#mothergermaine — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 9 October: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

We’re having a holiday in Carmel, for our elections took place yesterday [9 October].

Oh! if you knew how, in taking away our good Mother whom I loved so much, God has given me two others who are so good, so good! You see, it is delightful, and that makes me love still more this good Master who spoils His little one so much.

Our dear Mother Sub-Prioress was elected Prioress, and my good Angel, Sub-Prioress; this good news is really going to delight my dear little Mama, and I’ve been anxious to announce it to you.

Because of the elections, we’re having a free day, that is, we can have little visits with each other during the day. But, you see, the life of a Carmelite is silence, so she loves that above all!

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Letter 97 to her sister Guite (excerpt)

Note: According to the Book of Elections of the Dijon Carmel, it was indeed “yesterday,” on October 9, 1901, that Mother Germaine of Jesus (who also held the office of Mistress of Novices) was elected Prioress and Sister Marie of the Trinity (who remained Elizabeth’s “Angel” during these first days), Sub-Prioress. The two religious, aged 31 and 26 respectively, bore the title “Mother” by virtue of their office. The prioress who was “taken away” from the community in Dijon was Mother Marie of Jesus, who became the founding prioress of the Carmel of Paray-le-Monial.

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.

#elections #monasticLife #MotherGermaine #silence #StElizabethOfTheTrinity

Quote of the day, 5 August: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Voice of Heaven

We who are bathed in Light, within the ‘Three’ –
The Face of God, the splendour of its rays –
See, by those shinings, into Mystery:
They ever show new secrets, Heaven’s days.

Infinite Being! Depth unsoundable!
Delighted, lost in Your Divinity –
O Trinity, God thrice-immutable,
We see Yourself in Your own clarity.

Voice of Earth

The saints in Heav’n . . . but, also, here below
Souls come and merge themselves in such a Love;
In mystery and night this happens so –
God satisfies: in dark, in Day above.

Through everything . . . on earth: already we’re
Possessing You, our Peace and vision! (for,
As in one light we gather, there and here,
We lose ourselves in God, for evermore!

Voice of Heaven

As sharers, now, in God’s own Essence, you
Possess all we possess in Heaven . . . See! –
You have not yet the joy we have, that’s true;
But as for giving – you give more than we.

And when one loves, how good it is to give!
(You can be giving, every hour and place.)
Oh, give God glory while on earth you live –
By self-oblation. Seize on this high grace!

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Poem 80

Note: This poem was written by Elizabeth for the patronal feast of Mother Germaine on 15 June 1902. The original manuscript bears no title or date, but the handwriting and black ink confirm it was composed for this feast day. The poem takes the form of a dialogue between the “Voice of Heaven” and the “Voice of Earth,” alternating throughout. This poem was sung during a “pious recreation” performed by the community for their prioress, Mother Germaine, on her feast day, set to the melody “Reste avec moi, Jésus-Eucharistie” (Remain with me, Jesus-Eucharist). Sister Agnès of Jesus-Maria testified at Elizabeth’s beatification process that when she and Elizabeth went to work in the garden during recreation, they would heartily sing this poem together. The French critical edition notes that the autograph contains some words that are difficult to decipher, and editor Conrad de Meester, OCD, reconstructed portions of the text for clarity.

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

Elizabeth of the Trinity, Marmion, C and Bancroft, A 2001, Barb of fire: twenty poems of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity: with selected passages from Blessed Columba Marmion, OSB, Gracewing, Leominster.

#heaven #HolyTrinity #monasticLife #MotherGermaine #poetry #StElizabethOfTheTrinity

Quote of the day, 30 April: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Would you please send me during the next few days the muslin that’s left from our first Communion dresses, and if there’s not very much of it, that dotted muslin that’s in a box in the attic (still to be delivered to Mother Sub-Prioress).

It’s for Saint Germaine, I’ll tell you about it (I’ll return it to you afterward).

Adieu, I only have time to kiss you before going to sleep.

In union, we have our Heaven within us, let’s live it.

I love you much, my Guite.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Letter 120 to her sister Marguerite Chevignard
Shortly before 15 June 1902

Note: In this letter, Elizabeth and her sister Guite plan a special gift for Mother Germaine, Prioress at the Carmel of Dijon. The gift would be presented on the feast day on her feast day. Elizabeth had made her First Holy Communion on 19 April 1891 at Saint Michael’s Parish in Dijon. Madame Catez later recalled“I will never forget the emotions of 19 April: I saw my child so recollected, so earnest, her tears did not cease to flow and I understood that God had taken possession of that heart so pure, so loving, which no longer would beat except for him” (De Meester, C 2017, Rien Moins Que Dieu).

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

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: Detailed portrait of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, taken on 8 June 1891 after her Confirmation. Although photographed on the day of her Confirmation, the portrait also commemorates her First Holy Communion, received earlier on 19 April 1891. The setting is the garden of the Catez family home in Dijon. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (used by permission).

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How can I live more consciously today in the “Heaven within me” that Elizabeth describes?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#FeastDay #FirstCommunion #heaven #MadameCatez #MargueriteChevignard #MotherGermaine #StElizabethOfTheTrinity

Propter nimiam charitatem!…

That day was God-ordained:
the Father, by decree,
Laid down that you began
my Mother here to be.
I hail that joyous day:
the Triune Loving — more,
‘Excess of Charity’!
I see it, and adore.

Such overflowing love! —
that’s what it is, I know,
When God, in prescient love,
arranged that this be so —
For He (that I should make
oblation here fore-known)
Had consecrated you
with unction of His own.

And, from the very start,
O Mother, God was pleased
To love as one in Him
His victim and His priest:
His gaze of love on us
from all eternity,
He’ll always look and see
not two, but unity.

So, if your little ‘host’
(O Pontiff, whom I love!)
Is very soon transferred
up to the Home Above,
She will be yours still more! —
I think it might be so —
Than when the night of faith
she lived in, here below.

Have you not seen a priest
who’s going through the town
Carrying God, the Host,
hidden beneath his gown? —
On your maternal heart
that way, will not it be
That Laudem Gloriae
spends her eternity?

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

P 122 [for 9 October 1906]

Note: St. Elizabeth wrote this poem for the fifth anniversary of the election of the prioress, Mother Germaine. Elizabeth refers to herself as a “victim” and “little ‘host'”; she refers to Mother Germaine as “priest” and “Pontiff”.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, Marmion, C and Bancroft, A 2001, Barb of fire: twenty poems of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity: with selected passages from Blessed Columba Marmion, OSB, Gracewing, Leominster.

Featured image: Image credit for St. Elizabeth of the Trinity: Discalced Carmelites. Collage created in Adobe Express.

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/07/sabeth-p122/

#Eucharist #LaudemGloriae #monasticLife #MotherGermaine #poetry #StElizabethOfTheTrinity