Quote of the day: 20 May

Dijon Carmel, May 20

J. M. + J. T.

My dear Little Germaine,

After Mama told me that you were to have dinner next week at Marguerite’s, I asked our Reverend Mother for permission to write and tell you that I truly think of you as my little sister. It seems to me that our two souls are one, that you are a Carmelite with me, for all that I do is with you; and when God looks at me among His beloved ones in Carmel, He also sees His little Germaine of the Trinity. On Sundays, I spend my day with you in honor of the Holy Trinity; oh, my little Germaine, how good God is to have given us an attraction to this mystery. May our life flow into His, as we were saying the other day, may this truly be our dwelling on earth. There let us become silent so we may listen to Him who has so much to tell us, and since you too have this passion to listen to Him, we will meet close to Him so we may hear everything that is being sung in His soul! . . .

That is the life of the Carmelite: she is above all a contemplative, another Mary Magdalene whom nothing must distract from the One thing necessary [cf Lk 10:42]. She loves the Master so much that she wants to become one who is immolated like Him, and her life becomes a continual gift of herself, an exchange of love with Him who possesses her to the point of wanting to transform her into another Himself. There, in HIM, I feel quite close to you. Our motto must be these words of Saint Paul: “Our life is hidden with Christ in God” [Col 3:3].

A Dieu, my little sister, tell your good, dear mama that I pray every day for her, that I love her with all my heart as well as Yvonne, who is also the little sister of my heart. We are going into retreat from Ascension to Pentecost, and I will make it with you in the soul of the Master. Pray for your big sister, too.

M. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Letter 164 to Germaine de Gemeaux
Wednesday, 20 May 1903

“That is the life of the Carmelite: she is above all a contemplative, another Mary Magdalene whom nothing must distract from the One thing necessary”

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Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2003, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel, translated from the French by Nash, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.