God At Work Within

NOVEMBER 8
BLESSED ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY, VIRGIN
Wednesday of the Thirty–First Week of the Year II
Philippians 2:12–18
Psalm 26:1, 4, 13–14 (R. 2a)
Luke 14:25–33
In the Catechism
Opening the Catechism of the Catholic Church this morning, I discovered that among the ecclesiastical writers cited in the text, there are fifty–nine men and eight women. Three of the eight women cited are Carmelites, and one of the three is Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity: an outstanding honour for a young nun who died, hidden in her Carmel at Dijon, at twenty–six years of age on November 9, 1906.
To Light, to Love, to Life
One hundred years have passed since, faced with death, Blessed Elizabeth said, “Je vais à la Lumière, à l’Amour à la Vie — I am going to Light, to Love, to Life.” The influence of the young Carmelite has grown prodigiously all over the world. Her Prayer to the Holy Trinity has been translated into thirty–four languages.
God Is At Work In You
In today’s First Reading, Saint Paul says this: “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Blessed Elizabeth’s secret of holiness was total surrender to God at work in her for his good pleasure, transforming her into the Praise of His Glory (cf. Eph 1:6). Believing this, one dares to pray, “I trust, O God, that you are at work in me, even now, both to will and to work for the praise of your glory.”
For the Praise of His Glory
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that, “even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘If a man loves me,” says the Lord, ‘he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him’” (Jn 14:23). And as a kind of commentary on the mystery of the indwelling Trinity, the Catechism gives us Blessed Elizabeth’s magnificent prayer. I know souls who by dint of repeating that prayer day after day have learned it by heart; God alone knows what changes it has wrought in them . . . for the praise of His glory.