We have sung the Alleluia, so our Reverend Mother is letting me come to tell you right away how united I am with you in your joys of motherhood.
I’m so happy to be an aunt once again, and especially of a little girl, for, you see, I think the union that existed between us is going to live on in your sweet home, and I’m delighted that Sabeth has an Odette just as Aunt Elizabeth had a Marguerite. Our dear Mother [Prioress], who takes such an interest in you, was overjoyed at announcing the big news to me, and she asks me to tell you so.
Sabeth was born on the feast of the Five Wounds of Jesus [Friday, 11 March 1904], and here is Odette arriving on the day when the Master was sold to redeem her little soul [Wednesday in Holy Week]. Isn’t that touching?…
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
Letter 227 to her sister Marguerite (excerpt)
Easter Vigil, Saturday 22 April 1905
Note: Georges and Marguerite Chevignard’s second child, Odette, was born on “Spy Wednesday” in Holy Week, 19 April 1905, the day on which the Carmel of Dijon meditated on Judas’ betrayal in handing Jesus over to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver. St. Elizabeth is writing after the Easter Vigil on Saturday morning 22 April 1905, which would have been her first opportunity to write a letter to her family according to the customary of the Carmel of Dijon.
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: Judas Goes to Find the Jews (Judas va trouver les Juifs) was executed in opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper by artist James Tissot, (French, 1836-1902) during the years 1886-1894 as he created his famed series The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ (La Vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ). So many of these well-known artworks are in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum in New York and are available for download online with no known copyright restrictions.
Carmelite Quotes 
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