Photo Credit: Carmel of Dijon

The Vatican announced today that Pope Francis has authorized the canonization of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, a young Carmelite who died at the Carmel of Dijon, France in 1906 at the age of twenty-six.  On Thursday afternoon, March 3, 2016, the Pope received Cardinal Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the Congregation to promulgate the decree recognizing as a miracle the cure of Ms. Marie-Paul Stevens.

Story of the Miracle

 Marie-Paul was teaching religion at the Institute of the Marist Brothers in Malmedy, in Belgium, in May 1997, when she began to have trouble speaking and other symptoms.  Some weeks later, after undergoing medical tests on a friend's advice, Marie-Paul discovered that she had Sjogren's disease.  As her illness progressed, the government asked her to retire early.  Many people were praying the novena to Blessed Elizabeth to ask for Marie-Paul's healing.  Although the patient received chemotherapy and other treatment, her health deteriorated.  As Marie-Paul moved closer to death, she requested to go on pilgrimage to the Carmel of Flavignerot to thank Elizabeth for giving her strength during her illness. This was the community of Blessed Elizabeth; the nuns moved in 1979 from Dijon to nearby Flavignerot.  On April 2, 2002 she prayed in the chapel of the Carmel and gave thanks to Elizabeth.  Afterward she rested by sitting on one of the rocks at the edge of the monastery's parking lot.  The two friends who had accompanied her were astounded when, all at once, she stood up, lifted her hands to heaven, and cried out in amazement and happiness "I am no longer sick!"  From that day on she has been well.

Marie-Paul Stevens, the Belgian woman whose cure was accepted as the miracle for the canonization of Elizabeth of the Trinity.  Photo credit: Carmel of Dijon.

History of the Inquiry into the Miracle

The diocesan process to examine this miracle with a view to canonizing Elizabeth was formally opened on July 11th, 2011 in the chapel of the Archbishop of Dijon, Most Rev. Roland Minnerah.  The vice-postulator of Elizabeth's cause, Fr. Antonio Sangalli, O.C.D. (also the vice-postulator for Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin and the postulator for the Servant of God, Leonie Martin, the sister of St. Therese of Lisieux), wrote a letter requesting the opening of the process, and the members of the tribunal were sworn in.  Three Carmelite nuns of Flavignerot were interviewed about the miracle.

The members of the tribunal traveled to Belgium to conduct several sessions of inquiry.  They interviewed more than 40 witnesses, including several physicians.  Everyone was amazed at Marie-Paul's healing and moved by Elizabeth's life and writings.  The successful closing of the process was celebrated at Vespers (evening prayer) in the chapel of the Carmel of Flavignerot (where Marie-Paul had prayed to Elizabeth) on August 25, 2012.  Marie-Paul Stevens herself was present at the solemn closing of the process together with several friends; members of the Chevignard family, descendants of Elizabeth's sister Marguerite, known as "Guite;" and friends of the Flavignerot Carmel.

Father Sangalli was then commissioned to present the voluminous dossier of the tribunal's work to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, which again investigated the healing and recommended that it be recognized as a miracle.

About Elizabeth of the Trinity

Elizabeth Catez was born in 1880.  She entered the Dijon Carmel in 1901 and died there in 1906 at the age of twenty-six. She penetrated the depths of the contemplative life had a profound experience of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in her soul.  Her spiritual influence has been growing deeper and wider since her death.

Elizabeth of the Trinity and Therese of Lisieux

Elizabeth is one of the earliest and most fervent disciples of Therese.  With her novice mistress, Mother Germaine of Jesus, she was deeply influenced by an early copy of Therese's Story of a Soul.  Her writings are full of quotations and echoes of Therese, easily recognized by those who know Therese.

The Jesuit theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote a book about Therese and Elizabeth: Two Sisters in the Spirit, showing how each one complements the contemplative life of the other.   

Elizabeth's Writings

The critical edition of Elizabeth's writings was edited in three volumes by the distinguished Belgian Carmelite scholar, Fr. Conrad De Meester, who has presented and interpreted Therese so brilliantly.  Two of the volumes, "Vol. I: General Introduction and Major Spiritual Writings" (also called "I Have Found God") and Letters from Carmel, have been published in English. 

I have spent much time meditating on and praying over Elizabeth's letters from Carmel and have found them the best way to get to know her and to understand her profound union with Therese and with God. I recommend them.

If you prefer to read a narrative of her life, consider He Is My Heaven:  The Life of Elizabeth of the Trinity by Jennifer Moorcroft.

 Pope St. John Paul II and Elizabeth of the Trinity

Elizabeth was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 25, 1984.  In his homily he said of her:

This contemplative, far from being isolated, was able to communicate to her sisters and to those near her the richness of her mystical experience. Her message is spreading today with a prophetic force.  We invoke her: the disciple of Teresa of Jesus and of John of the Cross, she inspires and sustains the whole family of Carmel; she helps many men and women, in the lay life and in the consecrated life, to receive and to share the 'waves of infinite charity' she received 'at the fountain of life.'

My translation, from the Vatican Web site.

Canonization of Elizabeth of the Trinity

The date of her canonization, which will no doubt take place later this year, is expected to be announced on March 15, 2016.     

Day Two – “Merciful Like the Father”

Our Lady of Hope, by Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS
www.trinitystores.com

In Misericordae Vultus, Pope Francis writes:

"It is absolutely essential for the Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify to mercy. Her language and her gestures must transmit mercy, so as to touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father."

“To touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father”—this is the mission of Therese.  She wrote “Jesus deigned to show me the only road that leads to this divine Furnace, and this road is the abandonment of the little child who sleepswithout fear in its Father’s arms.” 

Pope Francis:  “The mercy of God is not an abstract idea, but a concrete reality with which he reveals his love as of that of a father or a mother, moved to the very depths out of love for their child. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that this is a “visceral” love. It gushes forth from the depths naturally, full of tenderness and compassion, indulgence and mercy.”

Therese: Sister Marie of the Trinity, speaking of an interaction with Therese, her novice mistress: 

“One day I hurt her feelings when I would not admit the faults she reproached me with.  Just then the bell rang for evening prayer.  On the way I began to be sorry for the way I had behaved, and I whispered to her “I was very naughty just now.”  She looked at me lovingly, her eyes filled with tears.  

“If you only knew what is going on within me! No, I have never experienced so vividly with what love Jesus receives us when we ask him to forgive us after we have offended him.  Hardly had you begun to express your repentance to me than I felt for you more love than before.  If such is the case with me, poor little creature that I am, what must God experience when the sinner returns to him?” 

Therese of Lisieux and Marie of the Trinity, by Pierre Descouvement.  Staten Island, New York: Society of St. Paul, 1997, pp. 75-76.

Pope Francis: “The Spouse of Christ must pattern her behaviour after the Son of God who went out to everyone without exception. . . .  in a word, wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.”

Within the desert of Carmel, Therese herself was an oasis of mercy to the others.  She extended herself to the sisters who were older, ill, cranky, neglected, or isolated in any way, and she did so at considerable personal cost.

• At recreation, the two prized times a day when the nuns were permitted to talk, she went to sit by those who were neglected.
  
  
• Sister Marie of St. Joseph, who had a terrible temper (she was forced to leave the Carmel after the death of Therese), had been working alone in the linen room.  The nuns were so afraid of her that the prioress had not dared assign her a helper.  Therese asked to be assigned to aid her and rescued her from the isolation which had been her lot.  When Therese’s sister Marie confided how much trouble she herself had with Sister Marie of St. Joseph, Therese answered “Ah! if you only knew how necessary it is to forgive her, how much she is to be pitied!  It is not her fault if she is so poorly gifted; she is like an old clock that has to be rewound every quarter of an hour.  Yes, it is as bad as that.  Well, wouldn’t you have pity on it? Oh, how necessary it is to practice charity toward one’s neighbour!” 
  
• When her sister Pauline spoke to her of a nun who treated Therese badly, Therese replied “I assure you that I have the greatest compassion for Sister X.  If you knew her as well as I do, you would see that she is not responsible for all the things that seem so awful to us.  I remind myself that, if I had an infirmity such as hers, and so defective a temperament, I wouldn’t do any better than she does, and then I would despair; she suffers terribly from her own shortcomings.”
  
• When one of the novices said she couldn’t stand how a fussy elderly sister under whose supervision Therese worked was treating her, Therese exclaimed “You are complaining after a few words with her; what would you do if you had to listen to her all day long, as I do?  Now, you can do what I do.  It’s really easy.  All you have to do is mellow your soul with charitable thoughts; you then feel such peace that you no longer get irritated.”

St. Therese of Lisieux by those who knew her, tr. Christopher O’Mahony, O.C.D.  Dublin: Veritas Press, 1973.

Pope Francis:  We want to live this Jubilee Year in light of the Lord’s words: Merciful like the Father. The Evangelist reminds us of the teaching of Jesus who says, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). It is a programme of life as demanding as it is rich with joy and peace.

•  One day one of Therese’s blood sisters asked her “How come you always smile so sweetly when Sister X speaks to you? It can’t be because ofany attraction because she is always making you suffer.”  “That is precisely why I love her and why I show her so much affection,” Therese answered.  “How could I prove my love for Jesus if I behaved otherwise toward those who hurt me?”

Pope Francis:  Merciful like the Father, therefore, is the “motto” of this Holy Year. In mercy, we find proof of how God loves us. He gives his entire self, always, freely, asking nothing in return. He comes to our aid whenever we call upon him.

How can we be merciful like the Father?  Ask for the grace of a deeper participation in Therese's mission of mercy.

Time of Personal Prayer

Pray as the Holy Spirit leads you.  Consider reading over paragraphs 12-14 of "Misericordiae Vultus” and pausing wherever your heart feels moved.

The Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee

Click here to read the Prayer of Pope Francis.

Introduction

The Extraordinary Jubilee  of Mercy began on December 8, 2015.  The feast of St. Therese on october 1 falls within this Jubilee of Mercy. I invite you to join the members of the community of faith in nine days of prayer and reflection, beginning on Thursday, September 22, and concluding on Friday, September 30, the anniversary of St. Therese's death and the vigil of her feast.  We will reflect on the Pope’s Apostolic Letter, “Misericordiae Vultus” (“The Face of Mercy”) and on related themes in the lived experience of St. Therese, the great missionary of God's mercy. May this be an opportunity for God to pour out Mercy on us and through us.

After reading the reflection below, please pray as the Holy Spirit leads you, and close your prayer with the “Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee.”  Of course, you may include any personal intentions you like in the prayer.  Most of all, I invite you to join in the intention expressed by the Pope:

 “Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anointing,

so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord,

and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to the poor,

proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed,

and restore sight to the blind.”

           One could not prepare better for the feast of St. Therese during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy than to read “Misericordiae Vultus” as a whole, and I encourage you to do so.  For this first day, read especially the first four numbered paragraphs. 

Day One

Reflection on the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy and St. Therese

The face of the Father's mercy

Pope Francis opens:  “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy.” He urges us “constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy.”  St. Therese spent her whole life contemplating that mystery.  Since the first publication of her memoir, Story of a Soul, in 1898, has been the messenger of mercy to the whole world.  She knew very well that her charism was to experience and proclaim mercy.  At 23 she wrote

 “ I understand . . . that all souls cannot be the same, that it is necessary there be different types in order to honor each of God’s perfections in a particular way. To me He has granted His infinite Mercy, and through it I contemplate and adore the other divine perfections! All of these perfections appear to be resplendent with love . . . “

[Story of a Soul, tr. John Clarke, O.C.D.  Washington, D.C.: Washington Province of Carmelites, 1975]. 

Indeed, Therese offered herself to Merciful Love.  But she saw the relationship between love and mercy as so intimate that she did not always need to use the word “Merciful” to describe “Love.” 

The feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8: a day of mercies for the Martin family

 Pope Francis goes on to say that the jubilee year opens on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  A note about the significance of this date to the Martin family.  On December 5, 1875, Zelie, 43, wrote to her daughter Pauline, 15:

So Wednesday is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and it’s a great feast day for me! On that day, the Blessed Mother granted me many notable graces. Ask your aunt if she remembers December 8, 1851.  (On that date, Zelie, a young woman uncertain about how to earn her dowry, heard an interior voice:  “See to the manufacturing of  Alençon  lace,” in which business she became very successful). As for me, I haven’t forgotten it.

Nor have I forgotten December 8, 1860, the day I asked our Heavenly Mother to give me a little Pauline. But I can’t think of it without laughing because I was exactly like a child asking her mother for a doll (Zelie’s mother never let her have a doll), and I went about it the same way. I wanted to have a Pauline like the one I have, and I dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s because I was afraid the Blessed Mother wouldn’t quite understand what I wanted. First and foremost that she have a beautiful little soul, capable of becoming a saint, but I also wanted her to be very pretty. As for that, she’s hardly pretty, but I find her beautiful, very beautiful, and she’s as I wanted her to be!

Again, this year, I’ll go to find the Blessed Mother at daybreak, and I want to be the first to arrive.  (Each year, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Zelie went on pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at Seez). I’m going to light my candle to her as usual, but I won’t ask her for any more little daughters. I’m only going to ask her that those she’s given me all become saints and that I may follow them closely, but they must be much better than I am.

A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, 1863-1885, ed. Dr. Frances Renda.  Staten Island, New York: Society of St. Paul, 2011.

May the Mother of Mercies be for us, too, a channel of the grace of the Jubilee.

The Holy Door

  In honor of the Jubilee of Mercy, on December 8, 2015 Pope Francis opened the Holy Door, which had remained closed since the last ordinary Holy Year in 2000.  He writes:  “On that day, the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instils hope.”  Has Therese herself not been such a door of mercy?  For the nuns who knew her well, she was a door to the experience of God’s mercy in their everyday lives.  Since the publication of Story of a Soul in 1898, she has been a door of Mercy through which countless pilgrims have entered into an experience of God’s "consuming and transforming love."  St. Therese of Lisieux is the threshold of Mercy, a powerful way to Jesus Christ.  How many people, entering into her experience of God's Merciful Love, have crossed that threshold to receive the graces of baptism, healing, conversion, vocation!  She will also guide you across the threshold.  Call on her confidently during this year of grace.

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Vatican II

Pope Francis chose December 8, 2015 to open the Jubilee because it was the 50^th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council.  “The Church feels a great need to keep this event alive. . . .With the Council, the Church entered a new phase of her history, a new phase of the same evangelization that had existed from the beginning.”  Therese, too, introduced a new era for the Church, asking God "to cast Your divine glance upon a great number of little souls."  She liberated sanctity and made it accessible to everyone. 

Notes:

1. for the significance of Therese to the Second Vatican Council, please see the essay by William Thompson, "Therese of Lisieux: A Challenge for Doctrine and Theology, Forerunner of Vatican III" in Experiencing St. Therese Today, ed. John Sulllivan, OCD (Wellesley, Mass.; Christus Publishing, 2012, p. 206.
2. For the significance of Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin for Vatican II, please see "What if Louis and Zelie Martin had known about Vatican II?" - a conference delivered by Mgr Jacques Habert, bishop of Seez, on July 14, 2012. 

Time of Personal Prayer

Pray as the Holy Spirit leads you.  Consider reading over the first four numbered paragraphs of "Misericordiae Vultus” and pausing wherever your heart feels moved.

The Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee

Click here to read the Prayer of Pope Francis.

For St. Therese every day was a day of profound thanksgiving.  One day she told her sister Celine:

It is the spirit of gratitude which draws down upon us the overflow of God's grace, for no sooner have we thanked Him for one blessing than He hastens to send us ten additional favors in return.  Then, when we show our gratitude for these new gifts, He multiplies His benedictions to such a degree that there seems to be a constant stream of divine grace ever coming our way.

This has been my own personal experience; try it out for yourself and see.  For all that Our Lord is constantly giving me, my gratitude is boundless, and I try to prove it to Him in a thousand different ways."

 (My Sister  Saint Therese, by Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face (Celine Martin).  Reprinted by Tan Books and Publishers, Rockford, Illinois, 1997, p. 97).

How can we live in this spirit of gratitude to God and show it? 

courtesy of the Archdiocese of Newark

As part of the celebration of the Year of Consecrated Life and of the canonization of Bl. Louis and Zelie Martin on October 18, 2015, the reliquary of the Martin family, which was commissioned by the Magnificat Foundation and is usually venerated at the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Philadelphia, will be on pilgrimage to the Archdiocese of Newark from October 17, 2015 through and including October 24, 2015.  See the details of the presence of the reliquary of the Martin family in the Archdiocese of Newark.