Hi, this is Sue Johnson, wishing you a very happy feast of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. Her feast day is today, November 8th, and to quote a little bit of bio about her from Kris McGregor, who is the director of Discerning Hearts. If you go to discerninghearts.com, you will find some excellent podcasts from Kris, and one of them that I just love, I've learned so much about Elizabeth's teaching from Kris, is about Elizabeth's writings.
So Kris says, quoting the mother of St. Elizabeth, "You'll either be a terror or a saint." She had often said that of this stubborn little girl who often demanded her way, and blessed Elizabeth of the trinity was born in France in 1880, and she had a really violent temper, but it had completely abated by the time she was 11, and made her first holy communion. From then on, she seemed to just have much more peace. She was very talented at piano. She could have been a concert pianist, but she gave that up to enter the Carmelite Convent. She spent only five years there before she died in 1906 at the age of 26. But she was so happy when she was there. That was her fulfillment in life.
She was almost a contemporary of St. Therese of Lisieux, who gave us the little way, and also died very young, at the age of 24 in 1897. While Therese gave us the little way of trust in divine providence, Elizabeth gave us, well, according to Pope John Paul II, St. John Paul, she was the prophetess of the presence of God. She just had such a love for God living within her, and had this deep realization that we are all temples of the trinity from the time we're baptized. So, she did take the name Elizabeth of the Trinity, when she entered the convent, in honor of her beloved three, as she called them.
When John Paul beatified her in 1984, he presented her to the church as one who had led a life hidden with Christ in God, quoting St. Paul. And one of Elizabeth's favorite things to tell people was, "God dwells within you. Do not leave him so often." I just ... I love the intensity of her eyes. There's so many photographs of her, and it's just those eyes just look right into your soul. As I drew this little colored pencil portrait of her, right behind me, it kind of developed into a triangular shape, because of how I cropped the image out of the photo, and I just chose to do a bust drawing of her. It formed a triangle, which symbolic of trinity, coincidentally. I didn't do it on purpose, but I just saw that happen, and I thought, "What a happy thing." She's patroness of the sick, and those who have lost their parents. So, to everybody, a very happy feast of blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity today.