Last month, we celebrated the feast days of two Carmelite sisters who have had a big influence on the Catholic faith: St Therese of Lisieux and St Teresa of Avila. Today, we celebrate another Carmelite saint - St Elizabeth of the Trinity. Elizabeth was born in France in 1880. After the death of her father, her family moved to the town of Dijon where there was a Carmelite monastery near her home. The life of the sisters at the monastery intrigued the young Elizabeth and she joined the community in 1901 at the age of 21. Her five short years in the monastery were very happy years for her, despite her suffering from Addison’s disease, which ended her life at the age of 26. Elizabeth was a talented pianist who had a great passion for writing and music. She uses music in a analogy as she writes about the spiritual life: “A praise of glory is a soul of silence that remains like a lyre under the mysterious touch of the Holy Spirit so that he may draw from it divine harmonies; it knows that suffering is a string that produces still more beautiful sounds.” Elizabeth saw conversion as being attuned to the harmonies of God’s life within us. She saw holiness as being in harmony with the dynamics of divine love. I have heard from my Carmelite friends that the depths of Elizabeth’s writings on Catholic spirituality could one day have her named as a Doctor of the Church just like St Therese and St Teresa.
Our psalm declares today: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” It is easy to see the light of Christ shining in moment of joy and harmony in our lives. It is harder to see it in our sufferings and in our struggles. Like Elizabeth of the Trinity, may we see God’s light shining at every moment of our journey of faith.
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