Last Consolations

Overflowing charity — October 4 — The triduum — With Him she loved — Preparing for a clothing — The ceremony — The " consuming fire."

We have reached the last weeks of the life of our poor little Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity. Her stomach was so ulcerated that it was difficult to know how to sustain the fervent victim, consumed as she was by the fire of love and of pain. " I do my best for love of the good God not to starve to death," she wrote to her relations, who were taxing their ingenuity to find something that would do her good.

Notwithstanding her extreme exhaustion, she remained out of bed the greater part of the day. She made more frequent and lengthy visits than ever to the Blessed Sacrament, begging to be allowed to spend at least half an hour before It. When, at last, obliged to own herself vanquished by illness, she passed her time in arranging fresh flowers foi the sacristy and in rendering a thousand little services to those around her, all that she did being marked with the perfect neatness which characterized her.

Sister Elizabeth, overflowing with charity like her Divine Master before He left His disciples, found strength to pour out her devoted love on those who had a claim on this final consolation. Her last letters, here grouped together, are like fragrant spices collected to make some delicious perfume, for the incense that Laudem Gloria was to give forth comes freely from these pages as from a " lighted er."

To a Carmelite Nun,

" Before I go to heaven, I want to tell you that I shall pray much for you in our Father's house. I appoint as our meeting-place the Furnace of Love ; there I shall pass my eternity, and you can begin yours already, even here below. Dear sister, I shall be zealous for your beauty. Are we not anxious for the well-being of those we love ? I think that my mission in heaven will be to draw souls to interior recollection by helping them to go out from self and to adhere to God in great simplicity and love ; also to keep them in that silence of the soul which allows God to imprint Himself upon it and transform it into Himself. Dear little sister, 1 seem to see all things now in the light of the good God, and were I to begin my life over again, I should strive not to lose a single instant. We brides of Christ in Carmel must not do anything except for love and for God. If by chance, from the great centre of light, I see you forsake this one occupation, I shall come to call you to order at once. Would you not like me to do so ? Pray for me, help me to prepare for l the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.'* Dying entails great suffering, and I reckon on your aid. I will help you at your death in return. My Master urges me on ; He speaks to me of nothing now except of * Apoc. xix. 9.

eternity ... of love. . . . It is so serious — so grave a matter ! . . .

u Good-bye ! I have neither strength nor leave to write much, but you know St. Paul's saying : € Our conversation is in heaven.'¹ Little sister, let us live by love, that we may die of love, and glorify the God Who is all love !

"cLaudem Gloria.'"

She wrote to a postulant whose angel she had been, and who had been obliged to return to her family for special reasons :

" My dear little Tobias,

" My angel's heart was deeply touched by your letter. I am glad you so fully realize the truth that I am not really leaving you. My prayer and sufferings are the wings beneath which I shelter you 'to keep thee in all thy ways.'*)" How gladly would I undergo the greatest tortures to win you more love and faithfulness ! You are the dear child of my soul, and I want to help you, to be your angel, unseen but always present, to succour you.

" Dear little sister, I think it is love which shortens our stay here below — in fact, St. John of the Cross states it plainly. He wrote a wonderful chapter describing the victims of love, and the last assaults it makes upon them.

"'Our God is a consuming fire,' J if we always keep united to Him by a simple and loving gaze of love. If, like our adorable Master, we can say at the end of each day : ' I do always the things that please Him,'* He will know how to consume us, and we shall fly, like two little sparks, to be lost in the great Furnace where we shall burn joyfully for all eternity.

cc You wish me to ask the good God for some sign to show whether we shall meet again, and whether you will take your place beside your little angel ; but, glad as I am to please you, I cannot do this. It is not in my way ; I should feel that I was not leaving all to God. What I can assure you of is, that our Master loves you, loves you dearly, and wishes you to be His own. Fie feels a divine jealousy regarding your soul — the jealousy of a Spouse. Keep Him in your heart alone and separate ; let love be your cloister ; you will bear Him with you everywhere and find solitude in a crowd.

" Good-bye ! Everything reminds me that I am going to heaven. If you only knew with what serene joy I wait to see God face to face ! In the midst of the dazzling light, I shall still be bent over my child to preserve her like a pure lily for the divine Master, so that He may gladly gather her for His garden of virgins, and may rest His glowing gaze upon the flower grown for Him with such deep love."

To the Same.

" I never before felt such need of enveloping you in my prayer. When my anguish is most keen, I feel so impelled to offer it for you that I cannot do otherwise. Are you suffering in any way? I give you all my pain to dispose of as you choose.

" How happy I am at thinking that the Master is * St. John viii. 29.

soon coming to fetch me ! Death is ideal for those whom God has kept !

" In heaven I shall be your angel more than ever. I know my little sister's need of protection in Paris where her life is passed. St. Paul says that God wishes us to be ' holy and unspotted in His sight in charity.'² Ah ! how fervently I shall beg Him that this great decree may be accomplished in you ! To attain this, listen to the same Apostle's advice : c Walk ye in Him ; rooted and built up in Him, and confirmed in the faith . . . abounding in Him.'f While contemplating the ideal Beauty by His own brilliant light, I shall beseech Him to imprint it in your soul, so that even while on this earth, where all is stained, you may be beautiful in His beauty, luminous with His light.

"Adieu ! Thank Him for me, for my joy is immense. I appoint as our meeting-place the 'lot of the saints. 'J There, in the choir of virgins pure as the light, we shall sing the canticle of the Lamb, the eternal Sanctus, beneath the light of the Face of God ; then we shall be i transformed into the same image from glory to glory.' "§

To a Friend.

" October, 1906.

" The hour draws near when I am c to pass from this world to my Father.' Before leaving, I wish to send you a word from my heart, a legacy of my soul. The divine Master's love never overflowed as it did at the last moment when He was about to leave His

X Col. i. 12. § 2 Cor. Hi 18.

own. He seems to have put something of this feeling in the heart of His little bride in the evening of her life, for I feel a flood of affection rise from my own heart towards yours.

<c We see the true value of things by the light of eternity. Oh, how empty all is that has not been done for God and with God ! I beg you to mark all your doings with the seal of love ; it is the only thing that lasts ! . . . What a serious thing life is ! Each minute is given us for the purpose of rooting ourselves more deeply in God, according to St. Paul's expression, so that we may attain a more striking likeness to our Master, a closer union. The secret of realizing this plan, formed by God Himself, is to forget, to forsake self, no longer making any account of it ; to look upon the divine Master and on Him alone ; to receive joy or sorrow indifferently, as both coming from His love. This establishes the soul upon the summits where all is peace.

" I leave you my faith in the presence of God, Who is all love, dwelling within our souls ; I entrust it to you. This intimacy with Him c within me ' has been the lovely sun that irradiated my life, making it a foretaste of heaven, and it sustains me now in my suffering. I do not fear my weakness, which strengthens my trust in the c Mighty ' One Who is within me, and His omnipotence works, as the Apostle says, 'above what we could hope for.'

" Adieu ! When I am in heaven, will you let me help you, and even find fault with you because of my love for you, if I see that you do not give all to the divine Master ? I will protect your two darling treasures, and will ask for all you need to make their souls beautiful, true daughters of Love. May He keep you all His own, faithful in all things. I shall always be yours in Him !"

Sister Elizabeth kept her most charming little attentions and pregnant sayings, such as bring with them both light and life, for her sisters in the cloister. The little note she placed in a cell on the anniversary of a profession is a sample. With great tact, she wrote in the person of our Lady, whose picture forms the heading of these lines on recollection :

" Jesus made His first oblation to the Father in my arms, and He sends me to receive yours. . . . I bring you a scapular³ as a pledge of my protection and love, as a c sign ' of the mystery which is to be worked in you. I come, my daughter, to finish ' clothing you with Jesus Christ,' that you may be 1 rooted in Him ' in the depths of the abyss with the Father and the Spirit of Love ; that you may be £ built up in Him/ your Rock and your Fortress ; that you may be ■ confirmed in the faith ' in the immense love which rushes into your soul from the great Furnace. This all-powerful love will work great things in you. Believe my word, the word of a Mother, and of a Mother who thrills with joy at seeing with what special tenderness you are loved. Oh ! dwell within the depths of your own soul !

" The Bridegroom is here ! He comes with all Llis gifts ; the abyss of His love clothes you as with a vestment.

u Silence ! Silence ! . . ."

The month of October held in reserve the last joys of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity's earthly exile.

She very much wished to take part in the community festivities that yearly honour the blessed death of our seraphic Mother. She confided her longing to the Saint, and it was granted against all likelihood. Sister Elizabeth took the opportunity of putting on a new habit, in the afternoon of that day, to ask leave to renew the ceremony of her clothing, which took place near the tribune where she was accustomed to pray before the tabernacle. Full of faith, she observed the most minute details of the ceremonial, and did not dispense herself from the great prostration.

We were much affected at seeing her at choir in the evening, after an absence of seven months. Frail and trembling, she could hardly be perceived in the dim light, and was lost to all around in fervent prayer which she knew would be the last she would make in the place associated with so many graces and cherished memories. She felt a calm joy in prostrating before the grille in commemoration of her oblation on December 8,⁴ and her consecration on January 2 1 . f Her whole soul went with the Suscipe which our holy Mother was to offer as a " praise of glory " to the Blessed Trinity. Then, serenely radiant, she regained her c< dear solitude " to complete the gift so sincerely renewed.

Her sister and brother-in-law, who had promised to help us with the music of the festivals we were preparing in honour of our Blessed Martyrs of Compiegne, came to practise in the chapel in the evening. Sister Elizabeth noticed how unselfishly her dear Marguerite accompanied her husband, trying to bring him forward, while keeping in the background herself.

"I ought to be, like her, an instrument from which the divine Master can draw the melodies He loves best," she said ; " effacing myself to give Him all the glory, only seconding His action by co-operation with His grace." The most insignificant matters thus raised her to God, or rather, nothing brought her down to earth. " Her feet rest on this world ; her heart, her soul, and her spirit are in heaven," said one of the nuns to her mother.

Sister Elizabeth was able to take part in our beautiful festivities from her little sanctuary, to which the picture of the Blessed Martyrs was fastened. By the numerous Masses celebrated during the triduum she united herself more closely with the Sacred Host. She was almost on a level with the Blessed Sacrament, and delighted in applying to herself the words of the Psalmist : cc The queen stood on Thy right hand,"⁵ saying: " I take advantage of the place I hold beside Him Who made me queen to draw many graces from His heart."

Her thoughts centred on the young Levites who came to hear the spiritual and profound sermons with which we were favoured. She besought her " Almighty Counsellor " to infuse that unction into the depths of their heart which, in bygone days, had so powerfully penetrated her own from the same source.

On the 15th, the Feast of St. Teresa, our Bishop and most revered Father, Monseigneur Dadolle, announced the beatification of the Blessed Martyrs, to whose robes of virgin-white was added the purple of their sacrifice of blood. The coincidence of the two feasts led his Lordship to speak of our seraphic

2o4 THE "PRAISE OF GLORY"

Mother's life as also that of a martyr, since she gave the greatest possible gift . . . supreme love. He developed this idea in a remarkable sermon which moved the hearts of all his hearers. When Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity quitted her sanctuary she felt irresistibly impelled to give the Divine Master her whole love by an absolute sacrifice. The Bishop willingly gave her, at the parlour grille, his blessing as Father and Pontiff, which little " praise of glory " looked upon as her final consecration.

God granted her another consolation by sending to our festivals at Carmel the Dominican from whom her soul had received the religious influence to which she so faithfully corresponded.

When she confided her desire of suffering to the reverend Father, he told her not to limit herself to that, but to yield herself in all simplicity to God, leaving Him free to act in any way He chose.

From that time her soul, turned towards the regions raised above all suffering, seemed to grow daily more full of light, and, notwithstanding her pain, our little sister appeared to dwell already in the heaven of glory. " 1 feel love standing beside me as though it were a living being!" she exclaimed; " and it says to me : ' I wish to live in thy companionship ; therefore, I desire thee to suffer without thinking that thou art suffering, submitting thyself simply to my action upon thee.' "

One more memory of this month of October. It shows us Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity unselfish in her charity to the very end. A lay sister postulant, her companion in the novitiate, was about to be clothed ; the invalid offered to make her white headdress, upon which she expended her affection and the remnant of her strength. No one who witnessed the exquisite taste with which she arranged everything, and her forethought about the smallest details, in order that nothing might disturb the recollection of the young novice on the morning of the great day, would have supposed that Sister Elizabeth would take to her bed next week, never to leave it again. Yet the exhaustion of her poor body, which was almost reduced to a skeleton and required all her mental energy to urge to the slightest movement, showed that the end was not far off. Her fingers could hardly hem the linen and often fell helpless on her little table. The poor child used to smile, but would allow no one to do her task ; her great charity sustained her, for she knew how delighted her little sister would be if she did the work.

She remained in her usual place, wrapt in contemplation, on October 22, during the clothing, deeply happy in the thought that she would soon be laid, for another ceremony, in the very place where the young novice now prostrated. Alas ! in three weeks her hope was realized.

She wrote that evening for the last time from the " palace of pain":

"My dearly-loved Priest,⁶

" Your little victim is enduring very, very much ; she is in a kind of physical agony, and feels so cowardly — cowardly enough to scream ! But He Who is the fulness of love visits her and makes her live in company with Him, while intimating to her that as long as He leaves her on earth He will give her suffering. I wish, Mother, if you will allow me, to prepare a great festival for you on All Saints' Day : to begin a novena of pain for you, during which we shall come every night, out of affection for you, to visit you while you are asleep."

Her tortures were now increased by severe interior inflammation ; she was literally scorched and could hardly speak, but her face was radiant with joy. " God is a consuming fire," she said ; " He is acting upon me."

" I shall never forget the impression your angeldaughter made upon me when I gave her Holy Communion, three weeks before she died," wrote a religious in a letter to us. " Although I had been told about it beforehand, I was so unnerved that my hand trembled when I placed the Sacred Host upon her tongue, which was as red as fire. I consider that having been allowed to give Holy Communion to her whom He was about to crown in heaven is one of the greatest favours shown me in my ministry by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our Lord seemed to intimate to me that the love which inflamed the soul of His saintly victim was burning her more fiercely than the heat which consumed her poor body."

This was indeed the fact, and Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity yielded herself so entirely to the " living flame of love" kindled within her heart, that it wounded her divinely. She greeted her Prioress one morning with the words : " O Mother ! a little more and you would never have found Laudem Gloria on earth again !" " How was that ?"

" Yesterday evening my soul was undergoing a kind of prostration, when I suddenly felt myself, as it were, invaded by Love. No words could express what I experienced ; it was a fire of infinite sweetness which, at the same time, gave me a mortal wound. I think that, had it lasted any longer, I should have succumbed."

Thus ended this life wholly given up to love, which may be epitomized in the words of the Gospel concerning St. Mary Magdalen : " She hath loved much."⁷

St. John of the Cross says of these predestined souls : " The death of such souls is most full of sweetness, beyond that of their whole spiritual life, for they die of the sweet violence of love, like the swan which sings more sweetly when death is nigh. This is why the Psalmist said, ' Precious in the sight of our Lord is the death of His saints/f for then the rivers of the souls' love flow into the sea of love, so wide and deep as to seem a sea themselves ; the beginning and the end unite together to accompany the just departing for His kingdom. "J

The inner history of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity concludes with the end of our holy Father's commentary.

" O flame of the Holy Ghost ! penetrating so profoundly and so tenderly the very substance of my soul, and burning it with Thy heat, since Thou art so gentle as to manifest Thy desire of giving Thyself wholly to me in everlasting life ; if formerly my petitions did not rc.ich Thine ears, when I was weary

I "The Living Flame of Love," stanza i., 27, 28 (Lewis's translation; Baker, 19 12).

and worn with love, suffering through the weakness of sense and spirit, because of my great infirmities, impurity, and little love, I prayed to be set free— for with desire hath my soul desired Thee — when my impatient love would not suffer me to submit to the conditions of this life according to Thy will— for it was Thy will that I should live — and when the previous impulses of my love were insufficient in Thy sight, because there was no substance in them ; now that I am grown strong in love, that body and soul together do not only follow after Thee, but that 'my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God'⁸ with one consent, so that I am praying for that which Thou wiliest that I should pray for . . . break Thou the slender web of this life that I may be enabled to love Thee hereafter with that fulness and abundance which my soul desires, without end for evermore, f⁹

Footnotes

1. Phil. iii. 20. t Ps. xc. II. X Heb. xii. 29. ↩

2. Eph. i. 4. t Col. ii. 6, 7. ↩

3. The little vestier, influenced as she was by faith, with characteristic charm waited for this opportunity to give her siner the blest scapular of our Lady. ↩

4. Her clothing. t Taking the veil ↩

5. Ps. xliv. 10. ↩

6. Towards the end of her life Laudem Gloria ', who had now become a " victim of praise," addressed as her priest her by whose hands her oblation had been made and through whom the supreme sacrifice was now being perfected. ↩

7. St. Luke vii. 47. t Ps. cxv. 15. ↩

8. Ps. lxxxiii. 3. ↩

9. "The Living Flame of Love," stanza i., 35. ↩