‘Works’ – Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity - I. HEAVEN IN FAITH - Sixth Day – First & Second Prayer; points 19-21; pages 7-9
[Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity/Elizabeth Catez – XIX-XX Century; Avord, France/Dijon, France; (aged 26); Mystic; Spiritual Writer; Gifted Pianist]“First prayer
19. “To approach God we must believe.” (Heb 11:6) Thus speaks St. Paul. He also says, “Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) That is “faith makes so present and so certain future goods, that by it, they take on existence in our soul and subsist there before we have fruition of them.” St. John of the Cross says that it serves as “feet” to go “to God,” and that it is “possession in an obscure manner.” “It alone can give us true light” concerning Him whom we love, and our soul must “choose it as the means to reach blessed union.” (Saint John of the Cross) “It pours out in torrents in the depths of our being all spiritual goods. Christ, speaking to the Samaritan woman, indicated faith when He promised to all those who would believe in Him that He would give them ‘a fountain of water springing up unto life everlasting.’” (Saint John of the Cross) “Thus even in this life faith gives us God, covered, it is true, with a veil but nonetheless God Himself.” (Saint John of the Cross) “When that which is perfect comes,” that is, clear vision, then “that which is imperfect,” in other words, knowledge given through faith, “will receive all its perfection.” (Saint John of the Cross)
20. “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.” (1 Jn 4:16) That is our great act of faith, the way to repay our God love for love; it is “the mystery hidden” (Col 1:26) in the Father’s heart, of which St. Paul speaks, which, at last, we penetrate and our whole soul thrills! When it can believe in this “exceeding love” (Ep 2:4) which envelops it, we may say of it as was said of Moses, “He was unshakable in faith as if he had seen the Invisible.” (Heb 11:27) It no longer rests in inclinations or feelings; it matters little to the soul whether it feels God or not, whether He sends it joy or suffering: it believes in His love. The more it is tried, the more its faith increases because it passes over all obstacles, as it were, to go rest in the heart of infinite Love who can perform only works of love. So also to this soul wholly awakened in its faith the Master’s voice can say in intimate secrecy the words He once addressed to Mary Magdalene: “Go in peace, your faith has saved you.” (Lk 7:50)
Second prayer
21. “If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.” (Mt 6:22) What is this single eye of which the Master speaks but this “simplicity of intention” which “gathers into unity all the scattered forces of the soul and unites the spirit itself to God. It is simplicity which gives God honor and praise; it is simplicity which presents and offers the virtues to Him. Then, penetrating and permeating itself, permeating and penetrating all creatures, it finds God in its depths. It is the principle and end of virtues, their splendor and their glory. I call simplicity of intention that which seeks only God and refers all things to Him.” “This is what places man in the presence of God; it is simplicity that gives him light and courage; it is simplicity that empties and frees the soul from all fear today and on the day of judgement.” “It is the interior slope” and “the fountain of the whole spiritual life.” “It crushes evil nature under foot, it gives peace, it imposes silence on the useless noises within us.” It is simplicity that “hourly increases our divine likeness. And then, without the aid of intermediaries, it is simplicity again that will transport us into the depths where God dwells and will give us the repose of the abyss. The inheritance which eternity has prepared for us will be given us by simplicity.
All the life of the spirits, all their virtue, consists—with the divine likeness—in simplicity, and their final rest is spent on the heights in simplicity also.” “And according to the measure of its love, each spirit possesses a more or less profound search for God in its own depths.” The simple soul, “rising by virtue of its interior gaze, enters into itself and contemplates in its own abyss the sanctuary where it is touched” by the touch of the Holy Trinity. Thus it has penetrated into its depths “to the very foundation which is the gate of life eternal.” (Ruysbroeck)”
Image: Robert Campin ~ Holy Trinity, 1430