Quote of the day, 27 October: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

How closely your little soul sister is united to you during these wholly heavenly days, in which “exceeding love” [cf. Eph 2:4] is overflowing in waves within her heart! Oh, you see, sometimes I think He is going to come and take me to carry me off where He is in dazzling Light. Even now in the night of faith, the union is so profound, the embraces so heavenly! What will it be, in that first face-to-face, in God’s great light, that first meeting with divine Beauty! Thus will I flow out into the infinity of Mystery and contemplate the wonders of the Divine Being.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Letter 332 to Marthe Weishardt (excerpt)
End of October 1906

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.

Featured image: The galaxy NGC 6946 is nothing short of spectacular. In the last century alone, NGC 6946 has experienced 10 observed supernovae, earning its nickname as the Fireworks Galaxy. In comparison, our Milky Way averages just 1-2 supernova events per century. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the stars, spiral arms, and various stellar environments of NGC 6946 in phenomenal detail.  We are able to marvel at NGC 6946 as it is a face-on galaxy, which means that we see the galaxy “facing” us, rather than seeing it from the side (known as edge-on). The Fireworks Galaxy is further classified as an intermediate spiral galaxy and as a starburst galaxy. The former means the structure of NGC 6946 sits between a full spiral and a barred spiral galaxy, with only a slight bar in its centre, and the latter means it has an exceptionally high rate of star formation. The galaxy resides 25.2 million light-years away, along the border of the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus (The Swan). Thanks to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center Flickr photostream for this stunning photo of the dazzling light of the Fireworks Galaxy (Some rights reserved).