Holy Thursday: with the Priests and with Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Holy celebration of the Lord's Supper!

"Father,

[...] my soul needs to tell you that it is in complete communion with yours, allowing itself to be taken, carried away, and overwhelmed by the One whose charity envelops us [...].

I was thinking of you as I read [...] these words on contemplation: “The contemplative is a being who lives in the radiance of the Face of Christ, who enters into the mystery of God, not under the light that rises from human thought, but under that which is made by the word of the Incarnate Word.”

              Don't you have this passion to listen to Him?

Sometimes this need to be silent is so strong that we would like to do nothing else but remain like Mary Magdalene, that beautiful model of the contemplative soul, at the feet of the Master, eager to hear everything, to penetrate ever deeper into this mystery of Charity that He came to reveal to us.

            Don't you think that in action, while fulfilling the role of Martha, the soul can still remain completely adoring, buried like Mary Magdalene in her contemplation, clinging to this source like someone who is starving? This is how I understand the apostolate for both Carmelites and priests. Then both can radiate God, give Him to souls, if they remain constantly at these divine sources. It seems to me that we should draw so close to the Master, commune so deeply with His soul, identify with all His movements, and then go forth like Him in the will of His Father. Then, what does it matter what happens to the soul, since it has faith in the One it loves and who dwells within it?

During this Lent, I would like, as St. Paul says, to “bury myself in God with Christ,” to lose myself in this Trinity which will one day be our vision, and under these divine lights to sink into the depths of the Mystery.

        Pray, won't you, that I may be completely surrendered and that my Beloved Spouse may take me wherever He wills.

           To God, Father, let us remain in His Love, for is He not the infinite One for whom our souls thirst so deeply?

S. M. Elisabeth of the Trinity, r.c.i."

(Excerpts from a letter from Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity, February 24, 1903)