In her not well-known enough prayer to the Trinity, St Elisabeth of the Trinity, after having asked for the grace that her soul might be God’s “Heaven, His cherished dwelling, His home of rest”, adds: “May I never leave Thee there alone, but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring and wholly surrendered to Thy creative action”.
Do we not recognise ourselves in this? How often, spiritually speaking, are we “with it”, or rather “with Him”? It reminds me of St Augustine’s “Thou wert within, but I was without!”. We don’t have to go far to find God. He is right there in our hearts, offering His love and begging for ours. But we are all too often elsewhere.
Of course, we have all sorts of “important” things to do, all sorts of items that need our attention: but it’s all at the price of a sometimes unending forgetfulness of the Divine Guest of the soul.
On this feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let us spend a good amount of time contemplating this revealed reality: God, the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, dwells in the souls of the just (that is, the souls who are in the state of grace, meaning baptised and without mortal sin), He sets up His dwelling there and seeks to share with us the secrets of His divine life.
And even souls who are not in God’s grace, God is calling them to enter into themselves and be moved by the grace of conversion, to return to Him and be saved through the sacraments of the Church.
How foolish we are not to take Him up on His offer, spending all our time in the far away regions of a thousand distractions! Let us return to our heart, and may we find the Beloved there, and may He never be saddened again by our untimely departure.
Prayer of St Elisabeth of the Trinity
O my God, Trinity Whom I adore! help me to become utterly forgetful of self, that I may establish myself in Thee, as changeless and as calm as though my soul were already in eternity. May nothing disturb my peace nor draw me forth from Thee, O my immutable Lord! but may I penetrate more deeply every moment into the depths of Thy Mystery.
Give peace to my soul; make it Thy Heaven, Thy cherished dwelling, Thy home of rest. May I never leave Thee there alone, but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring and wholly surrendered to Thy creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, how I long to be the bride of Thy heart; how I long to cover Thee with glory, and to love Thee… until I die of very love! Yet I feel my weakness, and ask Thee to clothe me with Thyself, to identify my soul with all the movements of Thy Soul, to immerse me in Thyself, to possess me, to substitute Thyself for me, that my life may be but a radiance of Thy Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Restorer, as Saviour!
O Eternal Word, Utterance of my God! I yearn to spend my life in listening to Thee, to become wholly docile, that I may learn all from Thee. Then, through all nights, all emptiness, all helplessness, I long to gaze on Thee always and to dwell beneath Thy lustrous beams. O my beloved Star! So fascinate me that I may never again withdraw from Thy radiance!
O consuming Fire! Spirit of Love! come upon me and reproduce in me, as it were, an incarnation of the Word, that I may be to Him another humanity wherein He renews all His mystery.
And Thou, O Father, bend towards Thy poor little creature and overshadow her, beholding in her none other than the Beloved, in Whom Thou hast set all Thy pleasure.
O my “Three,” my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity wherein I lose myself! I surrender myself to Thee as Thy prey. Immerse Thyself in me, that I may be immersed in Thee, until I depart to contemplate in Thy light the abyss of Thy greatness!
