Canonization of Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity

Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity will be canonized on October 16, 2016.

A National Mass celebrating the canonization of St. Elisabeth of the Trinity will be held Sunday, November 6, 2016 at St. Therese Church in Alhambra, California and will be broadcasted on EWTN.

St. Elisabeth, pray for us!

 

Sorrowful Mother

“You are there, O Mary, at the foot of the Cross, standing, in strength and courage; and my Master says to me, “Ecce Mater Tua,” Behold your Mother. He gives you to me for my Mother! And now that He has returned to His Father, and has put me in His place on the Cross so that I may fill up those things which are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the Church, you are still there, O Mary, to teach me to suffer as He did, to let me hear the last song of His soul which no one but you, O Mother, could overhear”. (Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity- Last Retreat)

The Property of Love

“The first sign of love is this: that Jesus has given us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. The property of love is to be always giving and always receiving. Now the love of Christ is generous. All that He has, all that He is, He gives; all that we have, all that we are, He takes away. He asks for more that we of ourselves are capable of giving. He has an immense hunger which wants to devour us absolutely. He enters even into the marrow of our bones, and the more lovingly we allow Him to do so, the more fully we savor Him.”

“He knows that we are poor, but He pays no heed to it and does not spare us. He Himself becomes in us His own bread, first burning up, in His love, all our vices, faults, and sins. Then when He sees that we are pure, He comes like a gaping vulture that is going to devour everything. He wants to consume our life in order to change it into His own; ours, full of vices, His, full of grace and glory and all prepared for us, if only we will renounce ourselves.”

(Heaven in Faith, Volume One, The Complete Works: Elizabeth of the Trinity, ICS Publications)

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Elizabeth Catez, was born in 1880 in France. She entered the Discalced Carmelite Order making her profession of vows in 1903. In 1906 she was called by the Divine Spouse “to light, to love and to life”. Devoted to the Most Blessed Trinity, Elizabeth’s short life was a “praise of glory” to the Trinity during her life of interior darkness and a severe illness.

~The property of love is to be always giving and always receiving.~

Prayer to the Trinity

O my God, Trinity whom I adore; help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You, O my Unchanging One, but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your mystery. Give peace to my soul; make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling and Your resting place. May I never leave You there alone but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative Action.

O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I wish to be a bride for Your Heart; I wish to cover You with glory; I wish to love You…even unto death! But I feel my weakness, and I ask You to “clothe me with Yourself,” to identify my soul with all the movements of Your Soul, to overwhelm me, to possess me, to substitute yourself for me that my life may be but a radiance of Your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Restorer, as Savior. O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life in listening to You, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from You. Then, through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light. O my beloved Star, so fascinate me that I may not withdraw from Your radiance.

O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, “come upon me,” and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word: that I may be another humanity for Him in which He can renew His whole Mystery. And You, O Father, bend lovingly over Your poor little creature; “cover her with Your shadow,” seeing in her only the “Beloved in whom You are well pleased.”

O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to You as Your prey. Bury Yourself in me that I may bury myself in You until I depart to contemplate in Your light the abyss of Your greatness.

-Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, November 21, 1904

Simplicity

Looking only at God and referring all to him is the virtue of simplicity. A simple soul lives for God and has only one intention to please and serve him. All words and actions simply and clearly reflect the soul’s thoughts and intentions. A simple soul is guided by God alone and relies on his power. In order to become a simple soul one has to set aside egotistic points of view and selfishness, reject the deceptions of the passions, and the false maxims of the world. Simplicity “places man in the presence of God; it is simplicity that empties and frees the soul from all fear today and on the day of judgement…It crushes evil nature underfoot, it gives peace, it imposes silence on the useless nosies within us…It is simplicity that hourly increases our divine likeness…will transport us into the depths where God dwells and will give us the repose of the abyss. ”
~(Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity Heaven in Faith)