ST. THERESE AND BLESSED ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY

ST. THERESE AND BLESSED ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY

Daisy, Rotating

Two of God's Little Flowers

ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX, Story of a Soul
"I am only a child, powerless and weak, and yet it is my weakness that gives me the boldness of offering myself as VICTIM of Your Love, O Jesus! In times past, victims, pure and spotless, were the only ones accepted by the Strong and Powerful God. To satisfy Divine Justice, perfect victims were necessary, but the law of Love has succeeded to the law of fear, and Love has chosen me as a holocaust, me, a weak and imperfect creature. Is not this choice worthy of Love? Yes, in order that Love be fully satisfied, it is necesssary that it lower Itself, and that It lower Itself to nothingness and transform this nothingness into fire.

ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY, (The Charism of Her Prayer, by Jean LaFrance.)

"Let us live in close union with our Beloved and be wholly given to Him as He is given to us ... commune with Him all the day long, since He is living in your soul .. there you have the whole of the Carmelite life, to live in Him .. in everything that happens the soul sees Him whom it loves and everything that happens leads it to Him. Cherish silence and prayer for they are the essence of our life. Ask the Queen of Carmel, our Mother, to teach you to adore Our Lord in deep recollection .. pray also to our seraphic Mother, St. Teresa. She loved Our Lord so .. ask her to obtain for you her passionate love of souls, for the Carmelite must be apostolic.

Daisy, Growing

TRANSFORMED

I don't mind being God's transformed stinkweed. Now I know that I am God's little flower, just like Therese and Elizabeth, and kudos to them for learning very early in life that they were loved and, in turn, loved and devoted their very short lives to God. But most of us have to travel the road of the stinkweed, before we are transformed into a little flower.

I just thank God, and am so grateful, that He has revealed His Love to my heart. It took me a long time to accept that I was so loved, but God never gave up on me. That is why I now have the confidence to devote the rest of my life to loving Him only. I would think that most of us fall into this category if we are honest with ourselves.

I used to be jealous of these beautiful Saints, but now, I have realized that we all have lessons to learn in this life and somehow God or we create the circumstances we need to fulfil our destiny. If we don't give up that is. Thank you, Lord, to giving me the grace to persevere.

I used to ponder on reincarnation and my resignation to the suffering in this life was that I had brought it upon myself, karma, you know. Funny, though, God led me to the Catholic faith and from the faith it was revealed to my soul the value of suffering.

Everything in my life from the time of my birth conspired to keep me away from God and indeed, the ability to accept human love. Abuse, lack of love and nuturing, neglect, non-practicing Christian parents, taught me from birth that this was indeed a cruel and unloving world I had entered.

Yet for some reason my little feet always carried me to a Christian church and from the time I was old enough to walk by myself, or with my older brother, we trotted off to a neighborhood church to learn about God. I continued this practice all though my childhood, even after my brother died. I sang in the children's choir and even as a teenager was asked by the Episcopal priest to start an EYO group.

But I had been so terribly wounded by the abuse that later in life it became difficult to even live this life. Relationships became fractured as I searched for God and the place where I would find peace.

It is here in the heart of my Beloved I have found peace.