Her first retreat after her profession established her in this state of soul: the way of faith, obscure, yet luminous, because she clearly realized the love of God.
He was her light, enlightening her in the darkness of her night, so that she blessed the Lord at all times.
God appeared to wish to recompense her generous fidelity during this retreat, for she was overwhelmed with graces too sublime and substantial to be described, so that when Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity gave an account of her dispositions, she raised her lustrous eyes to her Prioress, and could only say: “He imparts eternal life to me.”
… After this retreat, her prayer seemed still more simple. “We must keep our eyes on Him,” she said, speaking of the Divine Master; “we must be silent; it is so simple!”
This was her one rule. If a novena was to be made, a feast to be prepared for, when she was asked what she was going to do, she always answered: “I am going to be silent, so that He may flow into me.”
…Sometimes, however, she felt very doubtful whether she ought to be constantly passive; ought she not to act more during prayer ?
Her peace, disturbed for the moment, was always restored to her by Him Who wished her to be thus recollected under His direct and continuous action.
One day, during the “Forty Hours,” Elizabeth, after listening to her companions urging one another to make reparation, felt rather sorry, as she began her prayer, at not being able to act in the same way; but she had hardly prostrated herself to adore our Lord, when He enveloped her with a luminous and peace-giving radiance.
It was suddenly revealed to her that the obstacle created by sin against God’s diffusing Himself into the souls of men was one of the things which most deeply wounded the Divine Heart, and that to console Him and to make reparation for such an outrage, she must let herself be taken possession of by God, giving full liberty to His grace and love to act within her.
Now that her form of prayer was divinely approved, it became more and more her habitual state of soul
The Praise of Glory: Reminiscences of Elizabeth of the Trinity by A Carmelite Nun of Dijon, pp. 110-111.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Elizabeth of the Trinity on Interior Silence
Friday, 20 November 2009
Definition of "Theologian"
What is a theologian? Clearly the Church doesn’t understand the term in the way in which is it understood in the academic world – Thérèse of Lisieux was no theologian in the academic sense of the term, but she is, nevertheless, a Doctor of the Church.
Archimandrite George of the Monastery of St Gregorios on Mount Athos is very clear as to the true meaning of the term Theologian (θεολόγος–theologos) in Orthodox thought, and his definition gives expression to the proper Catholic meaning of the term – as exemplified by “Doctors” (i.e. true theologians) such as Catherine of Siena, John of the Cross, and the like:
Theology deals with God, our participation in Him, and the underlying divine reality inherent in creation. It is far more than intellectual and scholarly discourse about God, and is not acquired through academic study. A real theologian is someone who has reached intimate communion with God and has perception of the spiritual world. To quote Evagrius, “If you are a theologian, you will pray truly; and if you truly pray, you are a theologian;” whilst St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Gregory Palamas says, “Our devotion lies not in words but in realities.”
Theosis – The True Purpose of Human Life (2006), p. 85.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Some of Today's Saints
Friday, 13 November 2009
Recent Posts
John of the Cross: Creation, Incarnation, Resurrection
Teresa of
R. Garrigou-Lagrange: Prayer and Spiritual Rebirth
Teresa Bendicta of the Cross (Edith Stein): “Through Him, With Him, In Him”
John of the Cross: Becoming Divine
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Lacordaire on Kindness
“Ce n’est pas génie, ni gloire, ni amour qui reflète la grandeur de l’âme humaine; c’est bonté."
(“It is not genius, nor glory, nor love that reflects the greatness of the human soul; it is kindness.”)
Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, OP (1801-1861)
Edith Stein on Prayer
“Through him, with him, and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever.”
With these solemn words, the priest ends the eucharistic prayer at the center of which is the mysterious event of the consecration.
These words at the same time encapsulate the prayer of the church: honor and glory to the triune God through, with, and in Christ.
Although the words are directed to the Father, all glorification of the Father is at the same time glorification of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, the prayer extols the majesty that the Father imparts to the Son and that both impart to the Holy Spirit from eternity to eternity.
All praise of God is through, with, and in Christ.
Through him, because only through Christ does humanity have access to the Father and because his existence as God-man and his work of salvation are the fullest glorification of the Father;
with him, because all authentic prayer is the fruit of union with Christ and at the same time buttresses this union, and because in honoring the Son one honors the Father and vice versa;
in him, because the praying church is Christ himself, with every individual praying member as a part of his Mystical Body, and because the Father is in the Son and the Son the reflection of the Father, who makes his majesty visible.
The dual meanings of through, with, and in clearly express the God-man’s mediation.
The prayer of the church is the prayer of the ever-living Christ. Its prototype is Christ’s prayer during his human life.