Life (1880-1906)

Elizabeth Catez was born in 1880 in Avor, France.  Her father was an army captain and died when she was seven.  She had a younger sister, Guite, and they were very close to each other and their mother.  At the age of seven, Elizabeth told a friend of the family, Canon Angles, that she would be a religious.  She was a precocious child with a flashing temper until she made her First Communion.  From that time on she was noticeably calm in temperament.  She was an accomplished pianist.  Her family was middle class, and they enjoyed parties and other social activities. 

From the time of her First Communion in 1891, she “wanted to give her life and to return a little of His great love.”  At the age of thirteen she bound herself to Jesus was a vow of virginity.  Elizabeth’s heart had been captured, and now she could think only of Him.  On her twenty-first birthday she had her mother’s blessing at last to enter the Carmel in Dijon, close to her home.  Elizabeth expresses in her letters a deep joy at being in Carmel.  Everything led her to her “Three,” the Trinity.  She offered herself unconditionally to “Him”; He accepted. 

Elizabeth became ill shortly after entering Carmel and suffered for five years from a stomach ailment, now thought to have been Addison’s disease.  Her suffering was intense both spiritually and physically; this caused her love for Jesus to increase, and also her desire to offer these sufferings to Him. 

In her writings Elizabeth refers often to the words of Saint Paul.  She speaks of her vocation: “To be a bride, a bride of Carmel,” means to have the flaming heart of Elijah, the transpierced heart of Teresa, to be His “true bride,” because she was ”zealous for His honor.”  St. Elizabeth of the Trinity had true depth of prayer, was a mystic, a great lover of Jesus, and a real friend to her sisters in Carmel and her family.  She referred to herself as Laudem Gloriae, Praise of Glory.  She died November 9, 1906.  Her last words were:  “I am going to Light, to Love, to Life!” Her canonization took place in Rome on October 16, 2016.

Source: https://www.carmelitedcj.org/carmel/saints-of-carmel/160-bl-elizabeth-of-the-trinity

Scripture (Eph 1:3-10,13-14)

Give peace to my soul; make it your heaven, your beloved abode, and the place of your rest. Let me never leave you there alone; but keep me there totally present, completely vigilant in my faith, totally in adoration and wholly surrendered to your creative action.

O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, I want to be the spouse of your heart. I long to cover you with glory, to love you... until I should die of love… Yet I feel helpless. I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to submerge me, to fill me, to substitute yourself for me, so that my life may be only a radiance of your life. Enter me as Adorer, as Redeemer, and as Savior.

O Eternal Word, utterance of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, I want to become totally teachable so that I might learn everything from you. Through all darkness, all emptiness, and all helplessness, I want to be centered on you always and remain in your great light; O my beloved Star, make me so captivated that I no longer move away from your radiance.

O consuming Fire, Spirit of love, let it be done that an incarnation of the Word may occur again in my soul. May I be for him another humanity in whom he may renew his whole mystery. And you, O Father, incline yourself toward your little creature, see in her only the Beloved in whom you are well pleased.

O my “Three,” my all, my beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to you as your prey. Bury yourself in me so that I may bury myself in you, until I go to contemplate in your light the abyss of your grandeur.  (November 21, 1904)