08 October 2016

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity: A Prayer to the Trinity

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Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity is to be canonised as a Saint of the Catholic Church on 16 October 2016.   [There is a very nice article by Julie Enzler in the National Catholic Reporter which one may read via this link.]


Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us.

The following is a 1913 translation from the French of her famous prayer to the Most Holy Trinity:


PRAYER OF SISTER ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY.

O my God, Trinity Whom I adore ! help me to become utterly forgetful of self, that I may establish myself in Thee, as changeless and as calm as though my soul were already in eternity.

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
Beatified 25 November 1984
by Pope St. John Paul II
May nothing disturb my peace nor draw me forth from Thee, O my immutable Lord ! but may I penetrate more deeply every moment into the depths of Thy Mystery.

Give peace to my soul ; make it Thy heaven, Thy cherished dwelling-place, Thy home of rest. Let me never leave Thee there alone, but keep me there all absorbed in Thee, in living faith, adoring Thee and wholly yielded up to Thy creative action.

O my Christ Whom I love! crucified by love! fain would I be the bride of Thy heart ; fain would I cover Thee with glory, and love Thee . . . until I die of very love!

Yet I realize my weakness, and beg Thee to clothe me with Thyself, to identify my soul with all the movements of Thine own.

Immerse me in Thyself; possess me wholly; substitute Thyself for me, that my life may be but a radiance of Thine own. Enter my soul as Adorer, as Restorer, as Saviour !

O eternal Word, Utterance of my God! I long to pass my life in listening to Thee, to become docile, that I may learn all from Thee.

Through all darkness, all privations, all helplessness, I crave to keep Thee ever with me and to dwell beneath Thy lustrous beams. O my beloved Star ! So fascinate me that I cannot wander from Thy light !

O " Consuming Fire " Spirit of Love! descend within me and reproduce in me, as it were, an incarnation of the Word, that I may be to Him another humanity wherein He renews all His mystery.

And Thou, O Father, bend towards Thy poor little creature and overshadow her, beholding in her none other than Thy beloved Son, in Whom Thou hast set all Thy pleasure.

My " Three," my all, my beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity wherein I lose myself! I yield myself to Thee as Thy prey. Merge Thyself in me, that I may be immerged in Thee until I depart to con- template in Thy light the abyss of Thy greatness !

21 November 1904.


THE "PRAISE OF GLORY"
REMINISCENCES OF SISTER ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY
 A CARMELITE NUN OF DIJON, 1901-1906 
 R. W T. WASHBOURNE, LTD. 
 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 AND AT MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND GLASGOW
1913
pp. 260-261