Quote of the day, 8 November: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

O my Jesus, my supreme Love,
O my Spouse, my divine Friend,
O you alone who know how much I love you,
Since you read my heart: Thank you

For having answered my prayer.
I return from my dear monastery,
See what joy floods my heart,
Good Master, I offer you my happiness.

In the poor speakroom of Carmel
Where everything breathes a fragrance of Heaven
I have just spent a very happy hour

That fulfills all my hope,
With the good and holy Prioress
Whom from now on I will often go to see.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Poem 71, “First Visit to Carmel”, 20 June 1899

Note: Elizabeth Catez wrote this poem on 20 June 1899, following her first official visit to the Carmel of Dijon as a prospective postulant. At nineteen years old, she had come to request admission to the community. The poem captures her joy and gratitude after meeting with the prioress, Mother Marie de Jésus, in the convent speakroom—a moment that represented the beginning of her journey toward religious life. She would enter Carmel just over a year later, on 2 August 1901.

de la Trinité, E 1996, Oeuvres complètes / édition critique réalisée par le P. Conrad de Meester, carme, Les Editions du Cerf, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: We see Elizabeth at age eighteen in this collage created in Adobe Express. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (By permission)

#CarmelOfDijon #joy #poetry #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #vocation

Quote of the day, 27 May: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Throughout her stay in Carmel, Elizabeth lived with the very real threat of being expelled from France, along with her entire community. The liturgical calendar of Carmel, composed in 1905 (for the year 1906) mentions that, out of the 117 French Carmels, 38 actually were expelled.

On 1 July 1901, one month before Elizabeth entered Carmel, the Waldeck-Rousseau government promulgated the law concerning associations, which was aimed primarily at religious congregations. They had to ask for legal authorization before October 3, present their financial balance sheet, and an inventory of their goods.

For decades, the Catholic Church in France had been facing a headwind. The painful memory of the French Revolution and its martyrs a century earlier was still alive and, in the minds of young Christian idealists like Elizabeth, the idea of martyrdom could resurface from time to time, following the example of the Carmelites of Compiègne who were guillotined. She entered Carmel with this readiness for martyrdom, as she had declared to Marguerite Gollot when they were postulants “outside the walls”: “So, what happiness to go together to martyrdom!… I can hardly think of it… it’s too good!” (Letter 57).

Conrad De Meester, O.C.D.

Chapter 22, Partir en exil à l’étranger?

Note: The Mass and rite of beatification of Mother Teresa of St. Augustine and the Martyrs of Compiègne took place in Rome on Sunday, 27 May 1906. Later that year, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity attended a triduum celebrated in mid-October by the Carmel of Dijon in their honor. Their canonization—formally approved by Pope Francis on 18 December 2024—was the final one he authorized before his death.

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How am I inspired by the Holy Martyrs of Compiègne in my own faith and witness?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#anniversary #beatification #CarmelOfDijon #history #inspiration #martyrdom #MartyrsOfCompiègne #StElizabethOfTheTrinity

Quote of the day, 10 February: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Dijon Carmel, 10 February

J. M. + J. T.

Very dear Madame,

I don’t know how to thank you, you have spoiled me so much; if you knew how much pleasure you have given me! I so desired this beautiful Canticle of Saint John of the Cross, and, given by you with this pretty thought on its first page, it is doubly precious to me. It is right here beside me on my little board in our dear little cell; but will I tell you that I need to look at it in order to think of you, dear Madame?

Oh no, of course not, for my thoughts and my heart, or rather my soul, find you in the One near whom there is neither separation nor distance and in whom it is so good to meet. Would you like Him to be our “Rendez-vous,” our Meeting Place, dear Madame? Our souls have certainly made an impact on each other: we know each other very little and we love each other so much. Oh! it is Jesus who has done that; may He thus bind us together and may He consume us in the flames of His love.

A Dieu, dear Madame, know that behind the grilles of Carmel you have a little heart that keeps a very faithful memory of you, a soul wholly united to yours and deeply fond of you. Thank you again. I don’t know how to say it, it is He who will bring it to you on behalf of His little fiancée.

Elizabeth of the Trinity
A kiss to dear little Simone.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

L 106 To Madame de Bobet
February 10, 1902

Note: The book Vie et œuvres de saint Jean de la Croix, vol. 4, Le Cantique spirituel et La vive Flamme d’amour [Life and Works of Saint John of the Cross, vol. 4, The Spiritual Canticle and The Living Flame of Love], 1892 (3rd ed.), was autographed by Mme. de Bobet on February 3, 1902. It has, as Elizabeth put it, “this pretty thought on its first page”: Jesus gave us the Cross so the Cross might give us Love. Simone was Mme. de Bobet’s daughter.

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity in early October 1906

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 1984, Je te cherche dès l’aurore : évocation d’un visage et d’un coeur, produced by C. de Meester and the Carmel of Dijon, Carmel de Dijon, Flavignerot.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2003, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel, translated from the French by Nash, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Editor Conrad de Meester, OCD tells us this is the last photo of Elizabeth alive: “This photo was taken on the terrace near the infirmary, which is to her left (on the viewer’s right); to her right (on the viewer’s left), we see the pointed arch of a window in the Choir. Elizabeth is wearing the lightweight habit she received on October 4, so this must be very shortly after that date—about a month before her death. Beside her stands the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, whom she now called Janua Coeli (Gate of Heaven). In her right hand, she holds the rosary given to her by her friend Antoinette de Bobet (see L261), and on her lap rests a volume containing The Spiritual Canticle and The Living Flame of Love by St. John of the Cross. Though greatly weakened, Elizabeth still tries to sit up straight. The image, though lacking sharpness, reveals how thin and emaciated her face has become compared to the photo from April. The dark circles under her eyes are visible. Her hand is already gaunt, her fingers skeletal. A month later, on her deathbed, her face would be frighteningly thin. She was 26 years and nearly three months old.”

#CarmelOfDijon #friendship #gifts #photos #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #StJohnOfTheCross #thankYou

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity: Wholly Adoring, Wholly Surrendered

Her prayer to the Trinity was not only a pious elevation, but the expression of a gift of herself to God. We had prepared together for this renewal of our vows on 21 November 1904; when I asked her about it on the next day, she replied that she had received a great grace that was difficult for her to express.

Sister Marie of the Trinity, O.C.D.
Witness, Ordinary Process

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s famous prayer, O my God, Trinity Whom I adore, was discovered only after her death. Found among her private papers, the prayer was handwritten on a page torn from her personal notebook and dated November 21, 1904—a day that was deeply significant in her spiritual journey.

The day marked the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, a celebration in Carmel where the sisters renewed their religious vows before the Blessed Sacrament. St. Elizabeth, the youngest of the community, fully embraced this annual act of consecration, offering herself entirely to “her Three,” as she lovingly called the Holy Trinity. This prayer, born in the silence of her cloister and from the depths of her heart, was not shared during her lifetime. Her companions only discovered it after her passing, tucked away in her writing desk.

According to her fellow Carmelite, Sr. Marie of the Trinity, the prayer was not just a spiritual meditation but an act of total self-giving. St. Elizabeth later confided that the day she composed it was one of profound grace, though she found it difficult to describe the experience in words. Her offering echoes the great spiritual traditions of the Church, drawing comparisons with St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s Act of Oblation to Merciful Love and St. Catherine of Siena’s prayer to the Eternal Trinity.

Yet, Elizabeth’s voice is uniquely her own, expressing her desire to be a “heaven” for God, a place where the Trinity could dwell and be adored without distraction. This prayer, considered one of the most beautiful expressions of Trinitarian spirituality, invites us to surrender ourselves entirely to God. In its profound simplicity, it captures the heart of St. Elizabeth’s message: to live continually in God’s presence, wholly adoring, wholly surrendered, and wholly at peace.

To reflect more deeply on this prayer and the life of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, listen to our podcast episode embedded below. Let her words inspire you to invite God to make your soul His dwelling place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbvMvLpH6fo

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: A detail from one of four photos taken by her brother-in-law Georges Chevignard on 22 December 1902, the day of her canonical examination; the exam took place days before her religious profession on Epiphany Sunday, 11 January 1903. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#CarmelOfDijon #ConradDeMeester #monasticLife #Podcast #PrayerToTheHolyTrinity #religiousProfession #spirituality #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #Trinitarian

Yes, dear Madame, my happiness has never been so great, so true as it has since God deigned to associate me with the sufferings of the divine Crucified, so “I might suffer in my flesh what is lacking in His passion” (Col 1:24), as Saint Paul said.

I think I will soon be going to join your little Cécile in the bosom of Light and Love. Together, we will turn God’s graces and gifts in your direction…. We will watch over your dear son so He may keep him wholly pure, wholly worthy of the home where God has willed to shelter him; and also allow our little Marie-Madeleine, your beautiful little lily so beloved of my heart.

For you, dear Madame, we will ask, if you allow, those graces of union with the Master that give so much strength to the soul for passing through any trial and that transform life through continual contact with Him!

If you knew how well cared for I am in my dear Carmel, what a Mother I have unceasingly near me…. She is a true mama for her little patient. You would have tears in your eyes if you could see through the grilles the goodness lavished on me by this heart whom God has made so motherly.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Letter 326 to Madame Farrat, around 18 October 1906

Note: Cécile was the granddaughter Madame Farrat had lost. The Farrat family were neighbors of the Catez family. The “dear son” would have been young Olivier, who made his first Communion on 17 May 1903. Marie-Madeleine was born on 13 September 1901 in Dijon.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2003, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel, translated from the French by Nash, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Latvian photographer Aleksejs Bergmanis captured this view of sunset above a sea of clouds in October 2017. Image credit: Aleksejs Bermanis / Pexels (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/17/sabeth-18oct06/

#CarmelOfDijon #fruit #goodness #intercession #loveForNeighbor #prioress #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #StPaul #unionWithGod

First Visit to Carmel (June 20, 1899)

O my Jesus, my supreme Love,
O my Spouse, my divine Friend,
O you alone who know how much I love you,
Since you read my heart: Thank you

For having answered my prayer.
I return from my dear monastery,
See what joy floods my heart,
Good Master, I offer you my happiness.

In the humble speakroom of Carmel
Where everything breathes a fragrance of Heaven
I have just spent a very good hour

That fulfills all my hopes,
With the good and holy Prioress
Whom I will often see from now on.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

P 71, Première visite au Carmel
20 June 1899

Father Conrad de Meester, O.C.D., Saint Elizabeth’s biographer, comments on her first visit to the Carmel of Dijon:

Slowly, her Carmelite future took on a more concrete shape. The first step would be to apply to the Carmelite monastery for admission. A step she took with a racing heart, a step followed by Madame Catez with a grumbling heart… Was there an earlier letter from Elizabeth to the prioress requesting the important appointment? In any case, on Tuesday, June 20, she was in the speakroom at the Carmel, 4 Boulevard Carnot.

For the second time since the evening of her First Communion, Elizabeth met Mother Mary of Jesus. How she had grown in the meantime! The child in her white communion dress had become a graceful young girl, with an elegant appearance and beautiful, expressive eyes. And with an exceptional soul… Mother Mary of Jesus would soon realize this. The meeting brought nothing but happiness. For both of them. To all three, if we count the One for whom both of them were living.

Elizabeth offers us a small echo of their encounter in a poem aptly entitled “First Visit to Carmel” (Poem 71). “O my Jesus, my supreme Love…”. That’s the beginning. It’s not the Carmel that counts, it’s the “divine Friend” for whom she’s going there. And what “happiness” to meet a happy nun, “the good and holy prioress” who for twenty-seven years has led a life of prayer in this monastery, and who, during that “very good hour,” hints that her young neighbor will be able in two years to change her pleasant apartment for the temple of the Lord.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S, de Meester, C, Lonchampt, J, 1980, Oeuvres Complètes, Les Editions du Cerf, Paris.

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Elizabeth in October 1898, during a visit to her friend Alice Chervau at Couternon (Côte d’Or). Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/19/sabeth-20jun99/

#CarmelOfDijon #eyes #heart #Jesus #parlor #poetry #prayer #soul #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #visit #vocations

Throughout her stay in Carmel, Elizabeth lived with the very real threat of being expelled from France, along with her entire community. The liturgical calendar of Carmel, composed in 1905 (for the year 1906) mentions that, out of the 117 French Carmels, 38 actually were expelled.

On 1 July 1901, one month before Elizabeth entered Carmel, the Waldeck-Rousseau government promulgated the law concerning associations, which was aimed primarily at religious congregations. They had to ask for legal authorization before October 3, present their financial balance sheet, and an inventory of their goods.

For decades, the Catholic Church in France had been facing a headwind. The painful memory of the French Revolution and its martyrs a century earlier was still alive and, in the minds of young Christian idealists like Elizabeth, the idea of martyrdom could resurface from time to time, following the example of the Carmelites of Compiègne who were guillotined. She entered Carmel with this readiness for martyrdom, as she had declared to Marguerite Gollot when they were postulants “outside the walls”: “So, what happiness to go together to martyrdom!… I can hardly think of it… it’s too good!” (Letter 57).

Conrad De Meester, O.C.D.

Chapter 22, Partir en exil à l’étranger?

Note: The Mass and rite of beatification of Mother Teresa of St. Augustine and the Martyrs of Compiègne took place in Rome on Sunday, 27 May 1906. Elizabeth was present for the triduum in mid-October 1906 that the Carmel of Dijon celebrated in honor of the martyrs’ beatification.

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/26/meester-exile/

#anniversary #beatification #CarmelOfDijon #history #inspiration #martyrdom #MartyrsOfCompiègne #StElizabethOfTheTrinity