for Elizabeth...’. Again in P51 “Confidence in Holy Providence” (OC963), addressing Jesus she wrote, ‘The day that You say to me “Come to me”.’. |
| 86.. | L229. |
| 87.. | P49(OC961). |
| 88.. | P53(OC966). |
| 89.. | P54(OC966). |
| 90.. | P65(OC977). |
| 91.. | P68(OC984) "26 mars 1899", 29 verses. |
| 92.. | P43(OC954) - see [79]. |
| 93.. | D105(OC861). |
| 94.. | OC806. The Great Mission is the subject of Update 4 of the notes. The section on Mary has been re-worked for inclusion in the present Update. |
| 95.. | D28, L22, Our Lady of Perpetual-Succour had been promoted in France by Redemptorists since 1866. |
| 96.. | D138. |
| 97.. | D133. |
| 98.. | D98,D132,D134. |
| 99.. | D49. |
| 100.. | D49,D90. |
| 101.. | D90. |
| 102.. | D90. |
| 103.. | D93. |
| 104.. | D96. |
| 105.. | D132,D49. |
| 106.. | D2,D91,D132,D154. |
| 107.. | D131. |
| 108.. | D132. |
| 109.. | D133. |
| 110.. | D101,D124. |
| 111.. | D132,D154. |
| 112.. | D1,D98,D132,D138. |
| 113.. | D124. |
| 114.. | D45,D74,D87,D114,D121. |
| 115.. | D49,D87,D132. |
| 116.. | D49,D87,D91. |
| 117.. | D49. |
| 118.. | P38(OC946). |
| 119.. | HMH139. |
| 120.. | L68(OC324). |
| 121.. | L49(OC293) H.Didon,OP. |
| 122.. | CSH69. |
| 123.. | SDE33©. |
| 124.. | see also L250. |
| 125.. | FOM96, for Sr Elizabeth's understanding of detachment see L278. |
| 126.. | JGAS379. |
| 127.. | D13(OC816). |
| 128.. | PG43,S51. |
| 129.. | DD143,HMH60,PG58,L61,L62. |
| 130.. | CSH4. |
| 131.. | CSH5. |
| 132.. | CSH117. |
| 133.. | CSH123. |
| 134.. | CSH68. |
| 135.. | CSH144 and see [414]. |
| 136.. | see [58][145]. |
| 137.. | PG54,S64. |
| 138.. | CSH66. |
| 139.. | CSH63. |
| 140.. | CSH90. |
| 141.. | CSH54. |
| 142.. | S416. |
| 143.. | Feb.1900, see D156(OC889). |
| 144.. | MPA12, footnote. |
| 145.. | see [58][136]. |
| 146.. | SS86. |
| 147.. | SS86,T67,HA66. |
| 148.. | DK - PN54.St18. |
| 149.. | DK - PN54.St15,16. |
| 150.. | OLP82. |
| 151.. | DK - PN54.St5. |
| 152.. | HA388; DK - PN54. |
| 153.. | DK - PN54.St6. |
| 154.. | DK211 - this is very good. |
| 155.. | LC161 (3) Aug.21st 1897. |
| 156.. | HA229,T208. |
| 157.. | HA235,T213. |
| 158.. | HA308; THL155,No.116 (19th Oct.1892). |
| 159.. | L103. |
| 160.. | D90,D93 |
| 161.. | DK - PN54.St7. |
| 162.. | it is available in the Carmel. |
| 163.. | P74N2. |
| 164.. | L54 and see L133N4. |
| 165.. | MPA10. |
| 166.. | MPA11. |
| 167.. | MPA11. |
| 168.. | LR§40,CW1p160,MPA253. |
| 169.. | MPA11. |
| 170.. | L122. |
| 171.. | L150. |
| 172.. | L78,L80,L81,L82. |
| 173.. | L29. |
| 174.. | PN7. |
| 175.. | PG46,S55,HMH59. |
| 176.. | L81. |
| 177.. | St.Bernard,Sermo de Nativitate B.V.M. |
| 178.. | L107 |
| 179.. | D126 and Jesus words to St Catherine of Siena PG41,S49, also see L291N2. |
| 180.. | L89. |
| 181.. | L123. |
| 182.. | L97,L137. |
| 183.. | L89. |
| 184.. | L296 and see L300. |
| 185.. | see for example L297. |
| 186.. | L299. |
| 187.. | L287. |
| 188.. | Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, O.C.D. (refn unknown). |
| 189.. | L178N12. |
| 190.. | L261 and see L261N1,2,8. |
| 191.. | L286N4. |
| 192.. | PG67,S80. |
| 193.. | MPA12. |
| 194.. | MPA111, in the 'questionnaire PN12(OC903) (MPA13,14abbr); Sr Elizabeth, asked about her favourite book, wrote:"'The soul of Christ'. In it I learn all the secrets of the Father Who is in heaven." |
| 195.. | L107,PG90,S105. |
| 196.. | L138,L145,L149. |
| 197.. | L91. |
| 198.. | L256 and see L256N14. |
| 199.. | L143. |
| 200.. | L103. |
| 201.. | KKR88No.27,PeersIII,p244No,25. Sr Elizabeth would have read the original in HA308. |
| 202.. | L87. |
| 203.. | L94. |
| 204.. | L99. |
| 205.. | L99. |
| 206.. | P74(OC994). |
| 207.. | L294 and see L309. |
| 208.. | note for example: L214,L215,L216,L250. |
| 209.. | L203. It is a dynamic concept. |
| 210.. | L209 and see, in particular, L209N5 also L238. In L241 she wrote, "He has 'tied the knot' of our union". |
| 211.. | L80a, L210. |
| 212.. | L90. |
| 213.. | L87,L90,L92,L94. |
| 214.. | NV20:Jun.4. |
| 215.. | HA57,T59,SS77. |
| 216.. | T59. |
| 217.. | HA196,T173,SS254. |
| 218.. | PiusX11 encyclical 'Mystici Corporis Christi' 1943.§89. |
| 219.. | L228. |
| 220.. | L192. |
| 221.. | L110. |
| 222.. | L115. |
| 223.. | St Aug Epist Ad Pathos. P.L.Vol.35,2055. |
| 224.. | St Aug Serm.Ps.90,2. |
| 225.. | PiusX encyclical 'Ad diem illum', 2Feb.1904. |
| 226.. | L161. |
| 227.. | L192, but see L191N7. |
| 228.. | St Aug Serm 187, de Temp; LeoX111 encyclical 'Divinum Illud Munus' 1897, §6;PiusX11 encyclical 'Mystici Corporis Christi' 1943.§57. |
| 229.. | LOV309. |
| 230.. | SDE31 |
| 231.. | ... she is much more than a simple door. She is the gateway of a fortress, the passage through an impregnable tower. Remember that we call her "tower of David" and "tower of ivory." She stands between the heavenly city and this world as a medieval fortress with an imposing gateway would stand between a royal castle and the outer world. By her motherly intercession she gains for us admittance into the eternal citadel. Dom Albert Hammenstede OSB,"On the symbolism of Holy doors",Catholic Culture”–Liturgical Press,June 27 1943. see also [361] for additional material. |
| 232.. | L189. |
| 233.. | L188, the literal translation (italics) is more expressive. |
| 234.. | L197a. |
| 235.. | John PaulII encyclical 'Redemptoris Mater'§3 "Her presence in the midst of Israel -- a presence so discreet as to pass almost unnoticed by the eyes of her contemporaries -- shone very clearly before the Eternal One, who had associated this hidden "daughter of Sion" (cf. Zeph 3:14; Zech 2:10) with the plan of salvation embracing the whole history of humanity." |
| 236.. | L284. |
| 237.. | L199N7 Oct 1902. Retreat to Dijon Carmel by Fr Vallee. |
| 238.. | L200 and see L203. |
| 239.. | L134. |
| 240.. | L138. |
| 241.. | L257. |
| 242.. | L136 and see L183. |
| 243.. | L191. |
| 244.. | L124,L145. |
| 245.. | Nov 15, 2006 "Paul also teaches us,that there is no true prayer without the presence of the Spirit within us." The Spirit is "like the soul of our soul, the most secret part of our being, whence a prayer incessantly rises towards God." see also:Spiritual Progress,Fenelon,XV. On The Inward Teaching Of The Spirit Of God."the Holy Spirit, who does everything in us. He is the soul of our soul; we could not form a thought or a desire without Him. Alas! what blindness is ours! We reckon ourselves alone in the interior sanctuary, when God is much more intimately present there than we are ourselves". |
| 246.. | L113. |
| 247.. | L114 and P79(OC1003). |
| 248.. | P75(OC996). |
| 249.. | P86(OC1014). |
| 250.. | P86(OC1014). |
| 251.. | L187,L190. 'Emmanuel' - God with us (Matt.1:23). Although the context is clearly spiritual, it should be noted that the 'divine little one' is born of the Blessed Virgin, in the soul. Care should be exercised not to associate these remarks with those of Origen and the Church Fathers. In these, there is comparison between Mary giving birth to Jesus, and birth to the members of the Mystical body [VAN325]. This is outside the scope of these notes. |
| 252.. | L183. |
| 253.. | L250. |
| 254.. | see L246. |
| 255.. | PNT155.Scholars doubt that this Epistle was written by Peter. |
| 256.. | SUTH.III,83, Art.2 Reply to Obj.2. |
| 257.. | CSH26,CSH117. |
| 258.. | DDI123. |
| 259.. | CSH123. |
| 260.. | CSH131. |
| 261.. | L250. |
| 262.. | P79,P90 - see PN15N26(CW1p190). |
| 263.. | CW1p183 referred to also in L246. |
| 264.. | DDI123. |
| 265.. | PG116,S136. |
| 266.. | L246,L246N2, and see (pre)L254, also L262N1,7. |
| 267.. | LOV304. |
| 268.. | LR§2,CW1p141,MPA233. |
| 269.. | PiusX, encyclical,'Ad diem illum',1904. |
| 270.. | L285. There is no indication in her works that Sr Elizabeth was aware of 'The Revelations of Divine Love' of Julian of Norwich. Note also [296]-[298]. |
| 271.. | L285N8. |
| 272.. | L285. |
| 273.. | Fr De Meester uses Matthew for D111,L103,L143, while Boylan [LOV300,307] uses Mark. |
| 274.. | see for example L169. |
| 275.. | see Dillersberger - Appendix II of these notes. |
| 276.. | P79(OC1003). |
| 277.. | L207. |
| 278.. | L156,L184. |
| 279.. | JGAS286. |
| 280.. | JGAS287 - refn to M.Olier, Pensees choisies,1916,p94. |
| 281.. | L209. |
| 282.. | L236. |
| 283.. | L306, she referred to her last retreat as a 'novitiate for heaven'. |
| 284.. | L305. |
| 285.. | L300. |
| 286.. | L215. |
| 287.. | L287, L287N6. |
| 288.. | L308 - italics in the original letter. |
| 289.. | L239. |
| 290.. | L239. |
| 291.. | L208 - compare: “Your Love ... is an abyss whose depths I cannot fathom” Th of L – HA198,T175,SS256. |
| 292.. | L292. |
| 293.. | P93(OC1027). |
| 294.. | LR§41,CW1p161,MPA254. |
| 295.. | L225 |
| 296.. | L231, but see LFL 3:66,67 and L231N12. |
| 297.. | JON163.Julian of Norwich. see http://www.gloriana.nu/julian.html |
| 298.. | L285 see also [270]. |
| 299.. | VENL87,LFL.III,65. |
| 300.. | L129. |
| 301.. | L224. |
| 302.. | L238. |
| 303.. | KKR90(SLL60);Peers,III,247(SSM57). |
| 304.. | L158,L165,L185,L191,L199,L200,L214,L226, L231,L232,L234,L244,L250. |
| 305.. | L199. |
| 306.. | L165. |
| 307.. | L165N8. |
| 308.. | L185, Nov.19th 1903.. |
| 309.. | L185N8. |
| 310.. | L185N9. |
| 311.. | L214. |
| 312.. | L250. |
| 313.. | L294. |
| 314.. | L199. |
| 315.. | L199. |
| 316.. | HA337,St22;DK123,PN24,St22. |
| 317.. | L231,L232. |
| 318.. | L231. |
| 319.. | L232. |
| 320.. | MJS547. |
| 321.. | L320N3. |
| 322.. | L271N1. |
| 323.. | L320N3. |
| 324.. | P100(OC1040). |
| 325.. | L288N4 |
| 326.. | P100,St.5(OC1040) |
| 327.. | BAN143. |
| 328.. | PG217,note this phrase is in the 1911 ed. of S(258), but is not in the 1927 ed S(252). |
| 329.. | P113(OC1055),PG169(trans),S196. ('priest' has not been expurged.) |
| 330.. | P121(OC1063), the use of 'Pontiff' may have been occasioned by the visit of the Bishop to the Carmel (PG204). |
| 331.. | L320,L321,L329. |
| 332.. | L320. |
| 333.. | L306. |
| 334.. | L232. |
| 335.. | MPA180, CCC§616. |
| 336.. | see L232. |
| 337.. | L256 – note the translation of ‘doit’ given in MPA118 is used: i.e., 'ought, must, should', in preference to ‘is’ used in CW2p239 |
| 338.. | L258. |
| 339.. | MPA118. |
| 340.. | L256 in particular, see L259. |
| 341.. | L309 and see L294N6. |
| 342.. | LR§41,CW1p161,MPA254. |
| 343.. | see P102(OC1043). |
| 344.. | PG220,S256. |
| 345.. | PG215,S249. |
| 346.. | RSG551, and see Update 6 [16]. |
| 347.. | CSH27,CSH42. |
| 348.. | RSG131. |
| 349.. | RSG179. |
| 350.. | MAD35. |
| 351.. | L315, see especially L315N8. |
| 352.. | L318, the 'little note' is L322, also see L330N5, L334. |
| 353.. | L298. |
| 354.. | see CW2p254 and L246,L261. |
| 355.. | PG174,S204. |
| 356.. | L94. |
| 357.. | L302 and L302N7, and see L312. |
| 358.. | L307,PG181,S211 and see L306, L306N5. |
| 359.. | LR§2,MPA233,CW1p141. |
| 360.. | LR§41,MPA254,CW1p161. |
| 361.. | PG218,S252. See also [231] for additional material. |
| 362.. | P113(OC1055), trans in PG169. |
| 363.. | PG174,S204. |
| 364.. | MPA131. |
| 365.. | ‘The Secret of Mary and Elizabeth of the Trinity’, Sr Thomas Mary McBride, OP. Nov.2006 in ‘Christendom-Awake’website. |
| 366.. | MPA133. |
| 367.. | L188. |
| 368.. | PG174,S204 also see L318,L318N3. |
| 369.. | MPA132,PG176,S205. See the penultimate page (unnumbered) in CW2. |
| 370.. | HMH181. |
| 371.. | LR§41,MPA254,CW1p161. |
| 372.. | PG218,S252. |
| 373.. | HF§39:[6]. |
| 374.. | LR§2:[268][359];LR§40:[168];LR§41:[1][27][294][342][360][371]. |
| 375.. | L269,L298. |
| 376.. | CW1p86. |
| 377.. | HF§39,44 |
| 378.. | HMH146. |
| 379.. | only attainable in this life by divine intervention. |
| 380.. | HF§3,CW1p94,MPA220. |
| 381.. | HF§6,MPA221,CW1p96. |
| 382.. | (Lacordaire) HF§6,MPA221,CW1p96. |
| 383.. | HF§8,CW1p96. |
| 384.. | HF§8,CW1p96 |
| 385.. | St Teresa uses the analogy of the silkworm, IC,VI§12 Peers,II,p328;KKRII,340;JGAS208. |
| 386.. | JGAS209,St Teresa (Conceptions of love of God,Ch.VI),PeersIIp390. |
| 387.. | SC26§3,PeersIIp329,KKR575. |
| 388.. | SC26,PeersIIp328,KKR574 and see MUTOp108. |
| 389.. | LR§1,MPA232,CW1p141. |
| 390.. | LR§1,MPA232,CW1p141. |
| 391.. | LR§41,MPA254,CW1p161 - see [360]. |
| 392.. | LR§41,MPA254,CW1p161. |
| 393.. | Sr Elizabeth - Prayer to the Trinity. |
| 394.. | NTC284. |
| 395.. | it is implicit that the 'joy' is of the 'will'. It is not an emotion, which would be contrary to human nature. |
| 396.. | see [371]. |
| 397.. | see for example [46] - [53]. |
| 398.. | Fr De Meester's description, CW1p88. |
| 399.. | HF§5p95,HF§33p110, and see notes 10th day (3)p119 L160,L160N3,L183,L280. |
| 400.. | HF§6p95 |
| 401.. | HF§10p97, and see notes 3rd day (7)p114. |
| 402.. | HF§21p102. |
| 403.. | HF§24p104. |
| 404.. | HF§28p106, and see notes 8th day (11)p117, LR§31p156,LR§37p158; L145,L219,L303,L304. |
| 405.. | HF§34p108. |
| 406.. | HF§37p109. |
| 407.. | HF§4,CW1p95,MPA220 and see [406]. |
| 408.. | see Update 5 refn [108]. |
| 409.. | 'prey' was a favourite Theresian word of Sr Elizabeth, and care must be used not to misunderstand the 'vision' she is trying to convey in its use, see L169N4. |
| 410.. | HF§40,CW1p110. |
| 411.. | Fr DeMeester uses the word 'true' in CW1p86 for Mary, while Sr Elizabeth referred to a 'perfect' Praise of Glory in HF§42 but did not associate this with Mary. |
| 412.. | HF§44,CW1p113. |
| 413.. | HF§38,CW1p110,MPA229. |
| 414.. | CSH144, the beautiful words of Sr Elizabeth are in this reference, see [135]. |
| 415.. | LR§17,CW1p149,MPA240. |
| 416.. | L306. |
| 417.. | PG184,S214. |
| 418.. | CW1p134. |
| 419.. | [290],post[334],post[360]. |
| 420.. | LR§40,CW1p160,MPA253. |
| 421.. | 'Sun of Justice' occurs in the final chapter of Malachi, "The Day of the Lord". |
| 422.. | see [406][407] and HMH147. |
| 423.. | LF§40,CW1p160,MPA253. |
| 424.. | The Portiuncula was an old church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God which was abandoned. St Francis of Assisi had great devotion to the Queen of the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there constantly in order to repair it. He heard that the Angels often visited it, so that it was called Saint Mary of the Angels, and he decided to stay there permanently out of reverence for the angels and love for the Mother of Christ. |
| 425.. | see [287]. |
| 426.. | see for example P68(OC984). |
| 427.. | L316 To Mother Germaine of Jesus (Ecce Mater tua). The Blessed Virgin is 'addressing' Mother Germaine. and telling her that she is to 'offer' her daughter (Sr Elizabeth) to Jesus. |
| 428.. | Ltr 'Il Tempio Massimo' to women religious July 1962 |
| 429.. | L'Osservatore Romano, 9 May 1968, page 7 |
| 430.. | CON48Bk4,Ch4,Friendship. |
| 431.. | 'Augustine on Personality', Paul Henry SJ.St.Aug.Lecture,1959.Univ.Villanova. |
| 432.. | 'Mystagogical Catecheses 5.3',St Cyril of Jerusalem. |
| 433.. | DIL234,235. |
| BAN.. | ’Barb of Fire’, Alan Bancroft, Gracewing, 2001. |
|---|---|
| CCC.. | ’Catechism of the Catholic Church’, Geoffrey Chapman, 1994. |
| CON.. | ’The Confessions of St Augustine’, Trans. F.J.Sheed, Sheed & Ward, 1954. |
| CSH.. | ’A Carmelite of the Sacred Heart’,Trans. M.E.Arendrup, Burns Oates, 1923. |
| CW... | ‘Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity’, ICS; Vol 1(CW1) 1984, Vol 2 (CW2) 1995. |
| D.... | Diary in OC (French) |
| DD... | ’Elisabeth Catez’, D.Decoin, (in French) Editions Balland, 1991. |
| DDI.. | ’Doctrine of Divine Indwelling’, M.M.AM.du Coeur de Jesus, Mercier, 1949. |
| DIL | 'The Gospel of St Luke', J.Dillersberger,Mercier, 1958. |
| DK... | ’The Poetry of St Therese of Lisieux, trans. D.Kinney, ICS Publications, 1995. |
| FOM.. | ’The Future of Man’, P.T.deChardin, Collins, 1964. |
| GOM.. | ’The Glories of Mary’,A.De Ligouri, London, 1852. |
| GV... | Spiritual Treatise: ‘The Greatness of our Vocation’, in CW1. |
| HA... | ’Histoire d’une Ame’, Carmel de Lisieux, 1902 |
| HMG.. | ‘Famous Shrines of Our Lady’, H.M.Gillett,Samuel Walker, 1949. |
| HMH.. | ‘He is my Heaven’, Jennifer Moorcroft. ICS 2001. |
| HOL.. | ’The Handmaid of the Lord’, Adrienne von Speyr, Harvill Press, 1956. |
| IC... | ’Interior Castle’, St Teresa of Avila, Sheed & Ward,1950. trans. Peers.(alternately, trans by KKR) |
| JGAS. | ’Song of Songs’, J.G.Arintero,Monastery of Holy Name, 1974. |
| JON.. | ’The Revelations of Divine love’, Julian of Norwich, Burns & Oates, 1961. |
| L.... | Letters in CW2,(N refers to a footnote to the letter). |
| LC... | 'St Therese of Lisieux, Her Last conversations',Trans. J.Clarke, ICS, 1977. |
| LOV.. | ' This Tremendous Lover', M.E.Boylan, Mercier, 1954. |
| LR.. | ’Last Retreat of Laudem Gloriae’ , in CW1pp.141-173 |
| MAD.. | ’Meditations and Devotions’,J.H.Newman,Longmans,Green,1955. |
| MJS.. | 'The Mysteries of Christianity', M.J.Scheeben,Herder,1946. |
| MPA.. | ‘The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity,M.M.Philipon, Mercier, 1947. |
| MUTO. | ’Deep into the Thicket’, Susan Muto,Epiphany, 1999. |
| NTC.. | ’New Testament Commentary’.R.Knox,Burns & Oates, 1958. |
| NV... | ’Novissima Verba’, Burns Oates, 1929. |
| OC... | ‘Oeuvres Completes, Elisabeth de la Trinité’, P. De Meester, Cerf 1996. |
| OLP.. | ’Our Lady of the place’, E. Boaga,Edizioni Carmelitane, Roma, 2001. |
| P.... | Poésies (in French, in OC). |
| PET.. | 'Poems of Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity’, A. Lipski,pps78-90, Mount Carmel, Vol.38,No.2,1990. |
| PG... | ‘Praise of Glory’, Burns & Oates, 1962. |
| PN... | Personal Note, in OC (French) |
| PN... | Poems of Sr Therese, used with DK |
| PNT.. | Peter in the New Testament’ Edited by R.E.Brown, et.al.,Geoffrey Chapman,1974 |
| POB.. | ’Politics of Belief’, P. Spencer, Faber & Faber, 1954 |
| RSG.. | 'Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude',Burns Oates,1865, (author unknown) |
| S.... | ‘Souvenirs’, Carmel of Dijon, 1926. |
| SC... | 'Spiritual Canticle’, St John of the Cross. |
| SDE.. | 'Spiritual Doctrine of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity',L.Borriello, Alba House, 1986. |
| SS... | ’Story of a Soul’,John Clark,OCD,ICS Publications, 3rd Ed. 1996. |
| SUTH. | ’Summa Theologica’, St Thomas Aquinas |
| T.... | ’Sr Therese of Lisieux’ (Trans of HA) Ed.,T.N.Taylor, Burns & Oates, 1912 |
| THL.. | ’Letters of St Therese’, A.Combes,Sheed & Ward, 1949. |
| TMB.. | ’Theology of the Mystical Body’, Emile Mersch, Herder, 1955. |
| VAN.. | ’Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John’, J.Vanier, DLT, 2004. |
| VENL. | ’The Living flame of Love’, Simplified Version,John Venard, E.J.Dwyer, 1990. |
| WEL.. | ‘Welcome to Carmel, Handbook,Teresian Charism Press, 1998 |
|
Permission to use copyright quotations listed is
acknowledged with deep gratitude. |
|---|
|
Refn [11] . . . from ‘He is My Heaven’ by Jennifer Moorcroft, Copyright © 2001 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E. Washington, DC 20002-1199, U.S.A. www.icspubIications.org. Refns [1][6][168][263][268][342] [380]-[383][390][391][402] [406][407][415][420][423] . . . from ‘The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity’, Volume I translated by Sr Aletheia Kane,OCD , Copyright © 1984 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E. Washington, DC 20002-1199, U.S.A. www.icspubIications.org Refns [78][178][181][182]186][187] [189]-[191][197][198][200][204] [213][236][239]-[242][252]-[254] [266][277][281]-[283][286]-[292] [295][296][298][307][315][322] [337][341][351]-[353][427] . . from ‘The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity’, Volume 2 translated by Anne Englund Nash, Copyright © 1995 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E. Washington, DC 20002-1199, U.S.A. www.icspublications.org. Refns [123][230] . . . from 'Spiritual Doctrine of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity', L.Borriello,OCD, Copyright © 1986 by the Society of St. Paul, 2187 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New york, 10314, U.S.A. |
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| The Diary | |
| Comment | |
| Extra muros | Introduction |
| Mother Marie of Jesus | |
| Histoire d'une Ame | |
| Father Vallee | |
| Un Dernier Souvenir | |
| Summary of early years | - |
| The Postulant | Introduction |
| Early days | |
| Union of souls | |
| The novice | Fusion |
| Letters | |
| Christ-centred | |
| Annunciation/Incarnation | |
| Interior souls | |
| "Who is My Mother?" | |
| The Professed Nun | Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi |
| Ineffable Love | |
| Abbe Chevignard | |
| Priestly Virgin | |
| Mediation | |
| Her Calvary and St Gertrude | |
| Janua Coeli | |
| Major works: HF & LR | Introduction |
| To suffer as He did | |
| Heaven in Faith | |
| Last Retreat | |
| Comment | - |
| Appendix I | Fusion of souls |
| Appendix II | Luke 8: 19-21 |
| Appendix III | Mary the Virgin Priest |
| Indulgenced prayer |
