Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity speaks
And then when evening comes, after an endless dialogue in our heart, again let us sleep in Love. Perhaps we will see faults, infidelities; let us abandon them to Love: it is a consuming fire.
Letter 172 to Germaine de Gemeaux
20 August 1903
Intention
For the grace of abandonment to the love of God
St. Paul speaks
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).
NOVENA PRAYER
O Saint Elizabeth!
In your great love of God,
You were always so close
to your friends’ needs.
Now, in Heaven,
Face to face with the Lord,
Do intervene near Him
for the needs we recommend to you.
(Make your request)
Teach us how to abide,
in Love and Faith,
with the Holy Trinity
in the utmost of our heart.
Teach us how to radiate God’s Love
amongst men, in our everyday life
just as you did yourself,
so that we may be a praise of God’s glory.
Our Father…
(pray slowly, “be aware that you are with Him”)
Glory be…
(three times, in praise of the indwelling Trinity)
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.
All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
The portrait of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity in our featured image for this novena is used through the kind permission of the artist, Belita William (© Belita William, all rights reserved). You can view more of Belita’s artworks at belitawilliamart.com.
Carmelite Quotes 
I no longer have it exactly, but for years I said St Therese’s Morning Offering, “…. and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Your Love” – such a wonderful spirituality these Saints espouse. And I love the guidance on the Our Father!!
Father De Meester in his footnotes indicates that Elizabeth is making direct references drawn from the thought of St. Therese of Lisieux. Good recall, Kathie!
Thank you! It’s lovely to know I’ve retained a lot. I was terminated as aspirant due to mental health issues, not due to no vocation discerned… I still love Carmel as you can see.
I managed to remember the whole of St Therese’s Morning Offering, and will resume it daily, DV. Thanks for the reminder. I have always been very moved by the passage in Revelation to one of the Churches, rendered in one English translation as “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have forsaken your first love [Christ]”.
Ah yes…. that is a classic!