ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY The Charism of her Prayer JEAN LAFRANCE adapted from the French by a nun of the Carmel du Pater Noster, Jerusalem with an Introduction by Archbishop Joseph Tawil Printed at Darlington Carmel Imprimatur: Nihil Obstat: James Joseph Beltritti Very Reverend Father Tadgh Tierney, OCD Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Provincial Councillor 27 December 1983 CONTENTS Acknowledgment (i) Introduction (ii) Preface ‘Love draws its object’ Life and Prayer 1 Chapter 1 ‘A Praise of Glory is a soul that dwells in God’ The Spirituality of Elizabeth of the Trinity 11 Trinitarian Vocation 15 Theological Life 21 Chapter 2 ‘A Praise of Glory is a silent soul’ Movement of Elizabeth’s Recollection 29 Chapter 3 ‘A Praise of Glory is a soul ever gazing upon God’ Crystal of Love 44 Faith and Simplicity 47 A Soul’s Night 54 A Fathomless Abyss 62 Chapter 4 ‘A Praise of Glory is a being ever in thanksgiving’ Elizabeth’s Prayer 68 Pray Continually 70 Elizabeth and Contemplative Prayer 73 Praying Contemplatively on the Holy Scriptures 80 Praying in the Present 85 The Prayer of the Church: Carmel’s Mission 91 ‘Janua Caeli’, Mary the Mother of God 100 Epilogue ‘In the Heaven of our Soul’ 105 Prayer to the Holy Trinity 109 ACKNOWLEDGMENT We are grateful to His Beatitude, Msgr James Joseph Beltritti, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and Superior of the Carmel du Pater Noster, for his encouragement of this adaptation of Jean Lafrance’s book on Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. A special thanks also to all those who assisted with their generous support and prayers. Carmel of the Pater Noster, Jerusalem Carmel of the Pater Noster, Jerusalem DIOCESE OF NEWTON Meikite Greek Catholic 19 Dartmouth Street Newton, Massachusetts 02165 INTRODUCTION This book, which is intended to be a simple statement of the beginnings of mystic prayer, is based totally on the way of a French Discalced Carmelite nun, Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, who died in 1906 at the age of 26, after only six years in the cloister. Her vocation was simply prayer, silence, and suffering, “because our Lord lives in our soul, His prayer dwells within us and it is there I want to abide without ceasing, as a little vase at the source and fountain of life, sharing this prayer with others by letting it overflow in ways of unending love”. Sister Elizabeth's life, which was hidden with Christ in God, became an apostolic witness, showing that, no matter what our way of life may be, each one of us is called to an intimacy with the Lord. It is from this unity that we find her gift and her charism. Her example raises us to a higher level and there instills in us a deep current which keeps us ever united in God. “Prayer is a response, a relaxation. One must come in total simplicity to the One whom one loves, holding oneself near Him as a small child in its mother's arms”. “Praise of Glory” is but one of the many terms of admiration and respect which have been applied to Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, who has been identified with the Carmelite Monastery of Dijon in France since she entered it in 1900. The story of her short but rich life and spirituality is told here with all the warmth and simplicity which characterized this handmaid of the Lord. This book deals with mystic prayer in its more common manifestations, of its nature, characteristics, and effects in a manner which should be helpful to both the understanding and the practice of it. Its particular aim is to encourage those who are progressing in prayer but who are unaware of its simple and more unitive forms, and it seeks to meet their needs. Prayer, solitude, praise of glory, silence of the mind and heart are, as many biblical values, dear to Eastern Monasticism, and they culminate in “Esychia” (hence hesychism), that is interior quietude and serenity of the soul which has emigrated to God and found its peace in Him. We do highly recommend this short but helpful book. Archbishop Joseph E. Tawil Eparch of the Melkites of United States of America Unless otherwise stated (see list of References on page 111) all the passages quoted in this book are taken from the Reminiscences of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity. Servant of God. Discalced Carmelite of Dijon. Published by Dijon Carmel after her death. Let us sanctify ourselves for the sake of souls and since we are members of one and the same body, in the measure in which we possess abundantly the divine life we shall be able to impart it to the great body of the Church. For me, all apostleship is summed up in two words: union and love. Pray that I may fully realize them in my life and therefore that I may live buried with the Holy Trinity. Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity PREFACE ‘Love draws its object’ LIFE AND PRAYER Elizabeth Catez was born in an army camp on 18 July 1880 in Avor, a small town in northern France. She was the first child of Captain Francis Joseph Catez and Marie Holland. A few years later there would be a little sister, Marguerite. Elizabeth’s childhood was happy, loving and secure in an atmosphere of genuine Christian devotion. Her father died when she was seven and this loss created an even closer bond between Elizabeth and her mother and sister. Elizabeth’s milieu was that of a comfortable middle-class French family at the turn of the century when scientific finesse was just beginning to show itself in a boom of industrialisation and technological discoveries. Her life was simple and ordinary, revolving round her mother and sister, relatives, family friends and music. Because of her outstanding ability in music, her education was focussed primarily in that direction and as a whole it could be considered fairly average. Her devout upbringing served as a preparation for her life in Carmel and would have spiritually influenced her development and evolution. When she was twenty-one (and not without much anguish on her mother’s part at the thought of losing her daughter behind the grilles of a cloister) she entered the Carmel of Dijon. Five years later she died of a stomach ailment, diagnosed at the time as an ulcer but now believed to have been Addison’s disease. Her death was on 9 November 1906, the feast of the Dedication of St John Lateran, which epitomizes so well her own very special vocation. ‘Didn’t you realize that you were God’s temple?’ wrote St Paul; ‘the temple of God is sacred and you are that temple’ (1 Cor. 3:16-17). The name ‘Elizabeth’ means ‘House of God’ and Elizabeth Catez was to make that meaning a reality in her life. In Carmel she became Elizabeth of the Trinity. She would he in Carmel only five years but God’s time is not measured by ours and her short life, consummated in holiness, was but a beginning of her life and mission in all eternity. On 12 July 1982, His Holiness Pope John Paul II officially recognized Elizabeth’s cause for canonization which had been initiated by his much-loved predecessor, Pope John XXIII. On 25 November 1984 in Rome, she was beatified: the first process of canonization. In being elevated to the altar, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity has been placed among those who lived so heroically in love of God and who by their example encourage us to follow them in the way of holiness. Love draws its object after it [wrote Elizabeth of the Trinity]; we draw Jesus after us, He draws us into Himself. Then, carried away above ourselves, into the inner recesses of love, gazing upon God, we go to meet Him, to meet the Spirit that is His Love; and this Love bums us, consumes us, draws us into the unity where beatitude awaits us. God was the object of Elizabeth’s love. She would pass through a consuming fire, cleansed and purified in suffering, and he whom she loved so much would draw her ever more intimately into the depths of her own heart, there to find the peace and unity of God, ‘where beatitude awaits us’. When we read the various letters written by Elizabeth to her family and friends, her last retreats and other writings given to us in the Reminiscences, we see what a truly remarkable person she was. She had an unusual perceptivity and wisdom for one so young. ‘I am young’, she wrote, ‘but nevertheless I have suffered’. She was heroic in her suffering and through it came to have a better understanding of life and of herself. Her suffering became a means of growth, deepening in her heart a compassion and universal love for others. She is an example to us that, as we are baptized in Christ, so too we must be buried in Christ and rise and live anew in Christ. She thirsted for God and her way was one of trust and abandonment as it must be for every Christian. Her gift to humanity and to the Church was her recollection, her longing to be unified in her own depths where God dwelt. Elizabeth was ‘of the Trinity’ and it was within this mystery that her life and spirituality blossomed in her immense love of the ‘Three’. To be with God, Elizabeth sought silence and solitude. She was not looking for an escape, a cult, a mysticism remote from the human condition.