Since I last wrote you, I have had a very great happiness and a very great grace: a private ten-day retreat, my first since my profession (26 September-5 October 1904). During that time I had my veil lowered, and I had no contact with my Sisters; it was absolute solitude, that solitude in which God speaks to the heart (Cf. Hos 2:14). In order to hear Him better, I had several additional hours of prayer besides our regular ones, and I can say that these ten days of prayer and silence have been a foretaste of our Homeland.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
Letter 216 to her Rolland aunts
31 December 1904
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.
How beautiful! I have made 4 silent retreats in my life, and yes, all were heavenly.