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Home , Communion of saints, Elisabeth Leseur

Agenda for Women in the Church of the Saints -Margaret Parley, R.S.M. The Develovment of Caribbean Theolow: Imvlications for Mercv

Grace and Lived Christianity in the Theology of Karl Rahner and Leonardo Boff -Marilyn Sundemn, R.S.M. The Risk of Jesus Christ: From Understanding to Living -Simon Pedro Arnold, O.S.B., Translated by Mary Therese Sweeney, C.S.J.

The Theology of Ivone Gebara -Pamela M. Cobey, M.Div. Rights of Members in First Profession: The View of American Civil Law and the Persvective of Canon Law I -~lo&e Rosenblatt, R.S.M. and Victoria Vondenberger, R.S.M. Elisabeth Leseur's Spirituality of the Communion of saints

Janet K Ruflng, R.S.M.

Introduction counted among their friends, musicians, artists, The mystic, Elisabeth Leseur (18661914) cre- writers, philosophers, politicians, doctors, and law- atively and originally responded to the spirit of her yers--believers and unbelievers alike. She recog- times in the way she understood and practiced her nized a specialcall to reach out to unbelievers. FI, faith as a lay Christian. I believe she deserves to be she participated in the developing lay movements of better known as an important lay figure in the his- her time, deeply affected by the social teachings of tory of Christian ~~irituality.'The specific chal- Leo XI11 and the evangelizing efforts of the embry- lenges she confronted were many. First, her mar- onic Catholic action movement. She also embraced riage at the age of twenty-three to FBix Leseur, an contemporary developments in Catholic theology unbeliever in religiously hostile France, pro- and spirituality--the beginnings of historical criti- foundly threatened her faith, and she struggled to cism and better understandings of the Scriptures, regain that faith and live a robust committed dedi- the early liturgical movement and a return to prac- cation to God. Eventually, she adopted an apostolic tice of frequent communion. She was dee~lv. , en- strategy of unconditional loving presence to her gaged in Ging to harmonize faith and reason, faith beloved husband as well as to many in their agnos- and democracy, faith and culture. In many ways, she tic circle. Second, her approach to spirituality from was dearly an exceptional prototype of a happily the beginning of her adult conversion was always married lay woman, educated in her faith, im- thoroughly lay in character. She developed a rule mersed in society and qingout in a secular con- of life that maintained a set of priorities related to text the specific forms of the lay apostolate thatvati- her responsibilities within her marriage and fam- can I1 would envision a half a century later. ily. Unable to bear a child, Elisabeth responded by maintaining deep involvementwith their extended families, as well as by developing her own intellec- Elisabeth and the Communion of Saints tual gifts through a disciplined program of study. The theologicaI theme that most informs Elisabeth Third, she experienced many forms of suffering Leseur's spiritual understanding and practice is a in her life, enduring many illnesses and dying from comprehensive intuition into the mystery of the breast cancer in 1914. She turned this physical suf- communion of saints. Dom Germain Morin claims fering as well as her spiritual isolation into a form of that this doctrine was "the great reality of her life, prayer and participation in redemption, making a pact with God offering her sufferings from breast cancer for the conversion of her husband. In addi- Unable to bear a child, Elisabeth tion to her physical and spiritual derings, Elisa- beth constantly confronted deaths and life-threaten- responded by maintaining deep ing illnesses within her family. Her robust belief in involvement with their extended the communion of saints gave meaning to these experiences of suffering and loss and Med her with families, as well as by developing hope for hture reunion in heaven and ongoing rela- her own intellectual gifts through tionship with her beloved dead. - Fourth, she had an expansive view of the world a disciplined program of study. from extensive travel and reading. The Leseurs 34 Ruflng: Eli: zabeU1 Leseur's SpiritwliQj ofthe Communion ofsaints finding in it the Christian meaning of her fiiend- that constitutes the community of believers. The ships, her bereavements, her responsibilities, and second meaning is related to the cult of the saints: a her worries about those dear to her."2 She de- communion among holy persons, living and dead, scribes how she pragmatically understands this especially the martyrs. By Elisabeth's time, the doc- doctrine in all of her major writings-in her jour- trine implied an underlying social solidarity in nal, in her letters on suffering, in her first commu- grace that taught that an individual Christian had nion treatises to her niece and nephew, and even in the ability to effect good for the whole body of the her letter to Jeanne Alcan, published under the ti- church. A contemporary of Elisabeth wrote this tle, "Advice to an ~nbeliever."~ interpretation in 1904: Through the sacrament of initiation the baptized become members of the body of the Chmh: a body Elisabeth's writings both assume whose head is Christ, whose members are all the - righteous, dead, living, and to come, from the be- and explicitly express a belief in ginning of the world until its final consummation. In addition, the holy angels themselves, to what- the reality of this relational ever hierarchy they belong, form part of this society. By entering into the Catholic Church, the new community among the living Christians thus find themselves in communion with and the dead, as well as those all the saints of earth and hea~en.~ Elisabeth's writings both assume and explicitly ex- yet to be brought into its web of press a belief in the reality of this relational commu- relationship. She is convinced nity among the living anh the dead, as well as those - yet to be brought into its web of relationship. She is that these relationships are not convinced that these relationships are not inter- interrupted by death, but rupted by death, but continue vibrantly in the present beyond the grave.6 A notion of a final consum- continue vibrantly in the present mation fuels her hope that the hture lies in God's beyond the grave. hands and that shewill not only be united with God in heaven, but also after her own death, she will be reunited with her beloved friends and family, espe- For Elisabeth, the communion of saints was cially her husband once he receives the gift of faith. both a philosophical and a faith reality. Deeply in- This is a vision of the profound interconnection of fluenced by a number of prominent Catholic liter- loving persons that reaches from the past, continues ary and philosophical writers in France at the end in the present among saints on earth and in heaven, of the nineteenthcentury,she developed a spiritual and leans into a future that encompasses even more vision of the hidden supernatural life of each per- satisfying relationships after death. son, participating in a great exchange of spiritual Elisabeth dearly expresses the temporal di- goods with in the communion of saints. According mensions of this mystery. AU the living participate in to Georges Goyau, these writings "were dominated this Christic life. The living include those who enjoy by the idea of the communion of saints and it was eternal life as well as those presently on earth. this that gave them their enth~siasm."~ Among those on earth, a supernatural, spiritual The doctrine of the communion of saints has communion exists among believers independent of historically carried a two-fold interpretation. Dur- physical proximity through partaking of the Eucha- ing any epoch, one or another of these strands be- rist--effecting literally a communion in the Risen came dominant. Its earliest meaning seems to have Christ among everyone anywhere in the world who been a "communion in holy things." This meant shares in Eaith or in the sacrament. This supernatu- participation in the intimate sharing of life with Je- ral communion extends beyond the moment of re- sus and the followers of Jesus through the sacra- ception of communion to a union of hearts and ments of initiation and a life of discipleship. One minds in personal prayer and in action for the good shares in the sacred mysteries, the Eucharistic meal of others in daily life. Thus praying for one an- R@g: ElisabeU, Leseur's Spiritualiw ofthe Communion of Saints 35

other's intentions, and uniting together in offering I believe that there is flowing through us-those on sadcesor beiig lovingly present to another, and earth, those in purgatory, and those who have reached true life-a great unending stream made engaging in the spiritual or corporal works of mercy I up of the sufferings, merits, and love of everyone, 1 are all activities expressive of this communion. and that our least somw, our slightest efforts can In Thomas Aquuds treatment of the cornmu- through grace reach others, whether near or far,

nion of saints. the view ado~tedbv the Cound of and bring them light,- peace,- and holiness. Trent, he combines these themes of participation in 1 believe that in eternity we shall find again our be- the spiritual pdsof the churrh and the interchanw loved ones who have known and loved the cross, be&n the persons themselves.' ~~uinas'scondud- and that their sufferings and our own will be lost in ing section about the church on earth stated: the infinity of divine Love and the joy of final reunion. We should realize that not only is the power of Christ's passion communicated to us but that the I believe that God is love, and that suffering, in his merit of this life and of all the goodness achieved by hands, is the means his love uses to transform and the saints is also common to all those in charity, be- save us. cause all are one, according to F% 118:63. "I par- I bckan the Communion o Sam, the resumdm of take, Lord, in the good things of all who fear you." the body, and is$ everlasting.4 It follows that whoever is in charity partakes in all the good that is done in the entire world. But those It is in this theological context that Elisabeth prays for whom that good was especially intended have a and offers her sufferings for her husband's conver- special part in it. For one person can make satisfac- sion. Her vision of the communion of saints and of tion for another . . . Through this communion, shared heavenly life is deeply relational. From the therefore, we obtain two things: fmst, participation in all the merits ofJesus Christ; then the communi- time of her Fist ~ommunion,~~she had a vivid cation of one person's good to an~ther.~ sense of heaven as participating in God's presence, and she looked forward to a reunion of those living According to this theology, the members of the on earth and the beloved dead with God in heaven. communion of saints on earth can effect the spiri- To Soeur Goby, she writes about her sense of conti- tual good of others through intentional practices nuity in loving relationships: "How good it is to that draw on the grace of Christ. They can obtain love and to know that these great loving relation- spiritual benefits in the future lives of those on ships come from God and will return to him, and earth for whom they pray or offer their sufferings. that after having grown through sorrow, these rela- They can do this only through their membership in tionships will end injoy and in the most radiant un- the spiritual body of Christ. Thus, they share in the ion~"" Thus, heaven meant shared life with God power of their head. She expresses these themes and reunion with all of her beloveds. succinctly in ajournal enay soon after her younger Elisabeth's liturgical practice and sensibilities sister, Juliette, died: are suffused with the sense of the intimate connection between participation in the Eucharist now as a foretaste of the lie to come and her expectation I Elisabeth's liturgical practice and of even greater joy in heaven. She writes to Soeur sensibilities are suffised with the Goby shortly before AU Saints Day: We will be closely united in spirit during the next sense of the intimate connection few days. .. as our thoughts focus on the heaven we . . so desire, on the holy souls there, some ofwhom are --k&ween~- ae%tm,anam ofwhom~~orrc+- or be united with again, on our blessed Lord, the Eucharist now as a foretaste of center and joy of heaven, on the Blessed Vinfor whom we both have such filial affection. Let us the life to come and her think of the happiness that awaits both of us at the expectation of even greater joy end of the darkness and sufferings of this world, knowing that we will be forever united in the full- in heaven. ness of life, light and love that God is preparing for us and helping us attain. If a few hours spent closely united before the tabernacle could be so happy and rabeth Leseur's SpiMitg of the Communion of Saints

sweet, whatwill eternity be when, in addition to that intense physical suffering. Because he saw that she unity, that full and lastingjoy, the beatificvision will drew strength from her religious practice, he would also be ours and we will know and love God forever. Occasionally at communion we receive a glint of on occasion accomDanv. , her to church,- -eo with her this eternal union, in the midst of the corporal bur- on a pilgrimage to Lodes,and make the prepara- dens and miseries that are part of the sufferings of tions in their room for her to receive communion in life . . .what will it ever be like when we have truly her last illness. As Elisabeth wrote to Soeur Goby, reached our destination? his attitudes were changing, but itwas not yet faith. In our spiritual union, we remember the poor souls Felix had begun to glimpse something spiritual or in purgatoly, especially those dear to us, and for supernatural about his wife at some of these mo- whom I hope we will be united in prayer. I love ments, but could not let the thoughts in for very these two feasts of All Saints and All Souls. They constitute the communionof saints, one of the most long because of his materialistic convictions. Elisa- consoling, beautiful and greatest joys of the spiri- beth was convinced that only God can give the tual life. For those who, like myself, can do so little grace of faith and believed God would convert hi by way of an active life, how sweet it is to know that after her death. On her deathbed, she had asked in God's hands, pain and suffering become acts of her sister to destmy herjournal, but to save another bounty, and through the heart of Jesus are trans- formed into sources of grace for others.12 document, her spiritual testament. Amelie pre- vailed upon Elisabeth to let her preserve the journal as well because she suggested that it might help Felix understand his wife's lie better and be of In relationship to her husband, some comfort to him. she could not bear to imagine heaven without Fklix. Because Felix's Experience of Elisabeth after her he had not received the gift of Death After the funeral, Amelie gave Felix both docu- faith, she suffered from the ments. Bereft, he visited Elisabeth's grave dady and inability to share with him the read herjournal and w2nhla$ other books in her library. Although his reading had not yet displaced spiritual reality that was so his philosophy, he said, "I learned to know Elisabeth important to her. and to love her truly, and I was glad that her thoughts had reached me in so direct a manner that I could preserve of her a complete and consoling In relationship to her husband, she could not bear memory, that nothing and no lapse of time would to imagine heaven without Fklix. Because he had ever render less vivid."15 Felix then recounts a series not received the gift of faith, she suffered &om the of uncanny experiences inwhich he felt he was influ- inability to share with him the spiritual reality that enced directly by Elisabeth after her death. was so important to her. She longed for a fuller June 10,1914, slightly more than two months communion of shared lie in God than they were after Elisabeth's death, he accepted an invitation to able to enjoy during their marriage. It was this she travel by car with a good fiiend who encouraged wanted so passionately and forwhich she made her hito get out of the house and into the country- secret pact with God,offering her suffering during side. The next morning, appreciating the beauty of her final illness for his conver~ion.'~ the countryside, he experienced a vivid sense of his After Elisabeth's death from breast cancer, her wife next to him saying, "I am grieved." He was husband tells the remarkable story of his conver- emotionally overwhelmed and reasoned that if sion hughhis wife's direct influence from be- Elisabeth was alive as he had just experienced her, yond the grave.14 During the last few years of Elisa- then there is a God and the existence of the super- beth's lie, Felix had become more sympathetic to natural is true. This conclusion began to open his her spiritual inclinations when he witnessed her mind to the possibility of spiritual experience. forbearance during many periods of ill health and Later in the day, Felix found himself compelled to L of Saints 37 light a candle in Rocamadour, a place of pilgrim- was with hieverywhere. One morning, soon after age for Elisabeth's intention. He then went to visit his arrival, he prayed on his knees in the Grotto for people closely associated with his wife-Mamie, the gift of faith, repeating this prayer each day. her childhood nurse, and Soeur Goby her spiritual During this time at Lodes, he felt at peace and his friend. On the way to Beaune to see Soeur Goby, Fe- sorrow assumed fresh meaning. lix asked to go by way of Paray-le-Monial. He was When he returned to Paris, he felt himself a drawn there purely by the memory of his wife's hav- changed man. He began to practice his faith again, ing visited there once, although he remained con- to meditate on the Gospels, to read some of Elisa- temptuous of anything connected with devotion to beth's Christian books. He visited the cemetery the Sacred Heart. He was quite unmwed by the daily, reflecting and feeling encouraged to con- Chapel of the Visitation but went into the Cluniac tinue in this direction. He emphasizes that this pro- Basilica, and felt Elisabeth's presence again even cess lasted four months subject to no exterior influ- more clearly than before. There he knelt and ences, talking to no priest or religious. He then prayed fervently to Jesus, present in the tabernacle, spoke to his parish priest, but was not yet ready to with a uue interior movement of his heart, as well make his confession. A short time later, he met a as begging Elisabeth to pray for him. friend who asked how he was doing. This friend When he returned to Paris, he diligently tried to helped him by making an appointment for him forget these experiences and threw himself into with a Dominican priest who later became his spiri- daily lie. He tried to convince himself that he had tual director. Felix met with him as scheduled, felt nothing more than simple grief reactions, re- made some changes in his life, and returned for membering his wife rather than experiencing her in confession two weeks later, completing his reconcil- a new way. He continued to read her journal dady iation with the church by receiving communion. and visit her grave, but resisted changing his beliefs in any way. Some three weeks later, he visited Chris- tian fiiends in Rheims and discovered in his friend's Felix's narrative is infused with wife the same kind of dent faith Elisabeth had. "God was once more shiigbefore my eyes."16 his own incredulous feelings. In July when he returned to Paris, he had to How can such an unspiritual cope with the beginning of World War I and was commissioned by his company to transport all of man experience such persistent their assets to Bordeaux for safe-keeping. By the connection with his dead wife if time he tried to leave, the car he had hired did not materialize, and he managed to secure a seat in she is not somehow someone else's at the last minute. After driving mysteriously living in some other south and transferring to a very mdedtrain, he again received didonfrom his wife, "Lourdes is way? the real object of your present journey; you ought to go to Lourdes; go to ~odes."'~ Although hls thoughts alternated between this Felix's narrative is infusedwith his own in&- breakthrough of the supernatural into his con- lous feelings. How can such an unspiritual man ex- sCi0rmrr~~snh-L -connbbth his dead Elisabeth was guiding his thoughts. Before going to wife if she is not somehow mysteriously living in Lourdes, he went to visit mutual Mends in the some other way? He considers himself the most un- Garome valley and began to share with them what likely subject for such irrational experiences. His had been going on inside of hisince he began to conversion transforms his entire world. He mlizes feel Elisabeth alive and guiding him. He wen read more than in alltheir married life how much his wife some of her journal to them. He spent a week in loved him, how much she suffered for him, how Lourdes, revisiting the places he had been with much she respected him as he was. He discovers he Elisabeth in 1912. He kept to himself, but Elisabeth can only reciprocate this love by following Elisa- 38 Rum:Eli beth's guidance and by embracing the source of her try to make the case that the doctrine of the commu- own love by gradually opening to the faith that is of- nion of saints was deeply believed and concretely fered through God's grace. Thus, his conversion appropriated in Elisabeth's life. The practices it in- narrative justifies and embodies the spirituality of spired and the hope it engended in her life had a the communion of saints that so inspired Elisabeth's particular historical shape that continued to de- entire spiritual life. Elisabeth'swritings testify to her velop and unfold within the church and was re- belief in this interpenetrating spirihld world of life flected profoundly in Vatican II's Lumm Gentium, on earth and life in heaven. In this love story, Elisa- which devoted several paragraphs to this aspect of beth's relationship with her husband is the means ecdesiol~~~.~~The more I learned about Elisabeth God uses to bring her beloved Feliv into this same and about Parisian Catholic life in the late nine- communion of love after her death. teenth century among the elite upper class, the more I realized how much lay involvement in a vari- ety of pastoral activities had already been promoted As I began to read Elisabeth as a in France more than fifty years before the council. But there was also the uncanny convergence of a prototype of Vatican I1 laity, I shared strategy of loving presence among Elisabeth, Charles de Foucauld, and Therese of Lisieux. Some- realized that her treatises to her thiig had to be going on in Catholic culture that ac- niece and nephew on the counted for their approaches independently of one another. This I found in local French Catholic prac- occasion of their first tice and teachings. communions were articulations I continued to shift my perspective as I discovered more textual evidence through archival work of lay vocation in distinctively in Paris and in Rome. These changes in my under- gendered ways. standing of Leseur's significance informed my selection of texts for the volume. Including herJozrr- nal was always part of the plan, but I chose to create a more contemporary translation rather than use those done in the first two decades of the twentieth A Note on Method century. As I began to read Elisabeth as a prototype My work on Elisabeth Leseur is historical and ofvatican I1 laity, I realized that her treatises to her hermeneutical work on a well-documented lay niece and nephew on the occasion of their first woman. It began, of course, with my own interests communions were articulations of lay vocation in when I first read most of her corpus. I was intrigued distinctively gendered ways. The selection of letters bv her intellectual life. her feminism. her friend- from those published under the title of Lemto Un- ship with a hospital sister, and many other textual believers, never before available in English, required clues forwhich Iwas unable to account. My original representing each of the correspondents and the research project was to translate her letters to distinctiveness of her approach to each one. In Soeur Goby and write a critical introduction to her these, she demonstrates a model of genuine and approach to suffering and her spiritual friendship authentic loving dialogue across differences of reli- with an active apostolic religious woman. When gious belief. All were friends; all were different that plan expanded to become a volume in the kinds of unbelieversJeanne Alcan, a non-practic- Classics of Western Spirituality Series, it became an ing Jewish woman; Aimee Rwet, a single woman entirely different project. and professional educator; and Yvonne Le Gros, a As a classic, it required writing a critical intro- believer married to Felix Le Dantec, a philosopher duction to texts from her entire corpus that I se- who published a book on atheism. Every so often, lected for this volume and placing Elisabeth Leseur Elisabeth wrote to Le Dantec as well as to Yvonne, in her 111 historical context. In this short essay, I this longtime friend of Leseur's family. Sources in- mat one of the central themes of her writings and cluded nineteenth-century French histories in both R@ing: ElbabetJz Leseur's SpirituaJiW ofthe Communion ofsaints 39

French and English, Elisabeth's unpublished let- tion process could present her as a doctor of the ters in typescript , photographs, testimony from church, or as a model of religious tolerance and the TransumpCirm introducing Elisabeth's cause for loving dialogue across difference, or as a model for canonization, letters and notes from her nieces and spouses who do not share faith, or as a model for nephews, news paper clippings, a catalogue of Elis- the fruitfulness of suffering. abeth's library, the original hand-written letters of On a more personal note, while I was working Soeur Goby, her correspondent in her Letters on on thisvolume, my mother was dying; I was experi- Suffering, never translated into English before, encing the great divide between belief and unbelief judgments of theological censors related to her within my family of origin; and I worked in French status as servant of God, personal prayer books and and Italian archives with back pain-my first clue missals, her first communion journal, a file folder that I had three herniated disks in my lower back. that identified her with a moderate strand of Elisabeth Leseur's writings continue to challenge French feminism, and much more. me in terms ofwhat I believe and how I respond to these enduring themes in human experience- coping with physical pain, facing death and dying Elisabeth as Distinct horn Her Husband's of family and friends, and the isolation of being a View woman of faith in a partially unbelieving family. Because Felix Leseur eventually became a Domini- As I was finishing this paper, I received a letter can priest and promoted the cause for his wife's can- from another woman expressing the effective sig- onization, he wrote extensive factual and interpre- nificance of Elisabeth Leseur today. "For several tive accounts of his wife's life in which he figures years I have been interested in Elisabeth and hop- quite prominently. For Elisabeth to be interpreted ing for progress in her cause for beatif~cation.My today, her life needed to be retrieved and distin- husband is an unbeliever as Felix was, so I like to guished from her husband's interpretation and pro- think of her as my big sister in heaven1 I think she is motion. AU these other sources helped me establish a marvelous example of holiness and hope for a complementary, yet different view. Elisabeth those of us who have been raying for years for the Leseur's canonization process presents her as a conversion of loved ones." P long-suffering, spiritually abused wife at the hands of her unbelieving husband. Reticent about dis- closing personal religious experience, the primary Notes sources-her own writinppomay a woman who 1 For an earlier and more expansive treat- deeply loves her husband, has many interests in ment of these themes see my: "Elizabeth Leseur: A Strangely Forgotten Modem Saint" in Lay Sanc- common with him,yet suffers fiom their differences tity, Medieval and Modern: A Search for Models, ed. around belief and religious practice. Felix's testi- Ann Astell (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of mony about how he came to understand and appre- Notre Dame Press, 2000). 117-129. ciate his wife more deeply after her death through 2 Emilien Lamirande, The Communm of Saints. The her continuing felt presence in his life convinced Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism, Vol. 26, Trans. A. Manson (New York: Hawthorn him of the reality of the spiritual world. Books, 1963), 125-6. Here we see a demonstration of the lived expe- 3 She wrote to Jeanne Alcan, this explanation of the rience of the communion of saints in action in both communion of saints in second half of 191 0 FJisabeth of their lives, played out differently for each be- believed applied to non-believer and believer alike: cause of the differences in their starting points. Christians believe that a mysterious, spiritual soli- Elisabeth lives, suffers, prays, and hopes on the darity exists among themselves and all other chii- grounds of this doctrine and its relationship to the dren of the same God. We call this solidarity the whole of Christian belief. Eelix encounters its ef- communion of saints; the efforts, merits, and sufferings of each individual benefit the rest. A similar fects in his life, the most unlikely agnostic subject to law exists in the natural order, and ifwe think about be having uncanny experiences, hearing voices, it a little we shall be convinced that our words and and praying for the faith he had spent a great deal actions have a deeper and more far reaching effect of his life ridiculing and rejecting. Her canoniza- than we often imagine. Therefore, it is an absolute R~ng:ElisabeUI Leseur's Spiritditg qfthe Communion @Saints

duty for everyone who understands what "abso- Elisabeth had a much underlined copy of the W- lute" and "duty" mean, to say and do nothing that is chmof lhe COwd of Trent which reinforced this evil or even indifferent, since there 1s no neutrality belief. in matters of morality. From that, arises the obliga- Cited in Lamirande, 29. Aquinas, Cmmtaly on tion to make a sustained effort on a daily basis to the Creed (1273), concluding section. work at interior perfection, because, whether we in- Seleckd Whngs, 155-6. tend it or not, the effect we have on others will be According to the notes she recorded in her Jouml the reflection and expression of what we are wthin. DEn/ance in preparauon for her Fit Commu- Let us create an interior treasure of noble thoughts, nion, there are more than twenty references to energy, and strong, intense affection, and then we heavenly lie. One of her own classmates died be- may be sure that sooner or later, perhaps without fore their Fist Communion ceremony. In this our being aware of it, the overflow WIN aEect the journal, Elisabeth records an almost ecstatic expe- hearts of others. Ehabeth Leseur: Selected Wings, rience imagining what heaven would be lie and Trans. Janet K. Ruffing. (Mahwah: Paulist Press, how wonderful itwould be to be with God. She 2005), 202-203. had a vivid sense of continuity between the present lie and the next life. Her first communion Adrien Dansette, Relpw Hnstoty of Modnn Frame. 2, prayer book is organized according to the lihlrgi- Vol. Under the Thard Republu (New York: Herder cal year. It indudes many prayers, canticles, and and Herder, 1961), 320. Goyau gave this assess- hymns. For each major feast and liturgical season, ment as cited in Dansette, "With Huysmans and a brief catechesis about why a feast is celebrated is Baumann, this writing acquired an exegesis of suf- followed by suggestions about appropnate disposi- fering. W~thUon Bloy, Claude], and Rette a phi- tions or attitudes one ought to cultivate in cele- losophy of life, and w~thPkguy an understanding brating it, and resolutions one ought to make for of the life of the Church." 320. Although Dansette one's own lie. Manual des Catechismes ou Renml, disagrees with Goyau and makes more distinctions Billefs, Cadqua, etc. par m. L'Abbe Dupanloup, among the way these writers appl~edCatholic doc- Eueque &Orleans (Parish: F. Rocher, n.d.), 48-55. trine to social concerns, Elisabeth was dearly In- Letter XXVlU, Lchsu~h sozc$ana, April 20,1912. fluenced by these Cathol~cintellectual currents. LeMres SUT h swf awe, October 28,191 1. Dom Germain Morin, cited in Lamirande, 24. I strongly contest Valerie Raoul's interpretation of She explains the influence of the saintly dead in Ellsabeth's journal writing and her offering of her the lives of those on earth to her niece in a first sufferings for her husband's conversion as emo- communion essay: tional blackmail. Raoul reduces Elisabeth's mysti- Your dear godmother Uuliette] eagerly looked for- cal sense of the communion of saints to purely ward to this day and hoped for a complete union of commercial metaphors. Elisabeth does not write all our souls, duringyour first sacramental encoun- herjournal for Felix's benefit. She agrees to save ter with Jesus. the journal in order to comfort Felii rather than coerce his conversion, a strategy that was not in Who among us, lfwe are really Cbfitians, can say harmony with her deep respect for people's indi- that her hopes were mistaken, and that providence vidual paths. Women's Diaries as Life-Savings: did not fulfill her intense desire? If only we knew Who Decides Whose Life is Saved?" Biography 24.1 how to withdraw for an hour into our depths, where (2001): 140-191. God dwells, and how to contemplate the eternal re- See Felix Leseur's "Introduction" to The Spiduul alities, as much as our weakness allows, we should k.:A ColIcctirm of Short Treatises on the Inner Lib, a grasp how much love and how much fulfillment of volume of essays written by Elisabeth that Felix our desires is really hidden in ow great sorrow. It collected in this volume, Translated by A. M. Bu- only seems to feel more painful because it hap- chanan (London: Burnes, Oates, Washbourne, pened so dose to your eagerly awaited first Com- 1922), 6-30. mun1on.3o;~~bemii~- . . a------from our family gathenng . . . From now on, we will 16. continue to experience your godmother's influ- The SpldLtfe, 20. ence throughout our lives. She will guide our con- LumGahum, nos. 48-51. Architecturally, Our sciences, strengthen our wills, obtain the peace and Lady Queen of the Angels Cathedral in Los An- strength to accomplish ourwork m theworld and to geles embodies the pilgrim church, in the com- Mil the parucular mission given to each of us. pany of the communion of saints, processing Your godmother will do more for you than if she toward the new Jerusalem. were still on this earth. She protects you and WIU Marian Ziegler, May 4, 2005 continue to do so. and her love for vou is meater now that she live; in God's infinitilove. :elected Writings, 168-169.